PuppyLuver Studios presents
The Scoop of the Century
Chapter 9: Storming the Castle (or not)
It’s now that the story really starts getting good!
There’s a cameo by a character Maddie(ZootyCutie) came up with, based on a character from a certain Disney movie based on a certain book by Roald Dahl. Insert copyrights here.
------------------
The walls surrounding the Goblin City loomed over the Orb Retrievers impressively, especially considering that most of them were still in a heap after that incident near the end of the last chapter. “Well, we’re here,” Web said. “Now what?”
“What else?” Dimentio asked rhetorically. “We go in.” He thought for a bit. “Actually, it would likely be best if I went in alone. Barring the fact that the townsfolk already know and trust me, one attracts much less attention than many, especially considering the ‘many’ is this ragtag group of nitwits.”
Some of the group got slightly annoyed of Dimentio calling them “nitwits”. “I’m not a nitwit! I’m a nincompoop!” Homestar said.
“Yes, we know. Now, here’s the loose plan,” Dimentio told them all. “I will go alone to Jareth’s castle. You... I dunno, you can just hang in Dimension D or something until I get there. Sound good?”
It didn’t really sound all that great, but the group couldn’t think of any other options that wouldn’t tip Jareth off of their arrival, so they reluctantly agreed. As the “charming” magician prepared to enter the Goblin City, he sent everyone to Dimension D, a world of his own creation. There, amid the burn-your-eyes-out green walls, they saw a horrid sight.
It was Stardust. However, he looked so unlike when they had last seen him. Both eyes had changed to a pale gray color and the ruby on his chest was dull and cracked. His purple skin had faded and he was reaching upward at something only he could see in his state of delusion. “The stars, Ma...” he muttered weakly. “I can finally touch the stars...!” It was pitiful to watch. Meanwhile, Jess had taken to rummaging through the endless storage space in her hat. She was obviously looking for something specific, but what it was, no one knew. “Jess?” Shooting Star asked. “What are you doing?”
“Looking,” Jess replied. She continued to rummage, throwing random objects she had found behind her, which landed pell-mell across the lime landscape. “That’s not it...” she said as she came across a pink plastic ruler, a bottle of school glue, a birthstone sculpture of Kermit with a bouquet of flowers(the real Kermit caught this, smiling), a roll of duct tape and a pair of Wii logo print boxer shorts(these landed on Zoot’s head, though he didn’t seem to mind). Soon, she found what she had been looking for. “Aha!” she exclaimed, pulling out what looked like a portable DVD player.
“Oh, I remember that!” Zoot cried, the Wii boxers still perched atop his head. “Do you still have that DVD of Corpse Bride?”
“No, it was a rental,” Jess told him. “Plus, I’m not using this to watch movies.”
“What’re you guys talking about?” someone asked.
“DimentioVision,” Jess said.
“What?” everyone(except for Zoot) asked.
“DimentioVision,” Jess said again. “Last year, I implanted a device in ol’ Ziggy Crapforbrains’s head while he was knocked out from one of my blows again, and he still doesn’t know about it! Using that, along with my DVD player and this special disk...” (she held up a DVD that had “DimentioVision” written on it in black Sharpie) “... I can see and hear everything Dimentio does at any time I like. I mainly use it to make sure he’s not getting into my personal ice cream supply.” She put in the disk and turned the player on. Soon, the streets of the Goblin City came into view. Various creatures, mostly goblins, though some elves and a few fairies, wandered from building to building, running errands or visiting relatives. Often, one of the creatures would wave at Dimentio, who waved back. He seemed to be something of a minor celebrity to them. Once, a female goblin even swooned as he passed. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” Jess said when she saw how much positive attention the jester was getting.
Dimentio soon passed a short, squat goblin(which was pretty average amongst goblins) wearing an official-looking suit. The goblin was looking over a long list, no doubt a to-do list. This particular goblin was none other than Panjan Spittledrum, the mayor of the Goblin City. “Ugh, I have way too much stuff to do today,” Spittledrum moaned. “So much to do and not enough time. If only there were two more hours in the day... but even with 28 hours in the day, I might still have too much to do.” A disembodied black hand poked the distressed official on his shoulder. “Not now, not now! Can’t you see I’m busy?” he shouted.
“Aww, Panjan, buddy!” Dimentio said innocently. “That’s no way to treat an old friend!”
Spittledrum jumped slightly. “Dimentio?” he asked, in a slightly panicked but mostly happy tone. “I thought you said you weren’t coming back for another month or so!”
“That was an estimate, my good man,” the annoying jester said. “Turns out my job took less time than I had imagined.”
Job? Web thought, watching the scene on Jess’s DimentioVision player. What does he mean by that?
