Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Part 1: Starting off in Space

XXXXX

Wakko's eyes slowly began to open, he didn't remember what happened all that much. He remembered Dot's screams and getting blasted off, though. As his eyes opened, he noticed an unfamiliar face towering over him.

"Hello!" the creature chortled, "Welcome to the Gateway! Maybe we can tell Mama about you.."

"Gateway..? Where am I? What happened..?" Wakko asked, sounding understandably confused. Mind you, he only remembered being blasted off. He didn't remember landing here. "Gateway to what? What do you mean?"

"Woah, you just woke up and you ask all these questions?" the creature baffled. "Sure, we can answer. First you'll have to catch us!"

"Us? We? Where is the other one then? I only see one!" Wakko seemed more confused than before, this strange bunny was talking to him, there were more? What was a bunny doing out in space anyway? Wait, he was in space?

"There are more than two, silly. Follow me and you'll see!" the creature started hopping off as soon as he cried that out. Making Wakko, more confused.

"Hey! Wait up!" Wakko started running after the bunny, who was strangely faster than him. Where was he? Where was Yakko? Where was Dot? Who, or what, took her? What was happening? Unfortunately, he had no answers to these questions. All he hoped was that his siblings were okay.

The creature stopped in it's tracks as soon as it was in front of two other strange bunnies. The only difference was those bunnies had a yellow pattern on their ear tips, but the bunny Wakko saw had tannish-white. Wakko soon stopped as soon as he spotted them.

"Oh, there are two more." Wakko chuckled, a little uncomfortable. "I was expecting way more."

"Don't worry, there are more! We are just the only three on this planet!" the first yellow bunny said brightly. "Just so things don't get confusing, you can call me Adrian," Adrian began gesturing to the other yellow bunny. "He's Elliot, and he's Preston!" Adrian said pointing to the bunny Wakko had saw earlier finishing his sentence.

"More? How many?" Wakko grumbled, feeling annoyed there were more of these pests around. The least they could do was tell them where his big brother and baby sister was. Speaking of his big brother, he was nowhere to be seen today. All Wakko could do was hope and pray Yakko was alright.

Of course, he hoped Dot was okay too. Despite the fact she was taken away from them.

Elliot snorted, "Don't worry about that, now, we'll explain later. For now, you'll have to catch us!"

Wakko gazed upon them, wanting to ask more questions. Preston kept saying he had to catch them, now he was supposed to do it? Of course it had to be when he had the most questions. Wakko bet he would forget all the questions by time he found them. He thought this was going to be a pain and take all day.

All three bunnies jumped in the air, and spun, suddenly disappearing into a puff of smoke. Wakko winced a bit at that, since when did bunnies spin into a puff of smoke? "Hey, wait up a second! I have- oh brother. This will take a while." He cried and started slumping off.

XXXXX

Wakko saw a pipe in the distance, thinking it was worth a look, he peeked in. Then, POOF! Adrian had popped out. Wakko had jumped, not really expecting that. Adrian began hopping off, chanting "you can't catch me!" over and over again. After standing there stunned for a moment, Wakko started. Luckily, he started before Adrian had completely gone out of sight.

Wakko used his toonspeed to catch up with Adrian, and when the moment came, he grabbed the bunny, who had begun squirming in his grip. "AGH! You caught me!" Adrian had cried out. After Wakko had let go of him, Adrian transformed into a pudgy star with little beady eyes, which Wakko had not expected.

"Aw man, I knew I should have hidden in the grass!" Adrian grumbled. Wakko, who was annoyed at the fact he still had two bunnies to catch, was happy he had a chance at finding one at the hint. He ran off again, to where a giant patch of grass was.

He began walking around the grass, keeping his eyes peeled for familiar white fur, unsure whether there was gonna be yellow and tan included in there. A rabbit had soon popped out, with yellow ear tips, and started hopping about. Wakko this time had not jumped and had grown a look of seriousness.

Wakko began chasing after the bunny the same as before, and eventually caught Elliot like he did with Adrian. Elliot had squirmed a little more than Adrian, and then cried "Darn it! You caught me!" As soon as Wakko had let go, Elliot turned into the same star Adrian had transformed into. "Aw man, I knew I should have hidden in the crater!" Elliot howled.

Wakko had quickly thanked Elliot, at the same time realizing he hadn't thanked Adrian; he'd do it later. He had dashed to the giant crater, where a coin was floating. He had gulped and jumped in, not at all expecting a bubble to form around him and carry him back to the surface.

Wakko had stared at the bunny, who was Preston, blankly. Not at all surprised he was in there due to the hint Elliot had given him. Wakko got up and began bolting towards the rabbit. Catching up to him, he scooped up the rabbit who was squirming, not as much as Elliot, but a little more than Adrian did. Strange; Adrian did seem the most energetic.

"I can't believe I let myself get caught!" The bunny moaned, who turned into a similar star, only the same color as his ear tips as the only difference. "Maybe we were wrong about you.. maybe you CAN help Mama!"

"Who's this 'Mama'? and can I ask my questions now?" Wakko asked, annoyed because he needed answers to his questions. Desperate to know what happened to Yakko and Dot.

Well, he knew what happened to Dot. But what about Yakko? Did something happen to him too? Would this 'Mama' lady know? He hoped she did; maybe he would worry less.

"You'll see, and, not quite. Maybe Mama will know the answers." Elliot said, appearing behind him. Adrian had chimed in, "Yeah! How are we supposed to know what happened? We just saw you floating in space so we took you here to be prevented from being sucked into a black hole or something."

"So I AM in space?" Wakko asked, mostly befuddled, but at the same time shocked. "How am I even breathing, what?"

"It's toon logic, kid. What do you expect?" Preston laughed. "Look, as soon as Mama gets here, I'm sure sh-" getting cut off by Elliot, Preston stopped.

"Look! She's here, brothers!" Elliot gasped, pointing to a castle-like building thing appearing on the beautiful planet. "Hope those flowers under the castle are okay," Adrian grumbled. "I just planted those."

Wakko looked at the castle, getting weird vibes. How did that happen? Whatever, that didn't matter. He needed the answers to his questions.. who even took Dot? Wakko didn't get a good enough look. He could only make up a black wing, not a strange mask, or anything.

𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯𝘵 𝘏𝘺𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥. 𝘏𝘦'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵. Wakko thought, feeling greatly sympathetic for his sister if that was the case.

𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘏𝘺𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥, 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘠𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘰? 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮? 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘋𝘰𝘵?

𝘐𝘧 𝘏𝘺𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘣𝘰𝘺, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘴...

𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘺𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥?

𝘏𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳.. 𝘰𝘩 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦..

Wakko snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a slight scratch. He noticed he was being dragged to the castle by Preston, Elliot and Adrian. It was a rock that scratched him - he hoped.

Before he knew it, all four of them were at the top. The three stars disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Wakko looked up to see a slightly familiar figure, glowing a blinding light. He noticed the familiar blonde hair glowing in the light, it belonged to-

The figure turned around, revealing the female both Yakko and Wakko were attracted to..

"HELLOOOOOO, NURSE!" Wakko shouted, happy to see at least ONE face he recognized. What was she doing out in space? And, when did she get a blue dress? Weird, but, thats the least of Wakko's concerns right now. He needed to ask now.

"That's me. Unfortunate to see you out here, Wakko. I am guessing you have quite a bit of questions waiting to be answered, correct?" Nurse replied gracefully, staring down at him with her elegant blue eyes.

"Yeah, LOTS. Most of them are musts." Wakko said back, projecting from sounding as sad and confused as he was. He just had to know, WHO took Dot? Did he hurt her? Did he somehow find and take Yakko as well? Did he hurt him? Where was he? How was he going to get them back?

"Let me guess; at least one of them are where is Yakko and Dot?" Nurse said, sounding a little more sad than she intended. She too missed them, even if they were zany to the max as they stated, it didn't mean she didn't love and miss them.

"That's right.." Wakko drawled, not too taken aback by the fact she guessed it right. He thought it was too obvious for something to be surprised over. Too much, at least. "What happened to them?"

"Well, you and I both know Dot has been kidnapped by God knows what. I have seen that strange creature that took her, it isn't Hybrid-"

𝘖𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘰𝘥.

"-but it might be even worse than Hybrid. Despite the fact that it's neutral, according to Elliot's research, but it is mostly bad. It might be holding her hostage for something, we don't know."

"So.. you're saying.. whatever that creature is, it's worse than Hybrid?" Wakko said, appalled that it would not only be a pain to fight, but his poor sister has to put up with it.. he had to save her. He didn't care what got in the way.

"I said MIGHT. Elliot is still doing research on this. You must go on a quest to save her and-"

"What about Yakko?" Wakko asked in a panicked voice, he was worried if his older brother had to put up with this creature too.. one sibling is one more than enough, another one just angers Wakko even more.

"Well.." Nurse sounded a bit hesitant to tell Wakko what she was about to tell him, but she started it off as lightly as she could. "Yakko wasn't home for a little while.. right?"

"Um.. yeah?"

"Elliot believes that weird creature has captured Yakko first, so he couldn't protect you guys so it would be easier to get you. We aren't sure if this is true, but it is a high possibility."

"..No..." Wakko was shocked. He couldn't believe it; both of his siblings needed his help. He couldn't just let them down like that.. could he? No. They needed him. Who knows where the others are. He wouldn't let that nitwit creature take them away from him. Never. He was certain if he was in their position they wouldn't let him down either.

"Wakko? WAKKO!"

Wakko snapped out of it hearing Adrian's loud voice.

"That's your name? Wakko. Has a nice ring to it." Adrian sounded, obviously off topic.

"Um, yeah, thanks. I have a few more questions though.." Wakko said, hoping Adrian would come back to the conversation other than muttering Wakko's name under his breath, over and over.

"Like?" Nurse asked, patiently waiting for his questions. Silently praying she hoped she could answer them.

Wakko hesitated for a moment, but then began asking. "Where am I? How did I get here? How do I get Yakko and Dot back?"

Nurse thought for a moment before giving what she hoped was a suitable answer. "You are in the Gateway of Space, seperating from the space you were just in, to deep deep space. Adrian, Elliot and Preston brought you here. To prevent you from getting sucked in a blackhole."

Nurse continued on, after a small pause. "To get Yakko and Dot back, you have to go through space. We don't have enough power to take you there by ship. You need to help get power in order to take the ship."

"Ship?"

"Ship. We have one, but it doesn't have power. We need the grand star to continue on."

"But... how? How will I go through space alone? How will I get the grand star-"

"Ahem, who said anything about going alone, bub?" Elliot chortled. "All three of us are coming with. I'm the brains, Adrian's the feisty one, and Preston's the powerful one. He can give you a spin ability to help you attack enemies."

"Yeah." Preston chimed in. "Adrian can help you fight, Elliot will let you know about information, and I will help you with your special power."

"There's your answer." Nurse laughed. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, how will these three travel with me? Will they just be by my side, flying or something?" Wakko inquired. "Do I just need to hold them?"

Adrian dashed under Wakko's hat, and then popped out a moment later. "We will be in here! Preston will most likely not come out at all, if he does, it's rare-"

"Pff. I will." Preston muttered.

Ignoring Preston's muttering, Adrian continued. "-while me and Elliot will probably come out often to tell you information. Don't worry. You won't be alone."

"Oh, okay." Wakko said, beaming. He was obviously satisfied he wasn't going to be alone. Maybe Adrian (and Preston) would help him fight that weird creature. Hell, maybe Elliot knew the monster's name.

"Any more questions, Wak?" Nurse asked patiently, in case he did have another.

Wakko kind of cringed when he heard that. It was the fact Nurse called him 'Wak'. Yakko used to do that..

"Um, no, I think I'm good, Nurse." Wakko said, while smiling as best as he could. Unsure if he was smiling or if it was a big failed smile.

"Okay. Best of luck, you four." Nurse said calmly, and soon after she said that, she rose up and disappeared, this time not in a puff of smoke.

Adrian, Preston and Elliot dashed under Wakko's hat.

Suddenly, Wakko's hands began to glow. He gazed at them curiously, until Preston told him it was just the power he gave him.

"Well, we better get moving if we want to save them." Elliot chanted. "We don't want them waiting, do we?"

"No, we don't."

"Well then let's get moving! Spin at those crystals and it will lead you to our first part of this adventure." Adrian yelled excitedly.

Wakko walked up to those crystals and spun as hard as he could. It took him 2 hits, but he broke them. A moment later, he was staring at a giant orange star.

"That's what we use to travel, just spin near it and it will launch you." Elliot reassured. "It's nothing, don't worry, you always land safely."

Wakko spun. He got launched to the planet with holes, and luckily, landed safely, as Elliot told him.

Wakko looked up, tongue sticking out after what felt like ages.

𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺, 𝘠𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘵, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨..

Chapter Text

Part 2: On my Way

XXXXX

Yakko was holding his sister, protecting her from the evil forces surrounding them. Yakko was afraid, but he didn't want to show it. He didn't want his little sister knowing he was scared.. he just needed to get her out of here, and just hope Wakko wouldn't be caught too.

He wondered how he was supposed to fight the strange masked figure hovering above them. His mallet didn't work, it just broke in half. He tried threatening it to 'stay away or you'll be dead' but the creature only laughed... it said 'your weak threats mean nothing to me. wait until you hear my backstory and you'll know why' in a spooky tone.

Yakko got chills thinking about it. The way he said it... he was hissing.. he needed to protect Dot. He would fight the creature to keep her safe. He needed to keep her safe. He had to.

Yakko looked down at Dot who had her face buried in his chest, crying her eyes out. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to make a goal to get her and her brother out safely too, but how? What could she do? She didn't use her mallet much, not like it mattered. She had no other ideas.

Dot was terrified when she found Yakko here.. he was in the same cell they were in right now. As soon as he noticed her, he ran to her and hugged her, which made Dot tear up. Both in relief of seeing Yakko was okay and found, but also in guilt because of the fact he had been stuck here for a few days and hasn't had the opportunity to escape.

She told him about Wakko getting blasted off out of sight and how she got teleported here. She was terrified.. Wakko was probably hurt.. he probably needed help.. but how could she and Yakko help him? They looked everywhere.. there was no way to escape. Everytime they found one, the weird creature made sure it was closed off. And it always made sure they blacked out and were sent back to the cell..

They couldn't do it.. they would fail Wakko.. it was too smart.

They needed to hope. They hoped Wakko wasn't injured. They hoped he could help them. They hoped he had help.

Yakko looked up at the creatures staring at them. They had a glint in their red eyes, so bright Yakko could see his own terrified face for a moment. He had a bad feeling.

"What do you want from us..?" Yakko muttered, half hoping he wouldn't get an answer. Then again, it would be nice to know what they were running away from. Dot looked up, face a little wet from crying. She wanted to know too. Why were they here? Were they after Wakko?

"We aren't telling you a thing, kid. You will have to wait and see." The creature drawled. "However,-"

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥. Dot thought, worried about what it was talking about.

"-your brother is still out there. We can not do any further actions until we successfully catch him."

𝘖𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘯𝘰.. Yakko's terrified face quickly morphed into a heated look. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘋𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.. Yakko opened his mouth to speak, but got stopped by the creature.

"Don't even speak kid, we have magic; we can do anything for you and your pathetic sister to follow our orders."

Dot was stunned at that insult; she wasn't pathetic.. was she? She had been crying the entire time, maybe it had a point..

Yakko didn't like that. Not one bit. His look was even more angry than before, angrier than when Wakko had purposely broken all of Mr. Plotz windows, that was one of the times Yakko was really angry. He also looked a bit chagrined; a little concerning, he wasn't annoyed very often.

"She is NOT pathetic and has actually saved my life a couple times, thank you." Yakko shot back, sounding just as angry as intended.

"Fine, whatever. But expect to see your brother here soon, mark my words, he'll be here, crying like you two are." The creature had said that while scowling. "That's when the action will begin."

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘔𝘠 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘞𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯.

Yakko was about to tell the creature 'good luck with that, except not really' but he was interrupted by Dot coughing. He looked down at her and began coughing himself.

𝘕𝘰.. 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯...

Dot had blacked out; the gas filling the air was used again to prevent Yakko from snapping and possibly beating the creature up somehow. He could do that when he was angry. Yakko got rid of all his thoughts, but only one popped back up.

𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘞𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘰. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯.. 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦..

XXXXX

Wakko had barely managed to escape the hole leading to another hole, an endless one at that. Luckily, Adrian had pushed him out of the way before he fell. He breathed a sigh of relief still grateful Adrian had done that minutes ago. Now, he was touring around the holed planet looking for the last piece to complete the launch star.

"Look! It's over there!" Wakko looked over to where a joyful Preston was pointing, it was! A orangish-yellow shimmer was emerging from the rock. Wakko ran towards it and picked it up, one moment later, he heard a familiar sound. The same sound from when he broke the crystals on the castle earlier. He ran towards the giant metal star and spun near it like Elliot had said earlier.

He flew away from the grassy planet and landed on a different circular planet. He noticed these strange 'walking mushrooms' running towards him, Elliot had called them 'goombas'. Wakko had spun and stunned the goomba, making Preston beam.

"I taught him that." Preston murmured proudly.

Wakko then had kicked the goomba, and three candies had then appeared. One green, one purple, one yellow. Adrian had told him to pick them up, as he did, they disappeared.

"Don't worry; they always do that. That's what us Lumas eat!" Preston explained. "You can also shoot them at enemies to stun them so you can defeat them better!"

"How do I do that?" Wakko asked, befuddled because they had disappeared.

Adrian flew in front of him. "Close your eyes, hold out your hand, and one will appear. You can make as many appear as you want, as long as you have that amount." Adrian clarified. Wakko understood, and he tried it. The yellow one had popped up, and Wakko examined it for a moment before asking: "What are these things called?"

"Starbits!" Elliot cheered. "They're DELICIOUS! But for now, use them to fight, alright?"

Wakko looked back at the starbit, this time with a sad look. "Man, they look delicious. But alright!" Wakko threw back his arm in a throwing position and threw it at a goomba. The goomba stood still, stunned. Wakko had ran up to it and kicked it, summoning more starbits, this time, yellow, red and blue.

Wakko picked them up and they disappeared.

Elliot popped out of his hat, and told Wakko another little trick. "There is another trick that might be quicker; you can jump on top of the goombas and turn them into coins that can heal you if you get hit."

Wakko pondered for a moment whether he had to jump or if he could use his mallet. He preferred using his mallet. But, he would keep the healing thing in mind. "Am I allowed to use my mallet?"

Elliot paused, "We can try it out on that goomba if you'd like!" pointing behind Adrian, Wakko looked over. A goomba was running towards him. Wakko pulled out his mallet and crushed the goomba. To Elliot's surprise, out popped a little coin.

"Strange, I didn't think that would work. Oh well! You do that if you'd like."

"Great!" Wakko beamed. He looked over, and saw a different looking goomba running towards him, the color a little brighter than the previous three. Wakko pulled out his mallet and crushed the enemy, instead of a coin or starbits, a key popped out.

Wakko picked it up, not expecting that.

Preston froze while smiling, before cheering "Great job! You freed Elijah! Go talk to him, he has another little task."

𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘬? 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺?

Wakko trudged over, when the bright star was in sight, he walked normally, smiling as best as he could.

Elijah didn't even notice he was trudging, if he did, he didn't care. He was just worried for his friend who was locked in the same cage but on a different planet.

"WAKKO! Oh thank god you're here! You have to save Anabelle up there! PLEASE! But be careful.. there's a giant goomba up there." Elijah panicked. Wakko felt sorry for the poor star, he dealt with the same thing. Someone, well, two someones, he loved were stuck and he couldn't do anything about it.

"Don't worry, I'll help. But how do-" Wakko winced when he saw the star transform into a smaller orange star.

"That's just a sling star, same thing as a launch star but it takes you less far." Adrian illustrated.

Wakko walked towards the little orange star and spun. Next thing he knew, he was on a similar planet. He looked around and saw a figure in faraway sight. He knew what it was immediately.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘢..

Wakko groaned, unsure of what to do to defeat that monster. He walked closer, only a little slower than normal, trying to come up with a plan. He wished Elijah told him what to do...

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?

Wakko was face to face with a tall pink figure, it had a point at the top, but not at all sharp. Wakko spun, hoping it did something. Fortunately, it did. It shook the planet making a strange sound and it flipped the giant goomba upside down. Wakko ran to the goomba and kicked it, resulting to a key coming out.

