Chapter 21:

~Luigi of the Pipes~

By the time Luigi had finished emptying the pillows, the bed was covered with feathers, and not a single one was a Cape Feather. "Well," the green-capped one sighed, "it was worth a shot."

"I guess," Mario replied to his brother. "I still get to sleep in the cot tonight."

"Huh? We have a cot?"

"In the closet, duh."

"What else was in the closet?"

"I dunno. Some soap, some food, some towels..."

"Aha! Towels, that's just what we need!"

"Weege... there's a difference between towels and capes..."

"I know that!" the taller brother scoffed. "But we can scoot the bed over to the window and use the towels as a rope."

"Ah, that works. You get to work on that, I'll pack the packs."

"Why do I have to?"

"Because you're the one who littered the bed with quills."

"Oh..." Luigi scuffed his shoe on the hard wooden floor and walked around to the other side of the bed. Mario shook his head sadly, then walked over to a second wooden door and tugged at the tarnished knob attached to it. The door came open easily, and Mario hurriedly tossed the few towels over to his bro. Luigi caught them and began his work, while Mario scooped up the two backpacks and began to shove random items inside.

After a few minutes of this, both bros. had finally finished and Mario tossed the green backpack over to Luigi, as he had done with the towels. Luigi caught and pulled it over his back, then gestured with his hand, indicating that Mario should go down first. Mario shrugged and likewise pulled his red pack up and over his shoulders, then stepped to the window. Luigi nodded his head toward the window, urging Mario on, so the latter jumped. He immediately swung his hands out in attempt of catching the towel-rope, frantic from the idea that he could be street pizza if he didn't. He needn't have panicked, since Luigi assisted him by swinging the towel over in his direction.

The slide down would've been fun, had Mario been younger and the situation less serious. To top it off, the rope ended quite a bit short of the street, causing Mario to drop and land hard on his rump. Luigi began to chuckle as Mario got up, then stopped when he realized that he would be taking the same plunge in a few seconds. Luigi repeated Mario's tactic, jumping and grabbing the towel-rope on the way down. Mario instantly noted that the ride seemed a lot shorter when you were watching, than when you were sliding. Either way, Luigi landed just as sharply as Mario, got up, dusted off his rear, and looked over at his brother.

"Well, the easy part's over," Luigi grunted as Mario hid his snicker. "Now where to?"

"Outta here. Where else?"

"I was hoping you'd elaborate..."

"If we're lucky, Mallow and them got away when Squid Guy struck. Let's see if we can find the bus."

"Okie dokie!"

Side by side, the brothers plodded off.

---------
Meanwhile
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Frogfucius looked over the Nimbus Bus. The driver was missing, possibly captured. Hopefully the bus would still be operable though...

The old frog hoped nimbly into the cloud, bounding toward the controls. Squid Guy flopped in afterwards, still a bit timid about sitting inside it. Once the squid was in though, Frogfucius pushed a webbed-foot down on the lightning bolt-shaped gas pedal. Miraculously, the cloud bus rose, as wispy as one's dreams.

"It works?" Squid Guy asked.

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Now, Grasshopper, we wait."

"Oh... alright, I guess."

"You wouldn't want to leave without the Mario Bros., would you?"

"Just a little bit... I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Well, you understand that we must do this."

"Yes, yes I do."

As if on cue, two men rounded a nearby building, running rather quickly. The taller one was noticably sweating, not to mention lagging behind the shorter one. That shorter one didn't seem to have nearly as much trouble running though.

"There they are," Frogfucius said. He slowly lifted his foot off the pedal, lowering the bus enough that the Mario Bros. would be able to jump inside. They did so as soon as they caught up to the bus, landing with two sharps thuds on the cumulonimbus surface.

Mario's eyes shot open immediately. "You!" he growled, pointing a white gloved finger at Squid Guy. "What do you think you're doing here?!"

"He's doing the same as always, Grasshopper," Frogfucius interrupted.

"That's not what I meant," Mario mumbled, "after what he did."

"He did nothing."

"Then where are Mallow and Sonny?"

"And Hydraulico," Luigi cut in timidly.

"And Hydraulico. And the bus-driver too. Why were we locked in that inn room for several hours?"

"Because Watinga escaped."

"He let him loose, no doubt!" Mario glared over at Squid Guy. "You dirty..."

"Enough of that nonsense Grasshopper," Frogfucius said, anger tinting his voice. "Mallow and Sonny are our prime concern."

