This chapter introduces another crossover from Cyber Studios, making it the 3rd one for Third Gen!
Part 3: Reading Comprehension
Mysterious Lair
After Robi and Jolene left the gate, the latter recreated her Clay Boat and rowed them up the river. "I wonder if Grunty will try to install another Life Clock in there?" Robi said. "We should probably check up on them when we can. After we save the others."
They backtracked to the large room with a chasm and went to the trench of tree branches. "Hey! We can get up here!" Robi noticed the footprints on the left wall, leading onto one of the branches. Once Jolene applied her clay, they were able to walk up. From this branch, Robi Flutter Jumped them to the others. Grublin Hoods were perched on some branches, shooting arrows at them, but Jolene would defend herself with clay before stretching punches at them. The branches led to a flight of stairs to the next level of the lair.
"Whoa!" They were taken aback by the sight of a sphinx. …A sphinx that looked like Grunty. The walls around it were painted with pyramids against a black background, and the ground was sandy. Robi walked forward and dipped his foot in the sand. "I didn't think we'd find something like this. At least it feels warm! You should take your shoes off, Jolene. You don't want sand in your shoes."
That was a custom Jolene learned when playing in the sandbox. So, she took them off and put them in her Infi-Cube. There were bodiless eyeballs bouncing around the sand; upon spotting the duo, the Googly Eyes possessed masses of sand and became cyclones, lunging at the kids. "Whooooaaa!" Taken by surprise, the two were swept up by the sand's "breeze" and flung into a wall. The earthbenders couldn't take hold of the sand they were possessing, so Robi bent his own sandballs to throw against the eyes. In one corner of the large room, there appeared to be a "sand dam." Beside it, there was a map depicting the room, and two spots were marked with X's.
Beaming with an idea, Robi led her to the first approximate spot beside a palm tree. He skied around that spot while bending the sand away, revealing a footprint switch underneath. "I knew it! Stand on this, Jolene!" She did so. Robi went to the next switch beside a sign of hieroglyphs, having to fight more Googly Eyes. After unearthing and pressing the switch, the dam opened, pouring a hill of flowing sand down. The two ran to it, but no matter how much they kicked, they couldn't run up the flow. "Man, Spike could run up this easy. But I have an idea: Jolene," Robi held her hand, "I'll flap my wings to give us a boost, and we'll try to slow the sand with our bending as we run up. Ready?"
With her nod of approval, Jolene focused her chi to stabilize the sand around their steps. It took about 15 seconds for them to make it up the hill, after which they stopped to catch their breath. "Huff…that'd be easier if it weren't for the bending curse."
"Ooooooggg…if we didn't have bones, would we be jelly? I feel like… my tummy is jelly."
Robi giggled as Jolene poked her own chubby belly. Grumbllllle… But he realized her analogy was based on an empty stomach. "Oh, yeah. We never got a chance to eat lunch, huh? We should've ate something at that carnival. I hope the next area has food."
They traveled along the cliff overlooking the sphinx room. Giant, purple mummified hands called Slappa would emerge from the sand and try to fall on the children. After they fell, Robi would shatter them with a Ground Pound, "UUUURRR!" their cries of death loud and echoey. One corner of this walkway had a folded-in staircase that would lead to an upper path, but they found nothing that could visibly help them. Another corner had a small sandfall. Jolene, being her curious self, decided to walk in and "shower" in the sandfall. "Don't, Jolene!" Robi bent the sand open like curtains. "If you drink that, you'll end up even hungrier. …Hey!" Behind the sandfall was a footprint trail. "Haha! You did it again, Jolene!"
They clayed up and walked up the path, keeping the sandfall bent away. The trail led to another jigsaw portrait with five pieces missing. The portrait depicted a river running up a sunny desert with a sphinx and distant palace. "Good thing we collected all these! …But, isn't there supposed to be a platform? Hmmm…" Since this area was filled with sand, Robi only drew one conclusion: he skied and swirled the sand away, revealing the Puzzle Pedestal underneath. Jolene stood on it: the Jiggies magically levitated away from her and stuck into the portrait. After another epic fanfare, the children looked toward the sphinx.
A flight of stairs opened between the sphinx's front legs. A sign magically formed above them: Nefertine's Nile. "The stairs are open." Jolene pointed. "We can go down them now."
"This next world looks like Egypt! This should be fun!"
Sadly, Gruntilda's voice spoke to dampen the mood: "An obscure crossover nobody knows. Is that really your best? This story blows!"
Robi shot her a raspberry. The friends rode down the sandfall and happily raced toward the stairs. They led down to a wide, extensive river sailing through an illusory desert under a starry night, pyramids and sphinxes in the distance. Rowing the Clay Boat calmly down the stream, they wondered what adventure awaited next. (Play "Gobi's Valley" from Banjo-Kazooie! (Though I intend for it to be mixed with part of Nefertine's theme.))
