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Chapter 28:
Exhaustion.
~Masamune~
"Hmm...
Wait a second." Shyguy muttered as he looked at
Snifit, "You DID seal the ceiling entrance, right?"
"Well..."
Snifit trailed off, "I didn't check."
"Wonderful!"
Beezo retorted, "Woody and Pinky are in that room!"
Peach tensed as
she heard that, they probally suspected either her or
Geno had came up. The snifit began to approach the area
she was at. But another sudden vibration interrupted him
as Blaargantua began to thrash around violently. She took
advantage of this to sneak around as they were all
looking through the invisible holes to see the problem.
As it ended, the three got involved in a conversation
again.
"Hey...
Blaargantua is a bit TO tough. If Mario can't beat him,
we won't even be abel to control it!" Shyguy said in
panic.
"Well what
can we do!?" Snifit cried.
"Hey, he'd
be easier to kill if we drained the lava out!"
Shyguy suggested, "Sides, they will NEVER get past
the other traps!"
"Better not..."
Beezo interrupted, "Kammy Koopa will kill us!"
"Drat..."
Shyguy replied as he went back to watching.
Peach had been
listening to the whole thing, and realized she would have
to find the lever to drain the lava. On the side she was
on, right next to her was a series of levers. Each with a
label, which would make it much easier for her.
The first was
let up and read,: 'Bullet Bills.'
That was not
what she wanted, the next read,: 'Room Expander'.
It had been
pulled already and was the reason the room had expanded.
The next was pulled and said, 'Floor Submerge'.
That must of
been the one to remove the floor between the group. The
next one was pulled and read, 'Lave valves'.
It would do no
good to open it unless she wanted to kill them all. She
picked the next one and it read, 'Draining Valve'.
She found the
right one, she grabbed it with both hands and began to
pull it down. It was a lot tougher than she thought. She
figured it took all three of the shy squad to pull the
other ones. She shifted her entire weight to pulling it,
when it finally loosened she collapsed on the floor from
it. Fortunately the others were to preouccupied with the
battle below to notice. The one next to it was for the
doors. It had been recently used and pulling back up was
a easier task. As silently as she could manage she snuck
by the three and back to the ceiling panel.
When she
arrived, Geno had already ran through the door to assist
the others. She made her way down. As she dangled from
the ceiling, she collapsed as her gloves were not made
for grasping things. Fortunately she was not hurt and
proceeded to where the others were.
"I see it
worked." Geno replied as Peach stepped up behind him.
Already he had been casting power increasing spells on
Mario and Luigi. The lava was slowly decreasing and the
battle had reversed it's course. Since Mallow was trying
to focus on freezing the lava, she took over curing Mario
and Luigi.
~Lzn64~
Peach felt
herself weakening under the constant strain of the magic
coursing through her body. Each spell took its toll, and
it was evident within each of the three spell-casters
that they wouldn't last much longer. Mallow looked
especially sick; his usually snow-white puffy skin had
taken on an unhealthy yellowish tinge. He no longer had
to worry about freezing the lava over, and had turned his
efforts to distracting the monster from Mario and Luigi.
To no avail.
Blaargantua
obviously had express orders to take out Mario and Luigi
before anyone else, as Mallow's constant barrages of ice,
which had recently fused him to the floor, did not
distract him in the least. Rather, it seemed to incense
him and make his attacks on the bros. even more deadly.
Despite the help from Geno and Peach, the two were
rapidly tiring out, and could barely keep up with their
defenses, let alone launch an offense.
Suddenly, Yoshi,
who had been sulking in a corner near Jinx, since they
both had nothing they could do, thought of something.
Before anyone could notice, he had jumped off the
platform into the pool where there had been lava
recently, and dashed across the floor to the other side.
Blaargantua failed to take notice of the dashing
dinosaur, as his orders were strict; take out the
plumbers, then the others. Mario saw him out of the
corner of his eye, then gasped as he was shoved out of
the way by his brother, barely avoiding a nice, hot
slap.
Yoshi looked
around desperately, and watched as a chunk of ice broke
off the giant lava beast as it tried in vain to move
toward them, breaking the partial shell that now covered
nearly it's entire backside with a sheen of blue. The
chunk of ice fell to the floor, but before it could hit
the still warm stones and shatter, a quick pink line
lashed out at it and it was gone.
Yoshi grimaced
at the cold as he swallowed the chunk of ice, and made a
strange face. He almost laughed when he heard Peach yell
at him that this was no time to be eating, but was
concentrating too hard to get one out without sounding
fake. No one particularly knows how a Yoshi's digestive
system works, and the Great Star knows if even the yoshis
themselves know or not, but in any case after a few
seconds a nicely formed egg, tinged with blue, was
produced and picked up by the grim-faced dinosaur. He
squinted against the heat as one of the steaming red
hands passed near him, undoubtedly with a target of
either Mario or Luigi.
"Guys!"
