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Chapter 25:
Koopas in the sky with Mushrooms.
~MumboJumboMan~
Toad and the others are set back down in the
mountains, where they would be harder to find.
"What'd you do that for?" Toad grumbled
angrily.
"What do you think you could've done? You were
by far outmatched! Do you really think that you would've
stood a chance against them?" Kiero snapped back.
"...I..." Toad shook his head in dismay. "What
COULD I have done?" he thought to himself. "Even
with the power of the wand, as shield to their magic,
Kamek and Kammy could probably find a way to reverse it's
effects. And besides, wouldn't going back home be
abandoning our cause? It's still uncertain that Mario and
Luigi will make it. We could be the only hope left for
the Mushroom Kingdom." "I suppose you're
right," Toad finally replied.
"I realize that. Now, you'd better hurry up and
prepare. Kammy and Kamek won't be far behind!"
"Yes..."
Poochy walked up and gave Toad an affectionate lick
"Listen everybody!" Toad yelled to his
"audience". "We need to prepare for battle!
Kammy and Kamek are probably looking for us as we speak,
and we need to give them all that we've got!"
Suddenly, Ten's voice rang out from the crowd. "Wait!
That may not be nessecary! I have a plan that may just
get us out of this mess."
"And what would that be?" Timier laughed.
"We have no weapons capable of eliminating the the
two effectively. And that necrokoopa..." Timier
shuddered at the thought of losing his body again.
Ten thought for a moment. He had momentarily
forgotten about it. "Yes, I belive we can dispatch
of him similarly. You see, Kiero and his group can fly
back and lead them over this hill, as they will most
definately be riding their broomsticks." Ten points
the top of the hill they were standing on. "Toad,
you can stand just below the top of it. Kiero can lead
the two over the hill, and the moment they pass over it,
Toad can nullify their magic as he demonstrated earlier.
Now, the moment this happens, Kiero's group can rush the
Magikoopas and hopefully knock them off their
broomsticks, where they will be fair play. I suppose that
they can override Kichra, Toad, within a few
seconds, so you'll have to act fast."
"And the necrokoopa?" Timier grumbled.
"Well, as he may or may not be riding a
broomstick, we shall have to use us as the bait."
"...Well, at least we have a plan now,"
Toad said, biting his lip. "Everybody move out! We
have no time to waste!" Timier shuddered again,
unwilling to take another chance of meeting his doom.
~Lzn64~
As Toad and the mushrooms prepared themselves both
mentally and physically for the challenge ahead of them,
Mario and the gang were suffering their own problems...
"Don't worry about it, Luigi. I'm sure she's
fine," Mario attempted to cheer his brother up.
"After all, Peach has been kidnapped hundreds of
times and she came out okay..."
"Just, 'okay?'" Peach asked, eyebrows
raised.
"Er...well, you know what I mean...." Mario
faltered, blushing. Luigi laughed at that, and realized
that they were probably right. Daisy would be fine... but
he still wanted to find her as soon as possible.
Undoubtedly she was being held with these strange
Magikoopas somewhere in Dark Land, where Bowser's main
force resided. It was rumoured that Bowser had a portal
in his Keep somewhere leading to this place, which is how
he always seemed to have an infinite number of troops...
he ferried them straight from the source. Luigi figured
that it was time to discover if the rumors were true.
What better time than now? He quickly relayed his idea to
the others, who agreed to it with few questions, and then
everyone realized something odd. The voices of the koopas
had stopped.
Jinx crawled under to see what was going on, and
reemerged with a pale face.
"They're...gone," He reported, shrugging
his tiny shoulders.
"Gone?" Mallow gasped incredulously. "How?"
"I'm not a psychic, Mallow," Jinx snapped
irritably. "Just a martial arts master."
"I know..." he replied, a bit wounded.
"Listen, guys, don't get all wired up,"
Yoshi interrupted. "Maybe the portal to Dark Land
Luigi was talking about is... in there?"
"Great," Wario muttered sourly. "If it
gets us into the action, lets go already."
So saying, he and his brother barged into the room,
while the other exchanged irritated glances. They soon
followed the two brash brothers, though, and were
surprised to see nothing in the room of particular
interest.
