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Chapter 5:
The Mysterious Cabin
-lzn64-
The trio made their way up to the house, fighting the
wind all the way, and before long they were standing at
the doorstep. Mario reached toward the doorknob, with the
intention of opening the door, but before he could get
that far Yoshi stopped him.
"Wait, Mario. Shouldn't we knock first?"
Yoshi asked.
"You're on the right track, Yoshi," Luigi
laughed, "but I think we should take a peek at who's
inside before we do anything else."
"Oh, okay." Yoshi shrugged and stood below
one of the dusty windows. Luigi climbed on his back and
peered through the window panes. Just beyond the dirt
coating the glass, he could make out three shadowy
figures. They appeared to be sitting at the table.
"Well, there's good news," Luigi reported,
as he climbed off of Yoshi, "Someone's home."
"Are you sure it's good news?" Mario asked,
raising his eyebrows.
"Nope."
The three decided to do some further investigation.
As they made their way along the perimeter of the house,
Yoshi suddenly tripped on a large metal ring. After he
was done falling on his face and being laughed at, he
helped Mario and Luigi open the hatch.
"This must lead to the cellar of the house,"
Luigi commented, batting at the multitude of spider webs
which hung down from the ceiling.
"It's cold down here." Yoshi replied,
shivering. "When does this tunnel end, anyway?"
"Here," Mario commented, as they stepped
into the surprisingly large cellar. There was a wooden
ladder which led up from the cellar on the far wall, and
voices drifted down from the exit.
"Man, I can't believe we're reduced to living
like this!" one voice complained, which was met with
a grunt.
"It's all your fault, you know." A deeper
voice claimed, with a rustle of what sounded suspiciously
like wings.
"No, it wasn't. It was HIS fault!" The
first voice retorted.
"What!?" A third voice exclaimed.
"That's right, it's your fault. If you weren't
always spitting around your stupid bullets, we'd have
never been kicked out."
"Yeah? Well did you ever think that they just
got sick of seeing your ugly mask?"
"Hey!" The second speaker interrupted.
"Did the thought ever cross you that we got kicked
out for trying to rob them?"
"Oh...yeah." The other two said, in awed
voices. "That's it!"
"Besides, the 8 bit club is a joke. It's for
weaklings."
"Yeah!" The other two agreed, and soon they
were cheering.
Overcome by curiosity, Mario slowly climbed the
ladder followed by his companions. When his head poked
from the hole, a strange sight reached his eyes. A beezo,
a shyguy, and a snifit were all sitting around the table,
playing a game involving cards. Mario climbed out of the
hole as quietly as possible, and started up the nearby
stairs, anxious to get out of the enemies' line of sight.
Mario made it up the stairs with no problems, as did
Luigi. After one horribly loud sqeak from the stairs,
Yoshi joined them. They peered over the second floor
balcony, their eyes fixed on the three exiled club
members.
"I wonder when this storm is going to be over,"
the beezo sighed, staring at the window. "Then we
can get outta this dump."
"No kidding," The snifit agreed, "I
want to get down to business."
"Yeah. First, we go to the Great King Bowser,
and ask if we can join his army." The shyguy said,
slapping a card down.
"And then," said the beezo, excitement
creeping into his voice, "We win his favor by doing
something so villianous,"
"So evil..." The shyguy continued,
"And so cunning," The snifit joyously said,
"That we will be honored above all other
villians,"
"And be the richest of them all!" They
finished exuberantly.
"Except for the Great King Bowser, of course."
"Of course."
Mario and Luigi looked at each other in surprise,
trying not to laugh, while Yoshi scratched his head in
confusion.
"Does that mean-" Yoshi started.
"Shhhhhh!" Mario and Luigi admonished him.
"What was that?" The beezo exclaimed,
taking to the air. He hovered for a few seconds,
listening, but heard nothing.
"Probably just your imagination."
"Does that mean," Yoshi started in a
quieter voice, "That they're bad guys?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't worry." Mario
whispered back.
"As soon as the storm quiets a bit, we'll get
out of here." Luigi said, quietly of course, "And
get back to the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Yeah."
However, Yoshi had not been interested in Luigi's
plans, and had leaned himself against the banister of the
balcony to get a better look at the three plotters. The
balcony was very old, and Yoshi was very heavy, and as a
result the the banister groaned under his weight. Luigi
pulled him off it hastily, but the sound had alerted the
beezo to them again.
"That's it! I know I heard something that time!"
He yelled in frustration, and was soon flying toward the
balcony, where Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi waited to be
discovered.
-Ditto McCloaker-
No longer concerned with making sounds, the trio
scrambled down the hallway, and turned a corner as the
Beezo buzzed up to the second floor. To their dismay,
they bumped into a wall. It was merely a side alcove.
They were stuck, and they could hear the whirring of
Beezo's wings as he approached their location.
