Chapter 29:

~Luigi of the Pipes~

"Golly Croco," Luigi grunted, looking over to Watinga and giving him a slight nod. "We'd love to stay and chat, but we really must be flying..."

With that cue, Watinga shot out three of his arms and caught up his comrades, then waved mockingly at the Crooks with his free hand and buzzed into the sky, immediately in pursuit of the Blade II.

"Oh ho boys!" Croco chuckled, rubbing his scaly mitts together. "They's want a dogfight? We's gonna give ‘em a good ol' dogfight!"

In response, the Crooks with jetpacks fired up the engines of the devices and, along with Beezo, shot into the air. Those who didn't have... or broke... or simply forgot their jetpacks jumped onto Croco's back by his beckoning. Once they had all climbed aboard, Dodo grabbed firmly onto the chief thief and lifted him into the air as well.

It was easily apparent that the Blade was escaping from the protagonists, and that the Crooks would catch up to them. All but Dodo, anyway. He was barely keeping airborne, what with all the weight he had to carry. Even Valentina was lighter than this! the bird thought privately, as he was accustomed to. Croco was even more perturbed by Dodo's performance, and began to shout angrily at him to speed up. Just like Valentina would have... Had it really been worth it to leave Valentina after all? the raven sighed.

On the other side of the battle, Clubmin dashed frantically back and forth across the Blade's deck, as his Mad Mallets piloted the ship to their best abilities. It was vital that Smithy knew about Watinga becoming a traitor as well as soon as possible, but the hammer lieutenant was currently missing his comlink. Why now? he thought angrily. Why did I have to lose it NOW?!

Finally, at the battle's center, Squid Guy relayed the current situation to himself over and over, trying to determine what he could do to help. What would Sensei suggest now? he pondered silently. The squid looked up to Mario and Luigi, their faces steeled to stopping Clubmin. But at the rate they were going, they wouldn't get to the Blade altogether. Watinga's load was too heavy, it seemed. If only some soft object were underneath him, he could lighten the load a bit...

Down below them, as if in answer to Squid Guy's request, a Mouser jetted parallel to them. Squid Guy noticed, then watched as the Mouser blazed up vertically, intent on head-butting Watinga in the gut, knocking him out.

You know what to do, Squiddy, the mutant thought. Be brave, not a Shy... Squid Guy sucked in his breath, slipping out from under Watinga's arm in the process. He fell a bit, then wrapped around Watinga's foot. "If you'll excuse me!" he called up before letting himself go, hoping that by letting his companions know what he was doing they wouldn't worry so much. As he looked up into their suddenly wide eyes, he realized it was a bit too late for that...

The Mouser was shocked to see Squid Guy's act of self-sacrifice as well, but not so much that he didn't keep his wits about him. The rodent smoothly slid to the side of the plummeting Shy Guy, then hovered wickedly over the place where the monster would land, eager to see Squid Guy hit the ground.

And hit he did. Squid Guy smashed into the ground hard, with enough force to send sand exploding up into the air. He weakly lifted his masked face, spitting sand from his mouth and trying to get the desert dirt off of him. If he didn't clear the sand off, he could dehydrate in just seconds...

"Quick Luigi!" Mario shouted from above. "The last canteen!" Luigi nodded and grabbed the object off of his arm, then hurled it with all his might to the ground. It fell greatly short of Squid Guy despite, for Watinga had forced himself to keep moving, especially with the speed boost of only carrying two passengers rather than three. If he didn't hurry, the Blade would get away...

The canteen hit the ground, and Squid Guy quickly bounded toward it, shaking sand off of himself as he went. Unfortunately for him, the Mouser also saw the canteen and swooped down to grab it.

The rat caught it at the same time as Squid Guy did, then poured his jet engines on as hard as he could. It was pointless. Squid Guy held firm to the canteen, weighing the Mouser down too much to even lift past the canteen's rope. With one swift tug of the canteen, the Mouser was pulled down to Squid Guy's eye level. That didn't last any longer, for the Mouser's furry nose soon met with Squid Guy's curled-hard tentacle.

