GREY CHAPTERS: REVELATIONS
Chapter Grey 1: Iron Fortress
Team Luigi was the first group to leave its respective region. They were glad they would no longer have to navigate through the crater after everything they had been through especially being forced to fight one of their newly-made friends. As they left the Black Region, they were welcomed by a depressing grey sky and a lonesome road leading to a fork. They could also see what seemed to be a city and a building floating above it. Team Luigi walked to the fork and rested. A few minutes later, Team Mario and many other people, the rest of the koopalings, joined them from the other road that led to the White Region. Gami was surprised to see the others but not the airship.
"What happened to the airship?" He asked the group.
"I broke it." Ori embarrassedly answered.
"Well, at least, you're all here. That's what counts the most. So…"
"Where are the guardians? I thought they would meet us here."
"Maybe they meant near the Silver Palace."
"I don't like the sound of it."
Ori turned around to face Mario. She was discouraged by the current situation. Nothing seemed to be as planned: The guardians' absence, Ori and Gami being controlled against their will, no one knew what was waiting for them inside the city.
"Mario, what do you think we should do? Do you think Gami may be right and the guardians will meet us closer to the Silver Palace?" Ori asked.
Mario first nodded to decline. The guardians would pick a safe place for a meeting and since the city was right below the Silver Palace, from where the grey substance could have originated, it would be obvious the city would be under the grey substance's influence. However, he did not have any idea where the guardians would be… not yet. He first pointed at the gate inside the wall surrounding the city.
"You think they entered the Iron Fortress and found someplace safe to meet? Let's take a look inside first." Ori concluded.
The large group marched toward the gate but something felt wrong. No one was at the gate to welcome them. Some people in the group felt a despicable feeling and trembled. Those who were not feeling it tried their best to reassure but in vain. The feeling was too strong. It demoralized some but did not pitch anyone against each other. They all stood at the foot of the imposingly tall gate. Only Petey was able to move the door but still needed some help like from Roy and Morton. The gate slowly opened and, once everyone could see inside, they witnessed the scenery in shock. This kingdom that proudly stood where Lord Igami reigned was reduced to ruins of their former glory. Buildings, even destroyed beyond recognition, slowly kept decaying as threatening and massive origamis of monsters and war machines patrolled down the heavily degraded streets. Many crumbs of grey paper lied all around the place. Though they only seemed like torn sheets of papers, the group grunted in disgust to the idea that these used to be living inhabitants of the Iron Fortress. Some of them stumbled across the pain those poor souls went through before being cast away from life. Ori and Gami just moved forward but Ori landed on the ground. She was completely devastated to see her first home reduced to nothing.
"Ori, I understand you want to give up but hear me out: If we give up now, more cities will suffer the same fate as the Iron Fortress. Think about what's happening in Miitropolis!" The paper plane pointed out.
The swan stood back up and looked back at her friend, more determined to put an end to this nightmare once and for all, more than anyone in the group.
"Listen up! With all the feral origamis in town, we can't go all together to the Silver Palace right now. We need to find a way to get rid of those before we proceed. We'll take the same team as before while the others stay here." Ori explained.
Team Mario first entered the city and went to the right side. Their group spotted a grey origami of a gray tank rolling down on piles of torn sheets of paper. They sneaked around through the building to get as close as they could to the tank. They hid inside a destroyed barber shop and Mario looked at Birdo.
"You want me to do something, sweetie?" Birdo asked.
Mario made some gestures with his arms. His first set was him flailing his arms from up to sides to down. His second set was like throwing something. Birdo understood what Mario meant and looked in her deck of cards. She pulled out a cannonball card and Mario approved.
"Alright, sweetie. Let's do this!" Birdo exclaimed.
She slowly left the building and aimed her funnel mouth at the tank driving away. She took a deep breath and used her card to fire the cannonball at the origami. She ran back inside as the projectile exploded on the tank. The machine slowly rotated its cannon toward the barber shop. Team Mario suspected it would fire at the building in retaliation even if it did not see anyone. Mario stepped outside and prepared a Tanooki Tail card to wear ears and tails. The tank fired a projectile at high speed but Mario deflected it back at the origami. The projectile blew up on the tank causing the turret to fly up and fall back down on the streets. That was one feral origami down but Team Mario had more work to do as another tank origami showed up to investigate on the current situation. It spotted Mario but had to rotate its turret to aim at the plumber. The others left the building to help their friend. Larry first created a smokescreen to help the other move to a safer place. The tank, unable to target anyone, charged at the smokescreen only to ram into the building in decay. It got stuck inside as debris fell on it and held it on place. Team Mario looked in their Item Cards and found a Bob-ombs which they slid under the tank. The bomb blew up the origami into pieces. This part of the Iron Fortress was ridden of any feral origami so Team Mario looked around to see if there was someplace the guardians could have gone hiding. They spotted a cathedral far away, standing under the Silver Palace. Team Mario hurried to cathedral.
Team Luigi found themselves in a park filled with many origamis of rhinos and hippos. Though they were not as dangerous as the war machines Team Mario had to fight, those monsters could still be trouble for Team Luigi. Plus, the park had no building inside so it was impossible for the group to hide and perform hit-and-run tactics on the monsters. Team Luigi carefully set up a plan to lure the origamis into an empty swimming pool on the other side of the park. Luigi first looked at Daisy.
