H-hey! Look! It's Fawful! He's finally here after all this time!
Yaaaay –ruru!
Heheh, on an unrelated note, I start Japanese classes in college in a few weeks. I wonder if my teacher would kill me if I ended all my Japanese sentences in ruru?
…
Chapter six.
Kamek and the rest of the Magikoopas were left with the task of hunting down the villains of the world, since they were both more capable of quick transportation thanks to their brooms and more likely to survive an attack by the shadows thanks to their magic. Kamek spent a week going back and forth, picking up various people—mostly nobodies, scattered members of the Koopa Troop and unaffiliated troublemakers.
Standing in the sewers under Princess Peach's castle, Kamek wondered if maybe he should just go look for some more Goombas or something.
He took a deep breath. No, every person he saved made a difference. Every person the shadows didn't get was a person who could help him and the others.
Even if it was someone he really didn't like.
Kamek used a teleportation spell to get past the grate that blocked the entrance to the pipes leading to Fawful's Bean and Badge shop. He noticed that it was more difficult to teleport here than elsewhere, and realized that he was here just in time; the magic field here was starting to get congested. The shadows could show up at any time. And there was no way they could attack the official residents of the castle, so it was clear who they were after. Kamek ran down the pipes.
He arrived in the bright, creepily-decorated bean shop. The first thing he noticed was that the place had several papers tacked to the walls, with what looked like… magic circles? No, they were too neat… Kamek could imagine Fawful drawing these circles with a straightedge and a protractor, getting the shape right but not the feeling behind it. Whatever it was that Fawful wanted these circles to do, they weren't going to do it.
There was a shuffling noise behind the counter, and Kamek turned his attention to it. Suddenly Fawful jumped atop the counter, a laser gun in each hand and his headgear's blaster pointed at the Magikoopa intruder. Kamek raised his hands to show he wasn't armed.
"Hey, hey," Kamek said. "Calm down."
"What is it that you are doing here?" Fawful demanded, still pointing his weapons. "Let me be guessing: you are here to have warning of 'misfortune of terribleness'?"
"Actually, yeah. But it looks like you've already caught wind of it," Kamek waved a hand at all of the magic circles, "What's all this?"
"I was doing the cleaning of the great Cackletta's things and she had some talismans of magicalness which had exploding and bursting into fire," Fawful explained. "I was assuming that something of badness and danger had approaching, so—"
"So you drew up a slew of completely useless circles," Kamek said.
"They have much usefulness!" Fawful argued. "You are just jealous of their perfection!"
Kamek sighed and rolled his eyes. "… Sure. But you're right, something bad is on its way. It's already attacked the Koopa Kingdom and it's on its way here. You need to come with me."
"I am suspicious of your being willing to tell me warnings of badness and be helping me," Fawful said, "As you are remembering, we are not liking each other muchly and you are always wanting for bad things to make themselves happen to the one who is me."
"Yeah, I know," Kamek said. "Look, I'll explain later, but it's really in my best interest that I keep you safe. And everyone else. Really, I'm just out trying to save everyone I can find, so don't go making this about you."
Fawful huffed. "Well, I will not be coming with you."
"Don't be stubborn," Kamek folded his arms. "Those magic circles won't protect you, kid, and you could be under attack any minute now. Please, please just come with me, okay?"
"Have leaving before I am blasting you," Fawful ordered.
"Just listen to me for a—" Kamek was cut short by the sound of a laser blast, which he just barely managed to dodge. He glared at Fawful. "… Fine! I tried to help, but obviously you'd rather sit here and wait to get taken!"
Kamek turned on his heel and stomped down the pipes, fuming. Well, there went that. As much as Kamek hated Fawful, he had really hoped to get him to come along. Their two airships weren't enough to hold all of the people that they were recruiting and they were currently in the midst of building a makeshift base on the ground—Fawful's technical expertise would have come in handy for things like setting up a heating system and such. But what was Kamek going to do? It wasn't like he could just kidnap him—not when Fawful was packing that much heat, anyway.
Kamek arrived at the grate, but stopped before he could teleport out.
The magic field had changed again. He could feel it.
Suddenly the pipes were full of noise, the sound of a flurry of laser blasts echoing through the metal tubing. Kamek turned and ran back toward Fawful's shop. He found Fawful surrounded by shadows. Fawful had now given up on lasers and was now trying to suck them up with his headgear, but this too was completely ineffectual. Fawful reached for the counter and as he did so, the largest of the shadows lunged at him. He pulled his hand from the counter, now holding a paper with one of his useless magic circles on it, and tried to smack the shadow with it. The paper, and his hand, went right through the shadow and it tackled him, throwing him first against the counter, and then to the ground. The impact sent his glasses and the one laser he was still holding flying, both landing on other sides of the room. Fawful started screaming.
Kamek pulled out his wand and sent a beam of light at the group of shadows, causing some of them to dissolve away. The one on top of Fawful, however, looked weakened but still remained there. Kamek ran forward and cast the spell again at closer range. The shadow disappeared, but was quickly replaced by thin shadowy tendrils rising up out of the shadow Fawful was casting on the ground. They reached up and grabbed at Fawful, who struggled and shouted but to no avail. Kamek got closer and cast another light spell, but more tendrils just kept coming, holding the little beanish boy to the ground.
A new shadow appeared out of the ground near Fawful's head. It stayed there as Kamek shot light after light at it, and it bent over its captive and reached its arms down. Its arms went straight through and into Fawful's head. Fawful screamed louder for a moment but then went all silent. Fawful's small black eyes went blank.
"No, no!" Kamek shouted, "You're not getting him, you stupid shadows!"
Kamek put his hand over Fawful's eyes and closed his own.
"Lux maxima!!"
The room was enveloped in a light so bright it would have blinded anyone who dared to look upon it. His eyes still shut tight, Kamek picked Fawful up—he was met with no resistance, so he assumed the spell had driven the shadows away for now. He put a hand out and called his broom, which arrived seconds later. He mounted it and floated up to the top of the room hoping that maybe, since the shadows seemed to be coming from the ground, he and Fawful would be safe there.
Kamek opened his eyes. The room was still bright, and there were no shadows around. He looked down at Fawful, whose face was buried in the Magikoopa's chest.
"Kid?" Kamek asked, nudging Fawful. "You okay there?"
Fawful didn't respond. Kamek got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was it already too late? Had Fawful already lost his mind to those things?
"Kid… Fawful, come on. Speak to me."
Fawful didn't speak but instead let out a small whimper, and then a sob.
Kamek sighed, relieved.
"This wouldn't have happened if you would've just listened to me," Kamek said.
Fawful groaned weakly.
Kamek floated down to the ground and picked up Fawful's dropped glasses. "Come on. We're getting out of here."
Kamek turned his broom to the exit and left Fawful's store as the light faded.
Behind him, red eyes appeared in the shadows, watching them as they left.
…
More author note:
Why didn't the shadows attack Kamek? … probably didn't want to attack the guy who was throwing beams of light around, I guess?