"Maybe to you, but I want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen twice!"

"I said enough!"

"You can't..."

"Mario!" Frogfucius roared, for possibly the first time in his life. "Mario, would you stop and show some sense?! Squid Guy did nothing wrong! I had my eyes on him that entire time. Do not continue using him as a personal scapegoat!"

Mario looked over at Frogfucius, aghast. What was he doing? Squid Guy didn't do anything, and he simply kept on accusing and accusing... Luigi and Squid Guy were in shock too. Frogfucius hadn't even bothered to call Mario by the title Grasshopper. Squid Guy shook his head, then dived from the bus and scuttled away, forcing himself further and further into the swamp.

"They hate me," he moped. "They can't stand me. They're appauled by me. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it..."

Squid Guy sunk deeper and deeper into his own despair. He couldn't do a thing to change Mario's mind.

Unless...

Watinga certainly didn't have enough time to break loose, get that suit, capture Sonny and co., and lock Mario and Luigi in the inn. Which meant that there must've been another person to do that last part. Maybe if Squid Guy found that person, he could redeem himself. But, where would he even start?

Where the whole incident started, dolt, a voice rang in his head.

"Right," he mumbled. "At the Pionpi House." Squid Guy looked around the swamp nervously, then crept back into Furai, from a different gate, of course...

---------
Meanwhile
---------

"I hope you're happy," Frogfucius mumbled.

"I... I...," Mario stuttered. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry to him, or me?"

"Both."

"Umm," Luigi interrupted. "I hate to be a bother, but I also hate to think of what they're doing to Mallow and Sonny. Can we go look for them now?"

"And leave Squid Guy?"

"Squid Guy can survive on his own," Frogfucius sighed. "We shall depart for the Sphinx now, and hopefully find him later."

---------
Meanwhile
---------

Booster sat, and sat... and sat. He figured that he'd been sitting there stroking his beard for over three days now, give or take.
Finally, it came to him. He wouldn't call them by name, he'd call the trio... no quartet, by number. The only one problem, he suddenly couldn't remember their numbers either...

Sadly, Booster sat back down. Perhaps if he scratched his ears...

Wait, that was it! They were probably calling for him this very instant! Yes, that was it! He could climb up one of these trees and listen for them!

Happily, Booster grabbed onto the nearest tree and began to make his way up. He was nearing the top, when it popped out at him.

He didn't know what it was, but it looked all furry and brown. And it had... seven and a half eyes, yes, that was it.

Booster stared at it, and it stared at Booster. They continued, until Booster finally lifted one of his hands and removed his hat. He took off his other hand and began to scratch his bald head. The it began to do something, but Booster didn't notice, since he was suddenly falling head over heels.

The next thing Booster realized, his legs were hanging limply. He looked down, and gasped. The ground was missing! Disturbed, he looked up. Not only that, but the sky was falling too! He would have put his arms up to catch himself, but they were already there.

And Booster sat there. With both hands pre-occupied holding the sky up, he couldn't scratch his head, his beard, his ears, anything. So he sat there...

~Sapphire~

Following the Ninji seemed to calm the other Princess's down a bit, Peach thought to herself amusedly. They _had_ begun to annoy her, and Daisy got very annoying after a time if you left her to complain. Perhaps it was the proper thing to at least seem tolerant of her.

Silly girl.

The exit would be nearby at any rate; the complaints seemed to have disappeared as everyone became quieter, more contemplating, as they each wondered how to get out of this predictament. Peach smirked inwardly.

Experience told her to expect some sort of sign from the Mario brothers sooner or later. Yet she couldn't help wonder how her life would have been like if she hadn't met them. Mario's courage and reliability and Luigi's charm and obvious intellect.

It would have been a very boring life indeed.

It could have been worse.

Quite content with her thoughts, she seemed not to notice when Daisy once again became annoyed, her tendencies to overreact surfacing. In fact, she found she was no longer paying attention to any of them.

"Okay you, I know you're doing us some big favor, but can you at least tell us your name?" Daisy snapped.

The Ninji seemed to smile. "That is unimportant."

"How do we not know you're leading us to some trap?" Daisy continued, growing possibly more irritating than any of them could bear.

Plum kicked her lightly in the shin. "Shhhh."

Daisy gave her a sharp look.

"You'll have to excuse my cousin," Maple rolled her eyes. "She has tendencies to 'go off a bit'. We appreciate your help. Really."

