Chapter 6: Treasure Hunt, Part 1!

Note: To make the treasure hunt easier on the poor old author, teams aren't going to be written about in strictly alphabetical order. They will get their "turn" when they find the next clue, or when some kind of…big thing…happens. Some teams will get multiple "turns." Oh, and of course, I have all their clues written down in a text file so I don't get them confused. I'm not that stupid! …. I think.

I was going to write more to this chapter, but since I started school yesterday, and this chapter is already eight pages long in Microsoft Word (as long as or longer than a term paper!) I figured its long enough. I'll be working on chapter 7 when term papers and reading responses are getting to me. (insert cheesy happy face here)

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Chapter 6: Treasure Hunt, Part 1!

AN EPITOME OF EVIL

"Oh, I am not going in there," Wario growled.

"Shut up, you sissy. Or do you think a little water's gonna hurt you?" Waluigi taunted him.

"I'm not a sissy!" Wario bravely stepped into the ankle-deep water in the castle's basement, then jumped back out. "It's COOOOLLLD! Why don't YOU go in there?"

"Because I can't ruin my shoes," Waluigi said.

"I can't ruin my shoes either!" Angered, he pushed Waluigi into the water. "How do you like that, jerk!"

Waluigi sputtered as he stood back up. "Pphhht! Ew! Hey, this isn't so cold. You are a sissy." He took a few more steps down the hallway, looking both directions at the intersection. "Hey, I see something by the wall there," he said.

"What?"

"It looks like a piece of paper." He ran to get it, and then took it back to Wario. "What luck! It's a clue!"

"Was it by a pillar?"

"No, but who cares?"

Wario unrolled it and read it. "'It's baaack… Board Bowser's submarine.'"

"…Bowser has a sub around here?" Waluigi asked, shocked.

"I guess so."

"Then let's find it. It's gotta be around here somewhere!" Waluigi exclaimed.

Wario agreed. "We must be a step ahead of everyone! Ha ha ha!"

DEAD AND LOVIN' IT

"So…this is pretty tall, and green," Koopa Troopa said, standing at the base of a tree near the waterfall outside the castle. "And this is the only waterfall I know of, so…"

"I sure hope there ain't another one of them in one of those worlds somewhere," Dry Bones muttered. "Anyway, you climb that tree there, and I'll climb this one."

"This one?" Koopa Troopa jumped on the trunk of the tree and shimmied his way up. Dry Bones did the same.

"These trees are easy to climb," he said to himself. "Too easy… it's almost like their 2-D…"

"I got it! I got it!" Koopa Troopa shrieked from the other tree. "There's a piece of paper up here!"

"Bring it down!" Dry Bones jumped from the tree and ran to Koopa Troopa, who by now was at the bottom of his tree.

Koopa Troopa unraveled the clue and read it. "'Inside the great timekeeper, watch for the pendulum.' … Huh? Sounds like a… clock or something."

"Hmm." Dry Bones thought about that. "I guess we oughtta look for a clock with a swinging pendulum."

FANTASTIC FOOD FANATICS

"There picture of Princess in here," Yoshi said as he and Birdo entered one of the long hallways off the foyer. "But it, it weird picture…"

"What do you mean?" Birdo asked. The portrait looked normal to her.

Yoshi held out his arm to stop her. "Stop. Watch." Yoshi continued, alone, down the corridor. When he got near the end, the portrait of Peach suddenly turned into a portrait of Bowser!

"Wow!" Birdo was amazed. "How'd you do that?"

"I just walked. Portrait does that itself," Yoshi answered as he headed back. The portrait returned to normal.

"I'd like to try." Birdo slowly walked to the front of the corridor, her eyes on the painting.

"Don't go too far…" Yoshi warned.

When Birdo got near the painting, it began its transformation. "Wow!" Birdo was amazed. "Look at this, Yoshi!"

"You can't go too far," Yoshi warned again.

"Why not? Oh. NOOOOO!" Birdo fell through the trapdoor at the other end of the room!

"I told you!" Yoshi exclaimed as he jumped in after her to get her out of the Dark World.

PERFECTLY PINK

"There's the clock, you get the clue," Peach said to Toadette as they entered the room high up in the castle.