He picked it up, and it disappeared. The nearby cage had opened and Wakko had ran off and eventually found Anabelle, whom was merry she was out of that cage.

"Wakko! No time to lose! In here!" The little star had spun and disappeared, and Wakko looked down to see a pipe. He went in, not afraid, because that is how he found Adrian earlier. He wasn't at all prepared for where it took him..

He was taken to a room full of switches, and a weird machine that looked as if it was taking power from... a grand star?

Anabelle yelled in a panicky voice "QUICK! Switch off all those switches before that terrible machine takes all of the power of the grand star!"

Wakko dashed. He stepped on one of the yellow switches, relieved he only had to step on one. He ran more to the right, avoiding the little bolts of electricity there to protect the switches. He noticed a full set of switches surrounding the machine, with a goomba or two with them. Great.

Wakko speedwalked to the switches and turn them all off, getting hit by a goomba in the process. Resulting into the goomba getting crushed by his mallet, which earned Wakko a coin and his full health back.

He switched off all the switches, leading to the weird swirl above the container to shrink into nothing, and the container slowly closed freeing the star.

The star shimmered there, waiting for Wakko to collect it. He slowly walked towards it, hesitating to touch it at first, but when he reached out, he began floating off ground. He spun and did a little flip, and carried the star. The star had begun bolting out, flying through what seemed to be empty space. Wakko gulped, he hoped it didn't lead to a black hole.

XXXXX

To his surprise, it led to a giant ship. It was all dark, looking like it wasn't used in years. He could only make out a familiar blue dress..

When he landed, the grand star looked at him for a moment and spun, and glided to the middle of the ship. The tiny maroon star that was there morphed into a bigger shape, it's color turning reddish-orangish and began glowing. A large part of the ship has lit up and was no longer dark. A dome room's door that was sealed off slowly opened, revealing darkness.

A familiar deep voice to Wakko begun speaking. "The beacon... it is lit again!" Wakko had gotten closer, and found out that voice belonged to-

Brain?

Next to brain, there was Nurse. That blue dress didn't fool Wakko, nor did her soothing voice which began to speak.

"Thank you, Wakko. You managed to get the grand star. It has lit up part of my home, and some power has been restored."

"Where am I?" Wakko puzzled, this was an odd looking ship, he had never seen something like this anywhere. Not on TV, not in video games, nowhere. Here he was, encountering it in real life.. not in front of him on a TV screen.

"This is the Comet Observatory. It's home to these lumas, and home to me." Nurse answered.

"When did you-"

"No more questions, let Mama explain." Adrian grumbled.

Wakko listened, to both Adrian and Nurse. Nurse giggled and then continued. "That creature that has taken your siblings has also taken the power stars - what we use to travel. Since they are gone, we can't move anywhere. But, you brought back the grand star we once had. It opened up the Terrace Dome, which can lead to more power. There are more galaxies to travel in there, to give us power. To give us more of a chance to rescue your siblings."

Wakko glanced over at the Terrace.

𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯..

𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵.. 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

𝘈𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘌𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶..

"Nurse is right." Brain added. "You must collect more power for this ship to begin accelerating. It will do us and you a big service. For us, we will gain our home back. For you, you will be back with your relatives. However, there is one complication.."

Wakko halted. "What's that?" tongue sticking out in fear of what Brain was about to say. He hoped it wouldn't be that bad..

Brain paused and began. "Well... that individual that abducted your siblings is after you. He is chasing you throughout this quest. You have to be careful. If anything, I sense Adrian, Elliot and Preston won't let it get away with that. But be careful anyway. We know you can do this."

Wakko gulped. If he was caught, he would fail Yakko and Dot.. he wondered how they were doing... hopefully okay. He won't get caught, right? He needs to get as many stars as possible. If not, all, no, he NEEDS to get all. He needs to get all as quickly as possible.

𝘐'𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘐 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦.

Chapter Text

Part 3: Star Hunting

Wakko walked over to the Terrace Dome and looked over at the entrance. It looked nothing but dark inside.

I have to do this. I have to get stars.

Wakko walked in, not expecting to actually see light. The pattern on the wall showed a beautiful sky with planets on the top half, and castles and hills on the bottom half. He looked down and saw a lovely sun pattern, being shone on by a large light. Wakko stepped into the light, hearing silence.

Until, he heard little footsteps. He looked behind him and saw Brain.

"Greetings, Wakko. Allow me to clarify a few things you are required to know on this journey." Brain spoke. He looked over at a blue Luma, and gave the stellar Luma a nod, leading to a Luma spinning and turning into a small blue star.

Wakko surveyed it for a moment. That didn't look familiar, what did that do? His question was answered by Brain's interruption of the silence again.

"Close your eyes, and reach out to the blue object. It will pull you up and show you all the galaxies you will need to analyze for this journey." He mentioned. "You will need a certain amount of stars to explore some galaxies. Some will open up on their own."

"What are these blue stars called?"

"These stellars are called Pull Stars. You will see them throughout your quest, not just in these domes."

Wakko looked up and shut his eyes hastily. He reached out to where he thought the star was floating, and he had luckily guessed right. When he opened his eyes, he was in a clear bubble, with a slight cyan glow.

"Look up, Wakko. You will see the galaxies you need to explore." Brain informed him.

Wakko looked up, and saw 3 circular figures. One was orange and glowing, the other two were dark and purple. The remaining 2 so-called galaxies were in boxes. He guessed the luminous orange figure was where he was going first.

"Now, reach out to that beaming model. It will show you the first galaxy."

This better not burn.. Wakko tuned in and reached out, the sunset-colored glow exploded into a series of planets. One of them was a giant.. egg?

"Good Egg galaxy, have to love this one." Preston said smoothly. "Tons of great memories of Ell, Adrian and I messing with-"

"Don't spoil it for him, idiot. We want this to be a surprise." Adrian snapped, Preston almost ruined one of the best surprises Wakko would ever see! He didn't want that.

Wakko ignored them, and waited for Brain, or maybe Elliot's next directions. He heard Brain's voice first, telling him to just open his eyes and nod. When Wakko did so, a launch star appeared around him.

He was bewildered, but spun. He knew what he had to do in a launch star already. After he spun, he flew away from the ship at full speed, sure he was going to Good Egg as his friends called it.

XXXXX

Wakko saw the planets in the distance, and what looked like a giant black hole. He gulped, he didn't wanna die in that..

As soon as he was close enough, he landed on a rock on a grassy planet. He looked up and winced at a blinding glow in a far away distance. He looked down and saw these strange octopus looking creatures..

Oh gosh.. do I crush these guys with my mallet? Wakko pondered for a moment, and then pulled out his mallet. He crushed both of the octopi with his mallet, and received one coin each from that. He looked left to right and noticed these curved paths which he believed led to where he was supposed to go.

He chose the left path, confused on the gravity. He was still walking, despite the fact the path was going upwards? Almost getting hit by a goomba and earning 3 starbits, he made it to the top meeting another yellow Luma at the top. The Luma exclaimed that Wakko had to hurry because the star's friends were ahead.

The star transformed into a sling star, leading up to the launch star. A moment later, Wakko was on a peanut shaped planet filled with mud and dangerous looking rocks.

"Those rocks look delicious, they look like they have jelly in them!" Wakko said while grinning.

"I bet you can't eat them!" Adrian shouted.

"ADRIAN! That could be dangerous! Don't listen to him Wak-" Elliot yelled.

"No; don't worry Ell. I'll eat ANYTHING." Wakko accepted Adrian's challenge, and when a rock rolled in... POW! Wakko dug in.

"I was right, it was pretty good." He said, licking his lips. "I'll eat the others, they won't get in the way then."

Elliot stared in disbelief. "How... did.. how did..."

"Wakko packs away the snacks!" Wakko repeated from his show's theme song. "I eat anything."

"Licorice?" Adrian quizzed.

"Sounds great!"

"Eww.. nobody likes licorice, not even us, who would also eat anything."

"WE'RE GETTING OFF TOPIC!" Preston's squeaky voice shouted, in annoyance his brothers and friend were fighting. "Collect the star chips, Wakko. We did this before." After Preston had reminded them about the mission, he dove back under the hat. Followed by Elliot and Adrian.

Wakko collected the star chips, at the same time eating the rocks. When the final star chip gleamed in the middle of his sight, Wakko picked it up summoning the launch star.

Running at the star, like how he did with the Wishing Star a while back.. to save his sister... no, he was getting off topic, he was making his sorrow worse. He was going to save her again, along with his brother, just watch him.

He spun and was launched to a bean shaped planet, noticing a weird plant with a mouth was biting at him.

He had decided to pull out his mallet once again and slam the plant on the head. Making a vine grow out, leading to a holey apple planet with a black hole in the center of it. He climbed the vine, and landed on the crisp apple.

Don't. Fall. Off.

XXXXX

Making his way around the apple, a little puzzled, Wakko noticed a similar looking plant as the one he had crushed earlier. He noticed the thorns on the body of the plant, and the purple spotted head. It had also been much bigger.

Wakko went in front of it to distract it, and when the time came..

Steady... steady..

SLAM!

Wakko hit the plant on the head, and it disappeared in defeat. A vine grew out of the blue flowers and led to another bean shaped planet. Before he climbed the vine, he decided to collect the colorful starbits jumping on the ground wanting to be picked up, sparkling while jumping.

As soon as all the candy stars had disappeared due to Wakko collecting them, he had climbed the vine and landed in the sand. He walked fowards, reaching the other side of the planet, being greeted by metal platforms, some rising, some not, and more octopi.

Deciding to just jump on the octopi, he climbed the platforms, stomping on all three of the octopi aliens in the process. The next jump he made was into the launch star, making a glide through the galaxy to a planet with an egg on it.

Unfortunately, Wakko had landed on the egg, which woke the creature up. The creature's giant tail whipped out and slammed the ground, and it had begun wandering around the planet, it's tail in tow.

Wakko snuck up behind it, and when the moment was right.... WHAM! Wakko spun into the giant ball on the tip of the tail, and it slammed into the egg, shattering it and revealing a dinosaur plant hybrid.

The creature roared in anger, noticing his nap was interrupted. The creature stomped after Wakko, whom had begun running. Running around the planet, trying to confuse the dinosaur. Fortunately, it worked. The creature was facing backwards in Wakko's perspective, the ball on the tail right in front of him. Wakko spun again... POW!

The hybrid was enraged.. it's head went from purple to red, even the little white spots turned yellow. It was missing petals, because of being hit right in the face. It was growling, fangs showing, and did a gigantic roar, threatening Wakko as if saying 'you shouldn't have done that!'

The creature was stomping around the planet, faster than before, with Wakko bolting in front of it. He abruptly turned to the right, going behind the creature, and spinning into the tail again. The creature was hit again, shooting out more starbits. Adrian came out from under Wakko's hat and collected most of the starbits from both the hybrid had exploded out, and from the crystals it had broke.

The dinosaur was on Wakko's tail, about to hit him, until Wakko relied on the right again and went behind the dino, spinning into the tail for the last time and hitting the dinosaur for the last time.

It had let out a long, dramatic wail, all petals missing, and hit the ground. Tongue out. Then exploded into smoke. A star had shone through the smoke, and gleamed. It waited for Wakko to approach and collect it.

When he had done just that, the star had flew around Wakko's body, stopping in his gloved hand.

XXXXX

The star had led them back to the Terrace Dome, when they landed, the star flew upwards and disappeared. Giving the ship more power.

Wakko had took off his hat, giving the three star buddies some air. Adrian took a deep breath, before saying "That was awesome!!" and complimenting Wakko more and more, at the same time bragging that he had helped him.

Elliot had complimented him too, but more quiet than Adrian was. Elliot told him he did great and he was going to do great too throughout the adventure. Wakko beamed, believing him. After complimenting him, Elliot had gone back to his book, looking for more important information to give Wakko.

Brain was pleased.

"Welcome back, Wakko. I take it you vanquished Dino Piranha with ease?" Brain inquired, amazed.

"Hey!" Adrian hollered. "I helped too!" Adrian rolled his beady black eyes. He mentioned a thousand times he helped Wakko the most, how did nobody hear that!

"I am sure all three of you had. My mistake, Adrian." Brain said with a brief frown, but then quickly smiled again after Adrian had muttered 'it's fine.'

Wakko couldn't help but giggle. He closed his eyes, and was about to reach out his arm until he was stopped

"Hold on there, Wakko, I have more orientations to tell you. Furthermore, you didn't even let your stellar allies get under your hat." Brain expressed gravely, giving a serious look. "Let me clarify more elements, until you fathom everything you will spot on this journey.. got it?"

Wakko stopped and stared at Brain for a second or two; "Got it - sorry, fellas."

"Don't worry about it. We know you just want your siblings back, don't fret. We'll get them back." Elliot reassured, at least he forgave Wakko - he wasn't sure if Adrian or Preston did.

"Okay, thanks Ell." after Wakko had said that, relieved they weren't mad for him almost leaving them, Elliot had nodded. Wakko looked back at Brain, giving him a signal to begin.

Brain smiled in satisfaction, and nodded. "Gladly. So for now, before you go back on your adventure, I will be informing you most of your enemies' names. So you don't identify them as 'that creature' or a term similar to that."

Wakko was interested in knowing this stuff. He didn't really want to call them 'that weird octopus thing' or something like that either. "I know the name of the goomba."

"I realize that. They were all over the Gateway Galaxy."

"What is the name of that Blue Octopus Alien?"

"The name of those individuals are Octoombas, can be named Electrogoombas. They have a number, 4 to be specific, of counterparts. A pinkish-reddish twin, known as an Octoguy, the green twin, whose name is Elite Octoomba, a ghost version, are Octoboos, and a larger alien that might not be a twin, is known as a normal octopus."

Octopi in space? Oh well.. maybe there's weirder..

"Now, are there any other antagonists, or protagonists if you'd like, you need to know?"

XXXXX

Wakko was watching the larger Luma, who according to Brain was named Hungry Luma, in amazement. It was eating the 100 starbits he had collected for the plump star. As soon as it finished, it had spun, turning into a white glow, and flew off at a speedy pace.

Where he stopped, he turned into a giant planet. Wakko was standing in the same spot the Hungry Luma was previously in, fully expecting a pink launch star to appear. Brain had informed him about this, as the time he was asking about names. Brain had even told him names he hadn't encountered yet.

The Launch Star had appeared, and Wakko hopped in it.

Almost done with this mission.. then I'll be one mission closer..

Chapter Text

Part 4: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Wakko was swung back, the giant octopus emperor he was battling rose it's massive tentacle, and splashed it back into the lava. Summoning blue fiery balls. The blazing aliens were bouncing towards him, making it harder for him to spin into the swift coconuts.

Adrian had dived from out of Wakko's hat and had begun fighting the monsters, followed by Elliot racing after him, to help him and to prevent him from getting hurt. Preston stayed behind, to let Wakko keep his powers.

Wakko had temptations to eat the coconuts, but concluded not to. There was no other way to defeat the king, so he had only used them to attack.

Wakko hit the coconut, making it zoom to the king's face, but the king slapped it back. It was Wakko against the coconut.

Focus... focus..

POW!

He had spun his gloved hands against it again. It darted towards King Kaliente, but he had been prepared. He hit it back again. Now, it was dashing towards Wakko. Wakko had been ready, eyes narrowed, focusing on the round object.

BAM!

The coconut hit King Kaliente right in the face, making him swing his head back. King Kaliente fell fowards, falling into the lava. He reached his tentacles out to try and reach the surface, but didn't make it in time. He sunk down to the bottom of the lava pond he normally swam in, but didn't come back up like how he did when Wakko reached the planet.

A rich star had floated out of the lava, and hovered over and stopped at one of the parts King Kaliente reached out for.

Wakko gazed at the bright lava, still making high waves. He turned his attention to the delightful star, spinning over the planet. Wakko tapped his foot, impatiently waiting for Adrian and Elliot.

Adrian was laughing while telling Elliot he 'creamed those fireballs with ease'. Elliot looked like he was smiling, surprisingly. He normally didn't care when Adrian was bragging about whatever he did.

"Come on, A. Let's get back to Wakko. He's getting irritable." Elliot stated, while rolling his eyes. Adrian eyed Elliot with that 'aw come on, I'm not finished' look he did often. Elliot eyed him back with a 'you can't change my mind' look.

"Fine. You win." Adrian grumbled. He sped under Wakko's hat, Elliot followed, but in a much slower motion.

Wakko stopped tapping his foot and walked towards the shimmering star, and picked it up. Resulting to him floating in the air, star circling around him. Stopping in Wakko's expanded gloved hand for a moment, it led him up.

Wakko with his hands on the rocketing star, began pondering about his old memories he had with his siblings...

XXXXX

"Wakko! Wait for us, ya goof!" Yakko shouted. Wakko was racing up the hill, thinking it was a race like any other 9 year old. Dot was laughing, she couldn't help it. As much as she loved being cute, she loved being with her brothers more.

"Sorry!" Wakko bellowed back. Joining Dot in the giggles, he stopped. Yakko couldn't help but laugh too. The two of his siblings were happy and having fun, that's all that mattered.

"Apology accepted, sib. Perfect place for a picnic, ey?" Yakko spoke, while looking around. The spring view was stunning. The leaves on the trees were a beautiful emerald color, shining brightly in the sun's spotlight. Gorgeous, colorful flowers were blooming in the bright grass, the wind breathing intensely on them.

"It's FLAWLESS!" Dot cried in a joyous tone. This was her first time being out on a picnic, so it was 'flawless' for a first time.

"Faboo! It's faboo!" Wakko agreed, head nodding vigorously, tongue sticking out. Wakko looked up at the perfect blue sky, barely any clouds. The clouds that were out were tiny, no concern for weather for this perfect day.

Yakko and Dot caught up to Wakko, and the trio climbed up the hill together. When they reached the top, they weren't expecting a perfect buttercup standing up straight as a line.

Dot ran to the buttercup, eyes bright with amazement. Wakko couldn't blame her, the buttercup had such a bright shade of yellow it looked as if it was glowing. Dot didn't want to pick it, yet, she just stared at it.

Wakko had gotten closer, seeing the bright green stem and leaves enjoying themselves in the sunlight and under the buttercup's shade.

The yellow petals were glowing under Dot's chin, both from the color, and from the sun glaring at them.

Yakko smirked, looking at Dot's amazement. "We can take it home if you'd like, sister sib." he shouted, not too loudly, of course. She wasn't that far away.

Dot brightened even more at that statement. "Yes, that would be amazing!" she cheered.

Wakko looked over at the beach that was near the beautiful grassy landscape. The water glimmering in the sun, the sand bright and happy. "I can go get the water to put the flower in!"

"That'd be great, baby bro!" Yakko retorted merrily. "Go get some water! We'll be waiting!"

Dot was jumping in joy, excited to be taking the most beautiful flower she had ever seen. Mind you, she had seen many flowers throughout her 8 years of life.

Yakko was also excited, but had a different opinion. He had seen a 'bird of paradise' flower, once in his 12 years, but that didn't mean he didn't think this flower was beautiful. It was definitely one of the best ones he had ever seen.

Wakko turned his attention to the wavy sea, and ran to it. He picked up a bottle left in the glossy sand, perfect size for the buttercup.

Wakko went into the water, at knee height, and began filling the water up. He stopped when he thought the bottle was full enough. He had walked out of the water and began standing in the blazing sun to dry his legs off. Once they were dry, he had dashed back to the hill where an excited Dot was waiting.

He gave his baby sister the bottle, after she had plucked the flower out of the grass. She had gently dropped the buttercup into the bottle and held it as carefully as she could, obviously not wanting to drop it.

Yakko shot a proud beam at Wakko, the look that Wakko called the 'that was great of you' look. That always put him and Yakko in a much better mood than before, even if they were already in a great mood.

They began walking back to the tower, their home....

Wakko felt sick.. that was one of his best memories with his siblings.

And that one time Yakko felt sick, so he and Dot cheered him up...

And that one time Dr. Scratchansniff took them to see what was called 'The Greatest View of Burbank'...

Or that time when some jerk hurt Dot's feelings so he and Yakko had a 'friendly talk with him' and cheered her up...

Or that time they made fun of a really bad movie...