With the Mouser knocked out and nothing else trying to harass him, Squid Guy snapped the top of the canteen off and splashed its contents over him. Almost instantly revitalized, Squid Guy tossed the canteen aside and them began to examine his unlucky opponent. He flipped the unconscious Mouser over onto his stomach, then unsnapped the jetpack from his back and hooked it onto himself. After adjusting the harness and straps a bit, then getting a handle on the controls, he fired into the air. In pursuit of who else but those pursuing his friends.

He zoomed easily around Dodo and smashed his pointed noggin into a nearby Sackit, then smacked a Bandit hard with his tail, sending both of them spiraling to the ground. Three down, thirty-seven to go...

***

"Red..." a voice groaned, echoing through the empty halls of the Sarasaland Castle.

"What, Yellow?!" another voice snapped irritably, obviously not pleased with the fact that he had been defeated.

"Next time we try an ambush, Red, can we do it from the Kitchen? I'm STARVING!!"

In unison, three voices shouted, "Shut up!" to their companion, then went back to their own personal thoughts.

"Where'd Pink even run off to?" another voice asked after a pause.

"I have no idea. Shut up."

"Okay okay! Sheesh, Red, remember your blood pressure..."

". . ."

"Hey..." the third voice continued. "Can any o' yous reach my shades over there? How ‘bout you, Long Arms?"

"I've got more important things to contemplate than how to reach your gaudy apparel," a fourth voice mumbled. "Like this splitting headache, for example..."

"Would all of you..." the second voice started again, "JUST KEEP YOUR PIE MOUTHS SHUT?!"

"Blood pressure, Red!"

"There's pie? Where?!"

"YELLOW!!"

"Red, your blood pressure! Sheesh, you're getting to be worse than Smithy!"

"Sorry Red..."

"Well now, Red," Green mumbled, turning as best he could to face his leader. The movement was restricted by the bent old club that bound the Rangers together, though... "This is a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into. I already know what to do, but, like you always tell me, you're the leader. So, what'll we do?"

"We wait for Pink," Red replied peevishly, "and hope that Boomer II can handle the intruders."

"Or those newer-model Machine-Mades that Smithy just delivered," Green noted. "What were they called?"

"Oh..." Black sneered. "You mean them Macein Rangers? Those rotten imposters... Have you seen ‘em? They look just like us, except that they carry some dumb old maces around. And they have three spikes instead of one. And the colors are off... well, except yours, Red...

"Axes are way better than maces..."

"They won't be able to help," Red sighed. "Smithy gave me the activation key for them, but I didn't enter it. Like we want to start a competition to see who can please the big guy more..."

"Uh, Red?" Yellow started. "You know, I found that key code on the desk in your room, and I... uh... figured that you'd want it to be used, so I... uh..."

"YELLOW!! You activated them?!"

"Red..."

"Sorry Red..."

"Shut up about my blood pressure, all right?!"

"No no, I was just going to say that you've got a spider crawling on your dome."

"Huh? Where?!"

"No wait, never mind. Just a shadow."

". . ."

"Well, great leader," Green interrupted. "I figure it'll take at least a day before Pink even realizes we're gone, and that we get out of here."

"Oh fine, go ahead."

Green leaned in close to Yellow's ear. "I hear they're giving away free cakes down in the welding room..."

"Ooh! Cake!" Yellow jumped to his feet, picking up his comrades in the process, seeing as how the club was bent incredibly tight around their forearms. After stopping to kick Black's shades up onto his nose, the titanic Axem Ranger plodded down the halls to the welding room. The other three Rangers looked at each other and grinned slyly.

***

"How're you holding out?" Maple asked for the fifth time already, Peach still draped half-way over her shoulder as they stumbled through the halls.

"Bad. Very, very bad..." Toadstool replied.

Maple sighed. "We'll find the Infirmary soon, no reason to get sassy. Or we'll at least run into Daisy and Plum, wherever they disappeared off to..."

