Mario's Crowbar Chapter Thirty-Seven: Verge, a mario fanfic

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Goodbye." Koji said quietly. She waved her hand slowly and tried to ignore the depressing feeling that was writhing about her, trying to return to dominance within her mind. "And good luck." No sadness, please no sadness… The feelings were coming back but she wanted to control them as much as possible.

"Uhm…see you. …And, thank you." Dirge managed to eke out. Opposite to Koji, the gray yoshi was clearly feeling something. Koji guessed that he still felt thankful for the rescue.

An unspoken question floated between them both, neither with a certain answer: why was Koji giving up her prey here? She had saved Dirge for the purpose of learning about his situation, and though she still did not have all of the answers, she was giving up her chase. She was letting him go— and most amazingly of all, though she was done with him, she was letting him leave alive.

Had I not wanted to see the insides of a yoshi? Koji thought vaguely. And Merlar…the old woman. I hadn't killed an old person yet. I wonder how she would have looked as she fell dead.

Was she regaining some sense of morality or was it because she had found a purpose now? Find the eight… Who were the eight? How would she recognize them? She had no idea, but at least she had an actual plan now. A plan not of killing, but of seeking out.

What would happen next was the true question.

Dirge was walking away now. He was walking down the path to his home, where his presumably dreary life would continue, a life that was boring but safe. The yoshi boy may have thought that Merlar was insane, but Koji thought that the old woman knew best for him.

Goodbye, Dirge Revel…Koji thought a last time. I thank you and your 'aunt' for guiding me towards my true purpose. At least for that you deserve life.

She turned around and headed back for the main area of Twilight Town to rejoin the Koopa Troop.

Yes…the Koopa Troop. What an incredible turn of events. All to find the eight…and get revenge. Here was a feeling she could safely harbor: darkness. The MVD Era…the MVD… MVD? No, the NEW Era Army (She knew she could break through that smog covering her thoughts) were the ones that had passed through Rose Town when her baby had been killed. And when she had been HGZYYVW…stabbed, stabbed. She had come outside to see exactly what it all was when it had happened.

She'd never forget the face of the one who did it. The maniacal grin…red cap, opposite her own light blue…that GLINT in his EYES as he did what he did. The inhuman face that had struck the art, the living light out of her life. The name she had heard when it had happened had been—

YORR.

But that wasn't it. The name was, was—

YORR.

…No, that wasn't right. It wasn't right, and she had to face it. The time had come, this was it.

Walking and then stopping in the sable forest, the afternoon sun masked by branches of black, the moment had suddenly descended like a gift both blessed and cursed. The final wall crumbling, the Pandora's Box suddenly unlocking before her: the name of her baby's killer and the person who had defaced her. It was time to face it. The murderer, the slaughterer, the evil that had broken her life forever, its name was

"Give me…" Koji's voice began to rise to a shriek as her thoughts became fuzzy again. She reached for the YZYZ. A couple of toads approached from nearby.

"YORR…! What are BLF…?"

"Everyone…just…calm…" The toad giggled maniacally. "Everything…is…" His giggling increased, and his whole body shook. The baby screamed again. As Koji grabbed the baby, the manic toad's giggling caused the HDLIW to HORXV through GSV YZYZ'H MVXP.

No. The truth—

"Give me…" Koji's voice began to rise to a shriek as her thoughts became fuzzy again. She reached for the baby. A couple of toads approached from nearby.

"Blii…! What are you…?"

Blii...

That was his name. That was the name of her enemy, the one that she'd been searching for and would continue to search for. Now that she could accept his existence she could accept him as the other mission in her life: the one she had to kill.

Besides, what was one more defined purpose? The more she had the longer she could live.

It'd be good for an experiment as well. When she found…Blii...she'd use every psychic technique she'd devised and pulverize his insides one by one. Maybe from his feet up, if she could figure out muscles, and then—

"Hey." A stern voice interrupted her thoughts. She stopped in her tracks.

It was the koopa general, General Paraplonk, flanked by two other koopa Troop members. All looked just as stern as Paraplonk had sounded, and all seemed to be glaring. Koji thought that she sensed some hostility.

"Greetings." Koji bowed her head slightly, unsure of how to show the respect they were probably seeking.

Paraplonk shifted. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"I was seeing my…friend…off." She was used to the trembling that her vision took on whenever she moved even slightly.