Or that time when Wakko accidentally scratched himself on the sidewalk, so Dot and Yakko cheered him up...

The times when they knew they were together, safe and happy were the best times..

Wakko was tearing up.. Yakko and Dot were seperated from him.. he wondered if they were together. He wondered if they were apart.

If anything, he hoped they were together.

Yakko would keep Dot safe. Dot would keep Yakko safe. They would protect themselves.. he was sure of it.

Just stay safe guys.. I'm coming, okay?

"Buddy? Wakko?"

Dot, don't let Yakko get hurt..

"Wakko?"

Yakko, don't let Dot get hurt..

"WAKKO!"

Wakko blinked forthwith when he heard Preston calling his name. He felt sick to his stomach when he realized Adrian, Elliot and Preston saw him crying.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" Adrian asked, sounding much more tranquilizing than his usual energetic self. "We see tears coming from your eyes.."

"Yeah, sorry. Just thought of some memories.."

"Of your siblings?" Preston questioned.

"Not just them.. the three of us together."

"Oh, I get it. Don't worry, Wakko. We'll get them back. Promise."

"Are you sure..?"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a starbit in my eye." Elliot chimed in promptly. "We're going to get them back, just like how we're gonna keep you safe."

"Thanks guys, it really means a lot you guys are helping me." Wakko said, once again tearing up. This time, in joy. "I couldn't have gotten them back, or this far, alone."

"Don't mention it! , you're our buddy! We'll help you no matter what." Adrian said, smiling.

"Exactly." Elliot added. "You've done so much for us. It's time to pay you back."

"All I did was light up your home?" Wakko questioned.

"You don't understand. If you haven't done that, we probably would have never moved again." Elliot said, sounding more seriously.

Wakko looked astonished. While he felt that way, he also felt a little embarrassed.

"Sorry." He drawled.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't know." Preston said in a forgiving tone, making Elliot and Adrian nod in agreement. "Now, there's the ship. I think Brain has more to say."

XXXXX

"Wakko, do you follow?" Brain asked in a worried tone. "You can NOT let these behemoths catch you! If they catch you, it's game over!"

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. I'm just.." Wakko paused, searching desperately in his mind for a fitting term. "I just can't believe it, I guess."

"I understand. Those beasts stole your relatives, and now they are after you." Brain sounded less panicked, but more sympathetic. "Just don't let them abduct you. Got it?"

"I got it."

"Wonderful. Now, I believe you have gained a new galaxy."

Wakko shot up. "Really?"

"Yes, do as I taught you before."

Wakko quickly shut his eyes, facing the blue floating star. He reached out to it, and was picked up in the glowing bubble. He looked over, and Brain was right. There was another orange figure, waiting to explode.

He reached out to the gleaming bubble, and it exploded.

The bubble exploded into a forest-like galaxy, with honeycombs surrounding it.

"Honeyhive Galaxy?"

"Affirmative."

"Another great one." Wakko heard Elliot mutter under his breath, and he had also heard Adrian mumble "mhm" in agreement.

Wakko opened his eyes and nodded,leading to the launch star appearing around him. The star shot him towards the galaxy, and Wakko was in full speed.

A new galaxy..

Chapter Text

Part 5: Bee-ginning

Wakko was still soaring in space, but was slowing down as soon as the handful of planets were in sight. He had landed on a spot on the holed planet, and looked around.

A bee flew up to him, and greeted him with a friendly "Welcome to Honeyhive! Our queen rules this land!" which made Wakko feel a little welcome. He knew the bees wouldn't mind him collecting the stars here, right?

Wakko had started roaming, but stopped due to the rocks rolling more and more, almost getting hit by one in the process. He ran past the rocks when the time was right, and saw a big shiny coin ahead of him.

"What's that?" He asked, not knowing what would happen if he touched it. "What will that do if I touch it?"

"That'll give you a new power up!" Preston chortled. "Try it!"

Wakko shrugged and walked towards the coin. He reached out to it, and it disappeared into a set of golden sparkles. Little did Wakko know, the new power up was over to the side.

"New power up? What is it, air?" Wakko said in a miffed tone.

"No, silly. Here. Let me show you." Elliot laughed, jumping out of Wakko's hat. Elliot floated in front of him and started flying backwards in his perspective, and then descended. Wakko freaked out, he thought that's where the giant hole leading to a massive black hole was, but when he followed Elliot, he was relieved to be wrong.

Elliot was down on a wide pathway Wakko had barely noticed before, he must have been too distracted by the rocks. He jumped down, not wanted to deal with them again.

Elliot pointed to a yellow mushroom, with chocolate colored stripes. The mushroom had beady little eyes like every other mushroom, and had a fuzzy texture. Wakko shot a confused look to the smirking Elliot, he wanted him to eat that?

"No way I'm eating that - it's fuzzy. Fuzzy food is awful."

"What happened to "Wakko Packs Away the Snacks!"? You ate a rock, which I'd say tastes horrible compared to this." Elliot shot back. "You eat ANYTHING, remember?"

"Well.."

"Besides, this thing just tastes like honey. Promise on my little star heart."

"..Oh, alright."

Wakko walked closer to the mushroom, picked it up, and swallowed it whole. The next thing he knew, he was shining brightly, transforming into the power up the shroom gave him.

When he had opened his eyes, he didn't expect what he saw. He had two little bee antennas replacing his ears, small crystal clear wings, a fuzzy white scarf-like object wrapped around his neck, and some clothes looking similar to a normal everyday bee. He thought he looked absurd.

"You now have gotten the bee power up!" Elliot cheered. "Jump up and fly!"

"How?"

"Uh, duh, you flap your wings." Adrian said with a 'really' look.

"Right.."

Wakko jumped up, and flapped the suit's tiny wings as best as he could. He was flying! He was doing it! "Huh, who knew?"

"Be careful Wakko, it has a limi-"

Elliot was cut off by Wakko crying out and falling, because he ran out of the fly limit. Elliot sighed, he should have said it earlier. "You okay?" he asked, in a soothing tone.

"Yeah. That was fun. How many seconds do I have to fly?"

"I'd say... about 4 seconds." Elliot said in an unsure voice. "It's not long, I don't know why it has a limit."

"I'll keep that in mind. I assume we keep going?"

Elliot nodded to justify Wakko's question. Afterwards, he went back into Wakko's hat.

Wakko flew upwards again, counting the sluggish seconds in his head. As soon as he reached the fourth second, he stopped flying. He landed back on the green grass, looked up, and saw an opening. He had flew back up again, being greeted by large bugs that had started flying towards him in what looks like a zombie way.

"Spin Wakko!" He heard Preston say in a quiet, scared voice. Wakko nodded to acknowledge Preston's demand and spun. Hitting two bugs, that turned into 2 pairs of 3 starbits, he had gotten hit by the last one that had started running away.

Adrian flew out from under his hat and started punching the bug with his short arms, while shouting "DON'T HURT MY FRIEND YOU IDIOTIC INSECT!"

Wakko had picked up the starbits he left behind from the 2 bugs, and Adrian came drifting over with a green starbit, blue starbit and red starbit in his arms. Adrian gave Wakko the starbits, and the 9 starbits disappeared.

Adrian fluttered back under Wakko's hat, while Wakko was walking away. Wakko walked up to a log with a hole in the center of it, wondering if that's where he had to go. He looked down, and theorized the answer was yes.

He clambered on top of the log and jumped down, to his surprise, he slid down an unexpected slide. When he landed, he looked to the side and saw a wall.

Wakko assumed he had to fly to get on top, so he flapped his wings as much as he could and ascended upwards. He shifted forward, to make sure he'd make it.

Not too much.. not too much..

He landed on a floating flower, petals coated with coins. He had decided to collect them, just in case a Hungry Luma was ahead. He hopped off the flower, and began walking toward the honey surrounded launch-

He halted. He felt tense. He saw holes in between these honey-filled platforms. The holes led to a black hole.

One wrong move and you're dead..

Wakko walked slower than before, trying to be as careful as possible so he wouldn't fall through. Once he was at the edge, he ascended. Once he was at the third second, he stopped flying. But unfortunately, he went too much forward...

Wakko panicked. He was about to fall through the hole, until a bee that was carrying a bucket full of honey dropped his hard work, and raced to Wakko. The bee went under him, and caught him before he could fall through. Wakko opened his eyes and noticed he wasn't falling anymore..

Oh thank jesus...

The bee gently set him down, giving Wakko the 'you okay?' look. In response, Wakko nodded and managed to gasp out a "thank you!". The bee nodded and beamed, and went back to do what he was doing.

God bless that bee.

Wakko walked over to the launch star, and spun. He was launched in the air once again and was led to a beautiful pond planet.

He landed on a fern colored lilypad, and was about to keep going until Preston paused him.

"Wait Wakko, two things, one, don't step on water, or you will lose your bee suit. Capeesh?"

"Yeah.."

"Second, what happened back there? We heard you panic?" Preston quizzed, did he almost fall? Why did he gasp loudly?

"Um.. well, I technically fell through one of those holes.. and almost got sucked into-"

"You almost DIED?"

"Well, yeah."

"I am assuming one of those bees caught you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's good. I understand it wasn't on purpose, but try not to do that again."

"Sorry.."

"Don't apologize. You didn't mean it. I just ask of you to try."

"Ahem.." Adrian gagged. Were he and Elliot invisible at this point?

"Sorry. WE ask you to try." Preston corrected.

"Okay." Wakko answered, almost in a muttering volume. He hopped from lilypad to lilypad, avoiding the water. He gazed at a wooden platform floatin on the clear water. He flew over to it, placing his feet on it gently. He jumped to a different wooden platform, to another, to another.

The last platform had grass on it, unlike the others. He studied at what looked like a giant purplish-pinkish peony, and walked towards it wondering both why it is so big, and why it is there.

Elliot peeked out from under his hat and beamed. "This is one of my favorite things to do!" He looked excited. Wakko wondered why, it was just a flower. "Grab onto it, and swing! It will automatically launch you to where you need to go."

Wakko was befuddled, but granted the information. He clutched the flower, and swung like Elliot instructed. He ascended, and floated down safely to a different flower. This flower was similar to the ones he had seen earlier, the ones with the coins, but MUCH bigger.

The bloom in the center had a collection of starbits at the edges. Wakko had decided to pick up those starbits, so he had continued ascending with his bee powers and landed on the center. After walking around the edges, he flew upwards meeting the biggest flower so far, the center being the shadow of the launch star's throne.

Wakko's feet that were safely on top of the massive flower had begun rising up. Wakko had gotten near the launch star and had again spun, and had gotten rocketed off to the next planet that had seemed to have a giant bee on top. He guessed it was the queen that bee before mentioned.

He landed on the floor at the bottom of the planet, black hole beneath.

Away from the edges..

Wakko looked up, and saw a series of honeycombs plastered on the tall wall. He was perplexed on what he had to do. Was he supposed to climb the wall somehow..? Was there a launch star? Another flower? Oh brother. He was stuck. Stuck on the third galaxy. He was no good at adventures.. he failed Yakko and Dot.. he coul-

"Wakko?"

Wakko snapped out of it when he heard Preston's squeaky voice. "Oh, sorry Preston." he said in an awkward way. "Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing you thought you failed, huh?"

"Maybe.."

Preston sighed. A long dramatic sigh. "You haven't failed them, Wakko. Don't think that." waiting for Wakko's response, which he did not get, he continued. "You just have to grab on to the wall and climb. No big deal."

"That's it? Oh, I get stuck on the dumbest things." Wakko grumbled.

"No, I get it. Don't feel dumb, alright? We're here to help you if you get puzzled." Preston said, protesting Wakko's insult to himself.

Wakko didn't respond, but continued walking. He stopped in front of the golden shiny honey, and grabbed on to it. "Now what?"

"Climb."

XXXXX

Wakko had finally made it to the top, after what had seemed like forever. There was anotherplant, the same one he had saw in Good Egg. Wakko remembered what he had to do. He pulled his mallet out from his hammerspace and crushed the creature, making a vine sprout out as a result.

He grabbed onto the skinny lanky plant, and spun. The vine led him to the leaf on a humongous plant on top of the planet. He looked up, eyes meeting with who he guessed was the queen bee.

"Oh? Who might you be?" The shy voice that had spoke came from the bee's lips. "I surmise you are a new bee in this kingdom?"

"Yes, hello. My name is Wakko. I am here with my buddies Adrian-" Adrian had popped out as soon as his name was said. "-Elliot-" Elliot popped out as soon as he heard his own name. "-and Preston." Preston finally popped out as soon as Wakko finished. "We are here to gather stars."

"Oh, well, what do you need those stars for?" The queen interrogated.

"Well.. my siblings were.." Wakko paused, dreading on saying this statement. "..kidnapped, and we need stars to power up our ship to rescue them."

"Oh my! I am so sorry to hear that Sir Wakko. Honestly."

"So am I.." Wakko murmured, but it was audible enough for the queen to hear.

"Well I'm apologetic to say this, but I do not have any stars right now," the gigantic bee sounded sympathetic as she said that. "However.."

Do you know someone who does?

"I do have the most terrible itchiness. Do you mind assisting me on helping to get rid of it?"

Wakko turned his attention from the queen's eyes to her body. There were familiar sparkles scattered around. Wakko assumed those were star chips.

"I do not mind at all, your highness."

"Splendid!"

XXXXX

"Come on Dot, let's get moving!" Yakko huffed. He felt sick he had to say this again.

He had spotted an opening while they escaped the cell once, it seemed to be big enough for them to escape through.

He broke them out of the cell they were in, so unless the creatures around them fixed it somehow, there was no point in putting them back in. Yakko would be surprised if they had managed to fix it. The parts were tiny, mixed up, and scattered everywhere.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She gasped, out of breath from nonstop running. There were guards everywhere, so they had to rush to make sure they weren't in the lazy guards' sights.

Dot still felt terrible Yakko had to deal with all of this stress first. He didn't deserve it, not one bit. She didn't know why people wanted to destroy them so much.. it broke her heart. Was her and her brothers being themselves that bad? Let alone bad at all?

"Yakko?" she questioned, while they were still racing out of the guards' sights.

"What's up, sib?"

"I'm sorry you had to deal with this alone.."

"Sis, for the thousandth time, it's alright. As much as I appreciate your apology, it isn't your fault. Nor Wakko's. Don't be sorry." he replied in a somewhat serious tone, but mostly sympathetic. He himself felt bad that Dot felt bad.

"I just feel bad. You were missing for a few days and I technically found you, but, I wish it wasn't like this."

"I understand. I wish it wasn't like this either."

They finally reached the end of the guard party, and saw the opening again.

"You go first Dot."

When Yakko didn't hear Dot say 'okay', he got a bad feeling.

"Dot?"

He was horrified; did he accidentally go too fast? No, couldn't be. She was right next to him. Did the creatures spot them? He hoped not, but that might have been the only possibility.. she couldn't have disappeared into thin air.

"Over here, kid."

Yakko was afraid he would hear that voice.. that deep, demonic voice.. he looked over, the creature had Dot in his grasp, arm over her mouth. Yakko's fearful look turned to fury.

"Don't. Touch. Her." Yakko growled. "Let her go."

"As I said before, nobody is going yet, Yakko." the creature shot back. "We need your brother, too."

"You are NOT getting him."

"Funny, I already sent off the army to get him a while back."

Yakko froze at that statement. The creatures were roaming free now? They were going to get Wakko? No. Not on his watch. Wakko won't let that happen. He was sure of it.

The creature's free hand started glowing red mist, and the opening they spotted closed up.

No..

It turned it's eyes to Yakko. "I'm sorry I have to do this," it said coldly. "But since you brats are trying to escape, we have to."

The gas began filling the room. The creature disappeared, leaving Dot on the floor. She was coughing uncontrollably.

"Y...Ya..Yakko.."

Yakko, who was also coughing, turned to look at her with a worried expression. "Y..Yes.. Dot?"

"I want.... W...Wak..Wakko..."

You and me both...

XXXXX

Wakko was on 1 of 4 platforms, all 4 spinning in a circular motion to reach the top of the tower.

The Warner Bros. Tower...

Wakko shook his head vigorously.

Stop thinking about memories! You're making it worse for yourself!

Wakko stood there with horrified look.

"WAKKO!"

"HOLD ON DOT! I'M COMING! FIGHT AS BEST AS YOU CAN!"

"WAKK-"

"QUIET."

"HEY! LET MY SISTER GO!"

"I SAID QUIET. OR THE LITTLE GIRL GETS HURT."

That was one of the only memories he had of the day of being blasted off. He remembered Dot screaming for him. He remembered how the creature had this cold look in it's eyes. He remembered being horrified... sick... angry... he didn't know where his brother was, and he was about to lose his sister..

Wakko snapped out of it. This time on his own. He protested the tears coming out, but he had to fight whatever was causing trouble on the tower.

Once he reached the top, he felt... relieved? surprised?

He was expecting a massive creature, or something. Not just a large bug with a baby on it's back. The only ability it had was to run at him. Anticlimactic.

Wakko walked on the wooden floor, the bug jumped and ran towards him. He pulled out his mallet, and swung.

Surprisingly, he had only hit the baby. The bug looked and was shocked, but the shock instantly turned to rage. The bug ran at him with a greater speed than before, it also had a much more red color than before.

He swung his mallet again, crushing the bug. The bug let out a wail and exploded into smoke. The star appearing a second or 2 later.

That was it?

"Laame." Wakko heard Adrian whine. He had to agree. That was nothing.

He decided to just be grateful it wasn't a pain to defeat, and walked to the star.

He reached out for it, but before he could grab it...

Chapter Text

Part 6: The Encounter

Wakko had his head against the wall.. confused on what just happened. He looked up to see who, or what had hurt him.

A strange masked creature stared back down at him, eyes glinting a very dark shade of purple for a trice. It had a pitch black cloak, slightly fading to an aubergine color on the ends. Horns were protruding out of the head, a bright purple color on the tip, blending into a darker shade of purple the more it went down. Mystifying crow wings spread out of it's back, also with a tinge of purple on them.

Wakko's distressed look turned into an awed look. He studied the creature for a moment, slightly recognizing it, despite the fact he had never seen it before. He knew why it was here.. he knew what it worked for.. he knew what it was apart of.

Adrian peeked out from under Wakko's hat. His face from curious, to livid. He also knew why it was here, what it worked for, and knew what it was apart of. That's the reason why he chose to slip away from Elliot and Preston, and show his anger to it.

"Why are YOU here?" He asked in a furious tone, ignoring the fact he had known why. "We're busy at the moment."

"Oh, I know for a fact you know why." It said in an eerie way, with a grin splitting across it's face.

"Well.." Wakko began, but Adrian had stopped him. Adrian had raised his stubby arm, silencing him, and gave him a 'let me handle this on my own' look. Wakko blinked at that, he thought Adrian needed backup.

"You're right. But we're not going to let you accomplish that today. Hell, we won't let you any day." Adrian replied, glare turning to it.

"Even if you won't let me, I can get past you, tubby." It's grin got bigger, knowing it could easily snatch Wakko and take him back to the floating somber palace. "So step aside, before I decide to do so."

Now Elliot had gotten into the conversation. He had a pissed off look on his face, screaming 'no way, no how'. "It's funny how you think we'll let you take our friend, just like that." He chimed in.

"I don't completely expect that for your information. In fact, I'd rather make you move my way." It shot back. Trying to keep the annoyed mood out of it's chilling voice.

"Yeah, like blasting your purple magic? Been there, done that."

Preston had also now emerged out of Wakko's hat, wondering what was going on. When he had found out, he looked terrified.

"What are you doing?" Preston whispered, audibly enough for both Elliot and Adrian to hear.

"Take it easy, P. I have a plan." Elliot whispered back, not sounded alarmed at all.

"Actually, I have a new ability." It retorted, with a pinch of annoyance in it.

Oh god, Elliot, please tell me you saw this coming..

"Let me guess. It's a new color? Got bigger by an inch?" Elliot rolled his eyes. "If so, I'm terrified."

It's large grin morphed into a frown. A pissed off frown. It rose it's arm up, and it's hand began to glow purple. "Yes, it has gotten bigger. But not by an inch."

"Barely anything has changed then huh?" Elliot unemotionally replied. His hand had reached behind his back, also glowing, but his glow was a much brighter blue. "So much for a so-called, 'new ability' if I do say so myself."