World 2: Nefertine's Nile
The other side of the portal was far livelier in comparison! The golden sand contrasted nicely with the vibrant sky and Nile River. Since they spawned on a small island, they used their boat once more to sail the river. Their natural instinct was to proceed forward… so, Robi instead suggested they turn around and sail back. If they kept sailing downriver, they would go back through the portal to the lair, but just before it, there was a leaning palm tree with a Jinjo cage hanging from it! They set the green Jinjo free and turned to sail back the opposite way. They couldn't go far before a netted gate blocked the river, requiring them to disembark at an oasis to the left. The oasis was full of happy-looking crocodiles, so they Flutter Jumped the small islands to cross it.
"Look! There's another cage!" Robi pointed up the small valley beyond the oasis. "But… that's not a Jinjo."
It was a girl with short blue hair, a white tunic, and a gold ring headpiece. Four Scabbies (large scarabs) swarmed around the cage, buzzing to attack the ops when they approached. Though they looked big and scary, the bugs were easily squishable. "(Wow!)" the girl beamed in amazement. "(Who are you two? What was that power you used?!)"
"Huh?" The two approached her. "Sorry, we can't understand you."
"(You speak the same language as the sorceress? Hmm…well, you look like nice kids! You see those letters over there?)"
Following the direction of her finger, they had just noticed the floor of tiles with hieroglyphs in front of the cage. "(You have to step on the right ones to open this cage. Look at my papyrus!)" They faced her again as she drew symbols on an old type of paper.
"So… you want us to step on those symbols? Here, Jolene, you're good at hopscotch!" Robi gave Jolene the paper. She walked to the opposite side of the tiles and looked at the symbols one at a time. She squat and bounced like a frog to the first symbol. She rotated in place for a while to find each symbol, but in time, she would press all 5.
The girl's cage as she skipped out! "(Thanks! The sorceress' minions have been kidnapping children all across the Nile and—wait…)" She pulled out her papyrus and drew a series of symbols.
"Let's see…" Robi observed. It looked like Gruntilda reaching her arms menacingly over fleeing children. Grunty seemed to originate from a witch-hatted palace. "So, you wanna beat Grunty, too! Jolene, can you make a model of Grunty?" The pudgy-cheeked girl molded a half-complete model with Grunty's pointy head. Robi spun his fist and punched the model. "We wanna stop Grunty, too, see?"
"(Then let's work together!)" She fist-pumped. "(Since you can't read my language, I can help you easy! My name is Nefertine.)"
"Nefer…tine?" Robi pointed at her, and she nodded. "Then, Robi!" At himself. "Jolene!" At her.
"(I've never met kids like you before! This is going to be fun! Before we go, there's something behind this cage.)"
Nefertine led them around, showing them a small sign that said "Z >" pointing at a hieroglyph. "That must be the letter this symbol means! I wonder if Grunty's minions left it here as a note?"
"Uh, how come?" Jolene asked. "Are they… gonna cheat on the spelling test?"
"Maybe it means Grunty uses these symbols in other worlds, and her minions have trouble remembering them. Nefertine, can we borrow a piece of paper to write these on?" Nefertine understood Robi's gesture and inscribed this note. "But as long as you're with us, we shouldn't have too much trouble here."
They returned to the oasis area and Flutter Jumped back across the islands. "(They won't bite us if we feed them bananas!)" Nefertine body-slammed a palm tree, dropping some bananas down. "(Crocodiles love bananas.)" She threw them into the water as the reptiles delightedly chowed down.
"Wait! Now we do have food, Jolene!" Robi kicked the tree and knocked a few bananas down for he and his friend, revitalizing their stamina with potassium. Jolene could make a clay raft and calmly row them down a corresponding river without being nipped. It led to a shore with a switch with a net design. After pressing it, they could see the net gate blocking the Nile was opening. They returned to the Nile and sailed further up! They hit a lever on a small platform, and it spawned a magic ring forward-left. They heard a timer ticking, so Jolene quickly sailed them to the ring. Another one spawned far right, another downriver, and the 4th spawned upriver. The constant direction changing baffled Jolene so much that she twirled and fell over. Because of this, they couldn't finish the challenge in time.
"The Nile's rings go 'round and 'round! To make dumb children confused and confound!"
Infuriated by Grunty's taunt, Robi encouraged Jolene to try again. They sailed back to reset the challenge, and this time made it through all six rings! The Jiggy spawned on the next dock, from which another gate blocked the Nile. Since they'd have to dock, anyway, they were glad to be rewarded for it.
With Nefertine in their Jiggy Dance, the trio lined up and did an Egyptian walk! Robi tossed the Jiggy across Jolene to Nefertine, they faced forward and angled arms up and down, then Nefertine handed it to Jolene. Jolene put it on her head like a crown, the two briefly bowing before Jolene put it away.