"What is it, darling?" She asked with a smile.
Luigi made some gesture to order her to make enough noise to attract the origamis' attention.
"Leave it to me! I know how!" Daisy added.
Luigi brought Gami and Tatanga behind some bushes still standing despite the park's conditions. From there, they watched as Daisy went to a fallen down tree and punched it to make it roll toward the origamis. The origamis moved aside to avoid the tree and got caught in panic. They frantically ran around in the park, something no one expected to happen. Nonetheless, the origamis regained their calm and chased after Daisy. Luigi looked at Tatanga.
"What?" The alien just said.
Luigi pointed the ground a few feet away from them. The bat boy first looked at where the plumber pointed but did not have an idea right now. It was only when he looked back at Daisy and all the origamis chasing her in the park something came in his mind.
"Alright. I know what you mean." He said to Luigi.
He pulled out many cards from his decks and laid down round devices on the floor. Luigi helped him bury the devices and waved at Daisy to come over here. Daisy ran to them and the group ran away from the bush in a way that the origamis would have to go through the buried minefield. Many origamis got caught in the mines but a few of them managed to avoid the field in time. The number of feral origamis was now reduced to something more conventional to go against directly. Team Luigi wiped out the remaining origamis with their cards and moved on. The rest of their side of the Iron Fortress was clean of any feral origamis but Team Luigi spotted a cathedral standing under the Silver Palace. Having nowhere else to go, Team Luigi headed there.
The two teams met up at the entrance of the cathedral. Both teams were surprised the other team managed to get rid of the origamis of their side. Though, it was a welcoming change for both. They were about to head inside the cathedral until another group of origamis flew down. Those were grey like the others and looked like gargoyles. Those monsters had both teams surrounded and cornered. The group was ready for battle but the giant door leading inside the cathedral opened and the brown guardian showed up.
"Wait! Those are our friends!" The brown guardian brought up.
Everyone looked at each other. The gargoyles unfolded themselves and became smaller versions. The group looked at the brown guardian.
"What are you doing here? I thought we were supposed to meet outside." Ori asked.
"When we saw the grey cloud hovering above the Rainbow Continent, we went all around the island to evacuate as many people as we could and took shelter in the cathedral." The guardian replied.
"What do you mean evacuate?"
"See by yourselves."
The guardian escorted the group inside the cathedral. The group was surprised to see who was inside. Misses Roseworth ran to Daisy to hug her.
"Mistress Rosetool, thank goodness you're fine!" The flower said.
Wart was also among those already inside the cathedral and ran to Birdo to take her in his arms.
"My sweetie! This is horrible! All those people back in the Flaxen City, they turned against each other but thanks to your origami friends I'm safe." The giant frog said.
Dorrie too was among the group and went to Mario. She gently rubbed her head on his to reassure she was alright. Even the people working at the Los Memoriam Café were here and they all went to see Petey.
"Petey! We were so worried about you when we saw the big grey cloud!" Huey brought up.
"Thank goodness those origamis took us somewhere safe. Without them, I can't even imagine the horrible things I would've done to my friends." Timpani said.
"It seems the situation is far worse than we thought. Let's hope we can undo all of this." Blumiere hoped.
Last but least, Mr. Toadsworth was here and walked to the Mario brothers.
"Mario, Luigi! You've finally arrived. I wasn't in the Rainbow Continent at all but your origami friends thought well to bring me here." The old toad said.
Everyone gathered up around the origamis, awaiting the next move that would be the final one. Ori first approached Mario.
"Mario, I want to thank you for being here with us all along. I know you already saved the world many times all by yourselves but I fear this time we'll need help. I don't know if all of you here will be enough but we have to try. So, Mario, do you still want to go inside the Silver Palace?" Ori asked.
Mario nodded without any hesitation.
"Once we go inside, we make sure to do our job. If you're short on items or cards, you may want to travel somewhere to resupply first then come back here because, once inside, we're not leaving until we end this once and for all." Ori pointed out.
Mario nodded again. He was ready for everything. He was dedicated to save the princess or find out she could be in another place. Anyway, he had to get inside the Silver Palace. Ori looked at everyone else.
"Are you all ready to go in?!" She screamed.
The crowd cheered. Everyone was on her side. To her, it felt like she was reborn. She no longer had to hide anything. She no longer had to lie to anyone. Everyone would believe her even if the truth could sound unbelievable. The guardians went to the back of the church which was completely open. The crowd saw that the Silver Palace was in fact floating far away from any civilization over what seemed like a black hole below. This part of the world had no sea, only emptiness. Each guardian used their Origami Star which they took back from their royal friends. Together, the guardians built a rainbow bridge that extended to the small island the Silver Palace was standing on. Everyone could feel the end was near but no one knew how it would end. Would they be wiped out of existence? Would they have to beat Lord Igami once and for all? Nonetheless, the crowd was amazed at the bridge linking the Silver Palace with the rest of the Rainbow Continent. The crowd slowly followed the origamis on the bridge, anxious to meet Lord Igami for the first time.