Feeling moisture and wind on his shoulder, Luigi
turned around and saw that the window behind them was
open. In the cramped alcove, he shuffled around until he
was looking out. The wind continued to howl and the rain
came down in sheets. Silently, he motioned to his
companions to look out. Mario and Yoshi elbowed their way
around and looked out. Around the side of the farmhouse
was a tall silo. From the top window of the silo
stretched a narrow wooden walkway to the top window of
the barn, a few feet away from the house. Luigi poked his
head out the window and looked down, and smiled as he saw
a narrow yet sturdy ledge around the outside of the
second floor, going all around the house. It would be
risky, but they didn't have any choice. Sitting there,
they would be sitting ducks for the armed and dangerous
hooded gremlings occupying the house.
A silent understanding passed between the Mario Bros.
Beezo was quickly approaching, and they wouldn't have
time to climb out. Mario winked and cupped his hands
around his mouth. From his throat came a bizarre, high-pitched,
nervous giggle. It was unmistakable. It was the sound of
a Boo.
Just a few feet away, Beezo heard the unearthly
cackle, and he plopped to the ground as he momentarily
forgot to flap his wings. He raised his spear. Behind his
mask, his eyes narrowed.
From down below came voices, "Hey, Beezo, you
see anything?"
Beezo began to back away slowly, not wishing to
advance into a disembodied, giggling orb. Shaking beneath
his robes, he floated back down over the bannister and
floated back to his compatriots.
"Man, I think, this place is haunted."
murmured the Beezo.
"What?!" cried Shyguy. "Let's go up
and see..."
With the reassuring sound of the argument ensuing
below, Mario, Luigi, and a fumbling Yoshi, one by one
began to climb out the window, there being no other
openings on the second floor not visible from downstairs.
Outside, the ledge was narrow, cold, and slippery. As
Luigi laid his hands down on the windowsill to climb out,
his hands began to lose their feeling, and after awhile,
began more to rely on their presence by assumption than
by feel. He was immediately grateful for the minimal
protection that his gloves provided him. Mario, shorter,
also eventually managed to maneuver into a tolerable
position on the ledge, and the two reached back in to
help the short-legged Yoshi. After a few near-disasters,
the three finally steadied one another and began to inch
along the slick ledge toward the silo.
After many an agonizing minute, their open bodies
experiencing the chill brunt of the malformed nature (except
for Yoshi, who was cold-blooded, and therefore remained
oblivious to the suffering of his unlike-bodied
companions), they came close to the silo. The window at
the top was not parallel to the farmhouse, but
fortunately, it also had a narrow ledge going around the
top, providing a precarious and limited access to the
interior of the structure.
Suddenly, from back at the other window from which
they had emerged, came the angry shouts of the united
Shyguys, outraged at having been tricked. Immediately
upon poking their heads out the window and seeing the
intruders, Shyguy and Snifit ran back down the hall and
down the stairs, rushing out into the night and
surrounding, as it were, the silo from the ground. Far
below, Snifit took aim and fired. Fortunately, it is hard
to aim wearing a mask, and as the rain drizzled into his
eye holes and nozzle, he sputtered as he tried to fire
his first round. This gave Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi time
to reach the hayloft in the top of the silo, and they
were in the process of climbing in when Snifit recovered
and prepared to take aim. A few volleys roared from his
mouth and, despite the handicaps of the rain and the
angle of the shot, the leaden balls implanted themselves
in the wooden structure less than a foot away from
Mario's head. Beezo buzzed in the air a respectful
distance from the heroes and called down to his
companions directions.
"A little to the left!" he cried.
Angrily, Yoshi snaked out his toungue at the vicious
winged assasin, but his toungue came an inch short. The
Beezo laughed evilly at the Dino's vain lashings. Despite
the onslaughts, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi managed to reach
the window to the loft, which was large enough not to
pose much of a difficulty in getting in. Once securely
inside, they threw themselves down and hid amongst the
hay and woodwork.
Down below, they could hear the earthbound duo
entering the silo from the ground floor, and from their
hiding places, they could see the vicious Beezo
fluttering outside the window, hoping to catch a glimpse
of the interlopers in the darkened interior of the silo.
They scurried about, until they were safely tucked in
the opposite corner from the window, cloaked in the
darkness, safe from the peering Beezo. As their eyes
adjusted to the darkness, they began to make out the
shapes of thickly packed bales of hay stacked neatly
around them. They knew from the voices coming up from
below that Shyguy and the Snifit were huddling around the
ladder beneath them, preparing to ascend. Mario got the
idea a split second before Luigi, and a good half minute
before Yoshi. Together, the three shuffled over and
together hefted one of the heavy bails...
-lzn64-
The three groaned as they lifted the mass of hay, and
managed to stagger toward the opening of the silo, where
the shyguy and snifit were now acsending the ladder. The
ladder was very wobbly, as the driving wind and rain
didn't exactly make for good climbing conditions, and it
wasn't really hard for the trio to topple it. The shyguy,
who had nearly been at the top, hit the floor hard and
lay there, motionless. The snifit, however, was a bit
luckier, as he hadn't been very far up the ladder. His
luck soon ran out, though, as a heavy bale of was
promptly dropped on his head when he picked himself off
the ground. The snifit was buried under the hay, as it
had come apart upon colliding with its head, and made no
move to try and get out.
