Chapter 37: Meanwhile...
As the tower remained quiet, the outsides of the castle were anything but. The Darkland army had disappeared for now, but no one could tell where. As Toad's army was running out of the castle to chase the Darklanders down, Bowser Jr's and Toadette's regimen was running in to storm the place.
"You sure this is where they are?" Junior asked.
"Sure I'm sure!" Toadette looked at him. "It's their castle, duh. Why not?"
"Well... Okay." Junior agreed. "Can't argue with logic, I guess." Toadette put her small hands on the door and pushed. It slowly opened under her force with a loud creaking noise. The same carpeted hallway presented before Toad was still here.
"Hmm.." Toadette peered into the halls as far as she could see. "Seems like there's no one here."
"Yeah... but how?" Junior questioned.
"Maybe our army left us to join them." Toadette chuckled, though Junior's expression afterwards told her it was no time for jokes. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Junior adjusted his bib and put a hand on his chin. "I mean, why did the army stay behind anyway?"
"To guard the place, remember? So no one lays siege to this place and traps us in here."
"Oh, right. Duh." Junior looked away in embarrassment. "I'm stupid sometimes."
"It's fine." Toadette assured, looking around and seeing an open door, the same one that Toad went through. "Do you think we should go through there?"
"I mean, I don't really see any other obvious place to go." Junior commented. "Let's go." They slowly walked through the door, Toadette in the lead.
"Do you have anything to defend yourself?" she asked him.
"Well, I have myself." Junior chuckled. "I think of myself as the only weapon I have."
"That's good. At least you have something." Toadette smiled. "I just have a pistol... Toad gave me this." she remembered. They found the stone staircase and began climbing up in silence. Junior spoke about halfway up.
"Hey, Toadette?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever feel like you've been away from home, away from your friends for years, then you come back and things just aren't the same anymore?"
"Is that how you feel now?"
"Yeah. Like seriously, everything's just not the same here. My siblings are nowhere to be found, my father's trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, the castle's even darker than it normally is... I don't know anymore." Junior sighed. "I just want things to go back to normal." Toadette stopped abruptly, almost causing Junior to trip. She looked at him.
"Seems like you really miss this place the way it was." she echoed, and Junior nodded slowly.
"Well, don't worry. After all this is over, you'll have your life back." Toadette smiled at him, which was kinda hard given the circumstances. Junior smiled back.
"Thanks, Toadette."
"No problem. All for optimism, right?"
"Yeah, definitely." They reached the door that led to the top of the tower, when Toadette held a finger to her mouth and listened closely.
"What happened here...?" a feminine voice pondered. Toadette put a hand to Bowser Junior.
"Wait here." she whispered, and Junior nodded. Slowly Toadette opened the door, but stayed behind it.
"Huh?" the voice grew louder, and Toadette could hear footsteps. "What's going on-" Before it could get out the door, Toadette forcefully heaved the door with all her might. It slammed shut, and she could hear a groan of pain. "Alright, who's here? Who did that?" the voice asked. Toadette opened the door again and stepped out, seeing the body and revealing it to be the boomerang-wielding high minion, Pom Pom.
"Pom Pom? What are you doing here?"
"I was just surveying the tower... looking for you." she answered. "Bowser wants you imprisoned for life, apparently. I found out from Boom Boom." she chuckled. She pulled out her boomerang from her shell. "I intend to carry out his orders."
"Alright. I knew this would happen, honestly..." Toadette then pulled out a Boomerang Flower from her pocket, and transformed, a helmet of sorts replacing her cap and gaining greaves and gloves, a pink and white boomerang in her hand. "Knew this would come in handy eventually."
"Well, looks like you came prepared." Pom Pom chuckled, putting a hand through her ponytail. "Let's dance, sugar." The next thing anyone heard were boomerangs whistling through the air of the tower.
To be continued...