They had docked at a small town area with a sphinx statue in the center. "(Look! It's Ascoobis, the Underworld spirit! Hi, Ascoobis!)"
"Rerro, Refertine!" the statue barked. "I'm rungry. The rillagers ridn't ring me ry Ascoobis Snacks. Ran you ro rind my rix Ascoobis Snacks?"
"He speaks in a totally different language." Robi said.
"(He wants us to find his food offerings.)" Nefertine drew a picture of a bone going into Ascoobis' mouth.
"But if dogs eat bones, they'll choke because they already got enough bones in their body." Jolene said.
"Let's look for them anyway, Jolene." They first approached a building with a CD symbol above it. The door was closed: it had a 'No Shoes, No Service' picture, so the kids couldn't go in. Instead, they walked around the shop, and Robi felt a chi flow in the backwall. He punched it and made brick steps appear. Jolene and Nefertine had an easier time stepping up them, going through the shop window. There was a poster of Gruntilda and her old Hogwarts rock band, and an assortment of Wizard Rock CDs… which, while writing this, I realize is more extensive than I thought.
There was a sign listing the symbol that stood for "W." While planting her face to the glass display at the desk, Jolene saw a cover with a dog. She stuck clay to the glass to yank it off, tumbling on her back. When Nefertine saw what she did, she noticed the very same cover, opening it to find an Ascoobis Snack (a brown, crunchy bone-shaped cookie)! Later, the trio discovered an escalating trio of ring-topped cacti, the Snack hanging in the 3rd one. Jolene could pick Nefertine up with Clay Hand, aim carefully, and throw her through to grab the snack. There was a small field where a large, mummified hand called Grabba would rise out, taunting them with his snack. But when they got close, he would sink. Robi could sense his position under the solid earth with Seismic Sense and stomp him out, stealing the treat. Grabba moaned in sadness as he returned underground.
Several Googly Eyes hopped around the village, possessing rocks as they lunged at the kids. As they destroyed the eyes and smashed the rocks, they found a snack in one of them! One of the buildings was a simple bedroom where a fat man lay asleep on his mat. Out of curiosity, Robi Ground Pounded his belly and made him hack out a snack. The last snack was simply hidden between Ascoobis' hind legs, along with the Egyptian letter "S." They returned upfront and threw each snack into Ascoobis' open mouth.
"Mmm! Scoooooby-Dooby-Dooooo! Rehehehehe! Rank you, rids! RI'm off to Rodlyrood. Rome roin me rometime!" The statue pranced off the pedestal, revealing a switch to lower the next gate. Once it was pressed, the kids resumed sailing. There were several leaning trees on the right cliff and three muscular gorillas on them. "'ey, you! This Congas' river! Dumb kids get oranged!" The Congas began chucking oranges like softballs, hitting the kids in the face.
"Hey, that's not nice!" Robi yelled. "Let's get off on this shore and beat them at their own game!" There was a ledge on the opposite side for them to stand on. Robi could stomp and shoot rocks out at the Congas, while Jolene had a different means of attack: she could catch the oranges with her clay as a baseball mitt and throw back! When the Congas each suffered three hits, they slumped in exhaust.
"Oooog. Congas no can taste their own orange."
"'Guess orange is tougher than you thought!" snapped the orange-skinned Robi. "Now, give us a Jiggy!"
"No know what you mean. But we have bottles of Egyptian paint." The Congas chucked bottles to their shore. "Congas, let's go throw oranges at sphinx." The gorillas climbed up their cliff and left.
"(These are the paints they use to make murals.)" Nefertine said. "(We should hold onto these.)"
The letter "C" was noted on this shore, so they jotted it down before leaving. Another gate would block the Nile. There were two shores they could dock at: the left one led to a huge hourglass and the right led to a series of pools with a tall building at the end. They first docked at the pools, seeing different fish jumping out of them. "Micerina!" Nefertine grew excited as she ran to a white cat with black stripes besides one of the pools. "(Micerina, are you trying to catch fish?)"
"Snuffle-fluff?" The cat pointed at the pool. One of those pink fish was unlike the others: "Huhuhuhu!"
"That's no fish! That's a Glowbo!" Robi realized. Its ears were just like fins!
"(You guys want that fish? Micerina, catch!)" Nefertine picked her cat up and threw her, snagging the Glowbo!
"Sweet!" Robi took it. "That means Uncle Raymond is nearby!"
They found a sign with the letter "F" before going to the tall building. Inside, there was a statue of Gruntilda and several people bowing to it on platforms over an abyss. Some men would lift up, chanting, "Wooooorship." They would bow, and different men would lift up and chant, "Wooooorship-ship."
"They're worshipping Grunty?!" Robi exclaimed. "What has she done to them?!"
"(Their backs look sturdy enough to jump on while they're bowed.)" Nefertine said. They noticed a sign on the wall beside them; three hieroglyphs with arrows between them. Conveniently, there was another post translating the letter "G," and that happened to be the middle letter of the clue.