But as they rounded another corner, their eyes were met by the missing Axem Ranger. Maple set down Peach and prepared to engage the pink-coated Ranger with her bare fists if necessary. It wasn't. The Ranger suddenly noticed Peach, dropped her axe, and ran over to the princess's side. She grabbed Peach's hand, softly mumbled, "Recover", then stepped back as Peach began to glow with healing energy.

"Um... thanks," Maple said, speaking for Peach.

"No no, my pleasure," the Ranger replied. "Anything to help a fellow pinkie.

"You, however, don't have a speck of pink on you..." The Ranger quickly stepped back and shouted, "Petal Blast!" Several pink leaves began to rain down from out of nowhere, clinging to Maple and Peach. Before the princess could rub them off herself, she vanished into a mushroom with a poof of smoke.

Pink grinned and picked up the orange-capped Maple, then took off the badge that was clipped to her stalk and looked at the black star in her hand. She picked up the pink-domed Peach and took her badge off too, then shoved them both into hidden pockets and happily carried the mushroom through the halls. Smithy would be pleased indeed. Maybe Pink could even get promoted above Red for this!

***

The Bandit remained silent, casting his face down to the rug. Plum took in the Bandit's appearance, noting that it wasn't a mechanical Bandit, but an organic one. It wasn't hard to tell. The robotic ones always wore grey robes, but the living ones, like this, wore blue robes. In addition to that, the Bandit also had a green cloth belt tied around his waist.

"Spill it, Bandit!" Daisy burst, growing peevish as their captive held his peace. "Tell us what we wanna know!"

"I don't know!" the Bandit shouted back, abruptly.

Daisy jumped back, startled, then grabbed her paper fan. "You little..." she began, raising the weapon, more infuriated about being yelled at then because she didn't get any information. Before she could smack the Bandit, however, Plum caught hold of her arm in a sharp motion, giving her cousin a frustrated look. Daisy wrenched her arm away and sat down on Pon's bed, to sulk.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Plum asked, much calmer.

"I mean what I mean," the Bandit replied vaguely, seeming to have a hard time holding his complexion.

"Are you holding information from us?" Pon pressed.

The Bandit's mask contorted suddenly, as little black tears began to run down it. "No!" the Bandit burst, throwing his head up and beginning to bawl. "No one tells me anything! No one likes me! They give me the rotten job! They make me sleep out in the hall! They make me go last in the lunch line!" His sobbing only increased as the Bandit vainly tried to rub the tears away with his sleeve.

Plum watched him for a second, understanding coming to her face. "I see," she said, putting a hand on the Bandit's shoulder.

He looked over at her sadly. "No one likes me..." he repeated.

"We'll like you," Plum offered. "You need a friend, and you've come to the right place."

"You..." The Bandit paused to think. "You really mean that?"

"Of course, don't I?" Plum glanced around the room, getting nods from Pon and Hydraulico... and no response from Daisy. "Er... just ignore her."

"I... well, I... uh... I don't know what to say. Thanks?"

"Sounds good," Plum grinned, poking the Bandit playfully to try and cheer him up.

"Databanks on friendship indicate that it is a wise move to learn each other's names, first," Hydraulico chimed. "I am Hydraulico, Mekabon assistant, property of Master Luigi Mario and Princess Daiii–" Hydraulico caught himself, remembering that he wasn't supposed to mention that "mistake" Luigi had put in his programming. He flushed, embarrassed, but Daisy hadn't even heard him anyway. Plum and Pon snickered. "Primary functions," the Mekabon continued, "flying and detecting."

"And I am Pi Pon P.," the Pionpi added, "minister of this castle and close advisor to Princess Daiii–" Pon paused and snickered. Hydraulico gave the Pionpi a dirty glance for teasing him. "Princess Daisy, yes. I'm the ‘Head Pionpi', you might say."

"I'm Princess Plum Ciruela," the purple-dressed princess said, pulling off the cowl of her ninja suit and letting her black hair flow down. She set the cowl down on the bed by Daisy and set to work putting her hair back up in pigtails. "Over there is Princess Daisy, if you haven't guessed."

"Hmm?" the red-haired lady mumbled, startled by her name.