He yelled to the bros, without looking to see where they
were. "When I say go, Run!"
"...Right!"
Mario called after a few seconds, his breath coming in
ragged gasps as he jumped over a blast of fire from the
enraged magma-beast before them. Luigi's affirmation of
the "plan" came a minute later, and it was then
that Yoshi set off a chain reaction of events.
He aimed the egg
carefully. As the egg-throwing champion three years in a
row of Yoshi's Island, he knew that he couln't miss,
least of all now, when it mattered the most. His egg flew
at the shifting mass of heat that was Blaargantua, and
exploded into a rainbow of crystal ice fragments just in
front of his eyes, blinding him temporarily. The beast
was now completely immobile, since Mallow had succeeded
in fusing it's entire lower half to the floor, and the
sheet of ice was creeping up it's body at an agonizingly
slow pace. It's deadly arms still moved freely, but
without the use of its eyes, it was impossible for it to
launch an accurate attack.
"NOW!"
Yoshi yelled, in too much of a hurry to be proud of
himself, and dashed across the floor right by the
bellowing Blaargantua. Mario and Luigi set off with the
last of their energy on a mad dash across the platform,
and were soon on the other platform. They nearly
collapsed immediately.
The beast
regained its sight seconds after they're safe arrival on
the second raised platform, and howled in a rage as it
realized that it couldn't turn around. The ice coming
from Mallow, who was shaking with exhaustion, saw to that.
Peach motioned for him to stop, since he looked ready to
pass out.
"C'mon...
let's just get out of here! It can't move, anyway,"
She reasoned weakly, her strenth also depleted by the
constant magic.
"The steel
doors'll keep him out, too..." Geno agreed, and he
waved everyone toward the next room. They were only too
happy to comply, leaving the bellowing, flailing blaarg
behind them, half-fused to the ground. His body heat
would eventually free him, but he would be effectively
trapped in the room; he was too big to escape either way,
and the solid steel door should keep him out if he
managed to pull himself into a small enough shape to
follow after the ice melted.
Yoshi, since he
was the only one strong enough to climb to the chamber
above the roof... or at least the only one out of two
people still in good health able to reach the switch to
the door, quickly climbed into the room and pulled the
switch. The door slammed shut a second later, muffling
the incessant wails of the frozen monster in the other
room.
while the others
rested their worn-out bodies, Jinx and Yoshi decied to
take a look at the room they were in. They found it to be
empty, save for an open doorway on the far side, which
they went through together. The sight that met them was a
bit disconcerting... the ceiling lay a mere two or three
inches above Yoshi's head, and the dry land in the room
extended only a foot outward... and ended abruptly at the
edge of a broad expanse of clear water.
"So... to
advance, we have to go underwater," Yoshi observed.
"How fun,"
Jinx sighed in reply, knowing that their troubles had
just begun.
---------
Meanwhile
---------
"Go ahead..."
Beezo laughed, his face illuminated by the dark glow of
koopa sorcery, which was allowing him to see into the
water room. "Jump in...."
~MumboJumboMan~
"What, you really think you can take me on when
I'm so much more powerful?" the Magikoopa laughed.
Ten thought for a moment. "No...Only a fool
would do so. But you shouldn't be so quick to judge. In
case you didn't notice, I have an army of koopas and
toads at my disposal. Do you really think that you have
what it takes to take them all on?"
The Magikoopa paused, dumbfounded. He was so overcome
by the presumption of finally getting a wand that he had
blatantly dismissed the obvious. "Well," he
started, putting on his sternest look, "I--" He
was suddenly cut off by Kadeja, who slammed him from
behind, sending the Magikoopa to the ground.
Ten, seizing the oppertunity, pounced on the
Magikoopa and attempted to wrestle the wand from his
grasp. Several toads had jumped on Karib as well, but
they were thrown off quite quickly. The Magikoopa was
putting up a very good fight for his size, however. He
kicked and snarled, unable to point the wand correctly.
Finally, the wand slipped from his grasp. Karib struggled
to retain it, but Kedeja managed to pluck it off the
ground before he could reach it, and set it on the bell
of Toad/the mushroom.
A blinding flash resulted, and Toad was instantly
reformed. Thinking fast, he grabbed the wand and blasted
Karib with it, narrowly missing Ten who had gotten out of
the way just in time.
Ten shuddered at the sound of Karib pining away. One
never gets used to it. He muttered a silent oath as he
looked upon Karib's charred skeleton that he would never
forget the Magikoopa's screams of pain.
"...Well, what do you think of the wand now,
Toad?" Ten said, gasping slightly.
"I...I see what you meant," Toad replied.
He shuddered, remembering his close brush with death. He
sighed breifly, then dropped the wand. The small band of
toads and troopas gaped at the scene.
"Toad, you won't regret that," Kiero said,
looking on. The others chimed in.
Toad smiled, realizing that they didn't need the
power of some wand to accomplish great feats.
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