The Beezo was then faced with a problem. He was the
only one left of his 3 companions, and he was going
against three popular legends, one of which was a beezo-eating
yoshi. Of course, everyone knows that beezos aren't the
brightest creatures around, and so the winged creature
dove toward them, intending to skewer Mario on his spear.
It was not very difficult for Mario to evade the
attack, all he had to do was jump, and that sent the
Beezo careening into the back of the silo. It hit the
wall, hard, and dropped to the floor.
"That wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to
be," Luigi commented.
"Well, they were just basic enemies, after all."
Mario retorted.
"So, what do we do now?" Luigi asked,
looking out into the storm. "It'd be suicide to walk
out into that thing."
"True, but there's no telling how long Bowser's
gonna keep this up," Mario said, worriedly.
They sat in the silo for a while, thinking of
possible ways to get back to the Mushroom Palace, but
came up with nothing. It was difficult to think, besides,
as rain was being blown into their shelter, and the wind
was all but deafening. Suddenly, a large crack of thunder
boomed overhead, startling the bros.
"I wish we at least knew where we were,"
Mario sighed.
"No kidding. We don't even know which way home
is..." Luigi muttered.
Suddenly, in a burst of genius, Yoshi exclaimed,
"Yes, we do know where we are!"
"How so?" Mario asked in confusion.
"Look!" Yoshi said, pointing at the Beezo.
"He's got a map!"
"Now why didn't I think of that?" Luigi
said in amazement. He trudged over to the Beezo, and
picked the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.
"Well, there's good news and there's bad news."
Luigi proclaimed, squinting at the water-damaged map.
"So? Spill it." Mario said impatiently,
trying to look over his shoulder.
"The good news... I can tell where we are."
"And the bad news?" Mario asked, grabbing
for the map.
"Well, the bad news is..."
-Ace Rimmer-
"We're over five days away from the castle."
Luigi finished. Mario and Yoshi's open mouths matched
Luigi's frown. The excitement of finding the map was
immediately quelled, and replaced with an even deeper
sense of disappointment.
"We spent two days out at sea, right?"
Mario asked, "So that means that..."
"The castle is too far away." Yoshi said,
filling the void. "Bowser will finish off taking
over the Mushroom Kingdom, and take control of the Great
Star, and... and..."
"No! We can't let that happen!" Mario
snapped. He slammed his fist into a wooden post beside
him, making a small impression of his hand there. "We're
going to save the Kingdom. We always have, we always will.
No 'if's, 'and's, or 'but's. I mean, good always triumphs
over evil, always!". The storm almost seemed to
relent to Mario's speech, and calmed down a little. But,
alas, the storm only was storing a little power and blew
it's winds harshly into the room soon after.
"...I'm with you Mario." Yoshi said.
"Me too. I'm not gonna sit here and get all wet
and cold." Luigi added.
"Great! We're all together on this, right? Let's
go!" said Mario.
"But how are we gonna get to the castle? Even if
we ride Yoshi, it still will take us longer than the
alloted week!" Luigi said. Everyone was dampened,
both literally and in spirit. Mario removed his cap and
scratched his head for a while, staring at the tempest
outside. Luigi was looking down at his feet, and kicked a
small clump of hay, which fell into a small puddle of
water. A piece of straw flowed rapidly down a small
river, right through a crevasse in the wall. Luigi's
eye's widened and he rushed to a window and squinted to
see in the raging storm if that small river was a
tributary to a larger system.
-Masamune-
Luigi, after discovering the river instantly alerted
Yoshi and Mario of his discovery.
"It would be good save for one fact" Mario
said with a sigh "We'd be going against the current,
walking would still be faster."
"I suppose since we can't get there by land or
water..." Luigi said, "Perhaps we can find some
other way in this building?"
Meanwhile...
The great star of the Mario kingdom was in great peril.
And the guardian of the star had been monitoring Mario
and his friends unsuccesfuly attempting to save it. So he
deduced it was now up to him.
At a small mushroom child's house, the Inn for Rose
Town, several toy dolls sat undisturbed while their
owners toiled to keep the flood from overrunning their
beautiful town. The guardian knew where to go, a small
doll, with curly red hair, a blue ragged cape, and a
shooting action hand sat lifelessly. The guardian began
to work his magic and the toy grew and once more held
life again, Geno had returned!
Back in the abandoned Shyguy mansion
The trio had discovered a special potion. Which Mario and
Luigi recognized as the ones from Sub-Con. After sharing
the information with Yoshi, they decided that the pipes
might work in the other 'dark' dimension, and returned to
the pipe which had brought them to the mansion.
"Here goes everything..." Mario said as he
threw the potion down, which produced a magical door. The
three entered, and hopped in the pipe...
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