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Chapter 10:
Master vs. Pupil
~Masamune~
Finally after a long, seemingly endless climb, Geno
and his companions had climbed the entire slope, finding
theirselves at the gate of Bowser's Castle. "We have
arrived" Geno stated "From this point on, our
chances of survival are slim. If you have even the
slighest desire to turn back, then do so now. Their shall
Be no more chances of going home after we enter"
"I am prepared" Jinx answered.
"I... uhhmm..." Mallow began, looking up at
the tower fearfully.
"Go home then Mallow" Geno said simply
"Tell your people we have arrived safely"
"... alright, good luck guys..." Mallow
sighed, then started going down the slope once more.
The two, now without the Nimbus Prince, entered
Bowser's castle. The first challemnge made it's
appearance. A koopa apprached, who was noneother than
Jagger, Jinx's old apprentice.
"S-Sensei!" Jagger gasped "What are
you doing here?"
"We have come to to defeat Bowser" Jinx
answered, "So please stand aside"
"I... I can't do that" Jagger answered
slowly "It is a Koopa's shame to stand aside and
allow the enemy to defeat their master"
"Very well" Jinx said, taking a fighting
stance "Now we shall see what you have learned"
"Yes, Sensei" Jagger replied, himself
taking a fighting stance "We fight all-out, I won't
hold back"
Jinx nodded and waited for Jagger's fisrt atack,
which came just as he expected. The koopa struck quickly
with hs fist, but to no avail as Jinx appeared behind the
turtle and knocked him faceflat. Normally the attack
would of KOed him, but Jagger had been trained by the
best, and the attack left only a scratch on his shell.
Jinx left no time for Jagger to recover and began a
series of quick punches and kicks all over Jagger. When
the koopa aw their was no way of countering any blow, he
brought himself inside his shell. This causing Jinx to
jump back and wait for Jagger to fight again.
Jagger was quickly back in the fight and began
attacking Jinx rapidly, leaving the small gnomish
creature completely on the defensive.
~Ace Rimmer~
Jagger was pounding on Jinx, who's arms were
frantically blocking this throws and punches. Jagger was
fiecely grunting, exhaling sharp breaths that co-incided
with each throw, each kick. Jinx was slowly backing into
a wall, and he knew it, but he was unable to alter the
dauntless foe, which was what seemed like yeaterday his
most devoted student. Jinx knew that if he were to be
cornered, Jagger would have a definite upper hand. Geno
rushed to help Jinx, but was confronted with a wall of
opposition, a troop of Terrapin warriors surrounded him.
Although their tactics were by far much easier than
Jagger's hardened combat training, they cut off Geno from
Jinx, depriving Jinx of Geno's respite. Jinx manages to
barely dodge a Terrapunch, which drives into the wall,
shattering the stone.
Suddenly, Jagger felt someone tap on the back of his
shell. Out of instinct he looked over his shoulder for a
moment, to see out of his peripheral vision Mallow clash
two large symbols behind his head.
Jagger's ears split and he held his head in pain,
howling. Jinx, who had covered his ears on seeing Mallow
approach took this time to execute a perfect triple-kick
followed by his famed 'Jinxed' attack, which sent Jagger
flying into a wall, knocking him unconscious. Geno's
adversaries were phased by Mallow's deafening noise that
they were much easier to knock off with his new Celestial
Arm Cannon. The flaming stars that shot out of his arm
literally incinerated the shells of the Terrapins, and
their unshelled bodies were easy to take care of.
Mallow walked up to Geno and smiled. "How's that
for timing, eh?" Mallow said, as Geno was
recalibrating his cannon for their enevitable next battle.
"Not bad at all. You couldn't have chose a more
stressful point to jump in!" Jinx said, a little put
off that his student had almost beaten the master. He
walked down near the comotose body of his prize student
and checked to see if he was still breathing. He looked
back up to Mallow. "Why'd you come back?"
"Hey, the people of Nimbus Land wouldn't want a
coward for a prince, would they?" Mallow answered
with a weak grin.
