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Chapter 20:
The Art of War
~Masamune~
They were unnoticed, a blessing for
them for they had came out on the North entrance while
the koopas and other mushrooms were on the east side.
There was fifty of them all together, excluding Toad and
Ten, they decided to divide in two groups. Ten would lead
off a suprise attack with thirty, while Toad would lead a
back attack after circling the castle with the twenty
remaining. The main goal was to recapture the captured
mushrooms, provide them with extra weaponry and defeat
the rest. It was a sound strategy, the koopas were not
bright and would not expect it.
Toad and Ten said a few breif words,
before seperating with their own units. Ten waited a
decent amount of time, before launching, allowing the
others time to get around. He then signalled for them to
rush in, overtake the koopas guarding the hostages. Toad
and his troops would be ready to launch if there first
wave failed.
They ran, shouting warcries and
yelling insults, they charged upon the battlefeild. The
Transakoopa and two Koopalings, Roy and Wendy, were
overtaken by the mass numbers. Before they could secure
the hostages (whom after being beat up, were gathered in
a area), several Transakoopas joined the fray adopting
different forms of monsters. The huge opponents were
overwhelming Ten's group, but was refreshed as Toad
launched his secret unit to the back ranks.
Several Transakoopas were felled, a
few of the Koopalings actually were defeated, and the
additional goomba soldiers posed no threat. Things were
leaning in the mushroom's favor, that is until two koopas
teleported in.
One was a ordinary transakoopa, draped
in yellow atire with spectacles on his snout. The other
was dressed in black clothes and had very pale skin. Both
held a special wand, similar to the ones they had seen in
the secret room. The transakoopa curled his lip and
grinned, "Well, well... what do we have here, a
resistance?"
The black one made no expression, but
spoke in a clear deep voice, "Greetings... I am the
only one of this newly created sect of 'Magikoopas'. He
has been organizing us for this particular time... that's
why those Mario fools had it so easy. But now you see our
full power and you see before you the greatest
acheivement which only -I- could reach. For I am the only
Necrokoopa, lord of the undead... It was I who were
responsible for Dry Bones and the like all these years..."
The mushrooms gazed in fear at the
intimidating Necrokoopa, who had come here just for this
occasion. The koopa held his wand out and the goombas
began to rise up as hideous zombies, ready to annihilate
whatever stood in their way.
~Ace Rimmer~
Black arcs of electricity flowed
through the ground from the arcane wand, and the fallen
koopas and mushrooms alike somehow tapped into this
energy stream and rose to battle the remnants of Toad's
ranshackle battalion. The balance of the battle had
changed dramatically, and the mushroom people backed off
in horror at the undead, bloodied forces. The koopaling
kids had been tired out by the previous constant and
persistant attacks of the so-called puny mushrooms but
they had mixed thoughts of seeing that their father
apparently had provided some backup.
"Hey, didn't dad trust us? We
could've taken them on." Roy said, panting.
"You fool! We couldn't take on that
many..." Ludwig winced a bit and paused to take a
breath. He held a gash he received on his right arm and
cradled it like a newborn child. "I, for one, am
glad and appreciate our father's mistrust."
"Let's go." Lemmy said,
"We failed-"
"Because of you!"
Wendy said, pointing squarely at Roy, "You let them
get this strong!"
"Hey! I outta-" Roy started
to threaten, but was too tired to follow up. A short
distance away, Iggy stood panting heavily, holding a
large stick he tore off a tree. His eyes were darting
around randomly from victim to victim. This was his first
real battle, his one's with Mario didn't count, this was
a frantic melee with an acutal chance to win. It took him
a while for the thought of leaving to enter his conscious
mind, and he was more than reluctant to withdraw now.
"What?! But... I down fifteen of
those berserkers! I'm on a roll!"
"Look," Ludwig said through
clenched teeth masking his pain, "we'll fight later,
let us just get home now! Looks like our allies will
cover us."
With the undead minions blocking any
attacks, the seven koopa kids and a couple of koopa
troopas boarded the Clown Copter. The copter flew
erratically for a while after take-off, as the pilot
Ludwig got used to the pain of his wound. As a final act
of retribution, Roy tossed a stone off the side, which
ended up missing everybody. After a short curse from Roy,
the copter flew off the island.
"BEHIND YOU!" Toad yelled. A
battle-clad mushroom turned around just in time to see a
claw bash against his helmet from a koopa raised from the
dead. The sound and the force of the impact sent him
reeling, and he fell backwards onto the ground. The full
plate armour he thought would help him encumbered him to
such an extent that he was helpless to get up. A few
seconds later, he was just another body to be raised.