"Oh just watch, Elliot. Just watch."

It blasted the purple mist at Elliot, who had blasted his blue mist back. The mists hit each other and created a tiny lavender explosion, making both mists disappear.

"Nice job. I know what you're planning."

This is it for his plan? Just to blast one back?

Elliot is smart. This can't be the only-

"AGH!"

Wakko stopped thinking and looked at Elliot. Elliot was on the ground, injured.. The creature must have successfully blasted him..

Wakko stared at the helpless Elliot in woe, he looked at the creature with the same expression, and soon it morphed into fury. He had pulled out his mallet, and dashed to the creature.

He jumped up, about to make the biggest mallet hit he had ever made, until...

SWIPE!

Wakko dangled in the air, he looked down to see his feet weren't on the ground. He slowly turned his vision up, and he was face to face with it. It had a detrimental look on it's ominous face.

"Good. We got you. Now it's-"

"Wait a minute there, pal!" Adrian interrupted. "One of us may be down - though he'll probably be back up in a second - but the two of us are still standing!"

"Exactly." Preston's short hand glowed the same mist Elliot had made. The mist morphed into a sword shape, and got bigger. "Now let our friend go, or we will have no choice but to force you."

It started laughing. A chilling laugh. It was a cackle, mixed with hissing. "You saw what happened with your little friend; what makes you think you can beat me? Let alone all of us?"

Preston didn't hesitate to speak up to the taunt. "Easy. We have seen you before and dealt with you before. We know your weakness; light." It made a baffling look to respond to Preston's answer. "Now, let him go."

"Try it, little star. I know you and your weak army's weakness too: the dark." it shot back, more confident than the look on it's face. It had also made a misty purple sword, to be prepared.

"Wrong. We dealt with the darkness in our ship with ease. It's still dark for the most part over there, and we're not dead, are we?" Preston flew over to it, to attack. He had successfully hit the creature in the arm, making it let go of Wakko.

Wakko landed, wondering how he could help Preston. It was trying to hit Preston back, but fortunately was unsuccessful so far.

Adrian glided over to Wakko, same sword as Preston's in his hand.

"Take it. Go help Preston. Avenge Elliot." Adrian said seriously. He had a 'it's your chance, don't waste it' look in his pugnacious eyes. Wakko nodded, he wasn't going to refuse this chance.

Wakko crept behind the creature..

This is for Elliot. This is for Yakko. This is for Dot. This is for everyone...

When the time was right...

POW!

Wakko impaled the creature through it's stomach with the blade. It had a shocked look.. when did Wakko slip away? It got distracted; great. How was the boss gonna react when it found out he had gotten away? Wakko yanked the sword out of it's body. Surprisingly, it had a plain black liquid on it. He was expecting there to be purple or red liquid, not plain black.

The creature glanced over at Wakko, with a raged fury.

"You shouldn't have done that.." it hissed, almost inaudible.

Preston gave him a 'make a move!' look, while he was frozen in shock. Wakko nodded back, but unfortunately he could not do anything with the creature glaring so hard he could melt. Adrian took this as an opportunity for distraction, for Wakko to finish it off.

Adrian flew right up to the mystery's face, and started to taunt it. Chanting "hey crow ripoff!" or "slowpoke" when it missed, he even called it a 'fuckface' which earned him a cold glare from Preston. Adrian had wisely chose to only use that insult once.

Wakko finally moved when he thought the creature took it's attention off him completely. He had snuck behind it again, but this time, he pushed.

It swung forward, distressed expression on it's face. It didn't land on a platform, it didn't land at all in fact. It fell in the giant hole where the black hole was waiting.

Wakko stopped peering over the tower end when it was guaranteed to fall through the endless hole. He looked back up in the star, and heard a terrifying noise sounding like a vacuum cleaner. He looked over at Preston with a confused look, but Preston had only told him it was the dumb creature falling in the black hole.

Adrian had Elliot in his tiny arms, and Wakko held up his hat, letting the two pudgy stars in. Preston followed, which made Wakko put it back on. He walked over to the star. This is definitely the most unforgettable star so far. Probably will be the most throughout the whole quest.

XXXXX

"You.. you had almost been seized by them?" Brain asked, astonished. He was obviously glad Wakko was okay.. but he almost got caught.. they couldn't have done anything about it if he was..

"Yes. Preston helped me though." Wakko answered, in a shaky voice.

"And... Elliot is wounded?"

"Unfortunately, yes. What do we do?" Wakko was fearful for his friend. Elliot was hurt, what if it was permanent?

"Do not fret, Wakko. Lumas settle thankfully brisk. Elliot should be fine." Brain had dropped the concern in his voice, to not scare Wakko even more than he was.. or so, he looked scared.

Oh thank Jesus it's not permanent.

"Wakko, do you think you require a rest?" Brain surveyed, he looked like he had needed it. "You continue rubbing your head while I quiz you."

Oh dang.. he noticed that?

"Well, I kind of forgot to tell you.. that weird figure had kinda um.. slammed me into the tower wall?" Wakko said sheepishly, he didn't want to concern Brain more, but Brain had wanted, maybe needed, to hear every detail to the stressful mission.

"It WHAT?"

"Well, um, yeah.. I wasn't necessarily finished, either."

"Please do pick up, and take your sweet time."

"Well.. okay, here goes." Wakko took a deep breath. "Be warned, I will explain this awfully fast."

"Pardon-"

"Okay I reached out to the star and then that weirdo slapped me to the wall and I hit my head really hard on it and it still hurts and then Adrian came to see what happened and was furious because he recognized it and then he was fighting with it and Elliot soon joined and then they fought physically with their mists and the creatures mist hit Elliot and thats why hes unconscious right now and then I got angry and tried fighting it but it grabbed me and I couldn't do anything but then Preston had fought it and then Adrian gave me a mist shaped like a sword and then I impaled it through the stomach and pushed it off the tower making it get sucked into a black hole."

When Wakko finished, he took a few breaths. He had run out of air because he had talked so fast. Brain sat there, astonished at what he just heard. Wakko was surprised Brain had heard it all, but then again, Brain was smart. It wouldn't be surprising if he had managed to hear it all.

"Well. Gathering the star obtained more activity than venturing to it, huh?" Brain broke the awkward silence. Waiting for Wakko's nod, he continued. "My assumptions are you need a break, correct?"

Wakko thought for a moment, waiting for an answer to pop in his mind.

If I take a break, my siblings will have to wait longer.. but if I continue, Elliot might get more injured, or I will have to go without him..

Elliot needs to recover. I don't think Adrian and Preston would forgive me if I went on without him, or with him injured.

I will apologize to my siblings once I get to them. For now, it's break time.

Wakko nodded again. "A break would be nice. Elliot needs to recover, and I don't think Preston and Adrian would forgive me if I continued on with him injured, or without him altogether."

"Great." Brain smiled, the first time since Wakko returned.

"I'll let you know when I'll come back to work, and when Elliot is healed."

XXXXX

Preston was laying on the colorful patch of flowers. Elliot next to him.

Elliot was still injured, the left temple of his mustard colored glasses was broken off, and he had a snow white bandage wrapped around his hip, with a golden color soaking through. When Wakko had asked what it was, Preston had answered it was star blood.

Adrian was flying around the dark explorable parts of the observatory, Wakko in tow. Despite the fact Adrian was glowing his usual golden glow, the section of the ship they were in remained dark.

Preston looked at the navy blue space around them, stars twinkling in the distance. A shooting star darted across the sky, and Preston closed his eyes and made a wish.

I wish Elliot would be okay, and that we find Wakko's siblings..

Though he knew Elliot would most likely be fine, he couldn't help himself.

Preston's eyes remained closed, but opened them when he heard a faint groaning noise. He looked over at Elliot, who was slightly twitching, and his eyes were slowly opening.

Preston protested on screaming, because he hadn't wanted to startle Elliot. Elliot was slow on getting up, when his eyes were fully opened, he was greeted by Preston's overjoyed face.

"ELLIOT!" He screamed in joy, it echoed across the whole ship it was so loud.

Wakko jumped thinking it was a scream of fear or sadness, so he had ran back to the patch of flowers Preston and Elliot relaxed on. Adrian followed, in concern.

"Is everything okay?" Wakko demanded. "Is Elliot okay?"

"HE WOKE UP!" Preston said in a relieved voice, eyes tearing up in joy."

Wakko beamed, Brain was right. Lumas do recover fast. Thankfully. "Elliot! You're awake!"

"Yeah, I'm aware of that." Elliot chuckled. He tried floating again, he was successful, but could only do it if he was slow. "I might pop out of your hat less often until I am fully recovered."

"So you mean, you're still recovering?" Wakko stressed. His tongue was sticking out in concern.

"Well, yeah. You can't get stabbed and be completely recovered 20 minutes later, right?"

"You're right.. sorry."

"You apologize over the smallest things Wakko." Adrian pointed out. "Don't be sorry; you don't know this stuff."

Wakko was about to speak again, until Elijah came into vision with a mix of joy and worry on his face. He was screaming for Wakko.

Wakko turned his attention from Adrian to Elijah, puzzled on what was going on. "What's up, E?"

Elijah stopped when he finally heard Wakko's response. "Well, I got a letter from your siblings-"

Wakko's eyes widened.

They were okay enough to send letters? Thank Jesus again.

Wakko reached his arm out to gain the letter in his grasp. Elijah had obliged and gave the letter to him.

Wakko opened the envelope it was in, and gulped before he had read it..

Chapter Text

Part 7: Back in Contact

What's up, Wakko! Or, as we would say, HELLOOOO Wakko! Great to be back in contact - that is, if this letter sends out..

Oh, it sent out..

If this letter doesn't get to Wakko, make sure it gets to Wakko Warner. Please. We'll have any help, we just want Wakko to know this stuff.

It's me. The one and only, Yakko Warner here. You might be wondering if Dot is okay, she's fine. Just sad. I'm okay too, don't worry.

Thank jesus.

We're not exactly going to lie, we have no idea where we are. Everytime we find an opening in this eerie palace we get greeted by a pitch black space. But we'd rather see that than our captors, honestly.

He's talking again. Getting into great detail. He really is okay.

The thing about our captors, is... well, you're not going to like it, but they've sort of been 'torturing' us..

Oh really? Those creatures are asking to die that much?

Everytime we've tried escaping they black us out with a reddish gas - it makes us sick whenever we wake up. They've been threatening to hurt you to prevent us from escaping.

They can hurt me all they want. They hurt you guys then they're DEAD.

We're sorry for possibly making you feel worse and rushed. As long as you're trying, that's all that matters to us. Don't let us down, okay? We're counting on you.

I know..

And don't worry about the 'torturing' thing. We're the Warners. We deal with anything. All we want is to just get out of here. We're counting on you Wakko. We love you.

I love you guys too.

Good lu

Wakko looked at the letter in consternation and in confusion. Why had it cut off? Did those creatures black them out again? Those creatures are dead..

"Wakko?" a familiar reassuring voice soothed.

Wakko looked up from the letter to see Nurse's face. "Hello, Nurse." he responded in a melancholy tone.

"I take it you had gotten the letter?"

Wakko nodded to confirm the question. "Did it get to Elijah before me?"

Elijah shook his head, and answered the question for Nurse. "Actually, it had gotten to Brain. He gave it to me when you were in Good Egg. I'm sorry it took me so long to give it to you, I didn't know when the time was right."

Wakko smiled. He accepted Elijah's apology and welcomed it. He was just glad he got it anyway. Now he knows his siblings are okay. "Why did it cut off?" he asked in a concerned way.

Elijah winced at the question, Nurse did likewise. He hoped Wakko wouldn't ask. "To be honest, we have no idea." he answered unsurely.

"Yeah, Brain thinks the weird masked figures blacked them out with said gas Yakko had briefly described." Nurse tried to answer the question, but was also unsure of her response. "We also don't know how the letter had gotten to Brain."

Wakko didn't think about that. How DID the letter get to Brain? This weird ringleader that was the cause of the abduction of his siblings couldn't have just thrown it to them. He didn't think it would let him and his buddies save Yakko and Dot so easily. But the letter didn't exactly state where they all were, either.

"Do you know where the palace Yakko said they were in is?" Wakko hoped he could have an answer to that question.

Elliot decided to speak up for Nurse and Elijah, for he already knew the question. "They are in the center of the universe. As you already know, we don't have enough power to go there yet."

Wakko nodded. He knew that, he still had to collect lots of power stars to gain enough power. He thinks he knew the answer to why it had cut off, but how did the letter get to Brain..? Wakko sort of knew things about these monsters, but not much. He did know that they wouldn't let their prisoners get away so quickly, though.

Wakko formed another question in his mind that needed to be answered. "Why are they being held captive? What are they going to do to us if they get me?"

Preston had flew up to the circle they were in and chimed in . "It's likely that they are either taking you to a person or a thing wanting to destroy you, or for experiments. We think it's door one, but it's possible we're wrong."

"Experiments?"

Preston nodded. "We're not sure what exactly the experiments are, but at the same time we don't know if that's why they kidnapped them and are after you."

Wakko at this point had wanted to stop asking questions. He was a little puzzled.. but hopefully he would figure this stuff out soon. Maybe he would figure it out on the way, or maybe Nurse or Brain or Elijah, maybe somebody else, would have the answers. He would ask Brain to at least try and figure it out.

"I think I'm ready to go back and get power stars." He looked over at Elliot to double check if he was okay. Surely enough, once Wakko had said that Elliot nodded. He was okay and had agreed to come.

Wakko took off his hat, letting Elliot, Adrian and Preston fly under. Nurse grinned, and nodded. "You do that, guys. Good luck. We will try and get answers."

Wakko smiled and stuck his tongue out in a joyous way. "Okay. Thanks."

Nurse nodded as a 'no problem' response to his meaningful thanks. When Wakko looked over at Elijah to say thanks to him, he wasn't foreseeing Elijah to have a perturbed look.

Wakko tilted his head in sympathy. "What's wrong, Eli?"

"The library would be a great help, there are plenty of books on those aliens. But it's dark and there's no other way to light it up besides power stars." Elijah sighed.

Wakko's face grew from disturbed to confident. "Double time, it is." He said, once Adrian nodded enthusiastically.

Preston sighed and nodded. Elliot nodded as well, eyes closed in agreement. Wakko had ran back into the Terrace Dome to resume his star-collecting. This time, it would be quicker. Like a speedy comet, but he was timing himself.

XXXXX

Wakko's foot connecting to each bug's back, crushing them in the process. He skipped to a block resting in the fountain water, a bubble shooter beside it. He stood on the block, and wasn't prepared to be forced into a bubble and glide across the planet. He was terrified of the bubble popping and the black hole under him, so that had resulted to him not moving a muscle.

The bubble popped once he was safely on the bright grass on the other side of the planet. He met another bug with a life shroom hovering above it. He climbed the log walls and stomped on the bug. He went over to the floating mushroom and ate it. Gaining three extra units of health as he had seen before in the King Kaliente mission.

Satisfied he had gotten more power and three extra starbits, he jumped down. Once he was about to land, he spun. Safely landing on a lilypad with a crystalled bee mushroom in the middle.

He shattered the fragile crystal and ate the bee mushroom, once again turning into the form. He dodged the shiny water just barely and made it to a glossy green pipe. He jumped in, and it had led him to the other side of the planet once again. Jumping out, almost getting hit by a rock in the process he continued.

He flew over to the giant opening where the queen bee was waiting patiently for him, ignoring the commotion all around her. Instead of the three harmless bugs he had seen before, there were those obnoxious purple bugs scanning the tunnel. Once they spotted the bright yellow suit, they charged.

He flew up, not in the mood to deal with them. He met the queen bee at the exit who calmly explained that they needed his assistance. With that, the launch star appeared in front of him.

He ran up to it, and spun. Being launched to two tiny planets leading to a big one with a massive tree in the center. Under the naturistic planet, there was a different black hole. Wakko estimated it was the same size as the previous.

He noticed the same tall flower as before , and decided to not risk flying to the other planet. He grabbed onto the flower and flew to the other planet. The other waited for him to do the same, which he did. He was now in the air flying about to land on the biggest planet.

Once he had, the biggest bug Wakko had ever seen landed on the ground. It was gently walking around until it had spotted him. Once it did, it charged. Wakko flew up and ground-pounded, landing on the bug's back, which crushed it.

It had let out a terrifying growl and sprouted wings. It flew up and never stopped. Bombs were planted on the ground, and burst a humongous explosion.

Wakko looked around and and noticed the same tall flowers he used to get here were planted around the planet. He grasped it, and swung. He flew up, and when the bug flew under him..

POW!

It was back on the ground, it's color faded into reddish-orange. Letting Wakko know it was pissed off. It let out a roar, fangs showing. It flew back up, this time cutting sideways when necessary. This made the battle more difficult, but Wakko hadn't gave up yet.

He grabbed back onto the flower and swung again, flying. The bug flew under him once again but twisted sideways, making Wakko miss.

Wakko growled.

It's on, bugface.

He latched onto the flower one last time and hastily swung around it. He flew back up once again, and ground pounded again. This time, crushing the large foe.

He was back on the ground, face to face with Bugaboom. It let out a chilling wail whilst trying to get up, but had fell back down. Following to bursting into large puffs of smoke.

The star had appeared and whistled it's twinkling tune before stopping over a rock partly buried in the pond.

When Wakko had stepped into the water, the bee suit had disappeared but he didn't care. The action packed mission was over. He grabbed ahold of the star and once again had danced with it before flying back to the Comet Observatory.

XXXXX

Wakko was back in the Terrace Dome, and opened his hat for the Lumas to be free for a moment before continuing.

Brain was sitting there in amazement. "Wakko!"

Wakko wasn't expecting that sudden eruption, so he had taken it by surprise and slightly jumped.

"Apologies for frightening you."

"Don't worry about it. What's up?"

"You have acquired the final 2 areas before gaining access to the enemy base of this very dome!"

Wakko's eyes widened in excitement. Finally! He was moving on from this dome. But he had decided to stay and knock out the 2 remaining stars before taking down the enemy.

Wakko closed his eyes and reached up to the pull star, and got pulled up in the giant bubble once again. He looked up and noticed the 2 grand yellow blocks shining, waiting to be opened. He reached out to one, opening up a new level.

He decided to leave the other as a surprise and go to this one first. He opened his eyes and nodded, surprised to see what looked like a box with holes cut in it. The launch star had formed around him, and shot him towards the galaxy.

Wakko glided in space, excited that he was almost one dome closer to seeing his siblings again!

XXXXX

Wakko had landed on a blue switch, that turned into yellow. He surmised this is how he turned the switches on, because before he had to turn them off.

He noticed a purple metal object with luminous eyes pop out, and start blasting a circular lazer. Wakko noted to be careful for that. He saw electric lines slither on the metal boundaries between the switches at the edge of the level, and he saw a platform surrounded by spikes protruding out of the sides. He made a mental note to stay away from all of this.

"Hey uh, friends, what do I do on this level?" Wakko asked in a nervous voice - he had so much to be aware of, including the black hole inside the metal planet.

"Don't worry, Wak. All you have to do is switch the switches and everything will stop." Adrian happily reassured. He paused. "Well, except the black hole."

"Right. Okay. Thanks."

Wakko jumped from switch to switch, somehow avoiding every electrical interaction around the level. He had gotten hit by a spike on the platform once, but that was the only harm he had encountered. He dealt with the frustration of turning another switch or two off, so he had to go through a struggle to turn them on, he had also almost slipped off the level, but Adrian came out of his hat in the nick of time and pushed him back.

He owed him one. Maybe the milkshake in his hammerspace would work.

The last switch was in one of the spike platform's conveyor belts, so he had to dodge that. But thankfully, he had managed to get all the switches. All the switches had turned neon green, not switching to a different color when stepped on. All the contraptions had stopped, including the purple object. Making it easy for Wakko to get to the star that had appeared.

The star was flying over the object. Wakko stood there gingerly, wondering if he would get hurt or accidentally die if he tried.

"All ya gotta do is jump on that alien's head. Piece of cake." Preston informed him. "Can't hurt ya when he's turned off."

Wakko sighed in relief it was harmless now and jumped on top of it. It had trampolined him up into the star, letting him collect it.

Wakko danced with the star, and darted back to the ship.

