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Chapter 13:
Send in the Transakoopas
-Ace Rimmer-
"Are you sure you can do it yourself?"
Luigi asked.
"I won't be long." Jinx said. "I'll
just track down some old students of mine, and maybe
they'll be more supportive to our cause than Jagger was.
And possibly there is someone out there in one of those
villages spared from the flood who has a natural talent."
"This 'Dark Land'... How are we going to find
this place? It seems like Bowser has made the entire
kingdom dark with his black magic." Peach said.
"Luigi and I have both fought through this place.
I'll lead the way." Mario said. "But we'll need
some transportation. We were lucky and we found a warp
pipe in Pipe Land to there."
"How about we use my bus?" Mallow suggested.
"You think it can hold all of us?" Yoshi
asked.
"I think so. I mean, it's a heavy duty machine!"
"Okay so we have a plan." Mario concluded,
"Jinx, you're going to rally support for our
confrontation, while the five of us go to Nimbus Land to
prep for our invasion of Dark Land. Everyone agree?"
-lzn64-
Everyone nodded their heads, and watched solemnly as
Jinx made his way quietly through the keep, and out of
their sight.
"Okay," Mario said quietly, turning to face
his companions, "Now we need to get out of here.
Fast."
"Yeah, no kidding. This place smells worse than
that Shy Guy Ship did!" Yoshi declared, placing his
hands over his nostrils and grimacing.
"Well, like I said before, I've been here so
many times I probably know this place better than old
turtle brain himself!" Peach declared, nominating
herself for leadership. Needless to say, nobody dared
object.
Many suspicous glances and nervous coughs later, they
stood at the entrance to the Keep. They squinted
involunarily as they stepped into the sun, as they hadn't
seen it for a while, and looked at each other with
relieved faces.
"Well, I say we get of here!" Yoshi said,
breaking the silence.
"Yeah, great idea," Geno approved, and the
heroes broke into an all-out run until they were a
comfortable distance away.
However, a dismal sight appeared before them. The
Mushroom Kingdom was absolutely devastated. The flood
waters had gone down, but only slightly, and the higher
places were so saturated they resembles marshes. These
places were surrounded by dirty masses of water, in which
pieces of former villiages and dead plants were floating.
"I...I don't believe this..." Peach said,
sinking to her knees. "My kingdom... my people..."
"Don't cry, princess," Mario said in reply.
"Just think about how great it's going to be to
cream the sucker responsible for all of this."
"Yeah, we'll get him good!" Yoshi said, his
voice steely.
"Hey, cheer up. I'll hold him and you can hit
him, okay?" Luigi said, helping her up.
"You guys are right," Peach admitted,
futiley attempting to wipe the water stains out of her
dress. "This is no time to feel sad! We have to get
to Nimbus Land right away! The longer we stay here, the
longer that creep has to devastate my kingdom! What are
we waiting for? Let's go!"
"That's right," Geno said quietly, "But
Bean Valley is a, well, a lake. How are we going to get
to Nimbus Land?"
"I don't care if we have to swim!" Mario
declared.
"Nah," Mallow replied, "We'll probably
just have to wade. Stick to the more solid areas and
follow me. The vine leading to Nimbus Land should be
above the flood water, right?"
And so saying, they began the tiresome jouney to
Nimbus Land, through the swampy remains of the Mushroom
Kingdom.
-Ace Rimmer-
Back at Sea...
Toad surveys his ship, if you could call it that, and
sighs heavily. He sits down on an empty crate and opens
up a ratted notebook and takes out a quill.
'Captains Log - Day ten
If you have been reading this journal for the past
ten days, you should know that our hopes are wearing thin.
The Palace of Giant Island is no where in sight, nor the
land which we can take on more supplies and take a much
needed rest off the restless seas. We have enough water,
for it rains sparatically everyday, which can be a
blessing and a curse.
Our supplies of food are looking quite pitiful, both
in quality and amount, so I have commissioned fishermen
to keep up our rapidly dimishing rations, but I fear that
we cannot maintain our morale, whatever is left of it, in
addition to our health. All they can catch are small
black slime coated-things, so as you can believe thi- '
Toad never finished that entry, because of a ruckus
that had stolen his attention. A small crowd of people
were raising a small mushroom girl who was holding a
telescope on their sholders, and they were all cheering
madly. She had spotted land.