Luckily for them the Ninji smiled at Maple, understanding. "Of course."

Daisy made a sound that sounded like a 'hmmph' in her throat, but she was quick to find something new to complain about.

Daisy was not really a likable person. In some aspects, she was, but she had an attitude which could drive those around her insane.

She was in actually very jealous of her cousin Peach, but her bitterness came out in waves of complaining about everything about her and it gave her some satisfaction those times when even Peach lost her temper. Not only that, but she hated silence; speaking was easier when she had something to complain about.

"How much longer, I wonder?" She said out loud. Plum shook her head.

"Really, are you that insatible?"

"I don't like all this silence. It's annoying." Daisy admitted, though the other three preffered the silence to her persistant yammering.

Plum was perhaps the most practical, though she and Maple had often been shifted to the sidelines. All that she required now was at least a little order in the disorder that they had been thrust into. She had been the sort to want to go on adventures, but she had never been given the opportunity. She just wished she were in better company.

Eventually they did reach a clearing up ahead and the Ninji stopped and turned. "Well, here you are. An exit to the forest. Have a good day."

"Thanks!" Maple and Plum chirped as he returned back into the eaves of the forest. Daisy was looking around with an annoyed expression. Shooting Plum a pointed look and rubbing her ankle, she started speaking.

"If this _is_ the exit, we should be able to find our way back to Sarasland. But," She paused a moment, considering their area. The trees loomed behind them, but this clearing.. wasn't much. The sky was a midnight blue, with stars twinking in and out of existance, and the brief hint of clouds, but that's all it was, the tiniest bit of sky, the groud flat with some rocks.

"However, what if this isn't the exit? Or the right one?"

"Daisy, really. You talk too much. Give it a rest, will you?" Plum now had that same annoyed expression on her face.

"Well, I don't see anything familiar." She huffed.

"Well, then you're just useless then!" Plum fumed, then whirled around to face Maple. "You have any ideas?"

"We're still lost." Maple shrugged.

"At least we're out of there. What about you, Peach? Hey," Plum said, looking around. "Where is Peach, anyway? She got sorta quiet back there."

"She probably went up ahead, figuring out where we are like she usually does," Daisy rolled her eyes. "We might as well not sit here like a bunch of idiots. Let's go."

"Speak for yourself." Maple muttered.

"Go where? Did Princess-I-own-this-land-but-I-don't-know-where-it -is remember something from when she glanced at a map once in her life?" Plum said sarcastically.

"You're not helping, Plum." Maple said quickly, but nonetheless, they both followed after Daisy, who shot them another look after she tripped over a rock and they had snickered.

~Ditto McCoaker~

Plum, Maple, Daisy marched ahead, eager to see this place beyond the Forever Forest and to find Peach.

Stepping forth from the cave and into the clearing, they were immediately aware of a dense mist hanging in the forest as though it were a tattered and fluttering curtain strung from the trees.

The trees, however, were not like the thick, temperate forest such as they had left behind them. They were tall, thin, and green, and topped with thick, dark green leaves. There was immediately something reassuingly familiar about this forest.

Bamboo. The Asian flora could only mean they were back in the Asian-styled Sarasaland.

A cool wind blew through the trees, and a few drops of errant rain drizzled down through the forest here and there. It was eerily beautiful, here at night, in this picturesque place, and they all felt like relaxing and taking in the surroundings. It was Daisy, though, who was first to notice something useful.

"Look! Flickering lights!" she said, pointing off to her right, where no one else had been looking. All heads turned to see the eerie light that was indeed hovering and glowing several feet off the ground in the darkness through the trees. An eerie chill crawled up the spine of Maple and Plum. Daisy, however, ran toward it.

"Wait!" cried Maple. You don't know what it is!"

Ironically enough, she was wrong. Daisy ran on, confidently. The other two lifted up the hems of their dresses and tried to follow.

Daisy stopped short as her friends came running up behind her. They looked at her, her body framed in the light emanating from whatever was in front of her. They were puzzled as to why she had stopped so suddenly.

"I knew it!" crowed Daisy, whipping around to face her friends so quickly it startled them. She stepped aside as she turned, to reveal the glowing orange light before her.

It came from a flame, mounted in a square, hollow stone box atop a short stone pillar about the height of a mailbox. It was a lantern. Daisy beamed.

