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Chapter 23:
Life Is Boo-Tifle
~Ace Rimmer~
"This is a gesture of trust, mushroom."
Kiero said, gently passing over the wand. Toad quickly
took up the rod and stared at it. He held the wand in his
hands and the world seemed to shrink around it. He got an
overall feeling of wellness and completion that was like
returning to a warm home after a cold hard day at work.
He held Kichra, a name that seemed to fit in his
mind, with both hands open, facing up, supporting it as
if it were the most fragile thing on earth. He felt no
anger to Kiero anymore, as his prize was now in his
possesion and he was confident that he had the situation
under control, as if the wand drained away his resentment.
He gripped the wand with his right hand and pointed it to
a boulder standing a safe distance from any mushrooms or
koopas. He mumbled some arcane words that never before
have been heard by anyone since the making of the wands,
words that Toad seemed to draw upon from an unknown
source. The stars in the sky seemed to darken and almost
fade away as a swirling vortex of purple haze encompassed
it. After a few seconds, the haze dissipated and revealed
a pile of sand where the boulder once stood. The stars
winked back into exsistance.
"That was cool!" Rinaz said awfully, which
were the first words to follow after his demonstration.
Kiero stood beside him with crossed arms and was watching
intently Toad's every move, listening closely to his
every word.
"As you can see", Kiero said after a long
pause, "this mushroom named Toad has tapped into the
power of these legendary wands. These wands are the
harbingers of all that is fair and foul. As is inscribed
on each of them..." Kiero picked up Liqii and
read off the following: "The convergence of the
components shall release the sum of its parts." Ten
mused over the translation. His translation had been
slightly different, but signified approximately the same
idea. Kiero continued talking, without need to quiet the
crowd. "Toad is one of the decade of people that are
to be naturally chosen by each of these wands. He holds
the power of the stars in his hands and so much more.
Toad, I propose an alliance, an alliance between the
mushroomers and us. Do you accept?"
Toad thought about this for a second and then came
with the only conclusion he could. "I'd like to
speak with my people." Toad walked to the table
where the other mushrooms were, Kichra gripped in
his hands, wearing a face that seemed almost unworldly.
~Masamune~
After gaining the bus, travel for the
group was now quite easy. The party now consisting of;
Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Mallow, Geno, Jinx and now
Wario and Waluigi. To Peach's suprise, no fights had
begun over the two. Things almost seemed to be flowing
smoothly, opposed to the devestation they had faced from
the beggining up to returning to Nimbus.
The bus loomed over Bowser's keep, the
barricade that opened up into the Dark Land. The bus
continued on, landing near the entrance of the castle.
The group stepped off the bus one by one, gazing up at
the large fortress.
"It's been a while since Exor..."
Mallow mumbled, "Minus the sword, it's virtually
unchanged."
Mario nodded and turned to the group,
"Any bit of peace we were able to find during is
gone. This is the Dark Land, the very heart of the Koopa
Kingdom. The bulk of their army lies within, this isn't
going to be easy..."
The group looked sullenly up at the
tower once more. They all remained silent, the uneasiness
of the upcoming trials weighing down on them. Then Luigi
walked beside Mario and rested a hand on his brother's
shoulder. "I'm ready to go anywhere to stop Bowser."
"The Great Star must be freed
from Bowser" Geno stated, as he continued to the
entrance.
"There is-a bound to be lots of-a
treasure! I'm-a in" Wario piped in, much to Mario's
annoyance.
"I'll show Bowser not to trick the Nimbus!"
Mallow excalimed whole-heartedly.
"He won't get away with
destroying my kingdom..." Peach said, as her
thoughts turned to her people. Not a sign had been seen
of them since she was taken by Bowser.
"I cannot live in a world where a
fighter is not free to roam" Jinx replied.
"Hehehe... bound to be- money
there" Waluigi chukled, irritating Luigi immensely.
Yoshi looked at the others, who were
all waiting on him. Each waiting for his reply, "I'm
in too, besides... I am REALLY hungry!"
After a breif laughter, Mario and the
other continued inside the fortress. It was quiet, little
light pured ionto the building. What few torches remained
lit, showed that the building had long been abandoned.
Uneasiness fell upon the group. It was not like Bowser to
leave a fortress empty, he always had someone to guard it.