“So you have them then?” Spittledrum asked, intensely curious.
“Of course,” Dimentio laughed. “Well, I don’t have any on me at the moment other than the Spirit Orb, but I roped a bunch of suckers into helping me find the rest. Idiots, the lot of them, thinking I was trying to collect the Orbs before Jareth. Didn’t even suspect that I was on his majesty’s side the whole time! ‘Cept for Stardust, but he already knew the whole story, so he doesn’t count.”
Everyone watching the screen gasped in surprise. Dimentio lied! Of course, this was no surprise to those who had known the twisted jester, who had proven himself to be quite adept in lies and trickery in the past. Still, if he had lied about that, what else had he lied about? Was he really trying to stop this destructive force? Were he and the Goblin King only collecting the Orbs to help it along? “I knew it,” Jess said angrily. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted.”
“So why’d you hide the Spirit Orb for him if you didn’t trust him?” Kermit asked.
“Because I knew that if the universe really was in danger, which it is, then not helping him would mean that I would’ve had a hand in its destruction!” Jess retorted. “Do you know what that would’ve done to me inside? I could never live with myself knowing that.”
“But if the universe was destroyed, you wouldn’t be alive anyway,” someone else pointed out.
“That’s not...” She was about to say ‘that’s not the point’, but she couldn’t get all the words out before collapsing. The full effects of her world being destroyed had almost come down upon the teenage shapeshifter. Her hair had gone pure white along with her eyes. Every bit of color in her skin had drained. She looked like a blind albino. It was a truly shocking sight, though not yet as bad as poor Stardust.
Soon, a familiar voice rang throughout the entire room. “Anyone who wants to save the universe, please step into the swirling portal that looks like it’s in front of a castle wall,” Dimentio’s voice said. A swirling portal that looked like it was in front of a castle wall appeared before them. Everyone felt bad for leaving Stardust and Jess behind, but they knew they had to do something about the universe. If Dimentio had been using them this entire time to further its destruction, each and every one of them vowed to make him pay.
When they all passed through the portal, they found themselves at the doors of Jareth’s castle. Dimentio looked over everyone who had exited the portal and noticed something. “What happened to Jess?” he asked.
“The same thing that happened to Stardust,” Misty said coolly.
“Well,” Dimentio said somewhat hesitantly, “it’ll be reversed once we get that Fire Orb from Jareth and stop the destruction, so no worries, huh?”
Miss Piggy scoffed. “Who are you kidding?” she half-shouted. “We know vous are helping him. There’s no point in denying it. We saw and heard everything.”
Dimentio acted cool, but there was no avoiding the fact that his speech had become a bit jumpy and his eyes seem to dart around suspiciously. “Wh-what are you talking about?” he retorted almost as loud as the lady pig. “Helping Jareth! Maybe I would normally, but I-I’m not this time! He just wants the Orbs for glory! H-he doesn’t know that they’re the key to saving us all!”
No one believed a word the jester said. They all knew his lengthy track record for lies and treason. All the Muppets, former minions and cartoon characters closed in on Dimentio, who had proven once again how far he’d go for power. They wouldn’t let him get away with it this time.
What happened next all happened in less than five seconds, but seemed much longer. Everyone without any special powers pounced on Dimentio. Mimi pulled more of her Rubies out of midair and shot them at the “charming” magician, barely missing him but leaving a wide gash in the stone wall. Pink energy blasts fired from a space around Shooting Star(which I presume that is where her fingertips were). Even Kermit, who was usually content to vent his frustration by just shouting a bit and flailing his arms, made a motion as if he were going to punch the jester in his split-colored face. Dimentio, quicker than any of them, ran a circle around the group before disappearing. When it was all over, the traitor was long gone, some people had a few cuts and singed hair and Fozzie somehow got a black eye. “Oh, sorry about that, Fozzie,” Kermit said. “I was aiming for him, he must have moved before...”
“It’s okay, Kermit,” Fozzie replied, gingerly rubbing his eye. “I know you didn’t—”
“Oh no!” Nastasia suddenly cried. “The Wind Orb! It’s gone!”
“What?” Web and O’Chunks both checked their pockets. The Water and Earth Orbs had also vanished. Three guesses who was to blame.
------------------
Jareth was standing alone at the very top of the tallest tower, though not for long. A ripple appeared in midair as Dimentio warped to the site where they would join the five Orbs. “So, you have them?” Jareth asked. Dimentio said nothing, but instead pulled four glass balls from the inside of his cloak. “Excellent,” the Goblin King declared. “Let’s get started, then.”