-Masamune-
"Were saved! It's land!"
Toad ran over, "Let me see that!"
The mushroom girl handed the telescope Toad and he
looked in it. He found the land and zoomed in as much as
the telescope would allow.
"It is...! It is! Everyone, take the rows... we
can make it by sundown if we go faster!"
Meanwhile... at the Island...
"Understand?" Kamek asked.
"Got it!" The magikoopa said, who was
dressed in a yellow outfit as opposed to Kamek's blue one.
"Excellent, now remember the plan..." With
that, Kamek vanished.
The Magikoopa looked at the others, "As chief
Transakoopa, I am in charge of you... Now insa koopa
chango!"
The other yellow transakoopas changed into little
toad people, and the chief transakoopa into a very tall
kingly human.
"Now we wait!" The transakoopa/ king said.
-lzn64-
The mushroom people, after hours of hard rowing, soon
pulled up to the beach. They were all weary, but the
euphoria that accompanied their discovery of land caused
them to temporarily forget that detail, and upon
beaching, there was a mad dash to the shore. The first
mushroom to hit the sand was greeted with quite a shock,
as there was a man standing not too far away, looking
upon him curiously. The other mushrooms caught sight of
this oddity not too long after, and they all looked to
Toad uncertainly, expecting him to act as the leader he
was. Toad did exactly that.
He made his way to the front, and bowed to the man,
who was obviously a king, judging by the ornate crown on
his head. Toad himself had never visited the capital city
of Giant Land - which was where he assumed they had
landed - and so had no idea that behind the kind,
understanding face of the mysterious monarch, there
lurked terrible intentions.
"Welcome, travelers, to my kingdom!" The
king bellowed in a deep voice. "I see you have
traveled far, and you must be weary. My palace lies not
far from here, luckily above the flood waters. Strange
weather we've been having, eh?"
"Y-yes, sir," Toad replied shakily. "We
are indebted to your kindness."
"Oh, not at all, not at all. The pleasure is
mine....really. Follow us to the palace, please! It is
always a pleasure to help travelers such as yourselves."
So saying, the king turned with a flourish and
started walking toward his palace, which loomed in the
distance. Toad looked at it, and shivered involuntarily.
He didn't quite know why, but he didn't feel quite as
happy as he should have. Indeed, he felt quite the
opposite, and the morbid feelings seemed to increase as
he stared at the palace.
His comrades obviously were not affected by his
strange feelings, as they were joyously skipping after
the strange king and his people.
Because the "king" had his back to them,
none could see the sinister smirk he had on his face, as
he led the unknowing mushrooms across the drawbridge to
his "palace," to what would surely be their
doom.
-Ace Rimmer-
Back in Bean Valley...
The five of them, Peach, Mario, Yoshi, Geno, and Mallow,
were truging through the newly created swamps which once
were the higer points of Bean Valley. Mallow was walking
catiously ahead, and the rest followed his sure feet.
Peach wore a face of worry on her as she, as well as the
rest waded through some shallow water littered with dead
bee-like insects that normally would populate Bean Valley.
Mario saw her face and felt compelled to cheer her up.
"What's-a matter Peach?" Mario asked.
"Oh Mario," Peach lamented, "I'm
worried about the Great Star, I mean the week Bowser
talked about is almost up! What if he's already invaded
the castle?"
"Don't-a worry, Toad is still there. And I'm
sure the castle has survived the flood, right Luigi?"
"Uh, I don't know Mario..." Luigi said.
Mario shot him a look, as if to say 'Just play along'.
"Wha, oh!... On second thought, we did install that
drain in the basement!" Luigi stumbled. Peach
giggled a bit.
"Oh you two...' Peach said. "Don't try to
hide something from me. But, you're right, Toad's a good
guardian. He's sure to keep that power safe."
"We're almost there!..." Mallow said, and
then sunk into the water which was unexpectedly deep.
"Ahhh! Aw man..." Peach giggled a bit more, as
Geno and Yoshi helped Mallow back up.
"Oh, sorry Mallow for laughing," Peach
apologized. "It's just that it's been a hard week
and I really needed that. Are you okay?"
"S'no problem." Mallow shruged. "I'm
not hurt or anything, just a bit wet. But it does look
like we'll have to backtrack a bit, this place is too
deep to cross."
-Masamune-
While the Bad Guys plot...