One more galaxy, and then it's new dome time.

Chapter Text

Part 8: Robot Rage

TURN! TURN! TURN!

Wakko was balancing on top of the glossy purple manta ray, trying his hardest to not fall. Whenever he was about to fall off, it was Adrian or Preston who darted out of his hat and pushed him back in. He took a sharp turn, just like how his mind told him.

The gleaming goal was in the distance, calling Wakko over. He had turned gently for the smaller turns that were now behind him. He did it. He beat probably the most difficult star by far.

He had been teleported to an unfamilar, small sandy planet. With the proud-looking penguin waiting and a podium. Wakko could see the serpentine watery planet in the distance, he can't believe he just glided across that - it looked huge in this perspective!

The penguin grinned at Wakko with pleasure. "That's a great record, dude! 1 minute, 4 seconds and 39 milliseconds!" his grin got bigger when Wakko looked dazed, but honored at the same time. "A gold medal will placate ya, right bro?"

Wakko nodded in authorization, which made the penguin pull out the same golden star Wakko had seen many times before. The star flew up for a moment and stopped above the first place podium.

That's suitable.

Wakko walked to the second place podium and climbed atop of it to reach the star. Once he was on, he stepped up on the first place platform, and reached up and clutched the star in his grip. The star spun around him playfully as the others did, then stopped in his hand. It was time to go back.

The star flew him up, and he could see the penguin waving in the distance. Wakko waved back with his free arm and glided with the shiny star.

XXXXX

"THAT WAS AWESOME!!" Adrian cheered. "That is DEFINITELY my favori- oh, wait."

Wakko tilted his head when Adrian had stopped like that. "What?"

"That's not my favorite star, but my favorite is MUCH later in this journey."

Wakko gulped. He knew Adrian by now, he knew he was all up on dangerous things and action. If Adrian liked it, it was guaranteed to be difficult.

"In fact, it's 3 stars that are my favorite." Adrian smirked. Preston rolled his eyes in response. Adrian was his brother and all, of course he knew what he meant.

Wakko chose to not care but to speak to Brain for a couple minutes to see if he had any more information.

"Hey Brain?"

Brain quit thinking for a moment and turned his gaze from the ceiling to Wakko. "Greetings Wakko, do you demand something?"

Wakko shook his head. "Not anything specific, no. I was just wondering if you have any more information. Like, what do I do on the enemy base of this dome?"

"Oh, why yes. I realize I should indeed inform you about what you need to do." Brain began walking out of the dome and gestured for Wakko to follow him. Wakko had pursued Brain like he had asked, curious on what he was going to do.

Brain led him to the map of the observatory, and pulled out a pointer. He pointed to the dome on the map, and lowered the pointer down to a little blue circle with a star in the center.

"This is the galaxy you will be travelling to." Brain explained, to make what he was going to say more clear. "You need to get a bullet to shatter the cage with the launch star in it."

When Wakko nodded to confirm he was listening, Brain continued.

"Obviously, you will tour with the launch star onto the round metal planet you will assuredly land on. Then, an alien involved with the abduction of your siblings will appear. That alien will tell an enormous cyborg on that planet to brawl with you. You must clamber up the automation and force the bullets to follow you at the head, and break the metal cage. Afterwards, metal gates will form around the star cage, and it's more difficult from there."

Wakko blinked - that sounded like an awful lot of work. It shouldn't be. He wasn't even in the second dome yet. "That sounds complicated." He finally said.

"Oh, no. It's not." Brain responded.

Wakko tilted his head. "It isn't?"

"Nay."

Wakko shrugged and walked back to the terrace.

Once he was in the stellar dome, he closed his eyes for the last time in this dome - he hoped - and reached up. He rose up and opened the final galaxy. He opened his eyes, but didn't nod. He saw a model of the mask the villain revered, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

Wakko said nothing. He just stood still gazing at the mask in trauma.

I know what it did..

"Come on Wak! Don't keep me and Dot waiting!" Yakko yelled.

I don't know why..

"Yeah!" Dot laughed.

But I know it did it..

"Alright, hold your horses! I'm comin'!" Wakko yelled back.

Those two words had a whole different meaning now.. 'I'm Coming' was used in a playful manner back in the day.. but now, it meant something much more serious..

Wakko shook his head as abrupt as he could and decided to just suck it up and go in.. he'd be face to face with the eerie mask soon, why be a baby about it now?

"Let's do this.." Wakko mumbled to himself. This was not only for his siblings, but also for Adrian, Elliot and Preston.

He finally nodded and the launch star had shot him to the galaxy. He was soaring through space, serious look plastered on his face.

XXXXX

Wakko was now on a similar planet as the holed one he found in Gateway, except instead of grass, it was metal. He looked around, and as Brain described there were cages.

"You need to get a bullet to shatter the cage with the launch star in it."

Brain's instruction echoed around his mind, where was the bullet shooter? He scanned the planet.. BINGO! He ran to a dark box with openings for bullets to pop out of.. he waited patiently until a bullet popped out of the socket.

Wakko blew a raspberry at the bullet and speedwalked to the caged launch star, the bullet glided after him in a way Wakko couldn't tell if it was actually angry somehow or if it was just it's normal speed.

He jumped atop the cage, the bullet had no time to react to do likewise. So instead, it had collided with the glass and exploded, taking the glass down with it.

Wakko had fallen a short height because it had exploded and landed into the launch star. He had gotten out of it and spun next to it, as his friends taught him.

Now, he was again soaring through the air. Starbits circled around him, because of the glass full of starbits he broke, and Preston couldn't resist on snagging them for them.

Wakko had appreciated that and landed tough on the planet. As soon as he had, he heard an alarming siren. He looked up to see a masked creature. Same one he had seen in honeyhive, but this time, orange instead of purple. It was in a shadowy ship with orange markings here and there.

"Well, well, well.." It exclaimed in a cold voice. "Look who finally showed up! I'm guessing it's brother to the rescue?"

"You're half-correct, friendo." Wakko shot back. "Not only am I trying to save my siblings, but I'm trying to save my friends too."

It laughed at his response, in an intentionally rude way. "Oh please, kid. Don't make me laugh-"

"Too late." He mumbled.

"-there's no way you'll save them anyway."

"Don't jinx it, friendo. Don't know what can happen."

It seemed to have rolled it's eyes, - it's head did an eyeroll motion. - "Right. Whatever. Now, where were we?"

After pondering for a moment, it beamed. "Right! MEGALEG! Your fight's ready!"

As soon as a siren was heard in the distance, the creature cackled and disappeared.

Wakko looked behind himself, and noticed a three legged robot walking to the side he was on.

Wakko looked up.. and noticed it was being controlled by a familiar face.

"Montana Max?!" Wakko screamed in shock. Max was rich, spoiled and even mean at times, but Wakko didn't think he would ever help KIDNAP people!

When Max saw Wakko in his view, for some reason, Max's amused look turned to anger. "Yeah, it's me! Who else?"

"But.. why? I know you're the bad guy on Tiny Toons but I didn't think you'd ever help abduct people!"

Wakko couldn't believe this.. why would Max be involved in abduction? Especially with two people he knew Wakko loved!

"It's fun being bad, that's why."

"Yeah but.. I didn't know-"

"Oh be quiet. It's time for your doom, now."

Wakko tried replaying Brain's instructions in his mind.. they weren't coming..

He felt a shadow over him, when he looked up, Megaleg's massive leg was towering over him. He rolled out of the way before the robot unintentionally stomped on the ground.

"...You must clamber up the automation and force the bullets to follow you at the head, and break the metal cage. Afterwards, metal gates will form around the star cage, and it's more difficult from there."

Now Wakko remembered. The thought mimicked Brain's voice flawlessly, just like how Brain explained it. He climbed on Megaleg's foot and ascended upwards to the head.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He heard Max shout.

Wakko didn't answer but kept mounting the robot.

Max was enraged now, and he pressed a button. More bullets popped out of different sockets and began following Wakko, who just kept walking, like he didn't even notice them.

He had finally made it to the head, and also finally understood what Brain was describing a metal cage.

He scanned the head and noticed more openings for bullets to pop out. He gulped.

Don't get hurt.

Adrian peeked out from Wakko's hat to see where they were. He grinned when he recognized it.

"Oh hell yeah! This part!" He flew out, ignoring the glare Preston shot him for his language. "Hey bullets, you chickens or you gonna follow me?"

Elliot shrugged and also flew out of the hat, ignoring the fact he was still hurt. He could float a little faster now, but not at the normal speed Preston and Adrian could.

Elliot's facial expression screamed 'bring it on'. As soon as the bullets started pursuing him, he met Adrian at the cage.

Wakko grinned and now understood what they were doing.

He had a bullet on his tail now, and met the stars at the cage. All three of the bullets that were chasing them had crashed into the it, making it burst.

Sirens were blaring, and the metal gates he was informed about had risen up and surrounded the grand star's cell.

"Double time!" Wakko shouted, making Adrian and Elliot nod.

"Double time huh?" Max replied, mostly to himself. "Got it."

He pulled a lever to a level called 'double time', which made bullets come out even faster.

Wakko noticed the difference and looked at Elliot for an answer to what happened.

"The controller of this robot must have made everything faster. Quick now, we mu-" Elliot was cut off by Wakko's plan on how to defeat the robot.

"I say you and Adrian get bullets to break the gates, when I'll get my own bullet to break the star's cage!" Wakko exclaimed, hoping Max didn't hear that.

Adrian nodded and saluted, then flew off. Elliot had also done a quick nod and glided off.

Wakko focused on one particular bullet socket. He waited patiently for a bullet to pop out, and when it did, he made his gookie face at it.

The bullet chased him around the gates. Wakko was taunting it more to make it go faster. Fortunately, maybe unfortunately, it worked.

Adrian had broke the gate on the opposite side Wakko was on, which caused Wakko to run faster. He made it inside and blew up the cage.

Max was sipping out of a coffee when he felt a sudden shake. He realized what was happening and had a worried expression on his face. He managed to shout a "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" before Megaleg blew up, making Max fly off far away.

The grand star had fluttered into sight, and was spinning it's glorious twirl above it's stop. Adrian and Elliot had raced back into an elated Wakko's hat.

Wakko walked towards the star and touched it. This meant 'new world'. The star had danced around him, he giggled while it did so. He held it up with both his hands and it started racing back to the Comet Observatory, with Wakko in tow.

XXXXX

When he stopped and was barely floating above the ship's grounds, the star had spun a graceful twirl, while glowing white. It sped to the star in the center of the observatory, giving it it's full power.

The star had gotten bigger and turned yellow. It lit up a piece of the ground in front of the map, and lit up a thin pathway leading to the next dome that had opened up.

Nurse was ecstatic. She glanced at Wakko in pride. "Wakko, you did it! You and your buddies did it! You unlocked the next dome!"

Adrian, Elliot and Preston had popped out from Wakko's hat and beamed. Wakko did likewise.

Brain came out of the terrace and followed the thin yellow and blue pathways that stopped at the floor in front of the map. He walked to the stars, Wakko and Nurse and looked delighted.

"Marvelous work, you 4. You opened up the Fountain Dome."

Wakko heard Elliot mumble to his brothers 'stunning place', which made Adrian and Preston nod in agreement.

Elijah had flew over to congratulate Wakko and had done just that, but also had a little message.

"Remember Wakko, you have your other friends here too. You can ask them for help. Since you are one dome closer to your siblings-"

I know that.

"-things will get more difficult."

Wakko had honestly forgotten about his other friends. It turns out, they had flew over here while he was busy in Honeyhive. At least, that is what Nurse told him.

He decided to talk to them on his way to the fountain. It wouldn't hurt to have 3 helping hands.. or, helping wings help out, right?

Chapter Text

Part 9: Old Pals Return!

Wakko set foot on the garage floors. As soon as he did, three pigeons were in his sight. He recognized them.. the Goodfeathers!

It had looked like Pesto and Squit were fighting. Typical. Squit always said something unintentionally 'offensive' to Pesto. Bobby was swinging back, laughing his head off as he usually did when Pesto and Squit fought.

"ALRIGHT! Break it up!" Bobby suddenly spat out, Pesto and Squit had immediately halted as soon as he hollered.

"We got company." Bobby pointed to Wakko with his wings - Wakko never understood how they used their wings as fingers at times - When Squit looked, he beamed.

"Wakko! It's been a while!" He vociferated happily. "How's it been?"

"Not good." Wakko replied in a deflated voice. When he noticed Squit's sympathetic look, his brief weeping began.

"You know, Yakko and Dot."

Squit's eyes widened when he remembered. "Ohh.. I understand. I'm sorry, I forgot."

Wakko shrugged it off. Squit didn't exactly have the best memory, so Wakko hadn't really expected anything. "It's okay."

Squit's frown turned into a small smile. He looked over at Pesto who, actually, looked concerned. Not a common sight.

"What ABOUT Yakko and Dot?" Pesto quizzed. Wakko tilted his head, didn't Pesto know? Maybe Bobby and Squit assumed he knew already, or maybe he forgot. Or maybe, he really didn't know?

Bobby stared at Pesto in confusion, then realized he had only told Squit what happened. "Oh, sorry Pesto. I must have left ya out."

"What do you mean?"

"Well-"

Wakko cut Bobby off. "Can I tell him?"

"Sure." He nodded while saying so.

"We don't exactly know what happened to Yakko, but I know for a fact Dot was kidnapped by those weird monsters."

"What monsters?" Pesto had no idea what Wakko was talking about, but he still felt awful for him.. he lost his siblings. His world. His everything.. gone. "More detail?"

"It's a long story, but here goes." Wakko took a deep breath before beginning.

"Well, for the longest time, those monsters have wanted us. We don't know exactly why, but they need us for something. Yakko went missing a while back, and he still technically is because we aren't 100% sure where he is. We THINK he's with Dot wherever she is, it's a pretty high chance because the monsters are after me too." Wakko shuddered at the thought of his encounter in Honeyhive. When Pesto looked confused, Wakko continued. "Sorry. Anyway, Dot was being taken right in front of me by one of THEM. She was SCREAMING, I tried to help her, but I got blasted out here."

Wakko was about to continue, but he decided to wait because of Pesto's astonished look. Pesto gave him a look saying 'keep going', so he had.

"Adrian, Preston and Elliot helped me through this journey so fa-"

"Who are they?" Bobby canvassed.

Wakko lifted his hat up, and noticed the stars were playing Cards. Preston looked up from his cards and noticed 3 unfamiliar faces ahead of him.

"Oh!" he realized what he had to do, and was one step ahead of his brothers. "I am Preston!" he sung.

Adrian followed his kin's steps. "Adrian. Name's Adrian." he said sort of blandly. He was a little annoyed his game was interrupted. He was just about to win!

"Heyo, I'm Elliot. Call me Ell if you wish." Elliot stated while grinning. His introduction was more pleasant than Adrian's, which Wakko appreciated.

Squit had smiled again and nodded. "Nice to meet ya! I'm Squit!"

Bobby put his wing on his chest. "My name is Bobby." he mentioned.

"Pesto." Pesto said quickly. He sounded unintentionally crude, but didn't correct himself.

Elliot eyed Wakko. "Progress, Wakko. We'll go back to our game."

Wakko nodded and heard Adrian moan 'finally' under his breath. He ignored it and closed his hat once the stars flew back in.

"Anyway, those guys helped me throughout this journey. We've been collecting every star possible so far. The ship has gained some power, but we still need to assemble stars to get enough power to travel through space, and save my siblings."

Pesto nodded. "Is that all?"

"That's all, yeah."

Bobby flew on Wakko's shoulder. "We'd be glad to help! Only-"

"WAKKO!"

Wakko turned his head hurriedly to a bright blue Luma zooming to him. It looked alarmed and it had.. another letter.. in it's hand.

He didn't know the name of this Luma. He opened his hat for help, hoping one of his buddies would inform him on what it's name was.

Elliot blinked at the sudden swipe, and looked over. "Simone? What's wrong?"

Simone is their name? Got it.

Simone's raspy voice shouted "I HAVE ANOTHER LETTER!" she paused looking kind of worried. "Except it's... off."

Wakko exchanged a glance with the Goodfeathers and looked back over at Simone. "Off, how?"

"See for yourself.." she handed Wakko the letter, she was in tears at this point.. they were shining like a silver starbit. He couldn't tell if she was really worried, or sad.. for some reason. The letter couldn't be that bad.. right?

XXXXX

WAKKO! I don't mean to rush or alarm you, but HELP! Yakko's unconscious and he hasn't been conscious for a few hours now! Usually he begins waking up an hour or 2 after the gas comes, and now, it's been about 3 or 4.

I woke up about 2 hours ago, he was still unconscious. No biggie, right? Whenever that happens he wakes up a few minutes later. Now I'm actually starting to get concerned.

Wakko stared at this short letter with a blank look.. Yakko's still.. "When did this letter get here?"

Simone wiped her gleaming tears away and replied with a somber "About.. 8 minutes ago if I have to estimate. Usually letters in space have to be sent to the dedicated one by the writer closing their eyes and nodding. It will then shoot across space to where the dedicated is."

Wakko said nothing. He just stared at her with an empty expression. He finally spoke, saying "So.. there's a chance Yakko is still unconscious?"

Simone shook her head.

Is that a good or bad thing?

"There's more." She pulled a few more letters out from nowhere - Wakko surmised this was another power Lumas had - and gave them to Wakko.

Wakko gulped and begun reading them too. What worried him the most was that these 'letters' were much shorter than the first.

Wakko.. his pants.. their missing some color.. what is going on?

I don't know, Dot..

It's back.. I see it's eyes..

You don't mean..

Wa k ko i a m sor ry if my wr i ti n g i s fu nk y, it s ha r d to wr ite whe n y ou 're ha l f

u n con sc io us. .

Wait.. Dot..

Wa k k o, he l p us. Do n 't giv e u p o

Wakko stared at the letters with a horrified look on his face.. Yakko was unconscious still after a few hours, and now Dot probably will be too..

Bobby was reading the letters as well while on top of Wakko's shoulder. He looked over at Wakko's expression and flew off. "Boy, and I was gonna say we can't come because ya already have those stars in ya hat." he finally spoke.

Wakko was tearing up now.. what did those mad monsters do?

Pesto stepped forward on the metal grounds and spoke up. "Sure, we might not be able to come. However, we can do those speedy comets for you once they come!"

"Speedy comet?" Wakko asked.

Adrian had a bold look on his face. "Yes, THOSE comets. One of my favorites for sure."

There's more? What do the comets mean?

"What do you mean comets?" Wakko had asked in a befuddled tone. Did the stars forget to tell him this, or were they just waiting for an acceptable time? Probably an acceptable time.

Elliot beamed. "I am SO glad you asked! I'll be right back!" he flew off in the direction of the library. Wakko was even more perplexed. The library area was dark, NO books could be removed from shelves, no matter how hard you pulled.

He ignored the mutter Adrian made under his breath, saying 'here we go again.'. Wakko just kept his attention on Elliot, whom was picking up a cobalt colored book glowing in the dark area. Despite the blue glow, it didn't light up the area any.

Once Elliot had successfully gripped the book in his little hands, he started flying back to Wakko, studying the book. It had a realistic blue comet on the cover with a title in gold reading 'Prankster Comets'.

Elliot had screeched to a halt in front of the Goodfeathers and set the manual down. He flipped it open, to reveal a table of contents.

Adrian rolled his eyes and sat down between Pesto and Elliot. Preston had been unamused at Adrian's behavior and took a seat next to Squit who was directly in front of the tome. Wakko took a seat on the right side of everybody.

Wakko studied the table of contents to observe the names of the comets.

Cosmic Comet..

Daredevil Comet..

Fast Foes Comet..

Purple Comet..

Speedy Comet..

He pondered on what they all meant, but he presumed Elliot, and maybe Adrian and Preston would tell him. He stopped examining and started listening to Elliot who was now speaking.

"Alright Wakko. Let's look at the Cosmic Comet first, okay?"

Wakko nodded and smiled, which caused Elliot to turn to the specific page the data was on. He almost immediately stopped turning once there was a blue comet illustration that was so realistic looking Wakko thought it was a picture, plastered on the page.

Below the sketch, there was text that Elliot had begun reading.

"Okay Wakko, you see this comet illustration? This is what you see when a clone of you wants to race you. A Cosmic Comet! You must win the competition, because if you don't, it gets the star instead." Elliot read.