Ten and Toad backed into each other,
and turned around to face each other, a sword in one and
a staff in the other. After the inital shock died down,
Ten grabbed Toad's arm and pulled him to a doorway. From
there, they could talk about their new found threat.
"What was that?! Those..."
Toad stammered, "Those... things are killing
us. We have no choice, we have to retreat. Even when we
'kill' some of those zombies, they just get back up and
turn on us! They've even animated some of our people!"
Before Ten could respond, an arc of yellow lighting
surged across the doorway and drove itself into solid
rock, sending debris flying everywhere. Toad's and Ten's
armour managed to deflect most of the debris. A high-pitched,
but somehow menacing voice was heard from the source of
the bolt.
"Well well, brother, it looks
like your minions let a few gnats sneak off!" the
voice said.
Ten stepped from the doorway and faced
the source of the voice, the koopa wearing yellow
garments. "Just who are you?" he said.
"I am glad you asked. -I- am a
Sparkoopa... the one and only. I control the
uncontrollable, the very chaos that is electricity."
Even without the aid of his bizzare wand, he thrusted his
hand forward, and three mushroom battlers fell backwards
from the surge of electricity. The metal armour prevented
the bulk of the current from flowing through their
bodies, but they were stunned and were helpless. "You
have seen but inches of our fathomless power. And once we
secure the Great Star, our power will be absolute!"
The crackling of lightning and the
groans of the undead mix into a cacophony, and Toad and
Ten are powerless to stop it.
~lzn64~
The mushroom resistance, which had
been well-organized and gaining confidence merely minutes
before, was now scattered about the beach at the mercy of
the undead monsters, and, the new threat of the
Sparkoopa's deadly attacks. The yellow robe of the
electric koopa blazed with light briefly, and a bolt of
light struck a mushroom who had valiantly been beating an
undead goomba away from him. He collapsed without a
sound, then an instant later rose and lurched toward
another mushroom, completely under the control of the
Necrokoopa.
Toad and Ten watched this from beneath
the shadow of the cackling Sparkoopa, horrified
expressions on their faces. Ten shook off his paralisis
first, and turned to face his adversary. He gripped the
small dagger he had picked up from the koopa barracks,
and yelled with rage and desperation as he sunk its full
length into the side of the Sparkoopa. The yellow-clad
turtle gasped in pain, and reflexively brought his hands
to the wound, doubling over.
"Fool!" He spat at the
crouching mushroom. "You will pay for that- dearly!"
So saying, he pointed his wand at him, his other hand
still pressed firmly against his side. The last thing Ten
saw before being struck with the ensuing bolt of
electricity was the yellow stone at the end of the wand
he held flaring with power.
"Ten!" Toad cried, shielding
his eyes from the flash of light.
"He no longer exists!" The
Sparkoopa answered with contempt. "And niether shall
you, troublesome worm, when I have finished with you!"
Toad gasped as the wand came down
toward him, then leaped away from the deadly flash before
it could strike. He would have landed perfectly, except
his helmet slid to the left, blinding him, and he instead
wound up on his back in the sand. The Sparkoopa took no
notice of this, thinking that he had struck him, and
turned back to causing terror for the others.
Toad picked himself off the ground,
wincing as the cries of his comrades reached his ears. He
got shakily to his feet, and stumbled back toward Ten and
the wounded Sparkoopa, who had turned his back to him to
better see the other mushrooms. He crouched beside the
forgotten bag he had been carrying, and dug inside
frantically. He had no idea how the wands were used; he
had a terrible feeling that only magikoopas could use
them, but knew that perhaps it was his only chance.
"What's the opposite of yellow?"
He muttered, glancing fearfully to his right, where the
Sparkoopa still had his back turned to him. "It's
blue, right? No, it's purple... yeah, purple is the
opposite of yellow..." He pulled the polished wand
with the gleaming purple jewel from the sack, and looked
at it uncertainly. Then he looked at Ten and was
strengthened by a new burst of anger.
He snuck quietly behind the power-filled
koopa, tightening his grip on the wand, and brought it
down across the back of the yellow robe with all his
strength. The force of the blow knocked the unsuspecting
koopa forward, into the sand. He lay sprawled on his face
for a mere second, then was on his feet again.
"You're supposed to be dead!"
He howled in anger, the pain from his wounded side and
now his bruised back fueling his rage.
"Not yet," Toad panted,
aware that he was in an unenviable situation indeed. He
held the wand foward, as he could think of nothing else
to do, and waited for his fate.
At first, it seemed as though he was
done for; the Sparkoopa held his wand out and prepared
for the blast, but then lowered it as the color drained
from his face. His eyes widened slightly, and he took a
step back.