"Red…green…blue…green…red…green…" Jolene repeated, transfixed on the men bow up and down.
"Jolene?" Robi tried to understand what she was focusing on. "…Oh! They're wearing different-colored skirts! The red ones rise, then the greens, blues, and goes back-and-forth! It'll be tricky for all of us to go, so I'll do this myself." Robi paid attention to the colored tunics as he timed his jumps across the worshippers. He got to the right of the Grunty statue and followed a staircase up and behind it. It would lead him to a second floor of floating worshippers, but this time, two different colors would stand, bend down by the waist, and rotate as they jigged their rears. The 3rd color in that combo would sit in meditation and be unjumpable, and that one was dependent on the previous pattern. Memorizing the order was trickier this time… in fact, Robi saw an alternate route leading to a Brown Jinjo cage. It took a while to get his bearings on the pattern, but he was able to free the Jinjo and make it to the end.
A ladder led Robi to the top of the room, where two colors of worshippers would stand and twirl around while the 3rd would bow, based on the same pattern. Robi carefully made the jumps that would lead to the top of Grunty's hat. There, Robi felt a sensitive chi flow: he stomped the hat, causing the witch's nose to shoot off. It shattered on his friends' platform, revealing a Jiggy! Robi jumped and fluttered his way back to them, partaking in the Egyptian Jiggy Dance! They exited the tower and explored more of the pool area. There were some pillars supporting stone arches around them. They noticed footprints going up one: Nefertine was curious as Jolene applied clay to her soles, and was enthralled when she became able to walk up the prints!
The pillar led atop an arch, from which they could jump to another pillar, having to knock out a Scabby, then jump to the next arch. There, the operatives recognized a top-hat! "(What is this?)" Nefertine went to pick up the hat, curious as she peeped inside. "AAAAH!" And she was slurped inside. Robi giggled as he and Jolene jumped in after her.
"Heeeey, kiiiids!" Raymond Facilier cheered. "Welcome to Ancient Egypt! And I see you brought us a new friend!"
"(Who is this man?! A sorcerer?)"
"He's a friend, Nefertine!" Robi walked beside and held the witch-doctor's hand to show his goodwill.
"(He's… a friendly sorcerer? Can he help us beat the witch?)"
"(Unfortunately, kiddo, I'm a little shy on that kind of magic at the moment.)"
"You can speak her language?!" Robi jumped.
"Oh, I dabbled in my share of Ancient Egyptian back in school. Bein' here certainly helped me get adapted to it. Unfortunately, I can't do anything to make you kids understand her."
"Well, that's okay. We don't know any Egyptian kids, anyway!"
"Anyhow, I've got a new spell in the works, kids! It's a different kind of transformation. I still need a Glowbo, but I also need a few vials of mural paint. Unfortunately, I heard all the vials were taken by a group of gorillas."
"Wait! We got those vials!" Robi showed them to him. "We got the Glowbo, too!"
"HA HA, you kids are the best, ya know that?! Let's get this potion started!" Facilier poured all the paint into the pink pool in the center, then Robi threw in the Glowbo. "Perfect! Now, jump on in!" Robi took Jolene's hand and jumped in. Nefertine leaned over the pool questionably. "(Go on in, sweetheart!)" Raymond encouraged. "(It'll be just fine.)"
It would certainly be Nefertine's first time experiencing magic… but if her new friends were okay with it, she couldn't turn this adventure down! Nefertine jumped in, feeling the magic flow inside her. After a minute, all three climbed out of the pool. …But something was odd. "I don't look any different." Robi said. "Nothing happened."
"Au contraire, my friends. Direct your attention to this piece of mural behind me." Facilier thumbed toward a stone slab with a pharaoh on the right and empty space in the rest. "Why don't ya put your hands to that?"
Robi walked up first and touched it. "Ah!" His hand molded into the stone, becoming part of its art. He pulled it out in a panic. "Is this…" Robi leaned his whole body into the stone and became art. "Haha! Guys, look! I'm Egyptian art!"
"(Wow!)" Nefertine excitedly jumped in the stone with him, and Jolene curiously followed suit. They were posed with angled arms and could only face heads left or right. Their feet had little motion, but they could move around and jump.
"My spell's a work of art, ain't it? There's sure to be a ton of places you can explore with that! In fact, you see that big hourglass across the river? I bet ya there's somethin' helpful up there."
"Let's go see!"
The friends left the hat and crossed the Nile to the giant hourglass. There was another temple to the right, but they would explore that later. The hourglass was full of golden sand, there were several floating slabs around and up it… and a Jiggy spinning on its pavilion. "Well, that's an easy Jiggy. Wanna get it this time, Jolene?"
"Uhhh…" Jolene noticed something wrong. "It's spinning the wrong way."
"Huh? …Yeah, it is, I guess. But a Jiggy's still a Jiggy."
