Chapter Five: Stranded
Luigi
I jumped down into the warp pipe, where Mario was looking dejected and resting against a wall, the seven Star Spirits hovering around his head. Skormorak was piloting the airship, his eye never leaving the radar screen. As we sat in the cabin, the same thought was rushing through our minds, tormenting us for our failure.
Where did our plan go wrong?
Though we had successfully escaped, though we had cheated death once more, we were no closer to defeating the Shard of Order. The fifty-thousand soldiers that had fought to buy us time had all died in vain. We had followed the plan to the "T" but we had failed! I saw Mario fling the Star Beam at the Shard, I saw it hit, and I distinctly remember firing off enough Bullet Bills to destroy a town. They all hit the Shard, yet it escaped my salvo unscathed.
And now Bowser was out there somewhere, probably giving chase now that the smoke had worn off. Luckily we had an excellent pilot on board with us, one who was working the controls with expertise. Skormorak had chosen to take the doomship down to low altitude, and was now weaving and dodging his way through trees with inhuman precision. Skormorak even flew it with one hand as he opened up a metal panel on his other side, where some exposed machinery was emitting a beeping noise as a light on a panel flashed from green to blue. He put one hand under the machinery and began to pull on it.
"Skormorak, why are you trying to pull that machine out?" I asked.
"This machine acts as a signal for Koopa Clan radars. If we leave it in there, it'll just be a matter of time before we have the whole army on us. King Bowser's probably alerted his whole army to a hijacked doomship, and they're going to be on the move," he said as he wiped sweat from his brow. "Give me a hand with this, you two."
Mario and I went on either side of Skormorak, and together we ripped out the machinery, tossing it to the side, where the lights slowly stopped flashing and the beeping came to a gaping halt.
"So why didn't the Star Beam work?" I asked.
"The Shard must have built up immunity to it since the last time we stole its powers," said Eldstar, deep in thought. "Either that, or it must have gained the strength to match the power of the Star Beam. But this is impossible, Mario. The Star Beam comes as a result of the seven Star Spirits and the caster praying for the Creator's assistance. Nothing matches the power of God."
"Something backfired, though." said Skormorak. "I saw Mario's Star Beam hit the Shard from in here, and I saw Luigi's shots hit it every time. If the Star Beam is the power of God, and God's power failed us this time, we're in deep trouble."
"Skormorak, we're going to have to find the fortress and alert Princess Peach to our failure," said Mario, who leaned against a wall before slumping to the floor. "There's no doubt that Toad Town will be destroyed now, so we're going to be living in the fort for a little while."
"I know where it is," said Skormorak as he took the wheel once more, his dexterous fingers nimbly turning it just right to dodge the foliage of the forest.
The doomship violently lurched and the wooden planks that comprised the hull were ejected violently across the hull as they were ripped apart in a violent explosion. We were all hurled against the controls of the doomship, and from there, we could see that the doomship's segmented decks had caught fire, the flames gradually spreading to our cabin. And up in the sky was the cause of this explosion: another doomship had fired its main cannons at our fuel compartment.
Skormorak slowly got to his feet and climbed up the falling cabin floor before landing amongst the controls. He was terribly wounded: I lurched when I realized that a shattered board was impaled in his chest. When he opened his mouth to breathe, blood spewed from his mouth, staining the once well-polished steel that made up the control panel.
I jumped up and landed by the control panel, taking the injured Koopa in my arms. "Skormorak!" I screamed, shaking him violently. "Skormorak, answer me! Are you all right? Skorm!"
Misstar glided over to Skormorak before hovering over him. "He's alive for now, and he might make it, but unless he gets immediate emergency treatment, he's going to die."
"L-Luigi..." wheezed Skormorak, who was lurching violently in my arms. "G-go on without me, L-Luigi..."
"No!" shouted Mario, who had landed beside me. "We're not leaving you behind!"