"Now that the mushroom people are there, remember
what to do. And play it out smoothly... you don't have
enough troops with you to fight them off. So you have to
take care of them individually and with utmost care."
Kamek instructed.
"Very well, but is it not possible to spare some
more troops?"
"No, I gave you as much as possible, we have the
rest of the troops scouting for Mario and his allies".
The Transakoopa nodded and closed the link, then
turned to the magikoopa beside him, "Get back in
disguise... it's time to 'entertain' our guests..."
With that the yellow dressed koopa began to laugh
sinisterly as his appearance was altered into the King's
body.
-lzn64-
Back with the Mushrooms...
The Mushroom people passed through the gate of the
castle, and looked around in complete awe. This
magnificent structure outdid even their own beloved
castle, though none of them would admit it. There were
ornate statues and expensive-looking murals and
tapestries of every color, depicting scenes of every
genre, hung on the marble walls.
"If this is what their decorations look like,"
one mushroom commented, "then I can't wait to see
their food!"
At that moment, the king entered the entryway and
smiled kindly. "Sorry to keep you waiting," He
said pleasantly, "but I was instructing my servants
to tend to your meals and baths as I promised."
"Oh, it's okay," Toad said distractedly,
his attention focused on a strange mural located above a
multidude of gold-plated statues. The king beckoned the
mushroom people to follow him, and all but Toad did so at
once. As his people dissapeared into one of the many
passageways, Toad made his way to the decorative mural
that had caught his attention, unknowingly hiding himself
behind the statues. The bright colors, it turned out,
masked a very dark scene indeed; this mural depicted the
slaughter of hundreds of his people at the hands of the
koopa troop! After a brief bout of nausea, Toad turned,
intent on warning his friends about the trap he now knew
they had walked right into. But his people had already
left. Toad hissed an oath under his breath and ran to
follow... unfortunately, there were 2 passageways leading
from the room. He heard a strange sound coming from the
left passage, though, and recognized the sound of one his
friend's voices... and he was calling for help.
Toad, without a second thought, dissapeared through
the left tunnel toward that sound, praying that his
friends would be all right until he found a way to help
them.
-Tenniru-
Back in Kamek's room, he was considering what to do
when a hooded figure entered the room. "Sir Kamek...what
is the current location of the Mushroom leader named
Toad?" It asked. "Missing," Kamek replied.
The hooded figure left the room.
Toad had no idea what to do. Then, completely out of
the blue, a Green-hooded figure appeared in front of him!
He struck an attack position, ready to fight. But then,
the figure spoke. "I apologize for startling you,
Sir Toad. I, as well as you, have figured out the secret:
this is a trap. I was once tricked by these ruthless
Koopas, but I escaped the prison. After I saved my
friends, They decided to execute their prisoners. Sir
Toad, I am here to help." Toad relaxed.
-Ace Rimmer-
He looked at the green-hooded figure, and knew that
this person was not from his group that traveled on his
ramshackle raft. Toad then thought about the Mushroom
girl, who's spirit and hope spurred their whole group on
to continue on their impossible journey. A worried
expression fell over Toad's face.
"Execution?!" Toad repeated.
"Yes. In our group, everyone was so trusting of
our host. After all, our homes were flooded and we had
little to feed ourselves with. We only realized the truth
when he lead us into a jail cell, which from the outside
looked like a grand dining hall, and locked the door! He
opened a slot in the door to mock our stupidity, and left
us to die..."
"How did you escape?" Toad interrupted.
"I and my circle of friends know a limited
amount of magic. We combined our meager powers to open up
an erratic rift between the dimentions, and we jumped in.
I landed somewhere south of the palace, and I've been
searching for any survivors of my group... if there are
survivors."
"Stop!" a voice said from behind. Toad
turned around. It was a figure dressed in a yellow cloak.
"That figure is a transakoopa!"
"What?" Toad said. He turned back to the
green-hooded figure. "Are you a... whatsa-koopa?"
"No!" the green-hooded figure said, "That
is a transakoopa! He's trying to deceive you!"
"Don't listen to him!" the yellow-hooded
figure said, "He's trying to deceive you!" Toad
was standing in the middle of the corridor. At one end,
there was the person in the green cloak. At the other end
stood a person in a yellow cloak. Toad opened his mouth:
"Just what in Jugem's Cloud is going on here?!"
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