"It's a path!" said Daisy exuberantly. Plum and Maple looked down. Sure enough, they had failed to notice that there was a vague path made from smooth pebbles beneath their feet. They looked up and onward where it led, and they could see another flickering light a distance off.

"Peach probably found this path and decided to follow it. She should be right around here somewh-"

Her proud proclaimation was presently cut off by the a high pitched scream from further down the path. The sound of pebbles crunching frantically reached their ears as they saw a dark from charging at them from the direction of the other lantern. As it dashed into the light, the Princesses caught a glimpse of Peach, dress lifted up to reveal a flurry of frantic legs below her. Her face was pushed forward, stern, collected, and resolute in the aim of getting back where they had come from.

She whizzed by so fast that the dragwind behind her caused their dresses to whirl by as though they were in a tornado. They instinctively held onto their crowns as they spun to see Peach rocketing back the way they had come. Suddenly, there was a skidding sound, and Peach, who had dug her high-heel into the ground for a hasty stop, slipped in the unstable and slightly wet pebbles and slid into the ground. Rolling over, she took off the shoes that hindered her escape, picked herself up and looked back firmly at her peers, who were standing dumb-struck staring over at her.

"What are you waiting for?! Back to the cave!" she yelled, commandingly. Her high-heels now in her hands, she continued her run much better in her long white stockinged feet. The others shrugged and began to make their way after her the best they could. Up ahead, she disappeared back into the cave of the Ninjis. As quickly as they could, they huddled in behind her. Peach was against the inside wall, her back firmly against it. They huddled together against the wall on the other side of the door.

Breathing as though her lungs would never get enough air, Peach craned her long, delicate neck out through the entrance, the same calm, alert, watchful look on her face. Suddenly, she pulled it back in and flattened herself against the wall. A noise from without the cave came closer. It was like the sound of clanking metal and springs.

From the darkness of the cave, the other Princesses looked out and saw a number of dark forms flitting past the opening. Suddenly, there was a flash of thunder, and for a moment, one hesitating one was illuminated.

Daisy gasped, as the others looked on in fear. Peach wasn't looking. Her eyes were closed as she seemed to be struggling to keep from doing anything to be seen. Daisy knew for certain what she had seen among illuminated among the pursuers.

It was a little robot, identical to Luigi's happy little help bot. Only this one had a darker gray sheen on it's metal, and a different look on it's face...

Soon, the forms quit flitting by, and the sounds of their bouncing echoed into the distance. Peach finally caught her breath and opened her eyes, and saw her companions in the recesses of the cave.

"What happened?" asked Maple.

"I was spotted." said Peach.

"By who? Who's over there?" asked Plum.

Daisy gulped. In the light, the form she had seen

"The path runs along the edge of a cliff not far from here. There's a small bamboo fortress slonh the path, overlooking the valley, at the end of the path. It was overrun with Smithy's Machine-Mades. They saw me."

"A valley?" said Daisy.

"Does it sound familair?" asked Maple hopefully.

"No. I have no idea where we are. I don't know about any cliffs. We must still be miles away from Chai City." said Daisy, her eyebrows creased.

"Chai City was visible down in the valley a little off from the cliffs." said Peach. "We're on the cliffs that circle it."

"Oh." said Daisy. "Wait, that's right. I see these cliffs every morning when I'm up in my Rose Room in Chai Castle." She blushed and laughed. Plum and Maple rolled their eyes.

"In any case, we can't get down there. That fortress is blocking the way. Frankly, I don't think there's a way for us through it."

They sat there in silence, pondering their latest obstacle to happiness for about a second.

"Hmm..."

"You got an idea, Peach?" said Plum, looking up. Peach looked up.

"Wasn't me." she said.

A giggle came from behind a rock. Their eyes went wide as they all turned to the source of the high-pitched hysteria. It didn't stop. The four crept closer to see what was behind the stone, making all the racket. To their surprise, a tiny star-shaped Ninji was rolling on the ground laughing to itself.

"What's so FUNNY?!" cried Daisy, stomping her foot.

The small Ninji looked up in shock at being found so suddenly. With the typical agility of Ninjis, leapt to it's feet.

"Sorry. I just overheard your story, and heard you say how you couldn't get back and I started thinking about it, and I said 'hmm' and you heard me and thought it was each other..." At the end of it's run-on sentence, it broke down into amusement again. Quickly, however, it recovered. It looked up at the young faces around it with large, friendly eyes, and a single, snaggle-fang in it's grinning mouth.