“Okay.” Dimentio heard the obvious cracking of his voice, but Jareth didn’t seem to notice. If he did, he was being surprisingly kind not to mention it. He was placing the remaining four Orbs in their places on the five-point star already containing a pink glass ball that seemed to be dancing inside, alive with heat and light, the Fire Orb. When all five were finally together and in place, the star lit up. It was time.
------------------
“We need to go after him,” Kermit stated. “That’s the only way we can stop this.”
“But how?” Web cried. “We have no idea where he disappeared to! He could be miles from here by now!”
“Guys...”
“Then why would he bother bringing us here if he was just gonna take off?” Gonzo asked. “It makes no sense, even to me.”
“Guys...”
“To throw us off, probably,” Errol said. “Y’know, so it’d be harder for us to guess where he is.”
“HEY! STUPIDHEADS!”
Everyone turned their attention to Mimi, who was pointing up at the tallest tower of the castle. Strange colored lights were flashing in five different directions from the top, in purple, pink, yellow, green and blue. Suddenly, a bright white light shot upwards from the center. “Does that look weird to you?”
------------------
The two magicians were pouring all their energy into the Orbs. “Any minute now...” Jareth said excitedly. “It’ll be summoned soon. We’ll be heroes, Dimen. Heroes...”
“Yeah, heroes...” He didn’t even bother correcting Jareth about his name. A blinding white light shot out of the star holding the Orbs, causing them both to have to shield their eyes. Even as his magic drained, Dimentio couldn’t help thinking of one thing, nagging at the back of his mind. What was this strange feeling? He hadn’t felt anything like this in over ten years, and he couldn’t remember what it was called. What was it, sadness? Regret for his actions?
...Remorse...?
------------------
The group was thankful that Jess wasn’t the only shapeshifter out of them. Mimi had transformed into a pale, thin woman, wearing a blue beret and scarf and black-n-white patterned dress, who had a seemingly endless supply of thin yet incredibly strong string, which was being used to raise everyone to the top of the tallest tower. The white light that was towering above them was starting to fade, meaning whatever Dimentio and Jareth were doing was almost complete. They had to hurry...
------------------
The light died down. Dimentio and Jareth lowered their hands from their faces and saw a figure hovering directly above the star. It was clearly feminine, but what it was they weren’t sure. It had almost the same coloring as the star and the Orbs, though in a darker value, not so cheery and bright. There seemed to be a lingering darkness to this being the Orbs had summoned, though not in an evil way.
“Why have you summoned me?” the being asked. There was some sort of ethereal echo in its voice, which sounded as feminine as it looked. I think it’s safe to call this being a girl now. Her monochrome eyes seemed to be staring straight into the magicians’ souls.
“Are you Paltretta Leviton, the Being of Elemental Light?” Dimentio asked the being.
“No,” she said. “I am Notivel Attertlap, the Being of Elemental Dark. As with all things, the elemental powers need to be balanced. My existence balances that of my sister.”
“Okay...”
“Why have you summoned me?” Notivel repeated. There was now a trace of annoyance in her voice.
“There is a force that is causing the destruction of all the known worlds,” Dimentio told her, trying to sound desperate. “We had come across the knowledge that the Elemental Orbs would summon a different force that would have the power to stop this destruction. Please, help us fight this evil!”
“You have no room to speak of evil... Dimentio, Master of Dimensions and Pleaser of Crowds... Jareth, King of the Goblins and Ruler of the Labyrinth...” It was clear that Notivel, whatever she was, could see into their minds and hearts. “Both of you have caused horrible misdeeds in the past. The darkness residing in your hearts is the reason you have summoned me instead of my counterpart. You are not worthy of my services. And another thing... I would require the help of Paltretta to stop a villainy this powerful.” A thin layer of black smoke surrounded Notivel’s form before she vanished. It was about that time that the others had finally reached the top.
“There he is!” Mimi shouted, back in her normal little-girl form. “Let’s get that traitor!”
“No, you don’t understand!” Dimentio exclaimed. “I’ve been on your side this whole time, I only lied about the little details!”
But there would be no time to explain, for the black nothingness swallowing the worlds had finally caught up with them. You have avoided me for long enough! an evil voice rang out from the void, echoing in their minds. But now... now you are mine! They could clearly see what was swallowing the worlds now. The black, soulless eyes were on the front of a yellow fox-like face made of velvet, a glowing red jewel hanging above on a thin wire. The yellow head was attached to an equally yellow, equally fox-like plush body wearing white gloves and red shoes on its dangling limbs, two tails on its rump...
The Tails Doll.
Soon, darkness surrounded them, enveloping the world of the Labyrinth and all inside. They were cast into the void.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
No high-speed computer in my room really sucks.