Nefertine presumed something was wrong based on their body language. She picked up a small rock and threw it at the Jiggy. "Boink!" It bounced in evasion. The kids were shocked as it boinked over and rammed them with rubbery force. "Do you like my evil Triggy? It loves to beat up little piggies!"
Nefertine tackled and held the Triggy while Jolene jumped on her back. The combined weight squished the air out of the Triggy. "Phew! You were right, Jolene! We better watch the way they spin from now on!"
Using their new power, they could enter the beginning of a mural that winded partway up the hourglass. However, Spinies were drawn on the stone, requiring them to jump. At the end of this slab, a floating square slab would move left and connect with it before going right. They had to walk into it while it was connected, or they'd fall out of the mural. That slab would connect with one from above, and they could use available platforms to jump into it and go up. That slab would connect to a long slab that angled up like stairs, having to jump mural Mum-mums on some. This slab would eventually let them out atop the hourglass. There was no Jiggy, but a small hourglass with gold sand.
As Robi and Jolene put their hands to it, they could feel a mystical chi inside it. Using their bending, they popped the sand out from the glass's cap. "WOW!" The sand exuberated a powerful light as they coated it over their selves! "Haha! This feels amazing!"
"(Could this be the legendary Sun Sand?! I heard this stuff can make you invincible for a few seconds! With your powers, we'll be able to use it easy!)"
"It sounds like you're saying we should keep it! And we will!"
You got the Sun Sand! This magic hourglass will enchant any sand put into it, allowing it to grant you temporary invincibility! When it runs out, you'll have to fill it up with more sand.
After climbing down the hourglass, the friends explored around it. The Egyptian "T" was behind it… and there was a netted gate with a night symbol.
They journeyed to the nearby temple. Nefertine translated the sign outside: "('The Rains of Time will not behold, to those who don't wear a coat of gold.' It sounds like something we need that Sun Sand for!)" She pointed at the hourglass.
"We need this? Then we better fill it with more sand." Robi scooped some in from the ground.
The trio entered a small chamber with hourglass pillars around the walls. The door sealed behind them. An ominous voice spoke: "Those who enter King Sandybutt's tomb will perish beneath the Tides of Time."
It started with a few single hourglasses that fell in random places. …Then, an entire hailstorm of hourglasses fell. It was then they knew they needed to coat their selves with Sun Sand! (Robi could bend some over Nefertine, too.) All they needed to do was wait out the storm the length of their hourglass. To their relief, the storm stopped just as their invincibility did… and the glass shards magically disappeared, too! "Curses! Now I won't be able to wake up for tennis practice in time! Wait! I still have one more hourglass I can use!" A large hourglass fell in the center of the room. "Just don't flip it around, or my schedule will be all messed up."
"It's the hourglass that changes day to night!" Robi recognized. "Flip it, Jolene!" (Play "Sandpaper Desert" from Origami King.)
Jolene used her little big hands to turn the glass over! When they headed outside, a beautiful, starlit sky graced the desert. "(It's nighttime! I can't believe it!)"
"All the sand turned purple!" Robi beamed. "It's so beautiful… and cold! Fufufufufufu!" He sat down and clenched his toes. "A-A-Aren't you cold, Nefertine?"
"(I guess you aren't used to desert weather!)" Nefertine chirped.
"It wasn't even that hot in the day…time?" The coldness slowly went away. Robi stood. "Now it's warm."
"Hmmm…" Nefertine had a feeling what was up. She turned to a vent machine on their right.
"That doesn't look like it belongs here." Robi said. "I bet ya Grunty put 'em there so the temperature wouldn't bother her." Nefertine pointed at her Grunty picture to confirm this. "It's probably not good for the desert, but at least it helps us."
The night gate had lowered, so the trio passed and crossed the vast, violet desert. With awe plastered over the young adventurers, they ventured the desert beneath a sharp crescent moon. Skeletons called Limbo would rise from the sand, leaping about as they slashed swords at the trio. They would defend from their bending attacks with shields, unless Jolene stuck clay to yank their shields away. Nefertine could also run, slide, and trip the Limbo while they were in defense mode, leaving Robi and Jolene to crumble the skeletons to pieces. However, after a few seconds, they would reassemble. "Wait!" Robi gasped. "Since it isn't daytime, anymore, we can't use the Sun Sand!"
"(Then just run!)" Nefertine encouraged them to flee the Limbo. The skeletons stopped chasing after a while, allowing them to catch their breath. They saw a pair of torches before what seemed like a huge scorpion. As they warily drew nearer, they realized the scorpion's "head" had the torso of a bald, muscular human! "(It's the Scorpion King! Hey, Mr. King!)"
"No, that's the Tooth Fairy!" Robi pointed. "I found him when Spike knocked my teeth out one time!" He fondly remembered showing his parents the tiny fairy man he had captured.
"I don't know what you're talking about, kid." The scorpion spoke in both languages.
