(A note from the
author: This story flows off the plotline of The Stand for Nature. If you
wish to avoid a great deal of confusion over what’s happening here, I recommend
reading that story before coming to this one, and if you don’t’ do so…
well… shame on you. Anyhoo, on with it.)
I: The Retaliation
Boss T. had come to Yoshi’s Island in hopes of putting his get-rich-fast plan to work. However, for the most part, he had been very careless and inconsiderate in doing so, causing many environmental problems that threatened the Yoshis, including air pollution, jungle destruction, and river pollution, which caused one Yoshi to become ill.
The Yoshis weren’t going to allow this anymore. Wanting to settle the issue once and for all, they confronted Boss T. himself, and, after a large scuffle with his men, finally persuaded him to leave.
Boss T. had no choice but to pack up his equipment and take his leave. Sure enough, he had packed… but he hadn’t left. Even if the Yoshis had thwarted his plans, he still planned ahead prior to arriving…
What was his backup plan? That was exactly what he was showing Ricky, his assistant and foreman, as he had just revealed to him a huge room full of cages and large nets.
Ricky slowly turned to Boss, who laughed. “Ricky…” he said, “what you see before you… is my backup plan!”
Ricky raised a brow. “What exactly are we doing with those?”
“We’re going into the meat business!” replied Boss with a smirk.
“What kind of meat?” Ricky asked.
“Take a guess…” said Boss.
Ricky thought for a moment. When he was sure he knew what Boss was talking about, he widened his eyes with a blank look to the Boss. “… That’s… totally… illegal…” he said.
“They’ll never know,” said Boss. “Everyone likes meat. Besides, we’ll also be back for the oil project again. There’s a reason why I left the derrick still standing. Look, it’s all a matter of fame, fortune, and mostly… revenge…”
***
That night, Boshi’s Grinder was asleep on his perch in the trees of the jungle, enjoying the peaceful sound of the chirping crickets, the distant hooting of an owl, and the close-by sound of footsteps in the dirt…
… This sound wasn’t peaceful at all, and it abruptly woke the Grinder up. The Grinder looked around to see where the noise was coming from. He looked around his tree branch, but it then occurred to him that the sound was coming from below his perch. He looked down to see a group of figures walking by towards the village. The Grinder wasn’t clueless, as the men would’ve thought. After witnessing the recent events, he knew exactly what was about to happen. He quickly and silently swung through the trees to get ahead of them and to the village before they did…
… Not quite as silently as he had hoped, as one of the men below heard him, then aimed.
BANG!
…
He missed.
“Shhhh!” another man (a Toad) whispered. “Don’t make so much noise, you idiot! We don’t want them to know we’re coming! What were you shooting at?!”
“I thought I saw something moving…” said the shooter (a Koopa). “Oh well…”
“Can we just continue please?” said another (another Koopa). “I’m gonna have me some fun with this here net!”
***
All was quiet in the village. However, if one listened closely, one could hear the rather disturbing snore of a certain blue Yoshi in shades.
Boshi snored loudly as he enjoyed his slumber. Now that business had been taken care of, he could enjoy the quiet of the night. His comfort was suddenly interrupted by something bouncing onto his belly. “Oooh!” Boshi jumped and yelled in surprise, nearly falling out of his hammock. He opened his eyes to see his Grinder friend bouncing and chattering on his belly. “Oh… It’s you…” he yawned. “What’s up, and why so early?”
The Grinder continued to jump and chatter loudly. Boshi studied his manner. The Grinder seemed panicked and shocked. Only then did Boshi realize that something was wrong.
A scream was suddenly heard. Boshi and the Grinder jumped in surprise. “What the?!” Boshi cried.
Outside, a yellow Yoshi was being dragged from his hut in a net. Nearby, a struggling purple Yoshi was smacked across the head with a rifle and knocked out. A cyan Yoshi was kicked several times while lying on the ground trapped in a net. When Boshi emerged from his hut, he gasped. “… Oh shoot…” he sputtered.
“Gladly!” said a voice. Boshi looked to his right to see a Toad aiming a rifle at him! “The Boss gave us specific orders to kill you off, on the grounds that your meat is… eh… too tough!”
“… My meat…?” Boshi said, raising a brow.
“Shut up and die!” The Toad fired, but Boshi ever-so-barely avoided the shot, and he and the Grinder ducked behind a hut.
It wasn’t the best hiding spot, however, as they were greeted by another hunter (Koopa). “Ah!” he said. “I’m gonna enjoy shooting you dead!”