"By the shell of the Great Bowser
himself...." the incredulous koopa gasped, his eyes
fixed on the wand. "How did you get ahold of that!?"
"This?" Toad asked
innocently, aware that this spur-of-the-moment idea was
working. He pointed the purple jewel toward his enemy,
and felt a moment of self-satisfaction as the Sparkoopa
winced away from it. "You mean this wand? Oh, I
found it lying around. You should be more careful with
your toys."
"Toys? Toys! Idiot, that isn't a
toy!"
"I wonder what would happen if I
played with it?" Toad continued, ingnoring him.
"Played with it? Hmph. Good luck,
boy. Unless you're the deformed offspring of an honorable
magikoopa, you will have no luck with that, I assure you."
"Well, a toy I can't use doesn't
interest me," Toad retorted, with more confidence
than he was really feeling. He made as if to smash the
wand on a nearby boulder, wishing fervently to the Great
Star that this last ditch attempt to gain an advantage
would work.
It did.
By then, the confrontation between
mushroom and magikoopa had caught the attention of the
others on the beach. Even the undead were still,
suspended in a sick sort of stasis as the the Necrokoopa
abandoned his efforts briefly to see what was hindering
his comrade . As Toad raised the wand, with full
intentions of smashing it to dust, both koopas lurched
forward as one, panic on their faces.
"Stop...!" The Necrokoopa
called, desperately, from across the beach.
"You don't know what you're doing!"
his partner agreed.
Toad halted mid-swing, and allowed his
gaze to rest on the pair. His heart was beating three
times its usual speed, and the thought that he might have
a stroke flitted through his mind before he even realized
he had thought it. He fought to keep the hand holding the
wand from shaking, fought harder still to keep the tremor
from his voice, and spoke.
"Actually, I think I was about to
destroy this thing. This, and these other seven, too,
seeing as though they're really of no use to me." He
gestured toward the bag, where some of the wands could be
seen hanging out as a result of his haphazard search for
the one he now held.
The Necrokoopa made a strangled noise
as he realized what Toad had just said, his eyes bulging
slightly as the full implication of these words set in.
Both koopas stood, frozen, breathing heavily.
Silence overtook the beach as
everyone's eyes focused on Toad. His knuckles had turned
white from holding the wand so tightly, and he felt a bit
sick. He knew that he didn't stand a chance fighting
against these two magical koopas, but he wasn't sure
where to go with his ruse next. He faced the nearer of
the two, the Sparkoopa, and locked eyes with him, seeing
the fear there and wondering if the same thing was
reflected in his own.
~Masamune~
Something was creeping up from behind,
he held his wand higher as if to smash it. Yet the sound
continued, he glanced back to see Ten limping towards him.
Holding back a sigh of releif, he kept the wand in his
hand. His heart was beating fast because his sweaty palms
threatened to release the wand at any moment.
"Toad..." Ten mumbled.
"Yeah?" Toad asked as he
glanced back.
"It's time to surrender,
destroying the wands might hurt them... but it won't save
us. We should negotiate terms for them to keep us alive"
Ten suggested.
Toad looked in disbeleif, give up now?
The wands offered them some security. They could of come
up with a plan, couldn't they? But that glint in his eye...
Ten had never showed a hint of evil before. Then he
looked at the leg he was limping, he remembered Ten being
struck in the left leg.... not the right.
"Get away you Transakoopa!"
Toad growled out, preparing to thrust the wand down.
'Ten' growled and suddenly changed into a yellow outfit
and Koopa form.
"Bah, you shall not get away!"
The Transakoopa retorted, "Surrender the wands and
we might persuade Mr. Necrokoopa not to use your bodies
as Zombies."
Toad stared defiantly and instead of
destroying the wand, pointed it towards the Transakoopa.
In a fury he yelled out something strange, words he never
knew and couldn't recall later. A blast of light errupted
from the tip of the wand, hitting the Transakoopa and
engulfing him in light.
"The devil did he figure how to
use it!?" The Necrokoopa yelled in suprise. He
motioned his zombies towards the surviving mushrooms then
vanished into a black portal.
The Sparkoopa cast a lightning bolt
towards Toad, while the Transakoopa's transformed the few
surviving Goomba Henchmen into larger more terrifying
beast. Toad in some sort of trance, was firing energy
every way. The other mushrooms could only watch in awe as
their leader was drastically shifting the battle in their
favor. Several feet away, Ten rose to his feet and saw
Toad's exploits. He said a short thankful prayer, once
more his wish had came true. Even if it had not came out
the way he expected...
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