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Chapter 2:
Mysteries of the Sea...
-Yoshiman-
Miraculously, or probably just to keep the story
going, they landed on top of a ship. Unluckily, or
probably to thicken the plot, It had pirates.
"Arrr! I be Captain Shy!" Said
the obviously important looking one, "Ye be
tresspassin on The Shy Galleon! Boys! Take them to the
Lower deck!"
-lzn64-
Mario and his friends were then violently thrown into
the the lower deck of the ship by a strange-looking crew
of pirate-shyguy hybrids. Mario and Luigi sat on two
large barrels, while Yoshi plopped down on the floor.
Mario sighed and looked at the ceiling, in which was a
small grating that allowed a bit of light in.
"Great, now how are we going to get back to the
Mushroom Kingdom?" Mario asked, looking away from
the ceiling and toward his companions.
"I have no idea, bro. There's a ton of pirates
up there!"
"Yoshi could eat them." At this, Yoshi
looked up from his daydreaming.
"Yeah, I could eat them, but we have to get out
of here first."
"Right. How should be do that? Any ideas, Mario?"
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!"
As he thought, his eyes strayed around the room, and
suddenly he caught sight of an old, moldy, wooden ladder.
It was laying on its side, covered with spider webs and
half hidden under a pile of smelly fish.
"Well, it's worth a shot," he thought, and
he walked over to the ladder. "How about we use
this?" He said out loud.
"Whoa, no way. That couldn't hold Toad safely!"
Luigi protested.
"Well, do you see another way?" Mario
asked, pulling the ladder out.
"That's besides the point!" Luigi retorted,
eyeing the ladder uneasily.
Mario and Yoshi set the ladder up, and were pleased
to see that the ladder nearly reached the top of the hold.
They set it up under the grating.
"I'll go first." Mario said, but before he
could start up the ladder, Yoshi stopped him.
"No, way. The second you reached the top, those
pirates would skewer you. I'll go first, I can eat them.
I'll hold 'em off while you and Luigi climb up."
"All right!" Mario said, relieved. "C'mon,
Luigi, help me hold the ladder."
Mario and Luigi held the ladder, while Yoshi slowly
climbed up the old ladder. It squeaked alarmingly, but
surprisingly enough, it held. Yoshi lifted the grating,
and soon the sounds of a Yoshi eating and some very
surprised pirates drifted down. Mario and Luigi climbed
up, and they reached the top just in time to see Yoshi
eat the captain.
"Great, now all we have to do is get this ship
to the Mushroom Kingdom!" Mario said, taking the
wheel.
"Um, Mario?" Luigi asked uneasily.
"What?"
"Which way is the Mushroom Kingdom, exactly?"
"Well...I don't exactly know..."
"Great."
"So, how are we gonna get home?" Yoshi
asked, looking from Mario to Luigi with a concerned
expression on his face. "I don't like this ship. It
smells bad."
"Maybe we should look for a map." Mario
suggested.
So, the trio began scouring the ship for
a map of the Mushroom Sea....
-Ditto McCloaker-
The Mario Brothers scoured the Shy Galleon from stem
to stern, and, as the moon rose high in the sky, they
admitted there was nothing aboard that could lead them
home. That night, as the calm sea air wafted in the still
night sky, Mario remained firmly planted at the wheel,
the dancing yellow glare of a single dusty old lantern
swinging with the movement of the ship, illuminated the
inside of the cabin. With each noisy swing, Mario felt
his grit and hope passing away under the monontony.
Loyal Yoshi, containing his concern for the sake of
his friends, had curled up in a nearby haystack and tried
to sleep, leaving muttered instructions that he would
take over whenever Mario got tired.
Luigi remained on the deck of the ship, leaning over
the rail, contemplating dreamily the placid breath of the
ocean, and the starry night sky. It was a times like
these that the similarities between the problems of
gritty Earth and the carefree Mushroom World showed. Even
in this wonderland of plenty and of beauty, one tended to
forget the uneven hand fate tended to deal.
