Episode 6: The Balance Between Life and Death
Welcome back to Dimentio's Revenge! Last time on Dimentio's Revenge, Mario and Ninja had been unconscious and woke up on Isle Delfino. They found out that a Star Spirit Card was on Sirena Beach, so they went to the pipe, but the entrance was blocked by a pineapple! They went to find a Yoshi, but the one in Delfino Plaza had been stolen by Bowser Jr. He distracted Mario and Co. by throwing it in the water, and while they were sobbing over it, he tried to make a getaway. However, O'Chunks came out of nowhere and grabbed Bowser Jr. and beat the living daylights out of him. O'Chunks then joined Mario, and they went through Bowser Jr's portal to Sirena Beach.
When they got there, they saw that Mack, sent by Smithy, and Cackletta had gotten there first! (Cackletta had, in fact, taken out Hotel Delfino by accident while she was trying to get there.) After a furious race through the secret level under Hotel Delfino's casino, Mack and Midbus got to the Card first. However, Koopark had been laying in wait, and shot a ball of darkness at both Mack and Midbus, and the dark engulfed their body. When Mario and Co. got to the Card, O'Chunks went to get it but Mack and Midbus fell from above, KOing O'Chunks. Then Koopark emerged…
"Well, aren't you a persistent troublemaker? No matter. You shall be disposed of quickly enough." says Koopark, a malicious grin on his cruel features.
Mario looks at Ninja, and nods. Mario charges up a fireball and Ninja takes out her samurai sword. They charge at Dark Mack and Midbus, who charge as well… The battle is on.
Mario jumps in the air above Dark Midbus, and releases a stream of fireballs, which blast Midbus in the face, making him stumble. Mario lands neatly on the other side of Midbus and delivers a spinning kick to his head. Midbus gets up onto his feet and takes out his ball and chain. He starts swinging it around and soon it's moving so fast that it's a blur. Mario backs away as Midbus walks toward him, a grin on his piggish face. Mario feels his foot hit the edge of the platform, and looks around desperately for something to save him. Then he notices the pillars to either side of him. The ball and chain are so close to him that Mario can feel the wind of it going by his face.
"Not today, pig!" Mario shouts, jumping off the platform, but not before getting a long slash on his cheek. Midbus laughs, then feels two feet collide with the side of his head. Mario had grabbed onto the pillar and swung around it, smashing his feet into Midbus's thick skull. Midbus, taken by shock, stumbles backward toward the edge, where he teeters on the brink and then falls down, screaming the whole way. Mario turns his back on Midbus, knowing that the magic in the level will teleport him back to the wreckage of Hotel Delfino, maybe even without the darkness covering his body.
Meanwhile, Ninja and Mack are really going at it. When the battle commenced, Ninja had leapt in the air, done a flip, and landed on Mack's head. Mack had shot a dark fireball, burning her, and she had fallen back to the ground. Mack had then tried to jump on her, but she expertly rolled away, then leapt up and stuck her sword into Mack. Mack yelled in pain, then bounced up in the air, landing behind Ninja. He shot a wall of dark fire at her, but she ducked behind one of the pillars on the corner of the platform. Now she is hanging on for dear life, suspended above nothing. Mack prepares a fireball to knock her off, when…
"Don't you hurt that young lassie!" A huge, yellow cloud of gas engulfs Mack, who chokes, then is lifted up by O'Chunks and thrown off the platform.
The three friends turn to Koopark, O'Chunks with a huge lump on his head, Mario sporting a gash on his cheek, and Ninja slightly burned.
Koopark smirks. "Well, I suppose that you're bound to get lucky once or twice. No matter. I'd like you to meet three of my friends. Oh, wait, Mario. You already know them. It's time, my brothers!"
In front of Koopark drop three shells: one red, one yellow, and the other green. Out of the red one pops a Koopa coated in fire. Out of the yellow one pops a Koopa with little electric sparks running here and there across his body. And out of the green one comes a Koopa with two Piranha Plants wrapped around his arms.
The red one goes, "Koopire!"
The yellow one says, "Koopightning!"
The green one says, "Kooplant!"
And Koopark says, "Koopark!"
Koopire leaps forward and raises his hand in the air, making a dramatic pose. "We are…"
"THE KOOPA BROS!"
"With advanced power to boot!" laughs Koopark.
"You guys ready for a totally cool brawl?" inquires Koopire to the rest.
"You bet we are!" they all say in unison, turning to Mario and Co.