"What do you mean clone?" Wakko tilted his head. Out of all places, THIS is where his doppelganger was?

"I mean a clone of you. It looks just like you, but blue." Elliot answered, while pointing at a picture. "However, if someone else is willing to do these comets for you, it will be a figure of them instead."

Wakko nodded, understanding what he was saying.

"This is a Daredevil Comet. It makes you battle some enemies you have fought before, with only one unit of health." Elliot explained in a somewhat shaky voice. He didn't want Wakko to fail.. he'd probably get really hurt.

"Bosses with one unit of health, got it." Wakko smiled.

"Well, actually.." Adrian began. He glanced over at Preston to see if it was okay to let Wakko know. Preston nodded, giving him a sign to continue. "There is one particular mission that doesn't make you fight a boss."

Wakko looked over at Adrian in curiosity. Did he have to do a small part of the mission? Can't be that bad. These 'daredevil' comets don't sound that bad in general. He was a WARNER! He shouldn't have any problems.

"That mission makes you do the ENTIRE thing without getting hit." Adrian scrambled. "You might need to use 'toon-invincibility' for that."

Wakko decided to not ask for any more information. He'd worry about what he had to do on that mission later. For now, it's time to learn about Prankstar Comets.

Elliot turned to the next page while squeaking a 'yeah, you might want to be careful on that one.' before continuing.

He pointed to a yellow comet. "This is Fast Foes!" At Wakko's slightly concerned face, he quickly added "It only has 2 missions, so don't worry about that.".

"I'm assuming that the foes in this mission go faster?" Wakko said with an eyebrow raised.

Preston nodded. "Yep. Not much faster, though. I'm sure you can WHACK em with that mallet o' yours!"

Wakko shrugged. "We'll have to see. Depends on how it'll look."

Elliot continued when they both looked back at him. "That's about it for this comet." He turned the page once again, this time revealing a purple comet.

"Take a guess on this name; Purple Comet. What this does, it spreads around these purple coins you need to collect." Elliot started, but he got only a little quieter when he stated his next sentence. "Except, some missions are required to be timed."

"What do you mean?" Bobby surveyed.

"I mean Wakko has to come up with a certain time he and we agree on." Elliot responded. "By we, I mean me and my brothers."

"Riight." Pesto rolled his eyes. "We're going to help with some stars too, whether you like it or not."

"Who said I didn't like it? We're going to need a lot of help." Elliot said, first part in a confused way.

"At least leave the normal missions to me." Wakko spoke up. "After all, this AU is called Super Wakko Galaxy."

"Oh brother." Preston rolled his eyes.

"I'm fine with anythin' honestly." Squit chimed in. "I think so far we can handle the Speedy, er maybe Cosmic."

Pesto rubbed his wings together and did a malicious grin. "Ooh, yes. I'd love to beat up that clone."

"Woah there, tiger. Can't do that. It'll just spit out starbits." Preston said in a bored tone. "Besides, there will be 3 if you guys decide to do that."

Adrian nodded. "One of you, you and you." he added, pointing to Squit, Bobby and Pesto in that order.

"On the other hand, more starbits are always nice." Elliot grumbled. "Anyways, yeah, certain time. Wakko, come up with a decent time we can all agree on on those timed missions, got it?"

"Yes sir!" Wakko nodded, and saluted. His tongue peeked out of his mouth in a happy way.

"Last one. Speedy Comet." Elliot said in a somewhat chilling tone. "This one.. can be tricky."

"How so?" Bobby puzzled.

"Some timers can be enough, more than enough sometimes, and some can be... not. However, this is up to opinion. Because, well, Wakko needs to come up with a fair time with each of these missions. Unless, someone else would like to do it?"

"I volunteer on doing these comets." Squit rose his wing in glee. This didn't sound too bad. His best friends and him could totally do this!

Pesto shrugged and rose his wing. "So do I."

Bobby nodded and put his wing up. "Why not?"

Elliot gave them a 'you sure?' look. When he got three industrious nods, he shrugged it off and agreed.

Wakko mentally thanked the birds for helping him with some stars. Maybe he could find his other old friends and maybe they could help too.

Elliot closed his book. "That's all to know. In summary, Cosmic is just a race, Daredevil is a slightly harder fight, Fast Foes is just faster enemies, Purple is just coin collecting and Speedy is just.. well speeding."

Wakko nodded. "Got it. Thanks Ell." he beamed in gratitude.

Elliot closed his eyes in a 'my work here is done' kind of way. He picked up the book and floated up. "No problem, pal." He flew back over to the pitch black library to place the book down again.

"Y'know Pesto, you always are sort of great in a way." Squit said in a soothing voice.

"Whaddya mean by that?" Pesto blurted and glared at Squit in a way that could melt him. "Are you saying I'm great as in big? Are you saying I'm fat? Huh? Huh? Is that what you're saying?"

"No, I'm not saying that at all! I'm saying great as in you always have a kind heart inside!" Squit tried defending himself, but at this point he knew what was coming.

After a short pause, Pesto broke the silence. "THAT'S IT!" He tackled Squit and they had gotten into a scuffle. Bobby threw his head back and began laughing.

Wakko ignored the fight and looked over at the floating fountain dome in the distance.

Maybe our other special friends are out there somewhere. Just maybe.

Chapter Text

Part 10: A Whole New World

Wakko was standing on the floating metal platform in space, staring at a pull star. He had speculated he'd need to do the same thing as the pull stars in the domes back at the ship.

He quickly shut his eyes and reached out to the blue star. The flaring bubble had formed around him, and he soared to a long glassy planet. He opened his eyes and looked around, also thinking to himself before continuing.

This is Space Junk.. More calming than I expected.

He saw a series of rocks levitating in the distance, not moving at all. A rocket had been next to them, it looked abandoned. Wakko hoped the owner of the rocket was okay, somehow.. There were a few more glassy planets, and more rocks oddly shaped.

A thought had interrupted his auditing, a thought that would change his actions for the entire level.

What happened to Double Time?

Wakko had forgotten. The Lumas. The Library. They were all looking for answers, he needed to stop looking around. He'd come back and admire the scenery later. For now, it's star collecting time. Buuut.. just to be safe, he shattered the crystals resting on the planet and snagged the starbits hopping all around him.

He looked over at the series of pull stars ahead of him and he gulped.

This will be hell.

He shook it off, closed his eyes and again reached out. He glided from star to star, the bubble being included in the sailing.

Wakko - eyes opened - had noticed an even amount of starbits resting on an L-shaped rock like a starfish. They were twirling, their sparkles matching their colors.

"Adrian, can you grab those starbits?" Wakko asked in a pleading way. Once Adrian peeked out to see what he was talking about, he nodded. "Sure, bud."

Adrian sped to the starbits and grabbed them all. They had all disappeared in his hands to prove he had collected them. He raced back into Wakko's hat and mentioned him to keep going.

He sailed to a collection of 3 round planets made of glass. Large, round, electrical figures walked around them, challenging Wakko on collecting the star chips spread out around the planets.

He didn't feel intimidated - not much anyway - he could do this. His feet landed on the glass and they had begun walking around.

Wakko gathered most star chips, except for one. It was roaming around the top right planet freely, with an amp chasing it. Wakko gulped. He had a bad feeling about this one.

Since he was already on the sphere, he just needed to carefully follow the gleaming piece. He speedwalked to it, trying not to have a star chip sandwich with an electric fry as the side. Soon, he grasped it, and sighed in relief. The amp that pursued the chip escaped his mind, but Wakko had remembered it as soon as he felt a painful feeling.

His fur puffed up a little bit at the shock - electrocution and feeling - and he stepped back from the large amp to make sure that didn't happen again.

Adrian, Elliot and Preston flew out of his hat. Wakko had felt sick they dealt with the electric shock too.

"What happened?" Elliot quickly questioned. "Are you okay?"

Wakko nodded. "How about you guys? You dealt with the shock too."

"Well, yes. But we're Lumas." Adrian replied in an unamused way. "Elliot got blasted by that damn creature, may I add that's way more powerful than a shock."

Elliot blinked. "I should have known it was a shock."

Wakko remembered that blast.. Elliot was still recovering. "Elliot, how about you? Are you okay?"

Elliot nodded in response. "Yeah. Hurt, obviously. But I'm okay."

"Do I need to talk to Brain?" Preston finally spoke. "You are still recovering from that blast. That must have hurt more than you said."

"Preston, I didn't say I was a little hurt. Even if I did, you would know I'm lying." Elliot changed his reassuring tone to a bored one. "You know I'm not into lying."

Preston nodded. "Right."

Wakko silently panicked. What if that messed up Elliot's recovery? What if it hurt him even more..? Maybe Brain would know. He'd talk to Brain when they got back.

"Alright, fellas. Back in the hat. We need to finish this mission." Wakko spoke up, and then mumbled to himself. "So much for the Double Time I promised."

Preston nodded. "I agree. We need to keep going. Talking gets us nowhere." he then flew back under Wakko's hat, making Adrian and Elliot follow.

"Keep going, buddy." Elliot whispered to Wakko.

Wakko smiled confidently, and walked to the launch star - that had formed while he got shocked - wedged between the top planets.

He soared past a glass planet, and shattered a crystal with starbits packed inside it. Adrian insisted on collecting them, and so he did.

He landed on the rocket he had seen earlier.. yikes.. the abandoned rocket, with owner nowhere to be seen.

Wakko walked up to 2 crystals resting in the rocket's windows, and spun against them. The limpid crystals shattered and coins had popped out in response, because that is what the crystals had inside of them.

Starbits were raining down onto the rocket, and Wakko couldn't refuse collecting them. He grabbed as much as he could and then 3 more pellucid glass planets appeared in his vision. Those 3 figurines had much bigger pull stars inside them, and Wakko assumed they worked the same as normal pull stars.

He sealed his eyes, and reached up. He had been pulled up in the same bubble. These WERE technically the same thing. Wakko walked across the first planet, and did the same pull star technique to reach the next. While on the second planet, he had done likewise.

He was on the third planet, facing a whole series of pull stars in front of him.

Come on Wakko. You beat the last one with ease. You can do this too.

That thought echoed through his mind. After realizing he could do this, he smiled confidently. He closed his eyes for the final time this mission, and had expeditiously gone through the pull star path.

XXXXX

Wakko was face to face with a spider.

Yakko had always had a fear of these critter-

No.

Just spin and get this part over with.

He incursed the spider by spinning abruptly. The spider flew in the air and turned into three starbits. Wakko had collected them and had done likewise to the other 3 spiders blocking his path. He climbed to the top of this metal planet he was on and noticed 2 crystals, each holding 2 familiar faces in them.

Mindy and Buttons?

Wakko presumed Mindy had somehow found this galaxy and explored through it, while Buttons stressed on getting her safe. When they reached this planet, they must have been crystallized.

Mindy had her usual smile on her face, perhaps she hadn't noticed she was crystallized. Buttons, looked like he was in the middle of a sigh in relief when he was crystallized. Maybe he didn't notice either.

He had to free them, maybe they could help him with some missions. He spun against the crystal, shattering it into it's pieces. Mindy blinked and looked up at Wakko. "Hello Mr. Man!" Mindy chortled. "Whatchu doing?"

"Trying to save my siblings and the universe." Wakko responded.

"Why?" Mindy quizzed like she always did.

"Because my siblings were kidnapped, and the universe is going to be in control by a bad guy if I don't do something."

Mindy looked confused, but she had decided to shake it off. "Okay, I love you! Bye bye!" she had begun walking again, and Buttons, who had been paying attention to the conversation, looked over. He whimpered again at the sight of Mindy walking.

Wakko ran over to Mindy, and grabbed her by her overalls. "Mindy, don't run off yet."

"Why?"

"I might need your help with something." Wakko looked over at Buttons, who looked confused and interested on what Wakko was talking about.

Mindy brightened up and looked enthusiastic. "Oooh!" she cooed.

Wakko nodded, with a cheerful expression on his face.

Wakko had walked back over to Buttons, and gave Mindy to him. "Hold her for a moment."

Buttons nodded to confirm he would, and took Mindy's overalls with his mouth.

Wakko was destroying the rest of the crystals, for starbits and for coins. After he had done that, a launch star had appeared on the center of the planet.

"Follow me, will you?" he asked Buttons. Buttons in response had nodded, and walked up to Wakko, who was approaching the launch star.

Preston peeked out from under Wakko's hat and eyed Mindy and Buttons. "Who are these two?" he surveyed.

"Old friends of me and my siblings. Can they help with some missions?" Wakko answered, but with another question as well.

"I suppose so."

"Great!" Wakko was at first content with the answer, but realized a problem. "Uhhh.. how are we going to get them back to the ship?"

"Easy. Watch this." Preston glided out, and flew above the planet. He closed his eyes to focus, and his hands were glowing dark blue mist. He blasted the harmless mist to a random part of the ground, and it formed a rocket shape.

It was sapphire colored, with lots of tiny star shapes in it. It was huge and took up the entire corner of the floor that Preston blasted.

Wakko was amazed. "What is this?"

Preston snorted. "It's a rocket. But us Lumas call it a Cosmo Craft. It'll immediately blast these 2 to the observatory safely."

Wakko nodded to show he understood. "Their names are Mindy in Buttons by the way." he laughed.

"Got it." Preston noted. Before he went back into Wakko's hat, he had told Buttons and Mindy to go into the ship.

Buttons nodded and Mindy giggled in excitement. Buttons went into the Cosmo Craft - along with Mindy of course - and the rocket had blasted off. It flew out of sight, in the direction Wakko had entered the galaxy in.

That was an indication they were going to be fine.

I hope.

Wakko slowly walked up to the launch star and had spun. Gliding to a single tiny square, a black hole in the center, and a bunch of scattered parts.

What were these bubbled stars scattered around?

"Hey, uh, Elliot?" Wakko stuttered.

Elliot peeked out. "Yes?"

"What do I do here?"

Elliot looked over. "Oh, this part." he paused when he saw Wakko's concerned look. "Don't worry, it's not that bad. You just need to walk. Those scattered parts will form a path as you walk; but be CAUTIOUS! You don't know what they'll do."

Wakko nodded and begun taking slow steps. Elliot emerged back into his hat. He was right. The junk did form a great path.

All he had to do was be careful. He looked over at the black hole and gulped.

Just don't slip.

XXXXX

Wakko sighed in relief when the star had finally formed. He was all the way in the corner, on top of a persian-red circular block. He had carefully made his way back to the only normal platform in this area and collected the star.

Stressful star, done.

Now, he was soaring through space in the same direction Mindy and Buttons had went in. He had a lot of good memories involving him, his siblings and Mindy and Buttons..

Like when there was an 'Animaniacs Cast Beach Party', Mindy ventured too far in the ocean so Yakko had to grab her. That was pretty funny.

Or when Mindy's parents trusted them for a babysitter for some reason, and it was a disaster to take care of her.

Or when Dot and Babs Bunny had taken Buttons for a walk. They both told him and Yakko about Buttons seeing a squirrel and them being launched into a bush.

Or when he was in the hospital when he was diagnosed with diabetes, Mindy gave him roses and a card.

Good times..

He kept thinking about old memories, until he was back in the Fountain Dome. This was probably the closest a galaxy has ever been to the observatory.

His trip down memory lane was interrupted by Brain's slightly concerned voice. "Wakko, my, are you all right? You look kind of sad."

Wakko opened his eyes and shook his head vigorously to snap out of it. "Yes, Brain. I'm okay."

"Are you positive?"

"Positive."

"If you insist. Anyways, Preston, Adrian, Elliot," Brain began. Once he saw the three stars' black eyes, he continued. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I need to talk to Wakko alone."

"How come?" Adrian moaned.

"Something significant."

Adrian groaned and flew out of the dome, making Preston and Elliot roll their eyes and follow him.

Wakko, who was not expecting that, looked at the dome entrance. "What do you need to talk to me about that's so important they need to leave?" he puzzled.

"About Mindy and Buttons." Brain answered in the same tone as Wakko's. "Do you suppose they could help?"

Wakko nodded. "Well.. yes. Is that bad?"

Brain looked a little surprised. "No, of course not." he blinked back to his usual facial expression. "I am just ruminating on what they should be involved in."

Wakko thought for a moment. "How about Cosmic Comet?"

Brain blinked in confusion. "How come that?"

Wakko shrugged "I just thought since Mindy is great at wandering off it would be easy to face off against a competitive clone of herself.."

Brain finished for him. "..and Buttons could pursue her, making him go against his own duplicate! Wakko, you're a prodigy!"

Wakko beamed at that compliment. "Thanks!"

Brain smiled in response.

Wakko had remembered the electric shock that had happened to him and his buddies earlier, he made a mental note to himself then to talk to Brain. Now would be a perfect time.. right?

"Also, Brain?" Wakko broke the short silence between them.

"Yes, Wakko?"

"Well.. while I was in Space Junk, I may or may not have gotten shocked by one of those amps?"

Brain's eyes widened. "Did it affect Adrian, Elliot and Preston?"

"That's what I'm worried about!" Wakko cried. "Elliot said he was fine, but isn't he still recovering?"

"Yes, he is. He is nearly finished though."

"Then does that mean the shock affected his recovery?"

"Most likely, yes. But even if it did, it wouldn't alter the rehabilitation much." Brain responded in a much more calm voice.

"It won't?"

Brain shook his head. "No. Lumas rebuild quickly, as I said previously."

"Riiiight.." Wakko drawled. He was still a little confused, but he would ask more things later. "Can you do me a favor or two?"

Brain nodded. "Gladly."

"Don't tell them we talked about this." Once Brain nodded, Wakko resumed. "And two, can you talk to everyone else about Mindy and Buttons helping out?"

Brain had nodded at that too. "Yes, I can. I was planning to, anyway."

Wakko smiled. "Oh good!"

"Now, go search for your buddies and go on with your journey." Brain changed the subject. "Unless, you need a break. That's all right too."

"I'll continue with my journey." Wakko approached the fountain entrance. "Thanks Brain. For everything."

Brain beamed. "No trouble. Good luck."

Chapter Text

Part 11: A Space Junk Scuffle

His feet were racing across the timber floors. A yellow turtle had been pacing back and forth, having a livid facial expression. Two octopi - as Brain called them - were firing rocks from their mouths, both glowing from flames, and both challenging to dodge.

There had been two chests resting on the very sides of the ship area Wakko had been on. He surmised he had to grab the Koopa Troopa's shell, but how? Jump on top of it?

Yeah, that might work!

Wakko leaped on top of the Koopa and it went into it's shell so fast it had looked like it teleported. Wakko grabbed the shell and opened the very left chest, to his surprise.. it was..

A red shell?

That's it? Was it just the same shell, but a different color? It's neat and all, but it would be better if it had another ability to it. He shrugged it off and decided to grab it later. For now, it was his choice. The other chest, or the octopi?

He decided to open up the alternative chest. Wakko skipped to the other turtle and hopped on top of it, making it do likewise to what the other Koopa did. He tossed the shell like a football to the remaining chest and had gotten a life shroom in the process.

Even though he had an extra 3 units of health, he didn't think being burned by the blazing rocks would be worth it.

Wakko looked over at the red shell spinning above the chest it was released from. He ran over to it and grabbed it, and forced himself to fire it to one of the octopi. The octopus looked astonished and turned into a puff of smoke.

And now, the other.

He walked over to a Koopa Troopa crawling on the ground - much easier since there had been less rocks to avoid - and instead of jumping up on it, he crushed it with his mallet.

The yellow reptile, not expecting that, went into it's surprisingly nonchalant shell. Wakko picked it up, and threw the rock with all his might to the octopus. The octopus had been hit right in the neck and that caused it to flip into a puff of smoke.

Wakko wanted to collect the starbits sprawled next to each of the spaces the octopi called home, but decided against it. One wrong move could send him into a black hole, and he clearly didn't want that.

He could finally aboard the fancy ship that had been calling him the entire mission. From his perspective, nothing was on there. Or was there?

He had taken a small sling star that ascended him up onto the ship. Once he landed, nothing had happened. Peculiar. Wasn't there supposed to be some weird alien named 'Kamella' on this ship?

All he could see were the paltry asteroids conveying to the direction where the alluring swirl of stardust had been.