Suddenly, something reflected in Luigi's green eye.
With a start he suddenly opened his eyes from a slight
slumber to become suddenly aware of something out on the
moonless ocean. With some vague question about how long
he had been asleep, Luigi ran down the deck to the
mainbrace to gain a better vantage point of the
inexplicable glow on the horizon. As he squinted to make
out detail, something akin to a chill pierced his heart.
At first, he chalked it up to the eerie silence of the
night, and the and being alone on the large, musty deck
of an old-fashioned galleon, playing tricks with his
sleep addled imagination, but, no, to his anxious
recognition, he realized that the form gradually gliding
alongside the Shy Galleon was wrapped within an ethereal
gray light, as though it carried with it the pale,
deathly mists of the grave.
As the massive, skeletal frame of that ghostly
Clipper made it's way ever closer, it seemed, to Luigi,
he felt a chain of fear and panic choke his throat. With
the energy of a stricken madman, he ran, wordlessly,
toward the cabin clear on the far side of the ship, and
slammed open the door.
Inside, he saw the dark form of his brother Mario
slumped heavily over the wheel, deep in slumber, the
swinging lamp above having long ceased to provide light.
Mario's gloved hand still clutched firmly the device's
spokes. Yoshi also lay in an unmoving heap on the straw,
and the slight whistle of their snores was the only
sound, aside from the beating in his own chest, which
reached Luigi's ears.
Still barely able to conjure forth audible speech,
Luigi began to furiously shake his brother, whose eyes
opened with a painful slowness. As his brother slowly
came to recognize him, Luigi inadvertently cast his eyes
out the window and saw the windows of the unearthly
vessel aligned almost perfectly with that of the Shy, and
with a renewed shock of terror, Luigi's limbs all but
lost their power, nearly allowing the drowsy Mario to
slump to the floor. By this point, however, Mario had
nearly returned to the world of wakefullness, and he
looked with concern into his brother's panic-stricken
green eyes, whose gaze he found himself unable to
maintain for more than a moment.
"Luigi!" Mario shouted, "What's-a the
matter? You looka so pale..."
Luigi, however, his eyes transfixed on the terrible
ghastly vessel out the window behind Mario, was rendered
incapable of utilizing even the most basic motor
abilities, and, despite his urgent wish, was unable to so
much as lift his arm to direct Mario's attention, as the
horrible shadow enshrouded faces of the immaterial crew
drew forth from the darkness...
-lzn64-
Mario looked at Luigi's face in utter confusion for a
moment, then followed his panic-stricken gaze to the
window. He looked out in uneasy anticipation, and soon
caught site of the ghostly ship that had so terrified his
brother. He, too, was gripped by the cold hand of fear,
but not so much as his brother.
"I'm the leader here, I have to stay calm!"
He thought, tearing his gaze away from the window. By
that time, Luigi had recovered himself enought to
function normally, though not without a significant
tremor. He turned toward his brother, a question on his
lips, but to his surprise, Mario was nowhere to be seen.
Yoshi, however, was in plain sight, and was waking up.
"What's going on?" He asked blearily,
rubbing his eyes.
"Look out the window," Luigi retorted, a
slight tremor in his voice.
"Okay! Are we home?" Yoshi asked excitedly,
bounding to the window. His spunk didn't fade, even as he
caught sight of the ghost ship. "What's that?"
He asked, a confused expression on his face.
"I don't exactly know..."
"Oh. So I guess Mario went to go find out,
right?" Yoshi asked brightly, not affected by the
ship's presence in the least.
"Mario!" Luigi exclaimed, heading toward
the door. "I don't know where he went." Yoshi
followed him toward the door, and looked at him in
confusion when he faltered at the threshold.
"What's wrong, Luigi? It's just a door. Here,
I'll open it." Yoshi said, oblivious to Luigi's
terror. He stepped out onto the main deck, and turned to
face Luigi. "C'mon, let's go find Mario," He
said, a determined expression on his face.