Whether they were decent fighters or not was irrelevant,
he ALWAYS had someone ready. Yet it was empty, what could
Bowser be planning? Even the lava had been cooled to walk
over. No chomps to grab unsuspecting enemies, no swirling
fire traps to capture the unsuspecting enemy. Not eeven a
goomba on patrol, no trace of life oor traps inside the
entire castle.
"Although it is against my better
judgement..." Geno started, looking around once more
before continuing, "I suggest we go through here as
soon as possible."
~lzn64~
The company's footsteps echoed
hollowly off the bare floor, resounding along the narrow
hallway they had recently turned into. Mario, who knew
the fortress nearly as well as Bowser himself due to his
past experiences inside of it, led the group with Luigi
and Peach close by. Yoshi lagged in back, sniffing the
air every once in a while. At one point, the rumbling of
his stomach had been so loud that they had all froze in
their tracks, expecting an ambush.
Strangely enough, that never happened.
"This is a waste of time,"
Wario finally announced, stopping in his tracks.
"Yeah," Waluigi agreed,
crossing his lanky arms. "There's not a single bit
of treasure to be had. What kind of joke is this?"
"We told you already," Mario
snapped, his nerves already on edge at their strange
predicament- that is, not having a predicament at all...
"We don't know what's going on. Usually these halls
are filled with treasure just for swine like you to
pocket."
"Swine?!" Wario replied,
aghast. "You take that back. Waluigi's not even fat,
like certain people I could mention..."
"Yeah, uh, like you?" Yoshi
called from the back, always supportive of his friends,
even during petty arguments.
"I don't eat half as much as you
do, cow," Waluigi retorted angrily.
"Want me to demonstrate just how
much I can eat?" Yoshi asked, menacingly licking his
lips.
"You might get some, heh heh heh,
indigestion later."
"You leave Yoshi alone, you
purple panted freak," Luigi warned, knitting his
eyebrows.
"Oh, yeah? Who's gonna make me?"
"Allow me to answer your question!"
"Bring it on, tough guy. You want
a piece of me?"
"STOP IT!" Peach and Geno
yelled at the same time, surprising them into silence.
"You're not going to get anywhere
by fighting," Peach reprimanded them, hands on her
hips. "And besides that, it's irritating."
"I wouldn't be surprised if
that's what Bowsre had in mind. Leave the castle empty
and watch the stress tear them apart. Especially if he
found out about Wario and Waluigi travelling with us."
"How would they know about that?"
"Maybe one of the troopas that
was stationed in Nimbus Land told him," Geno
shrugged. "Regardless, we'll never make it through
here if you guys are at each other's throats."
"This is still a waste of our
time," Wario declared. "I'm going to leave if
we don't get something out of it real soon."
"Greedy pig..." Mario
muttered under his breath, causing Luigi, who was
standing nearby to snicker.
"What was that?!"
"Nothing..."
"Listen, guys..." Mallow
suddenly interrupted. "D'you hear that...?"
"What?" Geno questioned,
glad for a distraction.
"That...noise. It's coming from
over there."
"It's about time we heard
SOMETHING," Waluigi snorted, turning toward the
sounds. "Let's go. They might be guarding some
treasure."
"Wait, it might be a trap!
Haven't you learned anything over the years?" Mallow
called, shaking his head as Waluigi and Wario took off.
"Well, I can't say that I hope
nothing bad happens to them," Yoshi muttered,
watching them go. This elicited some laughter from Mario
and Luigi, which quickly changed into coughing as Peach
fixed the three with an icy glare.
"We have to go see what that
sound is, anyway," Geno finally said, after a few
moments of silence.
"I know, I know..." Mallow
replied, a gloomy expression on his face. "Doesn't
mean we have to want to..."
~Ditto McCloaker~
The Troopas in the audience muttered
amongst themselves, dubiously. They leaned over and
whispered amongst each other, and gave the ebullient Toad
critical and fitful glances.
In the back, Ten groaned, and rubbed
his forehead.
Toad, on the tree stump, with a mad
and desperate look on his face, stood defiantly on a tree
stump, gazing out across the crowd, breathing heavily.
And then something happened.
Something he didn't expect.
It was a sound that caught him
entirely by surprise.
"Ha ha!"
One chuckle grew into a small circle
of chuckles, which quickly radiated outward toward the
whole group. Eventually, every Koopa, tall and small,
burst out in helpless laughter at the sight of the
diminutive, yet determined and defiant Mushroom on the
stump. They rolled over helplessly. They fell to their
knees. They collapsed on each other's scaly shoulders.