A strange white glow had interrupted his confusion. The glare had colorful shapes appearing and soon being sucked into the center of it. After gazing at this weird gleam for a moment, a few puff of smokes had blossomed, and so had an unfamiliar face.

She had been large, wearing a hat and cloak a color close enough to eggplant, but with a tinge of a lighter shade. Her long cloak cascaded down, end having a rose colored lace. The end of her sleeves and a tiny bit of her hat had the same color. Her glasses weren't clear, Wakko didn't know how she could see. Her lips had been canvased with hideous green lipstick. She had a gem planted on her neck, shining the same way her wand had. Wakko had never seen her before, but he knew who she was: Kamella.

She aimed her wand at Wakko, and the star had shined. She laughed in a mock way, knowing she had the star in her blue-nailed grasp.

Kamella moved from spot to spot on her plush-carpeted airship, and from time to time even went off the ship.

She waved her wand, and a brief fireball was racing to Wakko. The fireball missed, and landed on the plush carpet. Surprisingly, the carpet hadn't received damage and looked unharmed.

Wakko dodged it just barely and watched it travel across the ground, slowing down with every inch.

Kamella twirled her wand once more and this time a green particle had been soaring. It abruptly landed and transformed into a shell, but Wakko could call that her mistake.

He grabbed the shell and noticed another one rolling around waiting to be caught. It had been like Kamella wanted to be defeated. He ignored it for now, and tossed the shell at her neck. She reacted immediately and threw her head back.

Wakko raced to the shell that had stopped and was spinning in a graceful way, and had grabbed it. He forced the shell but unfortunately, he had missed.

Kamella laughed. "Is that all you can do, kid?"

"Watch me." Wakko teased. He whipped out his mallet and smacked her on the head. "It's funny how you bother to shoot out what I'd like to call your brain so I can defeat you."

Kamella growled and waved her wand more forcefully. It had spat out this time three fireballs that were swiftly roaming around the ground.

While Wakko was dodging those as much as he could, Kamella was brave enough to summon 2 Magikoopas to support her. They had shot more fire, making the ship turn from fancy and welcoming to a scorching volcano. Or, Melty Molten, as Wakko heard Preston mutter from under his hat.

Kamella had made her last mistake on this ship by creating another green particle, which of course, made a green shell.

The shell had luckily halted at Wakko's legs making it easy to grab, and so he had like his thoughts had directed him to.

Kamella was moving around the ship, chanting 'try and catch me now' over and over. The Magikoopas were cackling at the chant, which made Wakko lose concentration. He shut his eyes tightly like he was going to glide through another pull star path, and shut the laughs and chants out.

Focus Wakko.

Wakko's grip on the shell tightened.

Focus like you did when you first went to the bowling alley. Remember 'Bowling Lane-y'?

He remembered.

Yakko taught you how to bowl perfectly, don't throw it all away.

He had the shell gripped in his hands the same way he gripped the bowling ball. He focused the same way as he was about to throw the ball.

Kamella is the pins.

Wakko concentrated.. until...

POW!

Wakko's eyes opened at the sound of Kamella's loud wail. She exploded into smoke and so had the Magikoopas, leaving the wand behind. The wand flipped and shattered at the top part, setting the star free.

Wakko smiled at the star's glare. It had to be a tense fight, but it was nowhere near the fight with Max's robot.

At the thought of Max, Wakko couldn't help but ponder about his other buddies. He wondered if they were out in space too?

Maybe. Maybe not. He decided to just take the star back and ask Elijah or something.

XXXXX

Wakko was surprised to land on the glass ground directly in front of the map instead of the usual spot behind him. Nurse grinned at him, which made him a little confused. Was that star special, or something?

"Wakko, welcome back!" Nurse exclaimed. "I got good news!"

Wakko tilted his head. "What is it?"

Nurse's hand pointed to a Hungry Luma like figure, but his color was a magenta-ish color, he had orange eyes, and instead of starbits or coins as the little accessories he had in hands, they were little glowing stars.

"That's Comet Tico." Nurse introduced. "He'll help you with Prankster Comets."

Wakko looked up at Nurse. "What if I assign my friends to do Prankster Comets?"

Nurse nodded. "That's fine too. I overheard you and your buddies assign the Goodfeathers the Speedy Comets." after Wakko's nod, she continued. "And Brain had told me that Mindy and Buttons would do the Cosmic Comets."

After a moment of thinking, Wakko needed to ask a question. "Nurse?"

"Yes Wakko?"

"May we, uh.. start the Prankster Comets once I find all my friends?" at Nurse's confused look, Wakko continued. "Like.. some of my friends could still be out there. I don't really want to start without them."

Nurse smiled, showing she understood what he meant. "Sure, Wakko. You do probably need to do some secret missions, though. Until we find someone willing to do those. If you wish, you guys can do them together."

Wakko nodded. "Got it. I assume you guys are still searching for answers?"

"Yep. However, I am thinking about whether we should stop until the library is open. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine. I'm going as fast as I can."

Nurse giggled. "You really don't have to do that!"

Wakko's look turned from a small smile to serious. "Oh, I do! I need to save my siblings as soon as possible and I need to power up this ship as soon as possible too."

Nurse's smile grew bigger. "I appreciate that. Take a break when you need, okay?"

Wakko nodded and yawned. "I might need to take one now." He said while stretching out his arms.

"That's fine."

Wakko was walking to the yellow patch of flowers to rest for a little bit, but had been stopped by Nurse's voice.

"Before you go, I need to tell you something else."

"What is it?"

"There is a Speedy Comet in Good Egg, if you want, you can get the Goodfeathers to take care of that."

XXXXX

Wakko had his attention on the stars.

Where was everybody?

Would they find answers in the library anyway?

Would we perhaps host a meeting once everybody is here so we can all work together on the galaxies?

He kept the third thought in mind. He'll ask Brain once he goes back to work.

The Goodfeathers were off taking care of that speedy comet in Good Egg.. it's not like he could talk to them... yet.

Maybe they would help him with other comets for a little bit?

Maybe they could help with the secret missions?

There was so much to question.. so much to think about..

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to rethink about his planning.

I'll go through all the levels as fast as I can, hopefully meet more people on the way for more help, lighten up the library to hopefully get some answers, continue on my journey for regular stars, while looking for more friends and while other friends are working on their parts, until they finally had enough stars to travel to the palace Yakko and Dot were in, and save them. His mission would be complete. Right?

Gosh this is getting stressful.

"Wakko?" His thoughts were interrupted by Brain's deep voice speaking in a concerned way. "Are you all right? You seem to be aggravated about something, do you need to speak?"

Brain!

Just when Wakko needed him, he was here.

"Yeah." Wakko replied a silent moment later. "Badly."

Brain sat down next to Wakko's arm. "What's happening?"

"Things are just getting stressful."

"How so?"

"I need to go through all the levels fast as I can, hopefully get more help on the way, brighten up the library and maybe get answers to all my questions, continue on my journey for regular stars and more friends while the friends I found are off doing their own missions, until we all finally gather enough stars to save Yakko and Dot."

"I see. A lot on your mind?"

"Yes." Wakko answered while nodding.

"Well Wakko, I have a recommendation for you." Brain said in a comforting voice.

Wakko looked over at Brain. "What's that?"

"Focus on the assignment you are presently on. Keep your eyes peeled for more allies, stars, or such. Take your time. I'm sure your siblings will accept that you'll go slow and steady. All they desire is that you don't give up on them." Brain said in a more serious tone.

Wakko blinked. "Are you serious?"

Brain nodded. "Indeed."

"You're SURE I can take my time?"

"Yes, Wakko."

Wakko looked back at the stars. "Got it."

There was a long pause. Wakko was trying to gather the courage to ask Brain about the thought he had about hosting a meeting, and eventually, he did.

Wakko's dramatic sigh broke the silence. "Brain?"

Brain had already been looking up at him, due to his sigh. "Yes?"

"When I do find all my friends.. could we.." Wakko swallowed, and continued. "..could we host a meeting when we find all our friends?"

"What are you inquiring?"

"I mean, like I said, I would like help on the Prankster Comets and stuff like that. I want to do the regular stars, while people who have their parts do their parts."

"And?"

"I mean, since not all the comets have their own.. person? I would like to host a meeting to assign the comets when everyone is here." At Brain's pause, Wakko quickly asked "Would that be okay?"

"Okay? Of course! That would be clever!"

Wakko beamed. "Aw shucks, Brain! But how will we know everybody is here?"

Brain thought for a moment at the question. "I predict you'll realize when everybody is aboard." he softly answered with a smile.

Wakko's smile got bigger. "Okay."

"I'll inform Nurse about your wonderful thought." Brain said while walking back to the Fountain Dome. He stopped and pointed to a Hungry Luma next to the Terrace Dome before saying "In the meantime, talk to that him and complete Sweet Sweet Galaxy."

Wakko looked at the Hungry Luma, he noticed it's happy smile and had gotten up.

Why not? Maybe I can have a little snack while I'm there too.

Chapter Text

Part 12: The Bizarre Book

Yakko? Please wake up...

Dot was laying next to the unconscious Yakko Warner next to her. She was disquieted.. it had felt like it had been a day since he woke up.. why?

Why was only SHE fine, and he not?

She grabbed his arm benignly and wrapped it around her. Even if he wasn't active at the moment, she still took comfort by the touch of his emollient fur.

Why is this happening?

What do these monsters want?

What will they do if Wakko manages to get captured?

I hope that doesn't happen.. I hope he's okay.

She pondered about her second thought for a moment.. what DID these monsters want? What hints were there?

Needles.

Strange Liquids.

Weird Gas to make them stay.

Dot just couldn't put them together..

She glanced from Yakko to a small opening revealing the space the manse was surrounded by.

"Wakko, I know you're out there." She began in a quiet voice. "I know you won't give up on us. Do NOT prove us wrong."

She looked around the cell her and her brother were currently trapped in. The weird beast made sure the bars 'weren't so easy to break' as so it claimed, which made Dot pothered. If Yakko woke up and tried breaking out, what would happen?

That's another thing.

Would Yakko even wak-

NO. Quit it! Don't start that.

He'll wake up. He'll be fine.

Right?

Dot sighed and got up. Maybe she could try extirpating the bars for when Yakko woke up.

She crept toward the bars and thought about how Yakko did it.. he usually pushed just enough until he fully annihilated them. She'll try that. When she pushed against the shadowy bars, she hadn't conjectured a burning feeling.

She winced at that and looked at her hands. In each palm of her gloves, there was a thick drop of pitch black liquid. It cascaded down all the sides it could into thin lines, growing more slender the second.

Eventually, they had melted away, but the drops remained.

Breathing heavily, she trudged back over to Yakko and snuggled underneath him again.

Even though she felt a little bit comforted being next to her oldest brother, she remained concerned. What would the drops do? They couldn't be there for nothing..

She glanced back over to the bright space sky, and this time a star shot across, winking at her with it's sorcerous gleam. it was time to make a wish... like Wakko had.

To save her.

And Yakko.

One of those times is happening right now..

I pray to God Wakko comes here safely and saves me and Yakko. Don't let him fail. Let him be okay.

Please.

XXXXX

Brain stopped himself. He became face to face with the dark staring back at him.

Just looking at the dark parts of the observatory gave him a queasy feeling.. he remembered the mask. Even though it had no mouth, Brain could have sworn it smiled.

Whenever Wakko and his buddies were taking down a mission, this time two, Brain explored the crepuscular observatory grounds. Either he did that, or talked to Nurse. But at the moment, she had been occupied to calming down a panicking Elijah.

Elijah had claimed he saw a quaint blue glow in the dark areas of the observatory, and unlike any other light, it lit up the pitch black. Just barely.

Brain tilted his head at that 'ridiculous' statement and decided to check it out. That was impossible. Unfortunately, there was no light that could brighten everything up, even just barely; right?

Brain finally sighed and muttered to himself. "Come now, Brain. You had accomplished this so many times previously. Why fail now?"

But just because he had done it before, doesn't mean that he wasn't scared.

He finally entered the dimout, and disappeared in it's chilling grasp.

Brain looked around and saw no gleam. Typical. Elijah had lied. Brain kept changing his gaze to another piece of the ground, or a book hidden in the shadows. He was just about to stop looking and go back to the guaranteed safe side, until a thought darted through his mind like a shooting star.

If Elijah had been lying, how come he had true terror in his eyes?

The golden Luma may have fibbed about a few things in the past, but that hadn't meant it was a hobby of his. Brain doubted Elijah would lie about something like this. He knew the darkness was a serious matter.

Brain sighed and looked around again. He scanned all around him until - he saw it! - a blue particle emerging from the behind the tallest dome.

Brain raced to it with all his might. He skidded to a stop once a blue book was in sight.

He was confounded and tilted his head to show. A blue book? Why was it glowing? Why was it out here, anyway? Shouldn't it be in the library?

Brain ignored those inquiries and studied the cover.

It had an azure blue cover, with a robin's-egg colored star plastered in the center. The title read 'the WARNERS notes' in a sapphire blue.

Brain had opened up the curiosa and flipped through the pearl colored pages. They had stated the obvious on most, some facts Brain had not even known on others, but one specific page had caught Brain's attention.

It was a lullaby.

It must have been a thing between The Warners and only them, because Brain had never heard it, and he speculated nobody else had either.

He read the lullaby over and over aloud in his mind, but then had finally read it aloud the 5th time.

"Hush little brother,

I know you don't like clowns

but keep your little chin up,

we won't let you down.

And baby sister,

I know you dislike sharks

but stay bright now,

shine away the dark.

Your older brother Yakko's

gonna make sure you're

as happy and bright

as ever before!

Look at me, little sibs

Wakko and Dot,

stay with what's safe

and away from what's not.

I understand if

you really don't know

what it is safe

and isn't, oh no no

Just come to me

if any trouble forms, okay?

because I'm your big brother,

nothing can take that away!"

Brain wiped away the slight tears in his eyes. The last line had hurt to read..

..nothing can take that away!

He was gone. Yakko was far away from one sibling.

But Brain had known even though Yakko had been far away from that sibling, he was still his big brother. No matter how far away.

On the other hand, maybe the poor kid didn't believe that.. a while back, Yakko shared a shocking concealment with Brain and Brain only.

Brain massaged his temples, trying to remember all the details.

"Ponder, Brain. Ponder." he muttered under his breath.

When it had finally came to him, the memory replayed in his mind.

Brain was interrupted from his planning of taking over the world, by a faint familiar sound of sobs. Even though Brain hated to admit it, he knew who those sobs belonged to.

Yakko Warner.

He hopped off the table he had been standing on and ran into the next room. Maybe Yakko thought Brain thought he left.

Once Yakko was in Brain's sight, he immediately began to shatter. He was not used to Yakko crying, it was a rare experience. The only time he had actually seen him cry for real was when Dot had died in the middle of the snow because of King Salazar.

"Yakko?"

Yakko's head immediately escaped from his hands and he had looked down at Brain.

"Oh, hey Brain." he replied in a 'pretending to be happy' way. "I'm sorry, I'll go so-"

"No, wait. I would like to agnize on why you are puling."

"I guess I'm feeling rather stressed, lately." Yakko sniffed in a weak tone.

"Why's that?"

"I need to keep my sibs and I together, but it's getting harder when a selfish king constantly wants to destroy you for his own happiness."

"I fathom that." Brain paused for a moment before shyly asking. "Do your cognates realize you are feeling this way?"

Yakko took his eyes off Brain and muttered. "Well, no." which had resulted into a longer silence.

Yakko finally broke the silence a long minute later, muttering a soon to be regretted question. "Can I tell you something personal?"

Brain nodded and smiled. "Of course."

"If my siblings and I ever get separated, I won't feel like their older brother anymore." Yakko began sobbing again. When he noticed Brain's expression, mixed with sympathy and befuddlement, he explained more. "I don't know, just, it's my job to keep us all together. And if I fail, I.. don't know what I'll do. Obviously cry, but what else?"

"Do you recall when Wakko had travelled upon that train? He was separated from you guys then, correct?"

Yakko nodded. "Well, yes, but he did that to seek his fortune. I'm talking about if we get split up against our will."

"I see." Brain began. "Look Yakko, don't ponder like that. Even if you children ever were divided, I'm sure you guys will encounter each other once again shortly."

At Yakko's silence, he continued. "Don't feel as if you failed your vocation over something out of your commands."

When Yakko looked up briefly, Brain released his last sentence. "You haven't even failed at all; you're doing an excellent job at being an older sibling."

Yakko finally looked like he was smiling again when he fully looked up. He replied a timid "thank you" before getting up.

"Where are you heading off to?" Brain questioned.

"Off to spend time with my sibs." Yakko stated in the most memorable voice. "What kind of brother would I be not to?"

At Brain's nod, Yakko disappeared out of the room.

Time to continue working on the plan, right?

No.

The world can wait.

Brain's eyes widened at that memory. Yakko probably felt nonstop sad wherever he was.

He wondered if Wakko knew where he was though, he heard Simone's loud call, and Elijah's before as well.

Maybe he would quiz Wakko once he was back from his current mission. It's possible he knows, he saw Simone and Elijah with letters in their hands when they both shouted.

Speaking of Wakko, would he like to see this strange book?

Probably not, if that lullaby really is a secret.

And since there were facts not even Brain himself knew, he assumed those had been private as well.

Maybe hiding it away would be the best answer. He'll talk to Elijah and Nurse about it in a moment.

Now where would be the perfect spot?

XXXXX

Wakko was holding onto the star with his hands, while it made a very faint path behind them.

That was a stressful mission.

After fighting the biggest spider he had ever seen and hopefully will ever see, he was ready for another break. Even Adrian had seemed worn out, despite him being the undaunted one.

The ship had finally appeared in Wakko's gaze and the star had raced faster, which made Wakko briefly struggle to hold on.

Once he landed in the Fountain Dome, the star had swiftly ascended as it always had.

He opened his hat and sighed. "Ready for another break, fellas?"

Adrian looked a little disappointed, but seeing the determined look on Elliot and Preston's faces, he gave in. "Sure. Flower patch like always?"

"You betcha."

Wakko had safely hopped off the flying platform the Fountain Dome called home and strolled to the flower patch.

Maybe its about time for an actual sleep..

He walked upon the flowers and laid down. His eyes slowly closed, putting him into a deep sleep..

Until he had been interrupted by 3 familiar voices.

He looked up to see Brain, Nurse and Elijah having a conversation with each other. Brain had actually looked worried which concerned Wakko a bit. Was a black hole on it's way? Was the beast coming back? What was going on?

He looked at his star buddies, who had already dozed off.

As much as Wakko wished he could do the same, helping his friends with whatever difficulty was going on was more important.

None had noticed him in their sight until he chimed into the conversation with a friendly "Hello!"

Brain immediately stopped babbling and looked at Wakko. "Oh, Wakko. You've returned!"

"No, I'm still in Space Junk. Of course I returned!" he laughed. "So, what's going on?"

Nurse opened her mouth to explain, but Brain interrupted her with an unhesitant shout. "Nothing's going on, just an administrator meeting."

Wakko's playful face quickly morphed into a frown. "Are you sure? You looked a little worried."

Brain's expression went from awkward to a look a child made when they got caught eating from the cookie jar. "A-Absolutely."

Wakko's face showed that he didn't buy it. "If you're sure, how come it looks like you're hiding something?" he surveyed.

Elijah had finally chimed in. "Wakko, it's nothing important, okay? Go back with your star buddies and rest with them for a while."

"But-"

"Go."

Wakko had a very unamused look on his face and trudged off.

When he laid back down in the flowers, he couldn't sleep. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't.

What were they hiding?

Was it actual answers?

If it was, WHY were they hiding it from him?

Wakko sighed and closed his eyes once more to at least try and sleep.

Being younger sucks sometimes.

Meanwhile, Brain, Elijah and Nurse had been watching him doze off. This would be the perfect time to inform Adrian, Elliot and Preston!

Brain just hoped they wouldn't tell Wakko, he hoped he wouldn't find out at all.

He just hoped it was a secret between him, Nurse, Elijah and the star buddies.

Just like how the lullaby was a secret between the Warners.

Or, Yakko's dark secret, maybe.

Chapter Text

Part 13: Unexpected Friend in an Unexpected Area

"What didja need, Brain?" Adrian enquired.

