By Pteryx
4
Escaping the Past
Tineeko had been wondering how Lakitu managed to work clouds without them dissipating like other Troopas said they had seen them do when Mario or Luigi tried to work them. He thought this would be a good time to try it, since Lakitu's vision stillwasn't perfect. Lakitu helped him with the controls, then took it easy and told Tineeko how to get to their destination.
A couple of days later, they reached Koopa Beach, where the warp zone leading to the part of the Mushroom Kingdom closest to Toad's house, the place the Marios lived, resided. They'd had more than their share of run-ins with Koopas on the way, encountering them at every turn. But Koopa Beach was surprisingly quiet. Not one creature was around besides the two turtles.
"Doesn't it seem just a little weird that it's this quiet?" Tineeko asked.
"Oh, don't be so nervous," replied Lakitu. "Just enjoy it."
They rested on the beath, then looked around a bit. Lakitu was able to walk upright again, but still experienced a dull headache when he did. He also still had vision that was blurred enough that he wouldn't be able to read if he tried. He found asturdy, abandoned fishing pole with very, very thin rope instead of fishing twine, not unlike his own he'd forgot to bring,and Tineeko found shells of all sorts but no useful items. Then, he stumbled upon a different shell.
"Uh, Lakitu, I think we'd better watch out..." He had found a yellow Koopa turtle's shell. They were both well aware that if a specially trained turtle climbed into a yellow shell, he would become invincible, and that would spell trouble! The presence of the shell could also mean that its owner was nearby...
"Let's bury it," Lakitu said. But just after they did that, Larry Koopa appeared out of nowhere with myriad Troopas and moles behind him, including one steaming mad turle in a T-shirt!
"Attack!" Larry shouted. The Troopas trampled over him in their rush to get Lakitu and Tineeko. Lakitu fled to his cloud while Tineeko went into the water. The moles couldn't swim, but some of the Koopas could. Tineeko was especially good at it, though, so he outswam all but four or five of them -- and those ones were catching up! "Help!" he cried as they got within three feet of him. He was just feeling like there was no hope when he saw a tiny rope swoop down to where he could reach it. Quickly reasoning that it couldn't get worse, he grabbed the rope. He looked up as the rope levitated out of the turtles' reach,and there was Lakitu, holding the rope by the fishing pole he had found from his cloud!
"L-L-Lakitu! I thought you'd left!" Tineeko stammered, surprised, as he climbed up the rope into the cloud.
"Nah," Lakitu chuckled, "just preparing to rescue you. I thought you might panic, so I hopped into here and used this fishing pole I found to reel you in to safety. You know, this pole sort of reminds me of mine..."
"Well, let's get going. That;s the warp over there, right? I'd better drive. You're still a little lame." Tineeko flew the cloud over to the pipe and went in. The pipe transported them to a place about a mile from Toad's house and a mile and a half fromMushroom Castle. Since it was getting dark and they had had quite an afternoon, they decided to go to sleep.
The next morning, Lakitu woke up to see a little mushroom girl staring at them. When he moved to sit up, she screamed and ran off, crying, "Mommy! Mommy! They're alive! They're trying to take over again!" Tineeko woke up all at once when he heard the loud noise.
"What was that? I've never heard a person make such a loud noise."
"It was just some kid getting her --" Suddenly, they saw an angry-looking mushroom woman towering above them.
"...eep..." Tineeko muttered. The girl's mother proceeded to batter them with an umbrella. They sped away from there and hid behind a large tree.
"Whew! I was afraid we'd both have head injuries for a minute there," Tineeko panted.
"Well, mine's better now, I think," Lakitu responded. "I can see clearly enough, and my head doesn't hurt, even if I press on it a bit."
"Let's get your cloud. We can't afford too many more incidents likethat." But when they got back to where they had left their cloud, it was gone! Looking up, they saw one of the mushroom people stealing it!
"Let's see you attack us now!" he taunted.
"I wouldn't take that if I were you," Lakitu warned. "If you haven't been taught how --"
"Oh, keep your lies to yourself," the mushroom man interrupted. "I'm stopping your attack, and you can't stop me!"
"But --" Lakitu started, then he realized that he was never going to believe him. If he wants to hurt himself by falling out of my cloud when it disintegrates, fine, he thought as he hoped. At least it wouldn't be my fault. He was feeling that maybe the Mario Brothers wouldn't believe him when he warned them about the air raid, just like the mushrooms didn't trusthim. The grass probably hates me, he thought. Just then, Tineeko tugged at his arm.
"Come on, Lakitu. Let's go to where the M-M-M..."
"It's all right, Tineeko. You can say their names here."