"T-the doomship will crash soon, i-idiots!" exclaimed Skormorak, a shower of blood landing on his shirt. "Y-y-you'll have to go t-t-through the f-forest, a-and I'll slow you down..."
"We'll patch you up and you're coming with us!"
We all fell backwards once more as the doomship made contact with the ground before the whole thing went out in one final, violent explosion. The wreckage of the doomship was a black, flaming wreck, and the flames were spreading along the ground and to the trees. I picked up Skormorak, grabbed Luigi's arm, and jumped out of the doomship, landing on the grass below.
"Uugh..." groaned Luigi, who sat up against a tree, putting his cap back on.
"We lived..." said Muskular, who then
hovered over to Skormorak, who had ungracefully landed on a fallen log.
"But you two need to patch Skormorak up. He's starting to lose consciousness!"
Mario
I got up, suddenly made aware of a burning pain in my leg. Pulling up my overalls' leg, I could see that the skin around my calf muscle was discolored. My peach-colored skin had turned to a putrid and sickly shade of greenish-black. I limped over to Luigi, who was shaking his head from left to right in disbelief that he had survived.
"You all right, Little Brother?" I asked as I offered him my hand. Luigi pulled himself to his feet before dusting off his clothes.
"Yeah," he said as he examined himself for any wounds or bruises. Once he was certain that he had suffered no major harm, he offered me his shoulder. I took it, putting my arm around his neck, and we walked/limped over to Skormorak.
"Stay calm, Skorm," I said as I put a comforting and reassuring arm on his shoulder. I picked up a small stick that was on the ground, and held it above his head. "Bite down on this, because this next step's going to hurt."
Skormorak took the stick in his mouth. Closing my eyes so I wouldn't have to see anything, I put my hands around the board stuck in his side and tugged, tugged, and tugged. But the board was stubborn and didn't want to dislodge itself easily.
"Luigi, help me with this board," I muttered as I put my hands back on the board, this time joined by Luigi's. We pulled the board out with a sickening squelch sound, and Skormorak let out a scream that was audible even through the wood in his mouth. He began to violently convulse and twitch on the ground.
"Help me restrain him, Luigi!" I exclaimed, taking my place on one side and pinning down his arms. Luigi got on the other end and held down his legs. We kept this up for several minutes until his convulsions ceased. Reaching into the satchel at my side, I pulled out a small glass bottle and a thick cloth. I opened the bottle with my teeth as I turned Skormorak on his side, then poured a volatile, vile-smelling liquid onto the cloth.
"Stay quiet, Skorm, this is going to sting really bad," I said quietly as I rubbed the mixture into the cloth, then applied it to the gaping hole on his front. His teeth dug deeply into the stick in his mouth as he screamed with agony. Skormorak's teeth were dug in so deep on that stick as he screamed, that I swear he was going to bite it in half. But he didn't and, thank God, and his wounds were cleaned, so there was no risk of infection.
"Get me some bandages, Luigi," I said as I moved the Koopa into a sitting position, holding him there. Luigi handed me some thick gauze bandages, which I proceeded to wrap around his torso before tying the ends into a knot.
"We did it, Mario," said Luigi with a relieved sigh as he returned the supplies to my satchel. "But we need to get moving. They're going to come down here any minute to check for survivors."
"Skormorak, can you walk?"
"Y-yeah... T-thank you, Mario."
I pulled the Koopa to his feet, testing to make sure that his bandages were nice and secure. They were, so I dragged him into the bushes, then beckoned to Luigi to follow.
"Eldstar," I addressed the Star Spirit, "how's Skormorak looking?"
"He'll live, Mario, but right now, caution is key. The Koopa Clan must be searching the forest as we speak after seeing that explosion. Of the three of you only Luigi is in suitable condition to fight, and he's just one man, so I suggest that you sneak your way out of this forest."
"Can one of you check and see if anyone's coming?"