"I require you to keep all what I am going to inform you hidden from Wakko." Brain replied.

"Why?" Elliot asked. "And what?"

"Well, Brain found a book that I called a weird glimmer. It was behind the Kitchen Dome and according to Brain, it had facts all about the Warners in it." Elijah informed.

"No way.. can we see?" Adrian gasped.

"Possibly after our conversation." Brain answered.

"What facts were in there?" Preston questioned.

"All kinds. Evident ones, ones not even I was aware of; and there was one that had caught my eye the most."

At Adrian, Elliot and Preston's curious looks, Brain finally answered.

"A lullaby."

"Lullaby? That's it?" Adrian grumbled. "I thought it stated what animals they were. Seriously, what the hell are they?"

Preston glared at Adrian. "Language, A."

"Oh, whatever."

Elliot ignored their brief bickering, and couldn't help but interrogate Brain on what the lullaby was.

Adrian glanced over. "Yeah, what WAS the lullaby?"

"You can see for yourself once I show you the text."

"Riight." Adrian rolled his eyes.

"Was the lullaby private or something?" Preston tilted his head. "Were you aware of it?"

"No, it hadn't been apart of my knowledge. It indeed must have been private, because I, and as far as I know, nobody else, had ever heard it." Brain looked over at Nurse for confirmation, and Nurse shook her head.

"Well, yeah. Now I see why you need us to keep this secret from Wakko. He might go bonkers if he finds out." Elliot stated.

"Exactly."

Elijah looked over at Wakko, who was indeed still sleeping. "Alright, you want to go look at the book now?" he whispered.

"Aw fuck yes!" Adrian whispered loudly, and received a smack on the head from Preston.

"Right, P. Language." he responded sheepishly. "Let's go see that book!"

XXXXX

"This place looks threatening." Wakko said with barely any emotion, just loud enough for Adrian, Elliot and Preston to hear.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Preston reassured. "There are some dangerous things, that's about it."

"Precisely." Elliot chimed in. "Just be cagey."

Wakko nodded, assuming that had meant to 'be cautious'. He began walking, and moved from metal platform to metal platform, collecting the blue starchips spread out on the way.

After he had finally collected the last piece, the pull stars had formed. They led to the common launch star, which seemed to be calling Wakko for his next task.

He closed his eyes and reached out, resulting to being pulled up by the same bubble. He aimed his arm to the higher pull star, which put him in the launch star's grasp. He spun and had been darted to a different metal platform.

For some reason, he landed on the underside this time. He mounted to the top and noticed a purple object, the same one he had seen back in Flipswitch.

"Easy." Wakko muttered under his breath. He hopped on top of the object, and bounced over and over, gaining more height each time.

"Boingy! Boingy! Boingy! Boingy!" He chanted gleefully.

Gaining another 4 starbits, he reached the higher platform and landed on the bottom like before. He climbed up once again, but this time, he saw a giant blue screw instead of a purple object.

When Wakko tilited his head, Elliot had noticed and emerged from his hat.

"What's up, buddy?"

"Um, what do I do with this screw?"

"Hop on top of it and spin." Adrian blurted out before Elliot had the chance to speak.

Elliot went back in Wakko's hat carrying an unamused expression on his face. "Exactly." he muttered into Wakko's ear.

Wakko giggled a little bit at that and jumped up. Once he had successfully landed on the screw, he spun gracefully. The screw responded to that by rapidly descending into a perfect socket below it.

After about a second of waiting, the whole platform shook briefly and glided closer to the towering rock. The metal balls grabbing onto the sides had begun circling around and blasting their electric glares.

Fulgid electric gates were staring straight at Wakko, waiting to do it's electrical shock on him if he messed up. Cannonballs were being spat out of the cannons planted in the metal wall that was squishing the middle of the humongous boulder.

Wakko gulped. This looked painful.

Very painful.

Wakko ignored all the fatal things and looked over at the starbits, wondering if there happened to be a way for him to collect them himself.

He reached out and aimed his hand toward them, and fortunately, it had somehow worked.

When he had turned over, he was face to face with a large wall blocking the top's pathway.

Maybe it would be wise to run to the bottom before I get pushed off.

He did what his brief plan instructed him on doing, almost being electrocuted by one of those shiny electric balls on the side in the process, but thankfully made it to the bottom in time.

Once the fatal tangerine colored gates were in sight, Wakko moved to the top. This mission was going to be full of nonstop movement, wasn't it? No, the next one looked easy enough to jump over.

The lemon-lime lightning was facing Wakko with it's undetectable malicious grin. Wakko took that as a challenge and jumped up in the nick of time, adding a spin to make sure he'll completely dodge the electrical feeling.

He landed on his feet like a ninja and caught glimpse of a golden glimmer. A giant coin! Surely this would lead to something pleasant.

He touched it, which made a whole 2 paths of starbits walk out of the cannons gracefully. Wakko reached out to assemble them, which made the starbits soar to him and disappear in his invisible collection.

He smiled and looked to the side, eyes widening and smile morphing into a toothy frown at the sight of the same lemon-lime bolts in front of him.

There was no time to jump. Only was there time to dash with all his might at the bottom. He did just that, barely dodging the shock.

Wakko sighed and wiped the brief sweat on his forehead. He quickly ran back upwards, thankful to see a simple jump of the green lightning, but not thankful to see another wall of fatal injury.

He jumped and spun smoothly over the one casual lightning bolt, but had ran like a cheetah to the bottom at the realization of the wall coming next.

Once the feeling of a sudden halt of the puny ship came, Wakko approached the top. It stopped close enough for him to jump to the next.

There had been only 1 single cage on the first platform, and another 4 on the other. Maybe there were more on the bottom, but for now, Wakko only focused on the caged star..bits. Of course, the caged star needed to be collected too.

Now what do I do?

Wakko looked around until he saw 2 more cannons.

Instead of the typical cannonball, these cannons shot out bullets. The same ones Megaleg carried.

He began walking but had been stopped by a familiar but dreaded voice.

"Hello fuzzy-head! What are you doing here?"

Elmyra.

Wakko groaned, only loud enough for himself to hear. "Hello, Elmyra." he said in a perturbed voice. "What are YOU doing here?"

Elmyra walked stylishly in Wakko's vision. She had a headlight strapped to her head that replaced her usual bow, a red bandana partially covering her beige vest, a backpack wrapped around her arms, a darker beige skirt and scarlet colored shoes. She looked a lot different than Wakko had expected, which was just her in her normal outfit.

"Oh nothing," she began, only continuing when she ran over and grabbed Wakko roughly in her grasp and squeezed him like no tomorrow. "Just to hug my cuddly-wuddly head tightly--"

That's what terrifies me.

"--like this is my last time!"

"That's what I hope." Wakko moaned. But knowing Elmyra, she would shake off that comeback like a spider crawling on her arm. She would probably crush that poor creature now that Wakko thought about it more.

Elmyra finally let go right before Wakko would die of asphyxiation. "So, what are you doing here?" she quizzed.

"Collecting stars."

"Like that one?" she pointed to the cage with the star spinning it's goodness inside.

Wakko nodded. "Yeah. I can open it."

"With your mallet?"

He froze. Why hadn't he thought of that? "...Sure."

He walked over to the cage and whipped out his mallet.

Steady..

POW!

The glass turned into many tiny pieces scattered across the ground. Wakko looked over at Elmyra with half annoyance she was there, and half grateful for the much quicker thought. "Thanks for the idea. Don't know why I hadn't thought of it before."

Elmyra nodded. "No problem cuddle-head! Elmyra is always there to help!"

Right. By crushing me?

Wakko also nodded, but in a less joyous way.

Although he disliked her, he wouldn't want to leave her behind on this eerie galaxy. "You coming?"

Elmyra beamed and ran to Wakko. "Of course softy-head!"

"Don't call me that."

Wakko opened his hat, interrupting a game of Headbanz his buddies were playing. Adrian was the first to react, and to speak. "Didja get another star?"

"Yeah, I found another 'friend' of mine and I would like a Cosmo Craft for her to ride in." Even if Elmyra was the bane of Wakko's existence from time to time, he still liked to call her his friend.. kind of.

"I already got you." Preston replied almost immediately, hands glowing the beautiful sapphire colored mist.

XXXXX

Nurse looked away from the map when she heard the sound of a Cosmo Craft landing. Her eyes focused on the starry ship's door opening, revealing a face Nurse hadn't seen in a long time.

"Elmyra?" she cried out. "Why, it's been such a long time!"

When Elmyra looked over, her glad face grew. "Hello pretty Nurse! It has been a long long time, hasn't it?"

Nurse nodded. "Indeed it has. What brings you here?" she said the same soothing way as usual.

"I found the cuddly-wuddly head Wakko in Battlerock!" Elmyra said more brightly than she should have.

Nurse's eyes slightly widened at that. "Battlerock? Goodness, what were you doing there? I would expect you to be in Sweet Sweet, but Battlerock?"

Elmyra shrugged. "I guess that's where the uncontrollable launch sent me to." she sounded more serious than usual, which wasn't common,

"Uncontrollable launch?"

"Yeah, all of my friendsy-wensies and I were split up from each other from a weird colorful blast."

"What did it look like?"

"It had all sorts of colors! All of them darker than they should be, which was strange."

"Do you know who - or what - caused it?"

"Montana Maxxy-Waxxy did it, probably for HIS idea of fun. I saw his facey-wacey in the machine shooting it."

"Elmyra, sweetie, I think I know why."

Elmyra paused for a moment and tilted her head. "Why?"

"Well, I don't know if you know.. but, you didn't see Yakko or Dot with Wakko right?"

Elmyra shook her head no. "I didn't see those fuzzy-heads, no."

"Um, well, Yakko and Dot.. were separated from Wakko too. Just in a different way."

"What do you mean?" Elmyra actually sounded worried and sad.

"Dot has been kidnapped by some weird creatures, and it just so happens Max was apart of it. 'Because it's fun to be bad' as so he claimed."

Elmyra blinked. She knew Max was a jerk and she loved him for that anyway, but.. he was apart of kidnapping? Would she even continue loving him after this?

"What about fuzzy-wuzzy Yakko?" she finally inquired.

"Well, he has been kidnapped as well by those same beasts. I forgot about the letters that had been sent out to Wakko."

"Letters?"

"Yes. Letters. Both Yakko and Dot wrote out letters to Wakko to show him they were okay. Not only does it prove that - hopefully Yakko is awake by now coming from their latest letter - it also proves they are in fact together."

Speaking of Wakko, where is he? He should be back on the ship by now.

"Awake?"

"Yes. Awake. The last letter read that Dot was okay, but Yakko was unconscious. We don't know what goes on over there, so I can't explain any further detail."

Elmyra was silent. She didn't know how to feel about this. Someone she thought she could trust.. kidnapped one of her other friends? Why?

Nurse finally broke the melancholy silence between them by asking "Where's Wakko? Isn't he back on the ship?"

"Hey, sorry, I'm here." the Liverpool accent answered the question before Elmyra could. The accent's owner noticed Elmyra was sad and immediately asked his own question. "What's going on?"

"I just told her what's happened with your siblings. That's all."

Wakko looked down. "Oh."

When he looked back over, Elmyra had a shovel in her hand, and an angry facial expression. "Why did those creature-weatures and Maxxy-Waxxy do that?"

"Honey, I hate to say it, but I don't know. It's most likely they either are going to take them to someone - or something - wanting to destroy them, or they are used for experiments." Nurse tried explaining what Preston told Wakko before, but felt that Preston had said it better.

"Experiments?"

"My thoughts exactly, sister." Wakko muttered.

Nurse ignored Wakko's muttering and answered Elmyra instead. "Yes. However, we do believe it is the first possibility more. They won't do any further actions until Wakko is caught, which we obviously do not want to happen."

Elmyra nodded. "Yeah. Cuddly-wuddly head can't be destroyed!"

Wakko let the name slide for now. Obviously, he hadn't wanted to be caught himself, so he nodded as well.

Elmyra slapped her open hand with her fist. "We have to save cuddle-wuddle head's fuzzy-wuzzy siblings!"

"And fast!" Wakko chimed in. "They might still be getting tortured as the first letter I got said."

Elmyra blinked at Wakko. Tortured? "Yeah, we have to. FAST!"

She hatched an idea a second after she said that, hopefully a good one in Nurse and Wakko's opinions.

"Nurse?" Elmyra grabbed back Nurse's attention.

"Yes, Elmyra?"

"Can I build a ship for when the rest of the Tiny Toons Team arrives?"

Nurse beamed at that idea. "Why, of course you can!"

Elmyra looked over at Wakko, who was smiling with his tongue sticking out.

She was VERY happy Wakko and Nurse approved of her idea. Maybe it could help with saving Yakko and Dot in a way..

Nurse looked over at three Lumas. 2 blue, 1 yellow.

"Obviously, you can't do this alone." she said, glancing back over at Elmyra. "You'll need help from 3 certain Lumas I know are great at this stuff."

"Who?" Elmyra asked, looking excited.

Nurse looked back over at the three Lumas. "Nina, Traci, and Isaac."

Once Elmyra shared Nurse's attention grabbers, she smiled.

"They can help you." Nurse added.

Chapter Text

Part 14: Missions with Elmyra

"HEY! LEAVE THE SNUGGLE-HEAD ALONE!"

Wakko sighed. Both in relief Elmyra came to his rescue and in annoyance she kept calling him that stupid nickname.

He looked over, Elmyra was using her shovel on the weird robot they were fighting. Elmyra switched it's button off and shot it into the electric wall surrounding the arena. It was obviously best to stay in the center of the area.

As weird as it sounds, Elmyra is actually deeming to be quite useful. She insisted n tagging along for this mission, despite the fact she still needed to build the ship for her team. Wakko was also surprised she didn't squeeze the Lumas to death, even though that's what she always did. She might be more sympathetic for Wakko's loss than he had supposed. Too much to the point she doesn't act like her normal annoying self.

Wakko whipped out his mallet. He supposed maybe it was his turn to teach this robot thing a lesson for nearly frying him with those fiery spikes, and of course he supposed Elmyra needed backup.

He ran over to it and walloped it more intense than expected, which shattered a couple spikes off it's side.

Now, Topmaniac was pissed off. He moved swifter than before, of course dodging the mini lightning wall.

Wakko followed him and tripped over a mini-yellow topman. He slightly got up and rubbed his head.

Stupid damn Topmaniac..

Wait.. maniac..

Wakko shook his head vigorously.

Quit being sappy.

His internal scolding was interrupted by Elmyra screaming. He whipped his head around to see a cornered Elmyra, 1 inch from being electrocuted. In front of her had been just as bad; Topmaniac.

He held his mallet tighter in his hand.

Shit's going down.

"LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!"

Wakko shouted, jumping up in the air. He whacked the button on top of Topmaniac's head much harder than before, and that had turned off the robot.

He landed back safely on the metal and stood there, not even he believed what he just did.

Hey, my name's Wakko for a reason. he reminded himself.

Topmaniac's button flashed yellow, which reminded Wakko to get moving and whack him once again; this time to the wall.

He had done just that right before the android turned back on. Lightning was all it could see, until a moment later when it was more enraged than before.

It stomped the ground abruptly, and two different topmen minions appeared. But instead of being puny and yellow, they were bigger and red, with a spike resting on each of their heads.

Wakko looked over at Elmyra who looked concerned. He sighed, and finally spoke again.

"You up to do this last hit together?"

Elmyra's expression brightened up and she nodded in the most joyous way. "Yeah, fuzzy-head! That'd be great!"

Wakko rolled his eyes then smiled. Sure. Fine. He was her friend.

He continued clutching his mallet while waiting for Elmyra to grab her dropped shovel. "You ready?" he asked when she finally gained it.

"When you are!" she replied.

Wakko nodded and jumped in the air, Elmyra did likewise.

They both rose their weapons and hit Topmaniac's button so hard it could have sprung out of the socket.

Topmaniac immediately turned off and stumbled around helplessly. Wakko smirked at Elmyra, who smirked back.

They both put their weapons in the position where they could launch the robot in it's demise.. and they whammed it, doing just that!

A storm of lightning flashed around Topmaniac, which made him and his minions disappear mini puffs of smoke.

The star barely shined through the smoke, and it flew upwards; shining it's wonderful goodness and stopping, floating over the center of the arena.

Wakko opened his hat, which revealed Elliot and Adrian having a conversation, but Preston just sitting there.

"Lemme guess, you knew to summon the Cosmo Craft thing?" Wakko quizzed.

Preston nodded. "Mhm."

He hopped off Wakko's head and made his hands glow the mist. Wakko heard mumbling coming from Preston, and it sounded like 'pass'.

He decided to ignore it and let him do what he had to do. A moment later, the rocket had appeared again.

He glanced over at Elmyra. "Well, you know what you have to do."

Elmyra nodded and waved while walking to the rocket. "I do! Bye bye fuzzy-wuzzy-head and friends!"

"Yeah, bye." Wakko shouted back. "And stop calling me that!"

XXXXX

Wakko closed his eyes and stretched for a moment. When he opened his eyes, he noticed Brain wasn't in front of him. That's odd.

He opened his hat for a moment. "Guys, I'm going to go look for Brain."

"Oh, he's not here?" Adrian inquired.

"Nope. He's not in front of me."

Adrian flew up, Preston did as well and so did Elliot.

"Alright buddy. Let us know when you're ready to continue on the missions." Preston responded.

"I will."

Wakko followed the Lumas out of the fountain and jumped down to the observatory path. It was rather strange, how come the fountain was floating?

He walked past the garage, noticing Elmyra had already started on building her ship again. It seemed Nina, Traci and Isaac were helping like Nurse said.

Speaking of Nurse, maybe he could ask her where Brain is.

He stopped in front of the map where Nurse was standing. She wasn't studying the chart this time, she was studying the beautiful space around what she called her new home.

"Hello, Nurse!" Wakko finally expressed.

Nurse suddenly turned around, a little startled at the sudden outburst. "Oh, hey Wakko!"

"Have you seen Brain anywhere?"

Nurse paused for a moment and then pointed to the library. "In the dark areas of the observatory. Elijah found a weird glow." she was so close to saying 'another', but had luckily remembered the first book needed to be kept a secret.

"That's weird.." Wakko scratched his head and shrugged. "Oh well. Thanks!"

Nurse nodded and waved when he wandered off.

All he could see was darkness. Not one bit of light. He went further down the long path to see if that could make a dif-

Hey, what's that?

Wakko studied a red particle, being followed by another, then another and another.

He slowly approached them, and noticed it came from a... book?

Why was a book glowing red?

How was it actually lighting things up? Just barely.

Why was it open?

As Wakko got closer, he could make out familiar white fur.

Brain!

"Brain! Oh, there you are! What are you doing in here?" Wakko exclaimed.

Brain whipped his head around and closed the book immediately. "Elijah had reported a strange gleam coming from here. I decided to investigate."

"Is that it?"

"Yes, that is all."

"No, I mean is that the glow?"

"Oh. I assume so. I didn't see a disparate shimmer."

"What's in it?"

"Well, it's about the beasts that you ackno-"

"WHAT?!" Wakko's scream was so loud, he was sure the entire observatory heard it. "You mean the creatures that kidnapped my sibs?"

Brain nodded. "Affirmative." looking back at the eerie cover, he added "I even saw a chilling song at the ending." he was terrified at how similar it was to the Warners' Notes book he found earlier.

Would this improve the chance of him finding out?

"Song?" Wakko tilted his head. Why was a SONG in there? "What does it say?"

"See for yourself." Brain flipped all the way at the end of the book, where a short song had been written in.

Wakko began reading it, a few words in and he already had chills running down his spine.

He closed the book immediately. "Maybe I'll check it out another time. I don't have a good feeling about it.."

Brain shrugged. "I understand that. I didn't have a swell feeling either." He hesitated before quietly squeaking "Would you like to read it unitedly later on?"

Wakko was silent for a moment before he accepted. "Sure. It might make me feel a little..."

"Safer?"

"Yeah. Safer reading it."

Brain's eyes was focused on the cover. It was crimson colored, an orchid star centered in the middle, words reading 'the MONSTERS notes' in a variety of colors that Brain assumed were all the different colors of the creatures.

It was similar to the other book but.. off.

His studying was interrupted by Wakko's voice, but in a shaken way.

"Hey Brain?"