"Maybe it's like that portal to Sub-Con we found
earlier?" Yoshi suggested.
"Sub-Con?" Wario asked, turning toward the
dinosaur. "That place got any treasure?"
"NO!" Yoshi yelled in exasperation.
"Hmph. Why did I even agree to do this?"
Wario sighed, shaking his head.
"I always knew you were a bit dull..."
Waluigi replied, but quieted as Wario shot him a rather
hideous look. And really, Wario's hideous looks require a
stronger word to descibe them properly...
"But if that's the case," Mario sighed,
addressing Yoshi's idea, "We'll never find it."
"Never say never..." Geno called from
across the room. "Perhaps this book has something to
do with it?" He held up a rather beat-up looking
booklet with a stained yellow cover and a strange symbol
on the front. He opened it up and peered at the
lettering, finally deciding that it was hopeless. He
didn't know the language, and even if he did, the writing
was quite faded.
"It probably does," Peach agreed, frowning.
"It's too bad we can't understand it."
But as it turns out, the book did serve to do
something....
Mallow let out a holler as the wall he had been
leaning against sudden caved in, nearly sending him
sprawling into the gaping hole that materialized. He
reeled back from the black portal, and simultaneously his
friends spun around to see what was wrong. Their eyes
widened in shock as they registered the presence of first
the portal, then a robed figure appearing through it.
"Forgot my blasted book of spells..." It
muttered, as it came fully through the hole. It was
revealed as a magikoopa, dressed entirely in yellow, and
it let out a holler as it caught sight of them.
"What, the...! The Mario Brothers! And... a
bunch of other people! What, by the name of the shell,
are you doing here??"
"Er... nothing," Mario replied, grinning
innnocently.
The koopa blinked once or twice, then immediately
turned back to the wall. "I need to recruit back-up!"
He gasped, as he re-opened to portal and jumped in.
"Quick!" Geno called, gesturing toward the
portal. "Everyone in, before it closes!"
They clamored toward the hole in the wall, cramming
themselves inside just before it could close. Of course,
they put out of their mind the possibility that it would
close mid-way through, leaving them stranded forever in
sub-space.... fortunately for them, though, the Sparkoopa
had been too distraught to think of that.
They tumbled out onto the hard floor of a building
they had never been to before. Mario was the first to
stand up; he brushed himself off and looked around
curiously. They were obviously in Dark Land, the smell of
burning sulfur and the lack of sunshine in the windows in
the middle of the day could tell them that. He did not
think they were in Bowser's castle, however, unless he
had been doing some major renovating lately.
"So... where are we?" Waluigi asked
irritably, rubbing a lump on his head where he had fallen
to floor.
"Dark Land," Luigi answered quietly,
sparing Mario or Peach the task, as they were the only
ones who had ever been there of the group.
"So, this is Bowser's Castle? There had better
be some valuables around here..." Wario warned
menacingly.
"No, it's not the castle," Peach said
softly, walking a ways down the adjacent hall to the room
they had been ejected in. "Trust me, I would know..."
"Well, we had better get going before the
Magikoopa goes to get help."
"Speaking of whom," Geno commented, as they
began walking aimlessly, "I've never seen a
magikoopa in a yellow robe before..."
"Yeah, I know. I wonder what's so special about
him, anyway?"
They discussed possible explanations for the strange
garb of the koopa, (among those mentioned was Yoshi's
"maybe he washed his robe on the wrong setting")
until the sound of low, gutteral voices intervened in
their debate.
"Hmph, I think that guy's been in power too long..."
One muttered, obviously angry at someone.
"Everyone knows that Kamek and Kammy went to go
take care of those meddlesome plumbers a while ago. How
dare he suggest they failed?" The other replied in
an agreeable tone.
"I know. Hmph. Everyone knows the Marios are
suckers for kidnapped girls."
"I'm glad they got that "Dazy" girl
out of here, myself. She was really loud and scary."
"I know. The tower of the magikoopas was never
meant to hold people like her. That's what Bowser's
Castle's supposed to be for..."
They rounded the corner and came face to face with
the heroes, and blinked comically for a second.
"R-r-run!" One cried, but the other grabbed
him.