"I know, but I'm still kinda s-scared of them." Lakitu didn't want to admit it, but so was he. He had had his share of injuries that could be attributed to the Mario Brothers, so young Tineeko had good reason to be agraid. Lakitu was beiing to feel curious about what would happen to him and his new friend if the Marios didn't trust him. Would they attack? he wondered, worried. I don't want anyone to get hurt, least of all Tineeko. He pondered over this as he slowly walked with Tineeko towards Toad's house. He finally decided that the only chance he had of the preventing the most harm possible was to go on and try to convince the Marios that he is trying to tell the truth.
"Come on, Tineeko, let's save the kingdom from what would have been partially our fault!" he suddenly exclaimed, his confidence returning. Tineeko gave him a look at first, but then his face brightened and he started feeling good, too.
They soon were in sight of Toad's mushroom-shaped house. Lakitu instructed Tineeko to stand guard, and went to knock on the door. Toad, a pint-sized mushroom, answered it.
"Yeah, what does Koopa want? Where's he gonna ambush us now?" he said sarcastically when he saw Lakitu.
"You don't understand. I'm not here to set up a surprise attack. I'm here to stop one!"
"Yeah, sure, like Koopa 'surrendered' a couple of years ago? Let's see what Mario thinks of that." With that, he went to get Mario and the others, not objecting when Lakitu stepped inside.
"Okay, what's the story?" said Mario as he and Luigi came into the room.
Finally breaking down after enduring all his hardships and now being in the presence of the Marios, he cried, "I'm here to warnyou that Bowser and the clan are gonna invade Mushroom Castle by air and kidnap you and the Princess in three days. He'staking you this time since you've always stopped him before. He also wants to fry you two with a lava pit as a burner! I wannahelp you stop him! You must remember how happy I always looked after rescuing you guys at the go kart tracks! All that made me change!" At this point, he was on his knees and begging, his voice cracking and a tear running down his cheek. "Please, you gotta believe me! If you don't, this kingdom would face disaster and Dinosaur Land would probably be next and I'd probably be so upset about notstopping it I'd --"
"Whoa, slow down there!" said Luigi. "Get a hold of yourself!" Turning to his brother, he said, "Do you think we can trust him, Mario?"
"Well, I dunno, Luigi. He has served Koopa for over a decade."
"Well, I don't think so," Toad said, skeptical. "A Koopa's a Koopa for life."
"It's too bad the Princess isn't here," said Luigi. "She'd probably be able to tell."
"Maybe we should give him a chance," Mario suggested. "Is all this" -- he motioned toward the miserable crying heap on the floor, who by now had a small puddle below his head -- "possible from a common liar?"
"Well, I still don;t think we should trust him," Toad remarked. "He's been working for Koopa longer than any of the others." A new fit of sobs suddenly came out of Lakitu.
"King Koopa's the biggest liar of them all, and he's never broken down like this in one of his performances," Luigi observed.
"Uh... I still dunno for sure if we should trust him or not, but I think I know a way to find out." Turning to Lakitu, who was still upset but had calmed down, Mario said, "We'll give you a chance to prove you're telling the truth. Remember Yoshi, thedinosaur who helped us last time?"
"Yeah," Lakitu sniffled, "what about him?"
"If you can bring him here without hurting him, we'll, uh, let you help."
"snif... Okay. Just let me have some juice and someplace to sit for five minutes, and I'll get going."
"Once you're gone, take as long as you want to get Yoshi," jeered the unbelieving Toad.
"Toad!" said Mario firmly, as if he was planning next to say, "It may be possible that he's setting up a backstap, but for now he's still your house guest."
"Sorry," Toad muttered, though it was obvious that he didn't mean it.
A couple of minutes later, Lakitu exited the house, found Tineeko, and left in the direction of the pipe back to Koopa Beach. They jumped in only to find themselves getting thrown back out again.
"No good. Larry must have blocked it from the other side," said Lakitu.
"So how do we get back to Yoshi's Island?" Tineeko asked. Almost as if to answer the question, they suddenly heard a wandering salesman calling, "Maps! Get to anywhere from anywhere with these quality maps!"
Lakitu went over to the salesman (another mushroom, of course) and said, "I need to find a different route to Yoshi's Island,please."
"Here's a map of the warps in Giant Land, which isn't too far from here. There's a pipe that goes straight to the base of Kappa Mountain, see? Eight coins, please."
"But the tag on the map says three coins," Tineeko pointed out.
"Oh, all right, all right! Three coins!" he grumbled furiously. Lakitu handed him the money, sand the salesman stomped off, muttering, "I try to stop these guys from taking over as best I can and get some money to pay for the damages sure to defall my house, and what do I find out? Koopa actually taught them to read! Sheesh!" Lakitu and Tineeko just stared at him as he strode off angrily into the distance.