"I'll do it," said Klevar, who flew up high into the sky and into the canopy. The nine of us sat in the bushes, eagerly awaiting his return. While we waited, I inspected my emergency treatment on Skormorak. Though it was enough to keep him alive, he needed a real doctor. All I had done was prevent him from getting gangrene or something else like that and from losing blood.
"L-Luigi," said Skormorak, as he reached for something in his satchel.
"Yeah, Skormorak?"
"Take this," said the Koopa, who passed Luigi the very same combat knife he used to fight Ripper. "Y-you heard the Star Spirits, Luigi. You're t-the only one who c-can still fight, a-and this might be useful."
"Yeah, true," said Luigi, who twirled the knife around on his finger before putting it in a belt loop. "I'll give it back to you later."
Klevar came back a minute later. "There's a small group of Koopas coming for you. They're all wearing camouflage outfits and black ski masks, and they're armed with swords and knives. Their leader's got a knife and he's wearing a black leather sneaking suit. He sounded like a thug."
"Hmm," said Skormorak thoughtfully. "S-sounds like Blade's leading the hunt, then, if you're r-right about the voice. And he's brought the Auxilary V Squad with him, too."
"Blade? Auxilary V Squad?"
"Blade's a-another one of t-the Virtuous S-squad, Mario. He's the second in command. A-and the Auxilary V-V Squad is their ground f-forces. T-they're named so b-because the Virtuous S-squad keeps them at arm's length. T-they only use them as n-necessary."
"And I also took the liberty of scanning the local terrain," said Klevar. "Skormorak was on the right track when he was flying the doomship: you're not far from the abandoned fortress. If you head north, you'll get there. Just be sure you don't have the Virtuous Squad knocking on the doors when you get in."
"Got it," I said to the Star Spirit. "Thank you, Klevar."
"Let's move out. Down on the ground and through the grass, so they don't see us," said Luigi. We all got on the ground and began to crawl. Behind me, I could hear Skormorak's audible moans and groans as the crawl put pressure on his torso, hurting him badly. Hopefully he could keep quiet, because even though Luigi was armed with a knife, hammer, and his jumps, he was no match for several assassins that were out on the prowl.
"Shh," said Mamar, beckoning to us with her stubby hand. We all stopped moving and listened intently for any noise.
"The doomship is here, sir, but there's no trace of the enemy."
"Haven't I taught you anything, Jonathan?" spoke the deep voice that supposedly belonged to Blade. "When the trail ends, clear your mind and search your surroundings for tracks. Anything like disturbed leaves, trampled grass, blood stains, torn cloth, anything that looks like it's out of place is a good indicator of whether somebody has passed by. Remember that Nature is distinct and unique, and that no man can spend a day in Nature and not leave traces of himself on her visage."
"Yes, sir. Hey, look over here, sir!"
"Somebody was wounded here. And smell that blood, guys! That's the smell of Koopa blood..."
"Maybe it was just one of our men that were injured, Captain."
"It isn't. See these shoeprints? That's
the Mushroom Kingdom crest right there, in the center of the print. All
of this evidence has led me to one conclusion. Mario and Luigi are here
along with Skormorak, who is currently severely wounded, probably fixed
up by now judging on how the blood is kinda thickening... right there.
The footprints go off in that direction. Search the area, and kill them
if you find them!"
Skormorak
Great. We had a legendary assassin, with his disciples, who had picked up our trail and was searching for us with the keen senses of a bloodhound. But I wasn't about to be caught. I picked up a small stick on the ground and jammed it in between my teeth to silence my groans of pain, then followed Mario and Luigi deeper through the grass.
The Star Spirits were flying above us, spying on the assassins that were prowling the forest. I guessed that they were invisible to all but us, as one of them was right behind Blade when he whipped around all of a sudden before moving on.
The assassins were soon branching out to cover a wide area when they couldn't find us, which was actually to our advantage. There were less AV squad members concentrated in one area, and Blade, the most skilled of his group, was nowhere to be seen now. We all fell silent when one of the AV members came to a stop in front of us, scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars.