Yet another hunter (a Toad) came up. This one had a few scars on his face. “Remember me?!” he yelled. “I’m the guy you attacked when we first met you guys! Coincidentally, the real guy who knocked your shades off was my brother, and I’m not too thrilled about you beating him up in last night’s brawl! You’re gonna die today, you know… Yes… you’re gonna die painfully…”
Boshi jumped to run, but the Koopa knocked him back to the ground and onto his back with a smack to the head with his gun. Boshi yelled and winced, dazed, while the Toad continued to rant in a rather crazed manner. “First… I’m gonna blast your leg open… then shatter your shoulder… then blow your kneecaps off… and then, I’ll finish it off… right through the center of your heart…” He jabbed the barrel of the gun into Boshi’s chest. Boshi wanted to move, but found himself unable to do so due to a cold feeling in his spine.
“Now for my favorite part!” said the Toad. He was just preparing to shoot, when…
“No you won’t!”
The Toad was greeting by an orange shoe to the side of his head. He fell dazed, dropping his gun. The shoe belonged to Yoshi, who was most shaken by all this, yet very annoyed. Before the Koopa could react, Boshi sprang up and punched him swiftly in the beak, knocking him out. Yoshi and Boshi then took their guns and each somersaulted and slammed down on top of them, fracturing the rifles and causing the bullets to fall out. Yoshi turned to Boshi. “I should’ve known Boss T. was going to try something like this!” Yoshi said angrily as he witnessed more and more Yoshis being dragged away at gunpoint.
“Doesn’t look like he’s playing around this time either,” Boshi added.
“Smash it!” someone yelled. Nearby a few men were ramming another Yoshi hut, attempting to wreck it. The hut belonged to Ore! “Smash the hut!” the worker (a Koopa) yelled. “SMASH IT TO PIECES!”
Yoshi and Boshi rushed over to stop them. Yoshi kicked two Toads away while Boshi bodyslammed a Koopa and another Toad. However, the hut had already been weakened after the men rammed it hundreds of times. The hut then collapsed, and Yoshi and Boshi could hear a muffled and abrupt yell from inside as the hut fell apart. Yoshi gasped. “He was still inside!” he cried.
“This is just…” Boshi said. His Grinder jumped onto his back in fear.
“Look out!” Yoshi jumped. They ducked to avoid a few gunshots. Then they heard another familiar yell. They turned. There was Kroshi being carelessly dragged away in a net. “Let me out!” he cried. “Let me out, dern it!”
“MAMA!!!”
Yoshi jumped upon hearing this cry in particular. “… Rashi…” he gasped. Yoshi rushed off to him.
As he went, Boshi rushed to help Kroshi. The men dragging him saw him coming and immediately aimed and fired. Boshi slid low across the ground to avoid the bullets. However, the men still aimed at him as they dragged Kroshi way to make sure Boshi wouldn’t follow them. Boshi growled and pounded his fist into the ground in rage.
Across the village, Rashi’s ailing mother was netted. Rashi was trying desperately to force the guards to release her, but to no avail. “Let her go!” he cried tearfully. “LET MY MAMA GO, NOW!!!”
The worker he was attacking (a Koopa) simply kicked him backwards like a soccer ball, then continued on, dragging Rashi’s mother ever so carelessly. She bumped across the ground, the dirt scraping against her painfully. She moaned loudly. The Koopa snapped at her. “Stop yer groanin’, before I really give you something to groan about, like a bullet!”
“Come back here!” Rashi cried. “Come back with my mama!” He was just catching up when another hunter (a Toad) jumped in front of him, taking aim.
The Toad spoke coldly to him. “That whiny little voice of yours is starting to annoy me…” he said. “I think I’ll just silence you now!”
Rashi slowly backed up, whimpering and sobbing as the hunter loaded a bullet. He was so scared, so frozen, he couldn’t even move. There was his mother being dragged away, and he couldn’t do a think to stop them.
“Say goodbye…” the hunter snarled. He pulled the trigger.
BANG!
A large, green hand grabbed Rashi and yanked him away just as the shot was fired. The bullet barely missed Rashi’s shoulder. “MAMAAAAAAAAAA!!!” Rashi sobbed as Yoshi took him out of harm’s way.
Yoshi and Rashi ran all the way out of the village and into the dense jungles outside the village. There, Yoshi took Rashi into a large, hollow log. The two hid there for a while. They could hear the footsteps and obnoxious trashtalking of the hunters as they paraded by with their catch. Yoshi and Rashi kept as quiet as they could, though the workers were making far too much noise for them to hear anything anyway. Once the hunters had passed by completely, Yoshi wiped his forehead of sweat.
He then noticed Rashi, in heavy tears, sobbing in fear and in a state of shock. “… Yoshi!” he cried. “Why’d you have to pull me away?! I could’ve gotten my mama back! Why’d you do that?!”
Yoshi turned to him and sighed sadly. “Rashi…” Yoshi said softly. “I… I couldn’t let that hunter shoot you.”
