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Chapter 35:
~Ditto McCloaker~
Meanwhile... Back at the Factory...
And as the minutes clicked by, on the giant Goomba Punch-Clock on
the wall, the light filtering in through the high, ugly factory windows
faded, and the skies outside turned gray, and the air grew chillier,
and then rain pattered down against the glass, like little bullets.
At exactly a quarter past twelve, and maybe 3 seconds, the wide warehouse
door down at the far end of the factory floor flew open with a BANG!
and a resounding THUMMMMMMM, and there
appeared in the doorway, dripping wet, a massive robot, followed at
his heels by a tiny, imposing figure.
Outside, the clouds spat down a giant bolt of lightning.
"I GIVE YOU... THE ENGINEER" said the giant robot. "AND
I AM HIS ASSISTANT... DOMI-CLOAKER. SHAPE-SHIFTING ALL-PURPOSE TOOLBOT."
"That will be all," rapsed the little figure. Domi-Cloaker,
intimidating and massive, turned, nodded, and then folded within himself.
In a matter of seconds, it was not a humanoid, but some strange device,
with a chute coming out of the top, and another chute sticking out
the side. A little conveyor belt came out of it, and a sign that had
once been Domi's face now said "Ready."
Before him marched two metal dogs, what were really ravenous, chomping
Chompers, chained onto little robot dog bodies. Their little metal
paws clanked agianst the gray steel factory floor, and they growled,
as if to protect their master.
Behind them, wearing a long, oversized gray coat, and a big-brimmed
floppy gray hat that obscured his face, soaking wet and dragging behind
him a massive, battered portmanteau filled to the brim with rolls of
blueprint waddled The Engineer.
Mack, who had long since pulled himself together, and was now covering
up the remaining scratches with a suit and tie around his blade, bounded
out of the Office and bounced up, shouting order sideways to everyone:
"Alright, all you junkpiles! Look alive! Master Smith's Chief
Assistant of Research and Development's arrived! Don't just sit there!
LINE UP! "
Bowyser, Yarid, and the Maceins hopped from their chairs and from
the water cooler and bounded up, forming a line and sticking out whatever
passed for each one's chest.
"And you scrubs! What are you all waiting for? Grab the good
Doctor's coat and hat!"
Instantly, two Shysters bounced up. The robodogs growled, but a little
whistle from the figure caused them to grow quiet. From within the
soaking raincoat, a wiry little arm poked out, and a big, crabbed hand
covered with liverspots grasped at the top of the wet hat. At the same
time, the little figure shrugged off the coat and handed it to a Shyster,
and then passed the hat to the other. And then, shaking off the remainder
of the water from his disheveled little white coat, the garrolous little
man grunted in a reedy little voice and glared through giant, thick
glasses.
"Ah, we're so happy you have arrived. Your reputation preceeds
you, Dr. Gadd."
"ZOOKS!" trilled the little man testily. "Dr. GADD-ZOOKS!
Kindly do NOT confuse me with that barmy quack distant cousin of mine!"
He lifted a trembly little hand to mop the sweat off his massive,
wrinkly forehead and then smoothed back the wisps of greasy black hair
that stuck out from the sides of his head.
"Of course, of course," placated Mack in a weezy little
voice. "Humblest of apologies. We never intended..." he
trailed off as the little man ambled forward, shooting little glimpses
around the whole big operation. He stuck his hands into the pockets
of his pot-bellied waistcoat as he walked, his upper lip curling disapprovingly
over his single, protruding tooth. He stopped, and looked at a little
pocketwatch on a gold chain.
Mack watched quietly for an awkward minute, and then tried again.
"We hope that you will be able to work with us, here... We have
attempted to provide you with all the resources you and your assistant
might need..."
"Assistant?" asked Dr. Gadd-Zooks absently, examining
a giant crane system and rubbing his pimply chin.
"Er, yessir," replied Mack. "I understood that you
would be bringing a new addition to our little operation with you.
Ah... is he running late?"
Gadd-Zooks looked up grumpily. "Late?" he wheezed. "What
are you babbling about? Of COURSE he's not late! He's right here!
With me!" He patted his briefcase.
Everyone exchanged glances.
Finally, Gadd-Zooks seemed satisfied with his examination. He ambled
back on his tiny legs, dragging behind him his massive briefcase.
"WELL! Are we ready, then?" he barked, looking from Mack
to the others, still standing at attention behind him.