"Sheesh," the Bandit sighed. "You've all done so much, and here I am, stuck on guard duty. Call me Bo. I was one of Boomer II's students, training to become a Ninja. I never managed to pass his dueling lessons though, so my classmates moved on and I got stuck here..."

"That stinks," Plum conceded, imagining what it would be like if she were dethroned just because she didn't behave ‘proper'... "Well Bo, you can forget all of that now. You've got us."

"Right," Bo agreed, starting to grin.

"How touching," a voice said from the doorway. The room's inhabitants turned to face the speaker. There stood Boomer II, sword drawn and ready. "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to break up this little ‘friendship' you've got forming. So sorry."

Plum grabbed her cowl and yanked it back over her face just as Daisy got to her feet, fan drawn. "You're the one trying to take my castle!" the hazel-eyed princess roared, racing at Boomer angrily. Plum followed a step behind, her tennis racket ready.

They charged passed the samurai into the hall beyond, swinging their respective weapons wildly. They skid to a halt and turned, hoping to see that some damage was done.

Plum still had the handle of her racket, at least... The actual paddle half of it was laying on the ground by Boomer's feet, neatly sliced away. Nothing was left of Daisy's fan but confetti. "He... he didn't move!" the yellow-robed one snarled, looking at Plum pathetically.

"The eyes can deceive," Boomer replied sagely. "Isn't that right, Beauregard?"

"That's how you taught me," Bo replied angrily.

Boomer shook his head at his former student. Then, in the blink of an eye, he spun around completely and stopped back in position. Daisy and Plum grabbed hold of their forearms, where Boomer had nicked them with his blade in that split-second. Boomer apparently didn't feel like playing around...

Daisy was about ready to race down the hall and find the other princesses, but Plum grabbed her by the hand and yanked her back into the room. They had to make a good impression on Bo, after all...

As they ran back through the doorway, Boomer made another lightning-fast movement. The two badges that Astar had given the princesses fell off their chests, removing the ninja garb they had been wearing and returning them into their old dresses and stockings.

"Our badg–!" Daisy began, before Plum covered her mouth with a gloved hand. Boomer's eyes perked at the word though, and he reached down to grab one of the black and red accessories.

"Quite an interesting find," he mumbled, turning the piece over in his hand. "If I had Smithy duplicate these, I could jump my Bandit crones right into Ninja class." He tucked the one he was holding into his pocket, then mockingly kick the other one over to the princesses. They exchanged glances to try and determine who would take it, then Daisy quickly snatched it up and pinned it on.

As she was doing so, Boomer swung his blade at them again. Before he could hit, Daisy nimbly whipped out her secondary weapon, a blue bumbershoot, and popped it open. The sword deflected harmlessly off the strong fabric.

"Good thing I took charge," Daisy mumbled, huddling the others behind the safely of the parasol.

Boomer was obviously peeved by this new trump card, and tried strike after strike to get through the defense. Daisy blocked each blow with skillful reflexes, but she was becoming winded. She couldn't hold it out forever...

Bo looked at Daisy, then Plum, then Hydraulico and Pon. "Leave this to me," he said at last, pulling a dagger out of his sleeve.

"You're not serious?" Pon asked, his brow furrowing. "I thought dueling was the part you failed on."

"It is." Bo pressed a button at the side of the dagger's handle. The blade sprung from the holder, lengthening to a size more fitted to a katana.

"You don't have to do this..." Plum cautioned. "You can't..."

"But I do have to do this, you see? If I don't, I won't be remembered at all. If I do, then hopefully everyone will know the name of Beauregard Bandit, the guy who helped save Sarasaland. Besides, what else are friends for?"

Before Plum could protest again, Bo backed up and dove over the parasol shield, doing a flip in mid-air with his blade out. Boomer saw the attack easily, though, and raised his sword to block. The weapons clashed loudly, then Bo landed on the ground and swung hard at Boomer's waist. The attack was easily parried, knocking Bo to the ground. Boomer reared his sword back to deliver the coup de grace, despite the earliness of the duel.