“But… my mama’s trapped with those meanies! They’re gonna make her feel worse! They’re gonna hurt her until she can’t get hurt anymore! They’re gonna… gonna…” Rashi burst out crying, tears flowing from his eyes like a river, his face buried in his arms, his nose soaked with tears. Seeing his mother dragged away was a severe blow to his chest… to his heart. He had the chance to save her, but couldn’t, and just the thought of what could happen to her filled him with terror.
Yoshi picked up the still-sobbing Yoshi kid and embraced him, trying to calm him down. “Rashi… just calm down…” Yoshi whispered. “Calm down. We’re going to get your mama back, okay? We ARE going to get her back.”
“Please, Yoshi! I don’t want her to die! Please don’t let her die!”
“Rashi… We’re not going to let that happen… I promise…”
Those were the very words Yoshi had said the previous day, after his mom became ill from the river. Rashi tried hard to let those words sink into his head as he hugged tightly to Yoshi’s warm belly, taking slow, deep breaths. Within a few more minutes of breathing and embracing, Rashi had finally calmed down. “Are we really gonna save her, Yoshi?” he asked again.
“I always keep my word,” Yoshi replied. “This won’t be easy though. We’re going to have to take it slow and slippery to best them and their weapons…” Yoshi paused momentarily, then continued. “… First, though, we need to find Boshi…” Yoshi took a quick peep out of the log to check the perimeter. When he was sure no one was around, he turned back to Rashi. “The coast is clear now,” he said. “Let’s go.”
The two Yoshis tracked back through the jungle and into the village. Much to their horror, the entire village was empty. All the huts were unoccupied, and tracks lay in the dirt showing where the hunters had dragged the villagers away. One hut was a crumpled wreck. “… Wow…” Yoshi sighed. “… They took everyone…”
“But what are they trying to do?” Rashi asked.
“… I… I don’t know, Rashi…” Yoshi said, shaken. “… I really don’t know…” As the two advanced further into the village, Yoshi began to search around for Boshi. “Boshi?” he called. “Boshi, where are you?”
“Boshi?” Rashi joined the calls.
“Chill out, guys!” said a voice. “Here I am!” Yoshi and Rashi whipped around to see Boshi, along with his Grinder pal. “Whoo… That was unexpected… somewhat…”
“Boy am I glad to see you,” Yoshi said with relief. “Where’d you two go anyway?”
“We hid out near the beach,” replied Boshi. “Lucky they were all too stupid to ever think to look there, too.” Boshi chuckled for a bit, then continued. “But… it seems that we’re the only Yoshis left now… Boy… wait until I get my hands on that Boss T!”
“What exactly are Boss’ intentions here?” Yoshi asked. “It obviously has to do with revenge, but… is there more than meets the eye?”
Boshi thought for a second. He then remembered one of the hunters telling him “his meat was too tough”. He wasn’t completely certain what the hunter meant, but he knew it wasn’t a good sign. However, he decided not to say it in front of Rashi.
Suddenly, a muffled groan was heard. The Yoshis and Grinder looked around. “… What was that?” asked Rashi.
“… It came from there…” Yoshi said, pointing to the wrecked hut. The three Yoshis and Grinder rushed over to it and dug through the debris until they found a battered Ore lying under the rubble. Yoshi and Boshi lifted Ore out. “Ore, are you all right?!” Yoshi asked.
Ore was dizzy and shaken. He sat down on the ground to catch himself, rubbing his head. “I’m… I’m all right…” Ore replied. “I heard those guys coming. They busted in, but I kept kicking them out before any of them could get one shot out. I guess then they got fed up and decided to destroy my hut on top of me… Boss T. really did it this time…”
Yoshi closed his eyes, then clenched his fists in rage. First, air pollution. Second, jungle destruction. Third, river pollution. And now, the whole village kidnapped and in serious danger. That was the last straw… or melon. Now it was time to really make a stand, and this time, make it stick. “… Guys…” said Yoshi. “… Who’s up for making Boss T. pay for this?”
“You know it!” Boshi agreed. “It’s time to wipe that crazy guy out for good!” The Grinder agreed with a loud chatter and a Donkey Kong-like chest pound.
“He’s sooo gonna get what’s coming to him!” Ore chimed in.
Rashi was silent for a moment, then spoke. “… Yeah!” he said. “I’m doing it for mama!!”
“Right then…” said Yoshi. “Let’s do this, and let’s do this right!”
“YEAH!” The Yoshis all high-fived. Four Yoshis (and one Grinder), rage burning within each of them, ready to rid the island of the ruthless Boss T. and set things right once and for all. Make no mistake, no wrong moves, no falters. It was time for the crisis to meet its end.
To Be Continued...
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