"Er... ready for what, sir?" asked Mack in a tiny voice.
"Why, to put it all together! Did you complete all those little
designs I've been sending you these last few months? Or has that been
too much for you to handle?!?!"
When he got mad, his face turned purplish, and his squeaky voice turned
into a reedy, garbled mass of syllables. It sounded like he was saying
"Gobbo gobbo, yabbo yabbo!" Only angrier.
"Oh, those things? Er... yes. Just as your blueprints specified,
sir." He pointed at various bits of machinery hanging from chains
from the ceiling, or sitting on display cases on conveyor belts.
"Well GOOD, then! Let's not waste any more time jabbering!
Let's get it together!"
With that, he clicked a button on his briefcase, and a little helicopter
blade poked out. He rose up into the air and flew up to the main crane
controls (labeled "Mr. Pinch"). He then shuffled himself
into the Big Chair and began to press buttons and pull levers.
The whole factory came to life. Conveyor belts chugged. Cranes rotated
around. Cogs spun. The pieces, which had been setting apart were picked
up by giant pinchers one by one, and then dropped into the giant chute
at one end of the reformed Domi-Cloaker, who's purpose had never been
explained. It chugged to life and steam squirted every which way. It
sputtered, and sparked, and then, at the far other end, the giant door
opened, and on the conveyor belt rolled...
...well, something.
It moved a little. Then jerked itself up. Two steely eyes were perched
on either side of a massive canon barrel. It's cheeks were a giant
chamber for the loading of bullets. Two long legs sprouted out on either
side of the sleek pearl handle. A single metallic hand had it's finger
on the trigger.
Over the loudspeaker, Gadd-Zooks narrated.
"Master Smithy's creations, and that includes each of you,
all held a single flaw. And that was that they were mired in sadly
outmoded ideas of weaponry. Your problems are rooted in the fact that
you're too out-dated. Now, we have something more up with the times,
and there will be no more trouble.
He is fast, powerful, and efficient. What you see, gentlemen, is a
projectile-propulsion instrument, capable of launching diverse types
and grades of projectile at any target, short or long range. His parts
and capabilities are fully interchangeable.
I give you... Gunther."
The chamber revolved, and settled into place with a click.
"Whoa." said Mack.
---
~Masamune~
'Nyah!', 'Booster had been rather forcefully removed from the forest
by the ninjis. He and Snifit #4 had been hopelessly outmatched when
the managed to find the coveted warp pipe in the ninji village Like
most warp pipes, they could transport you into anywhere in the kingdom
granted you had an idea where other warp pipes were. The ninjis were
wary to let anyone use it and had detained the other three snifits
one by one earlier. Booster and his four snifits all sat unhappily
in a cell within the ninji village.
Well, except for Booster. He was rattling on the bars gleefully demanding
a phone call. "You can't keep me in here~! I'm a Mushroom Citizen~!"
"You are?" Snifit #2 asked. "You never registered
as a citizen when you moved from the Washroom Kingdom..."
Booster gave him shocked look, "... you're crazy. Crazy I say!
Guards!"
Snifit #4 looked to his fellow snifits, "Where were you guys
anyways?"
"Captured by some tyrant named Sparrow," Snifit #1 replied.
"He made us do work... and not the fun kind like beetle hunting,
finding princesses, or pulling chariots. He made us cut and haul wood!"
"Terrible!" Snifit #4 said in awe.
"So we got out of there," Snifit #2 replied. "And
got captured."
"Save me!" Booster bellowed again.
At last two ninjis came to their cell and took the key that was hanging
on the wall across from Booster and the snifits. The smaller of the
ninjis spoke up, "The Head Ninji has decided to allow you to
leave. We will blindfold you and lead you out of the Endless Forest,
agreed?"
"You're just in time" Booster said dramatically. "These
snifits had gone mad!"
---------
Meanwhile
---------
Unlike Booster and company, Luigi and Chibobuigi had no such luck
finding then ninjis. They did have the chance of seeing Booster and
his snifits pass them by while hidden behind some bushes. While it
was possible Booster may have had some useful information, it was useless
to try. It would be easier to interrogate a wall, in any case. To make
matters worse, it started raining.
Sometime later the group convened back at the Pionpi House again.
"No dice on the ninjis," Luigi replied. "We might
have better luck at dark. Or maybe not. They're a lot more secretive
than the other ninjis."
"What did you guys find out?" Mario asked.