"Uh...you go ahead. Someone needs to steer the
ship!" Luigi said, casting one more fearful look
toward the foggy ocean, in which the object of his terror
was floating nearby. He retreated in the small room, and
slammed the door. Yoshi shrugged and started his search.
He didn't have to search long, as he soon caught sight of
his plumber friend standing in the crow's nest.
"Mario! Hey, whatcha doin' up there?" Yoshi
yelled, but his voice didn't quite reach that high. So he
decided to climb up there with him. In a short while,
Yoshi had managed to climb the mast and get to the crow's
nest.
"Hey, Mario! What are you doing?" He asked,
looking over his shoulder.
"I'm trying to see who's on that ship..."
Indeed, Mario stood there holding a spyglass, which
had been left behind by the Shy Guy crew. He was
concentrating very hard on trying to see the crew of the
strange ship, but the crew seemed to fade out of
existence just as he got them into focus.
"I don't think there is anyone on the ship,"
Yoshi declared, squinting into the fog.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because there's obviously no one steering it."
"What?" Mario asked, removing the spyglass
from his eye. He turned toward his dinosaur friend,
concern in his eyes. "How do you know?"
"Because the ship is heading right toward us,
and if anyone was steering it wouldn't be doing that,"
Yoshi said brightly, oblivious to what that meant.
"Who's steering our ship?" Mario asked,
fighting down panic.
"Luigi, of course. He's the only other one here."
Yoshi said amiably, picking up the spyglass, which Mario
had dropped. As he fixed the small scope to his eye, he
was surprised by a sudden yank on his arm. Mario pulled
him down the mast, toward the captian's quarters, where
Luigi was frantically trying to steer out of the path of
the ghost ship. As Mario yanked him out of the way, the
spyglass fell from his hands, and tumbled into the icy
waters below.
Mario and Yoshi burst through the door of the room,
just as the ghost ship rammed into them. The boat groaned
dangerously, then spun wildly as the ghost ship bored
forward. Mario and his friends were thrown against the
wall of the room, then rolled forward again as the ship
rocked.
Mario managed to catch the wheel as he stumbled past,
and used it to pull himself up to his feet. He gripped
the wheel tightly, and managed to keep his feet as the
ship bucked and tossed. He made his way slowly toward the
door, and had managed to get his hand on the knob, when
suddenly the ship stopped its wild movement, and was
suspended in sudded calm. Luigi and Yoshi used this
period to latch onto something solid to keep them from
being tossed around if and when the boat rammed them
again, and Mario used it to race out the door toward the
safety railing on the ship. He soon caught a glimpse of
the ship, readying itself for yet another attack. As the
ghost ship neared the Mario's ship, he readied himself
for his most impressive jump ever. As the ghost ship
rammed into them, he launched himself, and as the boat
continued forward, he landed on deck. The ghost boat was
completely silent, but the sounds of his own boat's agony
as it was rammed into were painfully clear.
He forced thoughts of his brother and
his friend out of his mind, and concentrated instead on
finding the captain of this ghost ship. He was
unchallenged as he made his way toward the cabin, but as
he opened the door, he was yanked inside, and the door
was slammed behind him.
He stumbled, and nearly fell, but caught
himself just in time. He then turned to face the ghostly
ship above them...
-Editor-
"A... ghost ship..."
Luigi said in astonishment.
"The boat is stuck now." Mario
frowned, "The Ghost Ship is holding us here... we'll
have to get in and move it."
"Ok, let's head in!" Yoshi
said, with a strange level of excitement.
"Not so fast." Luigi
interrupted, "Someon will have to head the Phantom
Ship. One of us will have to take over this ship... and
then another to stand guard in case something happens."
"Ok... I'll go in the ship."
Mario volunteered, "And Luigi better take this boat
since he has the most experience. And Yoshi..."
"Guards the ship." Yoshi
interrupted glumly, "Yeah, I know.""
"Good. I'm going in." Mario
replied, heading towards the ghost ship, climbing over
the debris it had spread.
"Good luck!" Luigi exclaimed,
as Mario climbed in the ship.
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