"Same old Mallow!", Geno said behind a
wooden smile, "I could tell you are destined to do
great things when I first met you, because you can never
turn your back on your friends"
"Hey, let's just say I'm a big softy. So, where
to next guys?"
"I do not know. The only path I can see is to go
straight ahead. We three should stay together, so to
prevent them from ganging up on us. It'll be just old
times Mallow!"
"Yeah, just like old times...". They opened
the door and ventured on.
~Masamune~
In Wart's Fortress...
"Everything is going according to plan, correct?"
"Yes... the fools are walking right into the
trap"
"Very good Wart, but remember! Bowser wants to
deal with Mario personally. The others you may dispose of"
The telepathic link with Kamek ended, allowing the
large frog to release a growl from within his throat.
Revenge.
That is what he wanted, but that idiotic Magikoopa
would intefere, just as he did the first time, long ago.
He wouldn't allow it though, he would personally kill
Mario, and anyone who stood in his way. And if Bowser
didn't like it, Wart decided he would simply have to
'dispose' of Bowser and his followers.
~lzn64~
Back at the Castle...
Geno led his two friends through the entryway, into a
cold, grey room. There was an ominous pit in the center
of the room, and curiously, cold air was gushing from it.
The three walked as close to the wall as they could, and
made their way across the pit room to the doorway beyond.
The door opened without a sound, and they stepped through.
The room split into three seperate hallways, one draped
in blue, one in green, the other in red.
"I wonder which one leads to Bowser,"
Mallow asked, wandering toward the red hallway.
"I doubt that it's that one," Geno stated,
crossing his arms.
"Yeah," Jinx agreed, peering into the
darkness, "Bowser would expect to pick the red one,
wouldn't he?"
"Bowser's not even expecting us!" Mallow
retorted.
"I think he's learned, over the years, to expect
anything," Jinx repled sagely. "I say green."
So saying, he stepped toward the the green colored hall.
"I think blue is our best bet..." Geno
disagreed, and he went to examine the blue hall.
They each stood at their own halls, each stating why
they thought theirs was the best choice...
Meanwhile, Peach, who had been imprisoned, as usual,
soon after their arrival at the castle, stood pacing in
her cell. She would glare at the heavy wooden door every
so often, then sigh and continue her pacing. She heard
sounds after a while, and immediately braced herself. She
knew that her plan would probably fail, but she had to
try.
The door opened slightly, a green scaled hand reached
in, and before the guard could get any farther, Peach had
grabbed him, pulled him in, pushed herself out, and
slammed the door behind her. The troopa was so surprised
that he didn't even think to call for help until she was
already making her way out of the dungeons.
Peach had been imprisoned in the castle so many times
before, she knew it's layout almost as well as that of
her own palace. She skillfully zipped around corners,
watching carefully for any guards. She sped up the
stairs, tiptoed past the doors of Bowser and his
children, and was just at the beginning of a long
hallway, clad with blue drapery, when a guard stepped out
of a nearby room and saw her. He called the alarm before
the princess had a chance to react, and a squad of nearby
guards was heard racing toward them.
"The princess, she's escaped!" One guard
cried, readying his spear.
"Get her!" The captain yelled.
Peach turned and began to run down the hallway as
fast as she could, but it was obvious that the guards
were much faster...
Meanwhile, Geno, Mallow, and Jinx were still arguing
over which way to go. Mallow still obstinately stood by
the red hall, Jinx by the green, and Geno by the blue.
Suddenly, the sound of many people running caught their
attention. Geno whirled around, and looked into the
depths of his hallway. From inside he heard, very
faintly, the voice of what sounded suspicously like
Princess Peach.
"This way!" He bellowed, running into the
blue hall. Geno and Jinx, who by now could also hear the
Princess, and her pursuers, followed him through. Mallow
hesitated for a second, but when Jinx turned around to
call him, he had already started forward again, a
determined look on his face.
"I'm not afraid..." He thought, as he
joined his friends on the race to save the princess...
~Ace Rimmer~
While the Mushroom People face some problems of
their own...