"A bunch of pionpi were being deported to the new mines in the
mountains," Tadpoule replied glumly. "They looked pretty
roughed up, I suspect they had rebelled."
"Mines?" Kari asked.
"They can't make weapons from nothing," Chibobuigi replied.
"Smithy must have already exhausted all of Chai's excess metal
stores."
"Those guys make me sick!" Nokobono growled. "I
could just... I could just-"
"Tut tut! Don't blow a fuse, old bean!" Kolorado exlaimed,
putting his hands up in fear of explosion.
"What about you two?" Mario asked as he turned to Kari
and Heidi now that Nokobono had cooled off.
"Nearly deserted," Heidi replied. "Must have been
Croco's part of town, it's been mostly looted. There's nothing around
there except for more ninjas."
"Did you two have any better luck?" Luigi asked.
"Smithy has the castle sealed up tight," Kooper replied
glumly. "There's no way in at all."
"Oh, I wouldn't say THAT," Mario said winking. "But
first we have to get rid of those ninjas."
"Need I remind you, it's still five to one, bro. These guys
mean business!" Luigi exclaimed. "And even if we DO take
them out, they can call in reinforcements."
"Which is why we need to play the game differently," Mario
replied. "I think I have an idea."
"Do tell."
"Well first of all, we need Nokobono to stir up some trouble," Mario
replied. "You're still pretty hot over the mines, right Nokky?"
"Grrr... it's Nokobono!"
“Ah,” Luigi interrupted. “That will take out quite
a few and then we take the rest out during the confusion...”
“But not enough," Tadpoule noted. "We're still
hopelessly outnumbered."
"Oh! I plum forgot!" Kolorado exclaimed. "Kooper
my boy, do you still have that dust we found before?"
Kooper's eyes widened, "That's right! The fuzzy dust!"
Mario raised an eyebrow, "Fuzzy dust?"
"It's the stuff Croco used on the princesses," Tadpoule
explained. "We found it before being teleported away by Smithy.
I can't believe you kept it this long, Kooper."
Kooper blushed as he removed several bags from his shell, "I
have a bad habit of collecting junk in my shell... never knew when
it will be useful, you know."
"Good show, old bean! I daresay that will even things up."
---------
Meanwhile
---------
"Where is he!?" Clubmin demanded as he pushed the other
lieutenants out of the way. Sure enough, he found Gadd-Zooks hunched
over his briefcase searchign through his tools. "Who is this!?"
"This is the Engineer," Mack explained as he hopped over.
"No. This is not," Clubmin growled as he turned on the
knife.
Gadd-Zooks turned around at the oversized hammer and frowned, "So
you are the 'great creation' of the old Engineer, eh? Pitiful."
Clubmin fumed and held Gadd-Zooks up by his collar, "What did
you say!?"
The two chomp-dogs were on him instantly, ready to rip the hammer
to bits.
"That's enough Chain and Fire, go find you a spare mekabon
to eat, eh?" Gadd-Zooks said to his chomps before turning to
the hammer. "As I was saying, you are yet another failure. Worse
than those three idiot lieutenants even. And if I were you. I'd desist
from your attack."
"Whaddya gonna do?" Clubmin replied grimly. "Lecture
me to termination?"
"Something more like this!" A new voice exclaimed. In
a split second, a shot was heard and Clubmin found himself looking
straight at a bullet bill, a mere inch from his face.
Clubkin had already dropped the doctor after the shot and looked around
the bullet to see the menacing, cocky Gunther grinning at him. "Who....
who is this!?"
"Gunther, you would know more if you had been more punctual
for my arrival," Gadd-Zooks replied grumpily.
"What happened to the old Engineer?" Clubmin grumbled.
"Smithy scrapped him. After the failure of Machine Mutant, Watinga's
Mechanical Suit, the Hydraulico clones, Blade II, the Macein Rangers...
and of course his biggest failure, you - he only had it coming."
"Why I oughtta!" Clubmin growled.
Gunther cocked his hammer ready to fire.
"There's a good lieutenant. Now run along and get to work,
the final upgrades to the factory must be finished tonight!"
"But Wart took off with all of the other machine-mades," Yaridovich
interrupted. "We'll never get it done."
"If we use the slaves they'll revolt, nyah!" Bowyer chuckled.
"As if they aren't revolting enough already!"
"Then stop chattering and get to work!" Gadd-Zooks retorted
as he lost his temper, his talking turning into a strange gibberish
again.
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