"Well, there might be something back in the village that might help you."

"Village?" said Maple and Plum.

"Yeah. Where us Ninjis live. Back in the cave. Come on, I'll take you."

They all looked at each other oddly. So far, that had been given no reason to fear or distrust the Ninji in general, and this one seemed especially friendly. They nodded, and soon, the little black critter was leaping and bouncing with incredible agility around the rock formations, leading them deeper into the cave, after introducing himself as Shuri.

About an hour later (Ninjis normally travel faster than Princesses) they were shocked to turn a corner and see a sprawling, but tiny, set of structures in a huge cavern. Small houses were everywhere, not just on the ground but built on cliffs hanging over head and hanging, wartlike, off of some of the pillars.

"Let's go see the Head Ninji!" said Shuri, almost shouting.

"Won't he be asleep?" asked Peach, concerned.

"What do you mean? It's the middle of the night!" With no further explanation, the happy little critter dashed off into the maze of waist-high buildings. In the middle of the 'town' was a structure which went higher than the rest. It was decorated elaborately with carvings of the moon and stars in it's stony roof. The Princesses, being unable to enter, just stood outside. Shuri's effervescent voice came from within.

"Riken! Father! Come outside and see!"

Presently, two more Ninjis came out. One was small and gray. The other was larger, with a bandana and a sterner look on it's face. The two groups, Ninji and human, stared at each other.

"Greetings," said Peach, introducing herself in her impeccably graceful manner to the Ninji family. "I am Princess Peach, from the Musrhoom Kingdom."

"And I am Princess Daisy, ruler of Sarasaland!" said Daisy hasily, stepping forward, trying to introduce herself better than Peach.

"I never heard of you." said the Head Ninji.

"Heh, she doesn't know anything about us, either." said Shuri in a mischevious voice that earned him a dirty look from Daisy.

"I am Astar, Head Ninji around here. Honored to make all of your acquaintances." said the large Ninji.

"Your son informed us that you might have a way of getting us past the fortress on the cliff down to Chai City in the valley."

Astar shot a stern look down at Shuri. "I don't know what he means. We do not go near that place. We leave them alone, and they leave us alone as we hunt around them at night."

"The Stars, dad." said Shuri urgently, looking up with large, hopeful eyes.

"The Sta- what?! Son, you brought them here so I could give them the Stars?!"

"C'mon, dad. They're princesses in peril. They need to get across, and those guys after them are right outside the entrance. It'd be the coolest thing in the world! Come on, not like we can't make more!"

"What does he mean, 'stars?'" said Peach.

Astar quieted his son and looked up. "He is referring to the magical Ninji Stars we have."

"Like the kind that make you unbeatable?" said Plum, whose adventurous nature had led her to be very interested in the magical "Star Men" which she had heard existed in most kingdoms, which rendered the holder capable of anything.

"No, these are not those. These are a special type of magical badge which we have. They give the holder special abilities."

"Oh? Like what?" said Plum, intrigued.

"They make ordinary people like us!" said Shuri excitedly.

After much assessing of the situation, Astar decided that this was just such an emergency as might call on the precious, mysterious Ninji Stars. The small family went inside and momentarily emerged, with four small compacts, each with a ? mark on them. After fiddling with the secret mechanisms, they tops flipped open. Inside each was a white, star-shaped badge, with a red dot in the center. Peach took one that the Astor offered her and fingered it.

"These will not guarantee your safety, but they will even the odds a bit, for you see, they grant the bearer of the badge the power and agility of the Ninji..." said Astor.

Tiny lights flickered on Peach as she brought the badge up to her chest, just above and to the right of her blue sapphire. A wind swept around her as she put it on.

With curiosity, the other princesses carefully pinned the badges on thier colorful dresses, being careful not to prick themselves...

~A brief time later that night...~

In the moonlight high above the fortress, obscured by the mists, four slender figures stood on a ridge, looking down at the fortress, each clad in a different colored cloth.

Yellow, Purple, Orange... and Pink.

"Let's go." came a whisper from the one in pink, all of the soft face obscured by a tight cloth mask, except for the large, blue eyes. She reached behind her back and whipped out a frying pan that had been strapped to the back of ther tight cloth ninja outfit. The others, nervously, each reached behind and fingered the different weapons they had each brough with them, as they're eyes fixed on the encampment below them...

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