"Where the **** are those *******s at?" he grumbled before walking on. Luigi slowly got up, knife drawn in his right hand, and crept up behind the Koopa. When the Koopa came to another stop, Luigi grabbed him, hand over the Koopa's mouth and knife just barely touching the assassin's mouth.
The assassin looked nervous and was trying to get away. Luigi tightened his grasp and while still holding on, took his hand off the Koopa's mouth. "Drop your weapon," seethed Luigi.
The assassin placed his knife on the ground, then put his hands up. "T-there. W-what do you want?"
Luigi pulled the AV member to the ground, his knife never leaving his throat. "Tell me what you know about Bowser, what he's doing with the Shard right now, and what his plans are, and I might let you go."
"H-he's gone back t-to Dark Land a-and left, finding Princess Toadstool a-and her people to us. A-and as for the S-shard, he's learning... how to use it more efficiently and coming up with creative ways to use it... H-his plans are to... No! I won't tell you! I can't tell you about that!"
"Tell me!"
"N-no! Let go! Somebody! Help me!"
The Koopa tried to escape Luigi's grasp before being permanently silenced with a swift and silent slice of the wicked blade. Luigi wiped the knife on the assassin's clothes before diving back into the grass once more.
"Let's keep moving. He wasn't too loud but he might have attracted some extra attention," muttered Luigi, who replaced the knife on his belt loop.
We continued crawling until we came to a river, which went on for as far as my eye could see. "You two could probably swim this with no problem," I said, having regained enough strength that my voice had steadied. "But if I try to swim through here, my bandages might come loose."
"No problem with that," said Mario. "Those are standard military bandages, and they're all waterproof. Plus I tied them so tight that the only way they're coming off is if they get cut off. The main question is if you're strong enough to swim, Skormorak."
"I probably could. Let's take the plunge!"
We all held our breath before leaping in the stream, swimming along low enough that we would hopefully be mistaken for Cheep Cheeps. Every now and then one of us would have to come up for breath, most notably Mario, who had been hit pretty hard in the ribs when the doomship crashed. We had a system of hand gestures going with the Star Spirits in which we would point to one, then point up, which obviously meant "Search the area". If they found something they would tell us, being able to speak underwater after all. Eventually we resurfaced to take a break under a bridge overlooking a cliff.
"I never thought we'd be going back here, Luigi," said Mario, who was panting. "Remember? We met Toadsworth on this bridge when we first came back to the Mushroom Kingdom, and he told us that the whole kingdom was under Bowser's rule."
"Yeah," said Luigi, who was wringing out his cap. "And then when we cleaned out this fortress looking for prisoners and the princess, we fought Kamek, who told us that we were born here but were spirited away to the Real World."
"Isn't it funny, Luigi? The greatest adventure we've ever undertaken in our whole lives takes us back to where it all began. Right back to this bridge... Who knows where this journey will take us?"
"Right back home eventually, I hope," I said, massaging my side. "Adventures do have some good points to them, but when it's all over, there's no better joy than going home..."
"We need to continue with the adventure, though," said Mario, who stood up. "In case you haven't noticed, there are still AV men out there, not to mention Blade. How are we going to get up this bridge?"
"I'll go check it out," said Kalmar, who flew off. We concealed ourselves by jumping into a pile of dead leaves. One of the AV Koopas wandered up there, but eventually shrugged his shoulders and walked off. Kalmar came back, flying around Mario's head. "Mario, Luigi, Skorm, if you continue around to the right, you'll find some vines you can climb. Be careful when you're climbing up there because there's an AV that's searching for you with binoculars."
"Thanks, Kalmar," I said as we jumped out of the leaf pile, then sprinted through the forest as fast as a trio of people could when two of them were injured. We didn't run into any AV men, but there was one time when Mario tripped over a rock and landed on his hurt leg. We quickly shut him up by wrenching his jaw shut until he quit hurting, then we continued on our way to where the vine wall that Kalmar was talking about was.