Plum quickly grabbed the umbrella from Daisy and snapped it shut, then swung it up and hit Boomer's sword before he even began bringing it down. The weapon flew from Boomer's hands, sticking into the wall behind.

Boomer looked at Plum and shook his head again. Before the princess could react, the cloth was ripped neatly off the umbrella, leaving her with the metal frame. Plum nervously shoved it into Daisy's hands, earning herself a sour glance.

Their samurai antagonist, holding the dagger he had used to skin the parasol, went over smoothly to grab his sword. As he did, he whirled about briefly, tossing the dagger behind himself in Daisy's direction.

It never got to the princess. Bo dove in the way of the weapon seconds before it reached Daisy, the knife embedding itself in his shoulder. Fighting the urge not to howl out in pain, the Bandit yanked the blade free of himself and wiped it on his cloak. "Go!" he grunted at the princesses and their aides, pointing to the door with the red-tipped knife.

"But we can't..." Plum began.

"GO!"

Tears starting to well in her eyes as she watched the bleeding Bandit, Plum crossed her arms over her chest and stood stolid. Or she tried to, but Hydraulico, under Daisy's order, wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her out.

Take care... Bo thought as they went out. He would be a good friend to them... even if it killed him...

Bravely, Bo turned back to face Boomer...

***

"So..." Goombario mumbled, fidgeting about in the Sky Pop they had ‘borrowed'. It was an expanded-seat, V3 Sky Pop T-02 model, but it still wasn't accustomed to carrying as many passengers as they had crammed in it now, particularly not one as wide-figured as a Yoshi...

"Be glad it's not a V1 S-89 model," Chibobuigi whispered, noticing the Goomba's fidgeting, "like the one Mario had to fly..."

"Yeah, but couldn't we have at least found a V5 model?"

Chibobuigi sighed and attempted to further squeeze himself against the seat that the duo were sharing, in hopes that it would ease the Goomba's complaints. The V3 Sky Pop was a plane with seating for three, two of those seats being set together in the front, and a longer couch in the back. Heidi had taken the pilot seat for herself, while Goombario and Chibobuigi had shared the shot-gun seat. Tadpoule and the Yoshi were crammed together in the back, a seat usually used if someone was becoming airsick and had to lay down.

"It's not just the space," Goombario muttered, offering a sympathetic look to the Chibibo for at least trying. "It smells like a swamp in here..."

"The Pionpi said that his brother worked in Furai," Heidi noted. "He was probably borrowing this."

"Looks like we'll have to go to the Salla Swamps to return the plane when we're done, then," Chibobuigi sighed. "If the engine doesn't freeze over in the Frappelands, anyway..."

***

"A foolish move, Beauregard," Boomer mocked, watching the princesses run from the room.

"How so?" Bo spat, holding his wounded shoulder with one hand and the dagger with his other. His hand was far too small to cover the smear of blood on his robe, though...

"I was under strict orders not to kill any of them, and I wouldn't have risked killing you either while they were here. But since they're not here anymore..." Boomer took a step closer. "I guess I'll have to keep with the Smithido Code. No trespassers, no treason..."

Boomer struck downward swiftly, but Bo had anticipated it and rolled nimbly between the samurai's legs. He jumped back to his feet and slashed against Boomer's back where no armor was present, digging a hole in the robot's chassis before he could react. Boomer yelped in pain and whirled around, his sword flashing out with him full force. Bo ducked the strike and leapt upward when the sword was clear, landing on Boomer's shoulders. He lifted the dagger and prepared to drive it into the samurai's head, but Boomer easily knocked him off and swung his sword roundhouse again. Bo tried to duck, but the sword followed him down this time. There was nothing he could do to avoid it...

***

"If I had had the Ninja Badge instead of you...!" Plum shouted when they were a clear distance from the room, plucking her crown from atop her head and hurling it at the ground by Daisy's feet. "Then..."

"Then what?" Daisy snapped irritably, stepping aside to avoid the bouncing headpiece. "Then the guy that was holding my advisor and Luigi's partner hostage would've gotten out with us?"