"Okay. But don't be too surprised if I fall in. I did that last week," Toadette said. "Hey, wait a sec…"

"What?"

"The clue isn't in the clock! It's on the ground in front of it! Woo-hoo!" Toadette gleefully picked it off the ground.

"Why, howdy there, we weren't expecting to see you ladies again," a familiar voice called to them. Toadette and Peach turned to see that Dry Bones and Koopa Troopa had entered the room.

"Ew, what do you want, freak?" Toadette asked.

"We got a clue about a swinging pendulum," Koopa Troopa explained. "We asked Toad and Tumble about it, and they suggested to come in here."

"Was your first clue in the castle?" Toadette asked innocently.

"Yeah… Why?"

She grinned. "You're going to have to go inside that clock, then. And believe me, it's terrible!"

"Oh, come on, Toadette, it's not that bad," Peach protested. "We've raced in there, remember?"

"At least you weren't cleaning the stupid clock," she shot back.

"Oh, yeah, I heard from my cousin that there's a swinging pendulum in it. He's been in the races, you know," Dry Bones said.

"I know," Peach answered. "Just jump into the faceplate of the clock. You'll get there, no problem."

"May we have a…guide?" Dry Bones asked, half joking, as he looked at Toadette.

"Heck no," was the immediate reply. "Come on, your highness, let's get our next clue!"

"Did you ever read it to me?" Peach asked.

"Oh yeah." Toadette tore it out of the envelope. "And it says, ooh: 'Go to the carousel…of death!'"

Dry Bones couldn't help but laugh. "Good luck with that!"

"Carousel of death? Us? I think Toadsworth is up to something," Peach muttered. "Anyway, you'll get it for us, won't you, Toadette?"

"….What! …I, uh, I guess so."

BOOKWORMS

"There are many red torches here, but I see no type of written communication," Skolar said, checking every red torch that he saw. "You do not suppose that a small ember from the flame fell onto the piece of paper on which our clue was written, and flared up, destroying our clue?"

"…It is possible," Klevar admitted after a moment, "But I am sure that the person who set up the clues was not that careless. At least, I hope that he or she was not that careless. That would be a true shame, really."

"Indeed," Skolar agreed.

"Oh, perhaps our wait is over. I do believe I see some form of white paper tucked into the space between the wall and the wooden pole of that torch just two torches over from us." Klevar and Skolar floated to the torch at a leisurely pace, then Skolar gently pulled the paper from the torch, careful to not allow any embers to touch it. He unraveled it.

"Yes, it is our next clue," he announced, pleased. "' All alone on a block, floating in the water…' That is what it says."

"Hmm, since this clue was located here in the castle, the next one must be in one of the worlds that you can access through the paintings that were transformed into portals," Klevar said. "I assume this must be a world of water?"

"Yes, let us look for a portrait of a world with much water," Skolar agreed. "We will surely find the next clue on a block floating in the water."

"Indeed. Let us go."

"Yes."

….Yeah. They must have taken too many university-level literary analysis courses, for they don't know what "contractions" are anymore.

CUTE COUPLE

After much stalling on Luigi's part, he and Daisy finally made it to the haunted courtyard. To Luigi's relief, there were only a handful of Boos visible. But, you never know how many are invisible…

"Aw, look at all those Boos! They're cute!"

Luigi shuddered at Daisy's comment.

"Why do they disappear when you face them?" Daisy asked. "They don't think they're ugly, do they? I think they're cute!"

"…They're ghosts. They're not supposed to be cute," Luigi pointed out. "I don't know why they hide like that. Can't we just get out of here?"

"Ooh, but if you leave now you may not get your cluuuuuue"

Daisy and Luigi both jumped at the spooky, disembodied voice that spoke to them. "Who're you?" Daisy asked. "Where are you?"

"It's me. A courtyard Boo." The bored Boo materialized in front of them. "Sheesh, I was wonderin' when you'd get here! That old geezer Toadsworth made me keep your clue. Here it is." He handed a piece of paper to Daisy. "Happy hunting! I get to go home now! Boo!" He vanished.

"That was easy," Luigi commented. "Uh, what does it say?"