Mario looks at Ninja and O'Chunks in turn, and says, "This time, we fight together."
And the battle commences.
Koopire opens up the battle by shooting three homing fireballs which each go for one hero, then he spins around, creating a huge ring of fire that shoots out in all directions, consuming all it touches. His three bros. each jump it and land, making a cool pose, and Mario and Ninja run past each other, making their fireballs collide and explode, and they jump the ring too. O’Chunks, on the other hand, goes the brute force way and punches his fireball at Kooplant, taking minimal damage because of his huge strength. He then proceeds to let out a bunch of toxic fumes, which put out the fire nearing him. The homing fireball would have burned Kooplant, but he curls up in his shell and is hardly hurt at all.
Mario jumps toward Koopire and at the last moment before landing on him and getting burned, twists to the side and hits him with his hammer. Koopark summons black tendrils of mist to come up from the ground and wrap around Mario, who struggles against his bonds without much difference being made. Koopightning walks toward Mario and spreads his hands out above his head, and a cloud forms, crackling and sparking with the electric charge it contains. O’Chunks sees this, though, and grabs the nearest Koopa, Koopark, and throws him up into the cloud, which zaps him painfully before disappearing, dropping Koopark to the ground. Ninja then runs forward and cuts the bonds tieing up Mario with her samurai sword, being careful not to slice Mario in the process.
Kooplant raises his arms above his head, and two humongous Piranha Plants come out of the ground, drooling with hunger. Kooplant looks at the heroes, a nasty look on his face. “Go get them, my pets…”
The first Piranha Plant lunges forward, snapping its jaws, and grabs O’Chunks by the leg. Ninja jumps forward, samurai sword in hand, but the other plant bashes into her side, making her drop the sword, which skids across the ground and lands near the edge of the platform, teetering. Mario shoots a fireball at the second plant, trying to distract it so that Ninja can get to her sword, but it quickly dodges the flaming pyrosphere. It opens its mouth and lunges for Ninja, who throws a shuriken bomb in, damaging the throat and blowing up the head. The other Piranha, who was just about to eat O’Chunks whole, looks up at the explosion, and when it turns back to where its dinner was a second before, O’Chunks is gone. The creature looks around with his non-existent eyes and can’t find him until, WHAM! O’Chunks crashes down on its skull, making it wither up.
The four Koopas are now furious, and Koopire comes forward. “Fine! You have troubled us long enough to earn the right to be killed by our team attacks.”
The four Koopas jump on each other’s backs and spin rapidly in place. Then they let loose at Mario and Co, whipping forward. Mario, Ninja and O’Chunks are ready, though. They use the unbeatable, unimaginable, best move in the whole entire world: that foolproof, indomitable technique known to some as stepping slightly to the left. The Ninjakoopas fly off the edge of the platform, into deep space. While falling, Koopark gives Mario a look that clearly says, I’m going to kill you for this. Then the warp takes place, and Koopark and the other Ninjakoopas are back in Hotel Delfino.
Mario looks at the Mamar Card floating above the platform in front of him, and he walks forward and grabs it…
Back at Delfino Plaza…
On the beach next to the lighthouse, where Bowser Jr. and Mario sorta faced off, a small fragment of an egg lies next to the ocean. An egg that once held a baby Yoshi. But it doesn’t anymore. And not for the reason that you think. Leading up the beach to the lighthouse are small, scraping marks that gouge into the sand at some parts, while at some parts they slide gently across the surface. Farther up the beach, claw prints are seen among the scrapes. Apparently something or someone was dragging itself across the beach. It is a baby Yoshi. But this is no ordinary baby Yoshi. Its skin is a dull gray shad, and hard as a rock. It has one normal leg and foot, but the other appears to have been eaten away by some sort of acid. It has a long scar that reaches from the side of one eye to the leg that has seemingly been eaten away, caused by dragging himself across a particularly tough rock. After reaching the lighthouse, the strange baby Yoshi lets out a quiver and falls down unconscious, but still alive.
Nearby, a Pianta is walking around, minding her usual business, when she decides to go for a stroll along the beach. She comes across the scrape marks and follows them up to the Yoshi. When she sees him laying there, she quickly screams and runs for help.
The doctor Piantas come and bring the Yoshi to the hospital. While the Yoshi lays in a coma for a few weeks, the doctors are unable to do anything about his injuries, so they call for a plane to take him to the Toad Town airport. The plane arrives within the day and takes Yoshi is in the hospital, where a kindly old Toad and his son are curing him, giving him a metallic leg to replace the one he had lost.