"It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter!"

"He had a choice, Plum!" Daisy paused, then sighed. "Look, for all we know, he could have been setting us up."

"Then why...?"

"Sure, he took that dagger for me, but it's not like Boomer would've killed me, anyway. We're too important to Smithy. That was probably an even bigger set-up to trust him..."

"Daisy..."

"My kingdom's at stake here, Plum! My responsibility! I can't afford risks!"

"Do you really mean that, or are you just saying it to hide your anger about having the castle invaded?"

"Plum..."

"You didn't listen to him earlier, Daisy. He was sincere. It was in his voice..."

"Ladies," Pon interrupted. "Forgive me for intruding, but we have company..."

The princesses turned to see Boomer at the end of the hall, wiping his katana with a red cloth. And then it hit Daisy. The cloth wasn't red by nature... Her throat caught.

Plum gasped at the cloth, her eyes welling with tears again. "Still think it was a set-up?" she croaked to the other princess.

Daisy looked at Plum, then back at Boomer. "You monster!" she hissed suddenly, hazel-eyes flaming with rage. She hadn't even known the Bandit. But, staring at Boomer, she just learned something from Bo by the what he had just sacrificed. And now she had to show Boomer that no one messes with her people.

"I'm just following orders," Boomer said, not even looking up from his cleaning.

Daisy furiously ran forward and tossed the parasol pole she still had at Boomer like a javelin. In a whir of motion, the pole was shredded up, the bit flying off to Boomer's sides harmlessly. Still, the samurai did not look up.

"Blast it!" Daisy snarled. She whipped around to face Hydraulico and demanded any steel-hard weapons he had. The Mekabon, after producing such useless things as arrows and shurikens, finally found a pair of sais. "Keep looking for a sword," the princess mumbled as she took one of the three-pronged weapons in each hand. She spun them in her palms a bit to get a feel for the items (and maybe to show off a bit), then set her eyes on Boomer, now tucking the cloth back into his robes.

Suddenly, the samurai lunged forward, ready to give Daisy a few more scars and to teach her a lesson in combating him. Daisy dashed ahead as well, and as Boomer's sword came down at her, she raised one of the sais, catching the blade between two of the prongs and stopping Boomer's strike dead. Before the robot could react, Daisy jabbed at his guy with the other sai, only to have it ping helplessly off the samurai's armor.

Boomer chuckled and pushed down harder with his sword, throwing Daisy off balance and knocking her to the ground. The samurai prepared to scratch a scar down Daisy's up-turned back, but the princess rolled hastily away to regroup herself.

"I won't let you take this castle!" the yellow-clad one screamed through grit teeth as she lunged again.

Plum watching Daisy battling intensely, suddenly proud of her cousin. Not only because she had said ‘this castle' instead of ‘my castle', but also because she was learning... learning to respect the underdogs and stand up for them. Sarasaland was a beautiful country, but it had a poor share of underdogs. Now that Daisy understood, thanks to Bo, it looked like Sarasaland would become even more wonderful than before... when they got out of this situation, anyway...

***

Squid Guy had done his best. He had tried to take out as many of the Crooks as he could while he had the element of surprise, but by the time he had knocked seven of the Crooks out, they had caught on to his scheme.

Within moments, the enemies were upon him, swooping back and forth for quick strikes on the mutant.

At least it was drawing attention away from Watinga. That was the real goal here...

Squid Guy took a pause to look over at his companions' progress. Watinga, exhausted from the chase, had finally come to a rest on the Blade's axe-like anchor. Mario and Luigi weren't with him though, for they had already started climbing the anchor chain.

Good, Squid Guy thought. Now I can...

He didn't get a chance to finish the thought. He hadn't even realized that the Crooks had cleared away from him for a reason. Not until his vision was already going dark, and he began to feel himself plummet as the jetpack exploded behind him. He didn't know what had hit him, causing his searing pain to rip through his body... But one thing he did realize, as he slowly drifted to unconsciousness, Mario and Luigi calling out to him...

The shot had come from the Blade II. And he would be lucky if he even survived...

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