Daisy made a face as she read the clue. "Ew. This one's kind of…"

"What?" Luigi took it from her and read it. "'It looks like oily paint. But don't be shy to jump in!' … Oily paint?"

"That would totally ruin my dress! I knew I should stop wearing my more expensive dresses to these parties, urgh…"

"I think I remember Mario talking about an oily portal in the basement. It could be there," Luigi commented. "I could go it alone if you'd like."

"Nah. We're a team," Daisy said. "We need to stick together!"

"OK then. If you're sure… let's go to the basement."

INCANDESCENT DUDES

"Yo, dude," Brighton called to Muskular, "I think I got it all figured out! Get up here!"

They were separately searching the rooms in the foyer. "What? Where?" Muskular asked, coming out of one of the doors on the first floor.

Brighton was standing in front of a set of double doors with a big star in front. "Up here! I think I found our portrait!"

The two entered the corridor together: the one with the portrait of Peach that gradually turns into a picture of Bowser. "Whoah, that is freaky," Muskular commented. "Why they heck does the princess even have something like that!"

Brighton shrugged. "Beats me."

Just as the pair got closer to the portrait, a trapdoor in the floor sprung open, and Yoshi and Birdo came out. "Ooh, Yoshi not like little smiley-faced electrical balls," he said. "Oh, look! It's star and sun guy!"

"What were you doing down there?" Brighton asked, confused.

"I kind of fell down there," Birdo explained, embarrassed. "Yoshi helped me out."

"There's a trap door!"

"It's another world. Dark World," Yoshi said. "But it not so bad, expect for little smiling metal balls."

"Did you happen to see a clue by any chance?" Muskular asked.

"Dude, it's right in front of us!" Not wanting to fall into the Dark World, Brighton, who had been walking up until this point, took to the air and plucked a piece of paper from the floor just in front of the portrait. "This must be it!" He flew back to where Muskular and the others stood.

"You can fly?" Birdo asked, surprised.

"Yeah, most star creatures can," Brighton said rather dryly.

"So that not our clue," Yoshi said sadly. "Bowser doesn't guard over the kingdom!"

"That's for sure," Muskular agreed. "Hey, would you mind leaving before we open our clue? I don't think you two would cheat, but…"

"We understand. That is fine!" Yoshi and Birdo quickly left, looking for a better portrait.

Brighton unfolded the paper. "It says: 'Stand atop the pyramid.' Uh… you know where a pyramid is?"

Muskular shrugged. "Nope. Guess we'd better find one."

"It must be a desert world, right? Let's go!"

FRIENDS OR FOES

These two are confused. Completely, utterly confused.

"Not many walls ripple!" Mario said in disbelief. "Mama Mia! It has to be this one," he tapped on the portal to Shifting Sands Land, "But there is no clue!"

DK made some kind of disgruntled noise.

"I'll bet Toadsworth didn't even put a clue out for us," Mario said. "Or maybe someone stole it!"

DK shrugged, then pulled an entire bunch of bananas out of nowhere. He began eating them.

SHY AND SCARY

These two continued to stick together, so they were searching rather slowly, starting from the foyer. Thankfully, the aquarium is directly off the foyer!

"There's not a shark in there, is there?" Shy Guy asked, staring at the glass walls of the aquarium room.

"Even if there were, they couldn't get you," Boo assured him. "Ah. Look. There's a piece of paper on the floor near the glass."

Shy Guy trembled when he saw how close the clue was to the glass, and he took a step back. "Um, uh…"

"I'll get it, I'll get it, it's not like these fish could hurt me. Could you, fishies? I could probably do more harm to them!" Boo said as he snatched up their clue. "Hey… bet you wouldn't mind this next clue?"

"Wha, what is it?" Shy Guy asked.

"'Whee! Slides are fun!'"

Shy Guy clapped his hands. "Oh, really! A slide? … I can't fall off, can I?"

"I dunno. I dunno where this slide even is," Boo said, "But guess what? I bet it'll be fun."

"Yay, a slide!" For the first time since the game began, Shy Guy was elated. "We don't even have a slide in the toy box!"

"Yeah, that's 'cuz your toy box is kinda… you know," Boo said. "Come on, let's find this slide."

To be continued whenever I feel like it...