"This is it. When we get up here, we'll
be a stone's throw away from the fortress!" exclaimed Mamar. "Get to climbing!"
Mario
We all began climbing the vine wall, a task that was rendered extraordinarily more difficult than usual because of my leg and Skormorak's wounded side and eye. The only one that was making any real progress was Luigi, the one who had gotten away with little more than a few bruises here and there. We made it up the cliffs eventually, even if it did take us about ten minutes. Luigi pulled us up and we leaned against the side of a cliff wall and caught our breath.
Skormorak was clutching his sides and struggling not to make a single noise as he tried to regain his strength and his breath. The swim, sprint through the woods, and cliff-scaling had taken a lot out of the exhausted and injured Koopa, who hadn't really had to do anything so quickly all day.
"That's right, take a quick breather," said Eldstar. "When you get up, be careful not to be caught by that guard, wherever he is. Also, you must be sure to dispose of him without leaving any visible signs. Throw him off the cliff so it looks like an accident if you have to, whatever you need to do. We'll wipe your footprints as you go along so they don't find this last sanctuary."
"Got it," said Skormorak, who wiped sweat from his face before getting to his feet. We crouched our way up the spiraling path as silently as we could, the only sounds being the seven Star Spirits as they wiped up our footprints behind us.
"Stop," said Luigi.
Up ahead a guard was scanning the forest with his binoculars, but he was clearly attentive for any motion behind him. "This is absurd! How could we lose three people like this, when they left such a big trail for us to follow?"
"I'll do this," whispered Skormorak. "Knife, Luigi."
Luigi threw the knife up in the air with a bit more force than necessary, which caused both me and him to go wide-eyed in fear. If the knife hit the ground, it most likely would alert the AV. Skormorak, his good eye on the knife, reached up and plucked the knife out of the sky.
"This eye won't trouble me that easily," he said as he crept up the path. He went up behind the AV assassin and threw him over his shoulder.
"It's Skormorak and the Mario Brothers!" shouted the assassin, who reached for his knife. Skormorak pushed the assassin to his side, then twisted his knife arm three-sixty degrees. The AV's mouth opened really wide through his mask, but it wasn't long enough to alert anyone as he was quickly silenced by Skormorak's hand. Skormorak put the assassin's knife back in its holster before throwing him off the cliff.
"That... was hard..." wheezed Skormorak, who was clutching his side.
"He shouldn't have been the one to do it," whispered Mamar. "He put too much stress on himself and it put a lot of strain on his back when he threw that Koopa over his shoulder."
"What kind of fighting style was that?"
"CQC."
"CQC?"
"Close quarters combat. It's a military fighting style that incorporates martial arts into conventional hand-to-hand combat, but it's really hard to learn."
"Do you think you can teach me?"
"If I ever get over my wound, then yes," panted Skormorak, who we helped to his feet.
We continued up the path, not really caring anymore if we made noise or not, but finally reaching the fortress without further encounters. All three of us were weary, tired, and exhausted. We had been building defenses at the crack of dawn, we’d fought in a war, then we’d executed our failed attempt to destroy the Shard of Order. After that we were shot down and wounded, and been forced to crawl through the forest, evading an entire squad of violent Koopa assassins.
But we’d done it! We had successfully cheated death and we had made it to our destination! We would rest here until fully recovered and in the meantime, we would be making plans to destroy the Shard of Order. Thankfully, we weren't as alone as we were before in this endeavor. Whereas our failed attempt, Operation Crystalfall, revolved solely around our plans and Peach's, this next operation, whatever it would be called, would combine our knowledge with that of the Star Spirit', relying on their ideas and theories. This was definitely an advantage, for the Star Spirits were all excellent scholars and thinkers, and would no doubt be an asset to our cause.
"In your face, Bowser," I said with a wheeze, "for we got past your Shard and your Virtuous Squad and we live on! And we will be back another day with a plan that will thwart yours."
To Be Continued...
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