"(You sound sad, Mr. King. What's wrong?)"
"Well, I was about to go to the party in Godlywood, but my scorpions got lost somewhere in the desert. Sigh, and I asked them to bring my three accessories. Scorpions can be real dumb sometimes. Maybe I should go in the Tooth Fairy business…"
"We'll find your scorpions, Your Highness! Right, Jolene?"
"My dad says if bugs were any bigger than Arceus made them, they couldn't handle the weight of their own lungs, and they would pop from their own breath."
"I… didn't know that. At least the same isn't true for people!" Robi smiled, thinking of the giant operatives.
There were several patches of light around the desert, and Robi could ski around them to unearth their treasure. One of them had a ball of bright sand. "Is this Sun Sand? Alright! Now we don't need to make it daytime!" Other patches had cookies to replenish them (after they bent the sand off), one had the Egyptian "B," another had Googly Eyes that attacked them, and some had more Sun Sand. Robi could use Sun Sand to cross a garden of cacti to reach a secluded sand patch. There, he could unearth a scorpion… which seemed to be carrying a giant pair of multi-legged pants.
There was a ruin situated over a chasm. Using Facilier's gift, they could merge into the ruin's wall. What followed was a sort of maze, where they had to jump in and out to different walls. If there was a crack, they couldn't walk past it. Since Nefertine had experience with mazes, she helped them navigate until they reached the end, finding a scorpion with sunglasses. And there was a magic carpet to take them back! The last scorpion seemed to be out in the open… but when they walked to retrieve it, a circle of green ghosts called Tee-hees poofed into being, laughing eerily as they swarmed the kids. But when Robi kicked on the Sun Sand, they would burst into green mist! This last scorpion had a vacation shirt.
The kids returned the three accessories to Scorpion King. "Ahh, there's what I'm talkin' about!" Fit with the multi-legged pants, open shirt, and sunglasses, he was one cool king! "Got this stuff from my vacation in the Pacific! I'll be the coolest guy in Godlywood with this gear!"
"What is Godlywood, anyway?" Robi asked.
"It's the new grooviest town around, where all the mortals and Egyptian Spirits can party all night! Some witch and a bunch of ogres built it last week. You kids oughta swing by! Oh, and here's some gold for helping me." He tossed them a Jiggy before skittering away. In fact, he seemed to be headed toward an Arabian palace with colorful spotlights.
"(The sorceress made Godlywood? Now that I think about it… that looks like the place where the kidnapped children were being taken!)"
"We better go see what's up with this place." Robi agreed… or at least, he thought he did. One of the heaters scattered throughout had the "H." A spiral-shaped sand dune caught their eye, and they could ascend its sides by performing the Flutter Sprint trick they used back in the lair. The top of the dune had a spirit in white garb and a skull, beak-shaped head.
"I shall remember this night… as I remember every night… because this is seriously ticking me off!"
"(It's Khonshu, the Moon Spirit!)" Nefertine ran up excitedly. "(What's the matter, Mr. Khonshu?)"
"I sent my Moon Knight up to investigate that strange floating pyramid… but he's been up there for ages, and he took my Moon Staff. I can't show up to Godlywood without my Moon Staff. I have a reputation to keep!"
The kids looked up and could make out the black, two-tipped pyramid in the sky. As Robi stepped a bit closer, he stepped on something hard: a round pad with a butterfly wing symbol. Robi felt a strange force inside it, but he couldn't feel any power-up in his wings. "This might be something we'll have to come back for." At the very least, the "M" was beside him.
After sliding down the sand, the friends progressed through a ruins where Mum-mums roamed. There was a sign that read, Follow the lone ghost. The ruins were followed by a valley of whirlwinds. There were several green Tee-hees and a purple one haunting the area, so they stayed clear of it. Robi saw a Jinjo cage floating in the air, so he used the whirlwind below it to save the purple birdy. When he came down, Nefertine tapped their shoulders and pointed at the purple Tee-hee. Unlike the green ones, who were patrolling set paths, the purple one seemed a bit antsy, with an urge to go somewhere. It wandered away from the area after sometime, so the kids followed it. The ghost led them near some cliffs and phased into the sand. Robi unearthed that spot and discovered a Grunty switch. "What does this do?" He pressed it.
Back in the lair, the Grunty sphinx excreted a Jiggy!
"Hm…nothing happened." Robi shrugged. The cliff had the "G" on it, and further to the corner of it, there was another sign embedded between a diamond shape. "('Dive between the divided'?)" Nefertine read. She shrugged, not sure what it means herself.
They returned to the whirlwind area and proceeded toward Godlywood. They only needed to cross a canyon using a pair of natural bridges… that seemed to be an odd shape. To Nefertine, they resembled Prince Atem and his cousin, Priest Seto. A Slappa ambushed them while crossing the bridges, and some Tee-hees would try to push them off. Atem and Seto's elbows touched at the elbows, angled toward themselves, then were bent at the wrists as their fingers touched. Jolene stood on the elbows for a minute, using her double vision to split the bridges in and out. "Haha! Alright, Jolene, we gotta go."