Tears streamed from their eyes.
It was just too funny. They couldn't
help it.
Toad saw this, and further, Toad couldn't take it. His
rage built up, and he flew into action.
From his stump, he leapt through the
air towards Kiero. He landed across his shoulders, and
clung to his shell. Kiero, shocked and annoyed, tried to
shake him off. The enraged Toad clung tightly, and began
to pound his little fist against the back of Kiero's
shell, while shouting incoherently.
The other Koopas stopped laughing
enough to see this. They were shocked at the little guys'
energy, but were still wondering whether or not the
little dynamo was enough of a threat that Kiero might
need help. They looked on with amused interest.
Kiero swung around, but the little
Mushroom would not come loose. He continued to shout like
a banshee and pound away. Kiero spun around in circles
trying to get at the little guy or throw him off. Toad
clung like a parasite. He began pounding on Kiero's head,
making him really mad. Unfortunately, being a turtle, he
couldn't reach around behind him to get ahold of his
attacker. Toad reached around and wrapped his arms around
the Koopa's neck, holding on. While he wasn't strong
enought to actually strangle Kiero, he did manage to get
him to go off balance. The two tumbled to the floor. Toad
was on his feet first, and ran back toward the turtle. He
climbed on his back and began to hop up and down on his
back. Of course, not being close to Mario's weight, he
did no damage but still managed to keep the Koopa from
getting up. He hopped as hard as he could, enraging the
Koopa. Finally, he got down and yelled in Kiero's ear:
"Where are the other wands?"
Kiero didn't respond, but instead
began to make his way toward some cloth hanging from a
branch, which served as some kind of shelter. Toad hopped
off and ran towards it. Finally, he saw something. Hidden
underneath the drapery tent was a ? block, a device used
in the Mushroom world to contain goods and keep them away
from the wrong hands. Normally, valuables were sealed
within them, and then they were hidden somewhere, usually
out of reach, until needed. This one was still on the
ground, the Koopas not having suspended it in the air yet.
Toad went over and began pounding on it's side with his
fists. Nothing worked. He hated these puzzle boxes. He
couldn't tell if it was one of those that was a puzzle,
or if he simply needed to hit is hard enough. He didn't
know, and he became flustered.
Ten by this time having read the hand-writing
on the wall by this point, had assembled the 'Shrooms,
and was leading them away from the clearing. They ran
through the woods away from the Koopa camp. As they put
some distance between themselves and the still-confused
Koopas, he looked back. His eyes opened wide as he saw
Toad emerge from the wave of turtles. The spunky 'Shroom
held in his hands, above his mushroom head, the large
metal box. He ran at full speed. Ten was amazed. Despite
his small size, Toad apparently was quite strong. Ten's
jaw dropped. Toad ran up and continued past, shouting
about escaping. Onward, they ran, until they came back to
the river. Here, they saw a bridge made of twigs and vine.
Toad, unencumbered by his burden, shot across first. The
other mushrooms, tiring, came after him. Soon, they had
all crossed, and the Koopas were coming across as well.
Toad grabbed a knife from Ten and used it to slash the
ropes.
The Koopas plummeted into the river,
and began to wash downstream. Soon, they would be fast
asleep. Further, the other Koopas could not follow, as
the river continued in both directions unbroken for some
time. They cursed their luck, as the Toadstools dispersed
through the trees, into the further darkness of the
forest.
At last, they stopped to rest. Even
Toad, with his Herculean strenghth, had begun to tire
under the weight of the massive metal cube. He sat it
down and looked it over, curiously. He rapped on it
softly with his fist. Nothing.
He kicked it, thereby injuring his
little ped. Nothing.
He thought for a second about what
naturally came to mind about these things. He rapped it
as hard as he could with his little fist, thereby hurting
his fist, and then rammed it with is squishy toadstool
cap, bruising his cap. Nothing.
He began to wonder how Mario did it.
Of course, there was no doubt that
this was some sort of puzzle block. To get it to yield
the wands would require manipulating it in some way.
These special "puzzle" ? blocks usually had
some hidden mechanisms that had to be utilized to open
the box. He cursed his luck, and kicked it.
Now his other foot was sore. And the
box still wasn't opening.
There, the mushrooms rested for a
while. They had gone further into the deep, dense forest.
Little wooden platforms were balanced on some of the
branches of the spooky trees, but aside from this, there
was no sign of life. No floating bricks, no platforms,
creatures. Also, no light, as the sun went down the
forest got even darker.