“Daddy, why is the Yoshi gray like that?” asks the little Toad kid.
The old Toad answers his son by explaining to him, “That’s because he isn’t a Yoshi. He’s a very special person, called a Whompi. Remember that really big block with a mouth that your friend Jimmy brought into class the other day?”
The little toad nods excitedly, remembering how exciting it was to see that weird, living block.
“Well, this little guy is a mix of those and a Yoshi,” says the doctor, smiling at his son.
The kid looks at the Yoshi, and frowns. “He looks so sad. Maybe if I gave him a present it would make him feel better.”
The father looks at his son, a look of admiration in his eyes. “Do what you feel is best.”
The Toad takes out a Bill Blaster, and- Ok, fine, fine, he doesn’t, but even authors get bored at times, sheesh. Now where was I? Oh, yeah. The Toad takes out the Emerald Star and gives it to the Yoshi, who shuffles in his sleep, tightening his grip around it.
The old Toad looks at his son in surprise. “Where did you find that?”
The young Toad kid looks at his father and grins cheekily. “I found it while I was walking here. It was pretty and sparkly, so I wanted to pick it up and look at it.” He turns his attention back to the Whompi. “Daddy, what’s his name?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think he has one.”
“Can we name him Dylan?”
“Sure, if you wish, Dylan’s a wonderful name!”
Two weeks later, Dylan is fit enough to leave the hospital. The old Toad and his son offered to let him stay with them, but he has one goal in mind: to find the one who caused him such misfortune, and to make him pay. Even in his egg, he had heard the high, squeaky laughter coming from that evil man, felt the plummeting sensation as he fell toward the water, experienced the pain from having his leg eaten away. There was no way he would rest with that person still out on the loose. That is why he left that day and went out to find him. After a bit of walking, he leaves the town. He walks through Grass Land until he stops to take a nap under a tree at dusk.
He wakes up, feeling very uncomfortable. When he opens his eyes, he sees the world as though upside-down. He looks around and sees that he is tied up and hanging upside-down from a tree. He looks around for his captor, and sees it: a koopa, as the Toad doctor had called it, without a shell, dressed in a blue robe and wielding a wand. He seems to be sitting against another tree across the clearing, holding the Emerald Star in his hands and gazing at it admiringly.
When he notices that Dylan is awake, he stands up and walks over to him. “I never knew that the Crystal Stars were out here too. I think that I’m going to bring this and you back to Lord Bowser!”
The Koopa cuts Dylan’s rope and grabs him by the neck. It doesn’t hurt because Dylan’s made of stone, but it keeps him from getting away. The Koopa grabs the Emerald Star and then takes out his wand. While he is in the middle of an incantation, two figures jump out of the trees and knock into him. The Koopa (Kamek) leaps back to his feet and runs for the Emerald Star, which he dropped, but Cloaker and Domino stop him. “We see no real need for you to get in our way and get yourself hurt. Move it, old guy,” they say simultaneously.
“I see no good reason for any of you to get in master Dimentio’s way,” says Blagon, stepping out from behind a tree. “Now hand over that star, and no one will get hurt.”
Dylan scrambles to his feet and looks around. He quickly run for the Emerald Star and grabs it. But feet are sounding behind him. He quickly looks in front of himself and runs full speed. He hears wings behind him, and two powerful, scaly hands grab him. Then he is spinning, spinning, and he falls onto a cold stone floor.
As he gets up, he sees that he is in a stone hallway. There are chairs scattered around random places, but what really catches his eye is the magnificent figure sitting on the throne in front of him, appearing to be a jester.
Blagon steps forward and addresses Dimentio, “I tracked the Emerald Star down and found it in this Yoshi’s hands. There were a few others, but this one outran them all. I was the only one even close to catching him.”
Dimentio looks quizzically at the young Whompi. “Why are you in possession of this stone?”
Dylan looks up defiantly at Dimentio. “It was a gift from my friends. They gave it to me before I left to give justice to the one who gave me this!” Dylan points to his scar and leg.
Dimentio is silent for a moment, and then replies, “I see. It just so happens that I know the man that gave you those cruel gifts. He goes by the name of Mario…”
Like a black hole, random, seemingly unimportant events are pulling more and more people into this series of peculiar events. What strange force is behind it all? Who else will be pulled in unwillingly? Why did Dimentio even kidnap Peach in the first place? Find out in the next episode of Dimentio’s Revenge, Thursdays 8:00 on the Koopa Channel!