Nefertine wondered what exactly she was staring at. Something about the arms' shape? …They… shaped like a diamond! "(Dive between the divided… this must be what it meant! Follow me!)"
"NEFERTINE!" Robi panicked as she dove into the chasm! He dove in after her, but they plopped safely on a table full of cards.
"DAH!" Prince Atem panicked. "(What the heck?! You kids ruined our game!)"
They seemed to be playing with Pokémon cards. There were discarded soda cans and pizza boxes from Grunty's Delivery. "(Ha! You probably paid them to ruin our game because you couldn't suffer another humiliating loss.)" Seto laughed.
"(Our game wasn't nearly over! I was about to turn it around!)"
"(As if, loser~)"
"Uh…we're really sorry." Robi blushed. "Oof!" Jolene plopped on his head.
"(Just see yourselves out.)" Seto said. "(And you can have that gold if you don't tell anyone we're down here.)"
There was a Jiggy across the room! In fact, it was right on top of a bendable spot, which would lift the trio up through a hole in the ceiling and back onto the bridge. Before actually leaving, they jotted down the "A" that was noted in here. "At least we're finding Jiggies now. I feel like we went awhile without finding much." But with that, it was finally time to enter the lively city of Godlywood, just beyond the twin bridges. (Play "Royal Snif Hotel Pool" from Origami King!)
There were Egyptians and spirits partying in every corner! …Except for the elderly. Neon strobe lights shone on the sky, and neon fountains jutted from a pond in all sorts of formations! They saw Scorpion King giving several women a ride, and a bunch of cooks throwing tons of food down Ascoobis' throat. However, the crowd was too dense for the kids to fight through, so they rowed a Clay Raft across the pond. The fountains would uplift them, the kids posing like they were surfing, and at this height, they could jump to a building roof. They had view of another pond with fountains risen to their level, and the same worshippers dancing on them! The ones who would stand and dance would follow the same pattern, and even the fountain's colors matched them.
They could rest on a safe spot, which Robi felt was bendable. He could do a Rock Launch and, from the air, see other safe spots between the party-goers. Since those people were holding celebratory sparklers, landing on them would be dangerous. They landed on and Rock Launched from each safe spot until they could rest on a roof. From here, they had view of a busy street, where a giant crocodile lady with long black dreads was dancing amongst the tiny civilians. "(Is that Lady Ammit?)" Nefertine wondered.
There was a glowing clock embedded in the palace past the crocodile. "…THE LIFE CLOCK!" Robi exclaimed. "It is here! She's sucking the life from all the kids in town! And that'll be us, too, if we don't break it! Nefertine, look at this." Robi borrowed her papyrus and hastily drew the clock, along with some laying children's bodies and X's over their eyes.
"(So… that clock is killing people? We need to stop it!)"
They could blend into a mural that seemed to stretch up the street. There were gaps in the slab, but Dammers would dance out, spin, and return inside before repeating. When their backs lined up with the mural, the kids could go across them. The end of the slab lined up with some frog floats they could jump. This was followed by a snake float they had to walk up with Clay Prints, angling up to a thin walkway. This walkway supported a pyramid-shaped lantern, attached to a wire where scales hung from. "We can swing this to the Life Clock!" The children grabbed the wire and dropped, detaching it by the pyramid as they swung toward the tower—the pyramid BASHED Lady Ammit's head.
They landed on the open ground beneath the tower. "Those platforms lead up there! Great!"
"And just WHERE do you think YOU'RE GOING?!" The kids tensed up as Ammit's coldblooded presence loomed over them. "How dare you drop a pyramid on me in the middle of MY DANCE?!"
"(W-W-We're sorry, Lady Ammit! Um, but we really need to destroy that clock. It's killing people.)"
"Well, of course it is! Gruntilda wants the youth of all the children in this desert."
"Huh?!" Robi gasped. "You're in league with her?!"
"Gruntilda told me everything. She told me these children would grow up to enslave thousands of their own people. It's better that we stop that from ever happening. We'll make them too old to enslave anybody. All I have to do is manage her minions in this country and capture any child we see, as well as protect the Life Clock… and as a bonus, I get to get groovyyyyyyy!" She did an Egyptian jig.
"(I would never enslave anybody!)" Nefertine stomped in conviction. "(And what you're doing is just as bad! We won't let you do this!)"
"Then I'll SWEEP you off the face of this country!" Ammit whipped out a giant broom and stamped it to the floor! (Play "Desert Battle" from Origami King!)