Lights began to appear from within
holes in the trees. They glowed yellow, red, gold, and
whatever, giving the forest weird, eerie pools of light.
Ten explained that it was because of a lichen in these
particular trees. Most likely, there was no living
creature to harass the Mushrooms.
Toad accepted this. No living
creatures, he affirmed. Ten nodded. No living creatures.
They sat and prepared to rest.
And that's when the trouble started.
Suddenly, Toad was startled by the sound of a crying
young 'un. He looked over, and saw a mother comforting
her child.
"Mommy! I saw something!"
"It's your imagination, dear. Get
some sleep!"
"But I DID, mommy!"
Toad grumbled and lay back down. The
last thing he needed was mass hysteria. Ghosts, indeed.
He rolled onto his back, just so he could see what was
around him.
And that's when he saw it.
Over, across the clearing, was what appeared to be a
white mushroom, at the base of a tree. Toad looked again.
At that distance, it appeared to be a distinct white
mushroom. He couldn't take his eyes off it. It was a...
ghostly white. He stared harder. He noticed, with a
shock, that he could make out vaguely the shape of the
tree behind it. He shook. The mushroom was not moving,
but it was there.
And he could see through it.
Finally, he mustered some courage.
Shakily, he got to his feet, and began to pace toward the
white mushroom. Sure enough, his heart began to skip
uncontrollably as he noticed, the closer he got, the
easier it was to see clear through it. He stepped closer,
and it suddenly dissappeared into mist, right before his
very eyes. He froze.
Was it a trick of his mind? Or was it...
He turned away, slowly, his body
trembling all over. Slowly, slowly, he turned back in the
direction of his friends. Only to find, as he turned,
that his eyes met with a transparent white figure, just
before him.
It wasn't just a little round ball
with a face. It was a mushroom, floating over the ground.
It had a face. Toad gulped, as a small, stalky body came
into view underneath it. There was no doubt in Toad's
careful, rational mind.
"Ghost 'Shroom!!! he
screamed at the top of his voice. He backed up quickly,
and put his back to the tree. Sure enough, there stood a
ghostly mushroom.
"Who-who-who are you?" Toad
stammered.
"It's me, Timier!" said the
mushroom, cordially.
Toad looked closely. This wasn't just
any mushroom. This was a mushroom he knew. Further, it
was a mushroom he hadn't seen since the run-in with the
Koopas. The ghost smiled. Toad looked on in fear, and
when he could swallow hard enough, he responded.
"Tempier?" he stammered.
"Yes, Toad! It's me!"
Toad looked at him suspiciously.
"Prove it." he demanded.
The ghost looked thoughtful.
"You're real name is Kinopio."
he stated.
Toad's eyes widened. Sure enough, that
was something few non-mushroomers would know. Toad eased
up a little.
"Wh-what are you doing out here?
Why are you... I mean... are you..." Toad muttered.
"Um, I'm fine, I guess, "
answered the spook. "Depends on what you call fine.
You see, I and a few others among us appear to have,
well, gotten sidetracked from our bodies."
Toad looked around. A few more
Mushrooms appeared around the place, to the initial fear
and later relief of the other mushrooms.
"What happened?" Toad
enquired.
"Well, it appears that when we
got knocked down by the Koopas back at that last battle,
those Necrokoopas used a spell to kick us out of our
bodies, allowing them to take control of them. It's quite
awkward, really."
Toad looked on in amazement. The
ghosts were indeed his lost comrades.
"We've been following you since,
but we haven't been able to reveal ourselves until now
because of the light. Bad show back there, and all, old
buddy."
Toad finally began to calm down. He
looked at Timier with a half-grin.
"So... you're feeling all right?"
"Oh yes, well. It would be nice,
though, if we caught up with those Koopas somewhere down
the line, you know, and got our bodies back from being
their army..." began Timier.
Toad felt concerned. "So, you're
calm?"
At that moment, a line of younger mush-ghosts
floated by. They were just heads with arms, and they held
onto each other as they floated by. They sang:
"Sat-uh-day
night,
And I ain't got
No bo-dy!
Ain't got no skin
'cause I've passed away!
Oh how I wish I had
some one to spook to,
In an awful way,
Hey hey!"
And so the little conga procession
floated by. Tempier looked at Toad with a deadpan face.
"Yeah, well, morale is, er, high."
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