Toad was with the other Mushroom people on the ramshackle
raft, scrambling around every now and then when a piece
fell off which made the raft unbalanced. Every now and
then another piece of flotsam or jetsam drifts by, and
someone grabs it and adds it to the jumble. The storms
seems to have given them a brief reprive, allowing them
to assess the situation, as a rational team. Toad has
taken on the role as their leader, due to his royal
status and experience.
"How much food and water do we have?", Toad
asked. Few minutes passed, while the crowd revealed all
that they could grab during the escape. "Well?"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have much..." said
a Mushroom man, holding out a few scraps of bread and
meat, along with eight bottles of water.
"It's not your fault. No one expected that the
flooding would get this extreme...". Toad gazed
across the now lit water, not a thing to be seen but dark
clouds, a fragment of the sun, and a seemingly endless
expanse of rippling water. Toad sat by the edge, his feet
dangling in the water. He stooped down to scoop up a
drink, only to find it was salt water, which he then spat
it out in disgust. He looked back at the thirty or so
people behind him, the only known remainents to him of a
town that harboured thousands.
"Okay, we'll have to ration all that we have,
however hard that may be, until be find something,
anything that can help us." Toad said. "Keep on
the lookout for more survivors..."
"I see something! I see something!", said a
rather energetic small, young child. She was holding a
telescope, from her grandfather who was a sailor in his
youth, a souvenir from the times when Bowser's ships were
water-borne. "It's a something!"
"Can I see?" asked her mother
"Sure!" she said. She handed the telescope
over, and although it was ground poorly (due age of the
glass), she could still see something on water that was
not water, a dark brown blob. "You see it? Huh, huh?"
"Yes dear, I see it! Toad! Can you tell what
this is?". Toad came over and she handed over the
telescope and pointed vaguely where she saw the blurry
blob.
"I can't see anything yet... Oh wait! I see it!
But I can't make it out yet." Toad said. He turned
around to face everyone. "Okay everyone, this may be
land! I think we should paddle nearer to it so we can
take a better look. Who's with me?" Although they
were weary, and their hopes were fading, they thought
they should take one more chance at least. One by one,
they each agreed and picked up a plank of wood, a piece
of metal, or used their bare hands and they slowly
started to make their way to the mysterious object in the
distance.
~lzn64~
The mushroom's progress was slow, but steady, and
soon they were close enough to tell what the mysterious
object was. It was, as they had hoped, land. However, it
was a very small piece of it. There were other islands
poking up out of the water at various places. Toad, after
surveying the land for any monsters, allowed everyone to
land their makeshift rafts on the beach.
After everyone had stretched and eaten their
ridiculously small rations, they all stretched out under
the scattered trees to sleep. Toad, however, was hard at
work trying to figure out where they were.
"These trees...We're definitely not in
Koopahari, er, Kalimari....although I can't think of a
land with a hill high enough to be above the flood water...
Not ice land... definitely not grassland. Pipe land...no.
Darkland... I sure as heck hope not... I don't think
we're in Nimbus Land, wouldn't these be clouds if we
were? How about Water land... um, stupid question, never
mind..."
In the midst of his ponderings, however, a young
mushroom came over and sat next to him. He studied the
map of the Mushroom Kingdom for a second, then rudely
shouted in Toad's ear: "I know where we are!! We're
in giant land!"
Toad glared at the mushroom, and the sight of it sent
the little boy running away to stand next to his mother.
"It makes sense, though. What other land could
possibly have large enough land forms to be even partly
above the flood...? We must be in giant land!"
Just as Toad was about to stand up and proclaim this
happy news to his fellow mushrooms, everyone found out
for themselves, as a large blurp and his friends suddenly
decided that their supplies looked tasty.
Toad yelled for everyone to get back, but by the time
he had yelled that everyone was already huddled as far
inland as they could go.
"Our supplies..." Toad said, looking
helplessly as the blurps closed in.
"Forget it, Toad!" Another Mushroom yelled.
"That's suicide!"
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