"No way! This is our chance to one-up that
conceited Sparkoopa! Let's get him!" he called,
raising his wand and summoning his power. The other
nodded uncertainly and did the same.
"Sparkoopa?" Mario wondered aloud, then was
forced to jump back as he was nearly clobbered by the
magikoopa's spell. Which was novice, at best. These two
were obviously not too experienced, as it was quite
simple to dodge their blasts. Suddenly one of their wands
quit working, extracting a howl of frustration from its
owner.
"I hate it when this thing does that!"
He yelled, glaring at the wand childishly.
"You're just not bonded to it completely yet,"
the other sympthasized. He then seemed to suddenly
realize that this development left him fighting the
legendary Mario Bros by himself. Apparantly, this concept
did not appeal to him, because soon after it dawned on
him he was fleeing down the hall with his companion close
behind.
"Well... that was, ahem, interesting," Jinx
offered, in the ensuing silence.
"Sparkoopa..." Mario mused, a puzzled
expression on his face.
"We can worry about that later," Luigi
replied, looking down the hall. "We at least know
where we are now. The Tower of the Magikoopas... Daisy
was here."
"She's not anymore, though... I wonder where
they took her."
"Wherever Kamek thinks we are, it would seem,"
Peach offered, obviously worried about her cousin.
"I wonder where that is?"
"I don't know..."
"Well," Mallow said timidly, still in shock
over the koopa attack, "let's get out of here before
we discuss this before more...experienced magikoopas
arrive."
"Yeah. Good idea." Mario agreed, taking his
customary spot as leader.
"Yeah..."
~Ace Rimmer~
In the Koopa encampment, the mushrooms agreed to a
plan. But then Kiero protested to something. "Wait
wait wait!" Kiero said, "First, I would like
out '?' box back! You stole it from us remember?"
Toad looked up at Kiero's face and remembered the box. A
stark realization hit him like a gunpowder charge.
"NO! NO!" Toad started moving his hands in
front of him in a random fashion trying to come to grips
with what he did. He nearly collapsed.
"What's with your friend?" Kiero said. Some
of his troops were laughing out loud, believing that this
group of rag-tag mushrooms was the best entertainemnt
since one of them developed a device that imitates the
sound of flatulence when sat upon. Kiero was however
deadly silent, holding a puzzled face.
"Toad..." Ten said after coming to the same
conclusion that Toad did.
Toad looked up from his crisis and turned to Ten. He
nodded his head nervously. "The castle... we left...
in castle... distracted..." Toad tried to explain in
a manner that would actually convey some information, and
barely succeeded in telling them that they had left the
box in the castle in the hectic escape. Kiero looked at
him closely, analyzing his face closely. He could tell he
was telling the truth. He signalled to the rest of his
troop with a closed fist to stop immediately.
"How could you forget a thing like that!?"
Ten said in horror, "Those wands are..." Kiero
turned to Ten and barked out a response in a voice that
conveyed such a strong backtone that only a koopa could
use it.
"I know exactly what those wands are capable of!
Unfortuneatly we were too busy trying to save our own
lives, not to mention yours!" Ten immediately backed
down. He wasn't going to enter another battle with more
koopas. "Now we have even more reason to go back."
"Don't forget about us!" Timier said,
"We, uh, would also... you know..."
"Yes yes... You would like to re-enter this life
do you not?" Kiero said, rather unemotionally.
"Of course!"
"Well, we can't get you into your former
material selves until we retrieve Morgess, the
wand that cast the spell, or the counter-wand, Aurean,
which can dismiss it completely. If you want to regain
your bodies, you will have to help us. In other words, do
as I say." Kiero turned to this troop and gathered
their attention. "Okay koopas! Pick a mushroom. Drop
them off just before the big hill and we'll circle around
looking for the Magikoopas. Once we find them, lead them
to the drop-off point and they'll do the rest. As for the
ghost-'shrooms, follow me."
"Let's just get this over with." Toad said,
clutching Kichra in his hands. Kiero nodded and
prepared to take off.
"Wait! What about me?!" Daisy said, still
tied up in the ropes that the magikoopas had placed on
her. She was wriggling around trying in vain to free
herself. "I'm a princess! I don't deserve such
treatment!"
Kadeja sighed. "I'll keep an eye on her."
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