Boss fight: Crocodile Cleaner of Crime, AMMIT
The violent sweeping of her broom blew the trio to different ends of the field. She raised the broom above Robi and Nefertine, but Robi used Sun Sand to shield them both from harm. She turned back to Jolene and swept toward her, but the claybender had already spread a sticky trap around the floor, trapping her broom. In her struggle to tug it out, Nefertine saw the mural-like tapestry spiraling up her dress from the tail. Jolene climbed on the tail and merged into the tapestry, having to jump the mini crocodiles within it. The mural released her on Ammit's shoulder, from which Jolene could expand giant Clay Fists and HAMMER the spirit's snout!
The rebound bounced Jolene off. A furious Ammit jumped to one side of the field and extended the broom to cover its width. Once more, Robi used Sun Sand to protect his friends, staying far to Ammit's side as the deadly broom brushed over them. In its wake, some whirlwinds were left. While Ammit turned her broom up to search for their bodies, Robi jumped in one of the whirls to lift into the air. There were a few other whirlwinds around the space, so Robi used them to float higher above Ammit's head. The crocodile about-faced, giving Robi the chance to Ground Pound her snout.
"Bah! Sweeping won't do you any good! I'll suck you into oblivion!" Ammit turned her broom into a vacuum. The earthbenders tried to root their feet into the ground to keep from being sucked in, Robi holding Nefertine's arms. But once again, Jolene could send globs of clay, and Robi used his free hand to punch the earth and shoot small rocks, both working in tandem to clog the suction up. "Grrrrr!" When the vacuum ceased, she peered into the hole to try and pick out the dirt, fiddling with the sucker and blower switch. "!" The dust-covered earth and clay blew right up in her nose! "Ah-ah-ACHOO! The heck with this vacuum! I'll munch you with my own maw!" Ammit crouched and crawled, munching her teeth with every step.
Jolene used some clay to stick her right hand, stunning her for a minute, but she would shake off any attempts to climb or attack her snout. Fortunately, Nefertine saw another solution: the giant palm trees in the corners of the field had giant bananas! She tapped Robi and pointed at the bananas, both sharing a knowing smile. They ran and bashed the trunk a few times before a big banana bundle fell. When Jolene heard its collision, she hurried over and picked the bundle up with Clay Hands! After pulling her other hand free, Ammit was delighted by the giant fruits! Her giant jaws sealed around the bananas… but became glued by Jolene's clay. Robi ran to grab her, both rooting their feet in the ground as they engaged the giant in tug-o-war. Ammit backed further and the clay stretched thinner… but Nefertine ran behind the croc with another surprise: a smaller (normal size) baby banana.
Nefertine unpeeled it and threw the peel where Ammit's right foot would step. "!!" She slipped and flailed a few feet off the ground, causing the stretched clay to yank her straight over! She flew over the benders and CRASHED face-first into the clock tower! The benders ran to her sides before her belly plopped. "Waaaaahhhh!" Ammit cried and rubbed her sore nose. "My sinuses are squished and clogged! Now I need to visit the allergist! You party poopers haven't heard the last of me!" And with that, the croc poofed into darkness. (End song.)
The crater Ammit dented revealed a gold, Crystal Jiggy in the tower. "It's the clock's power source!" Robi pointed. "Just like last time! Jolene, let's do it again!"
Using the walkways that led up the tower, they got to one level with the Crystal Jiggy, latched clay to it, and worked together to tug it out. They then climbed level with the Life Clock and swung the Jiggy into it. The clock exploded with tremendous power, returning youth to all the children in Godlywood! "WE DID IT! WE DID IT!" Robi cheered, grabbing his friends in a "ring around the Rosie" dance.
"We did it!" Nefertine cheered.
"Hey! You spoke English!"
"I'm spoke English!"
"Close enough! Hahahahaha!" And they danced some more.
They stopped at an angle where Jolene would face where the clock used to be. "…?" She pointed at it. The two saw a hidden room beyond it. Curious, they jumped into the room. They found the Egyptian "L," but more importantly… there was a pair of desk lights shining on a hot board, where a tiny green bug was trapped. …It was no bug! "LILY!"
Their little Kateenian friend was dehydrated and barely breathing. Thankfully, the clock's destruction restored some of that life, but the kids quickly broke the lamps to end the torture. "(Aw, you poor thing.)" A sympathetic Nefertine used her smaller fingers to unwrap Lily's tiny bindings, and Jolene would rest her in her soft, little hands.
"Uuuuuhh…Robi…Jolene…" She managed a smile. "You're alright…"
"Let's bring her to one of the ponds outside." Robi suggested. "By the way, this is Nefertine, our new Egyptian friend!"
"Hey, Lily!" Nefertine waved.
"Huhu! We're learning each other's languages!"
"Hehe…hello, Nefertine!" Lily grinned. "Huff…Jolene… your parents… and the others were-"
"We know. Grunty showed us pictures. The others are being tortured somewhere, too. She said her minions fought you."
"There were… only two of them. They called each other… 'B' and 'E.'"