Perhaps she could find some way to affix the mushroom charm to her neck more securely.

"No. What are you doing here, in the Koopa Troop?" Paraplonk shifted again, a bit nervously.

Something…was wrong. If she could still feel she'd probably be overwhelmed with bad feelings right now.

Why lie? She decided. "I seek the Eight."

"…What?" He clearly hadn't been expecting that answer. "What eight?"

"The…Eight Heroes of Virtue." She pushed the feelings of silliness out of her mind. This was serious. "We…have to stop the great fire."

"Eight Heroes?" Paraplonk stared with some scrutiny at Koji. She is crazy. Thank god Jagger convinced me to come and do this. This toad is a threat, crazy at a moment's notice. She can't stay with us, and she's too dangerous to just kick out.

"Yes. And of the Eight, there are either two koopas or one."

"The Eight: two toads, two koopas, two humans…and…and two others."

"F-four toads, one koopa…"

"Perhaps you are one of them." Koji offered thoughtlessly, immediately regretting it. She still hadn't decided how she was going to know who one of the Eight was. Impressing the wrong idea on someone was just going to create problems.

"Really…?" Paraplonk measured her up. "And what would my role— ah, screw it. I don't have time for this. I feel a bittle lad. You are mentally ill after all, but we really gan't camble about this. Sorry." The tension was twisting his tongue up now, something that often happened to him.

Koji was confused. "What are…" The two koopas accompanying Paraplonk suddenly tackled her. Her head was smacked against a tree root, and she was sent into a dizzy state as one of the koopas held her down and the other began to strangle her. In an unpleasantly familiar position she found herself staring up into the leaf-shrouded sky.

"Wait! Get rid of the charm first…!" Paraplonk ordered frantically, somewhere out of Koji's sight. It was too late, however. The koopa who had been strangling Koji died quickly when his brain began to dissolve inside of his head. The other koopa, who had been lying on Koji's legs, grasped the moment and ripped the mushroom charm from his victim's neck.

Koji watched helplessly as her sight went spinning through the air, landing on a pile of fallen leaves near Paraplonk.

"Don't throw that at me!" He shrieked. He leapt out of her vision. Koji was left with the sight of a thorny bush, a centered tree, and a fortunate patch of unblocked sky. Perhaps she could look at her favorite color for a last time as she was strangled—

NO! What was she saying? She had an actual reason to live now. A reason to care— at least a little. She had to fight.

She almost kicked the second koopa off before Paraplonk slammed down onto her legs. The strangling began anew. They did not bring a knife because they probably think I'm invincible to them based on what happened to me.

What if…? She thought fast as her second life was choked out of her. The tree, the tree…

She had blown up a leaf…why couldn't she kill a tree from the inside? There were incredibly faint wavelengths coming from within the wood, the pulsing of sap, perhaps. If she could destroy the tree from within and send it toppling over, it could be the chance she needed…it would just be incredibly difficult.

The sound of leaves crunching nearby interrupted her concentration.

"What…?" A small, weak voice trembled. The strangling stopped for a moment.

"Dirge?!" Koji gasped as she found the freedom to breathe for a moment.

"Shit," Paraplonk grunted. "Kid, you'd better rurn tight around and head home."

"My charm, Dirge. Toss my charm!" The force of emotions was coming on strong with Dirge's sudden return, and the strength to fight back increased with it.

"Steep krangling!" Paraplonk turned and ordered to his underling.

"Under the bush!" Koji forced out before the clenching fingers of death were around her neck again. She began struggling wildly, trying to kick her two foes off.

Dirge appeared in her sight, looking down at the golden mushroom charm that had served as Koji's vision for the last few days. She watched him kneel down to pick her up, and soon her vision was in the palm of his hand. She wished that she could just tell him to turn and point the charm at the attackers, but her opportunity for speech was now over.

"Kid…oh bon of a sitch!" The weight on Koji's legs lifted. Paraplonk was obviously getting up to stop Dirge. Now she had a much better chance of tossing the asshole on top of her off, but as a trade-off, Dirge was in danger.

"Give me that." She heard Paraplonk's angry voice. He obviously wanted to destroy the charm.

Dirge was lost: he had just walked onto the grisly scene of his caretaker's murdered, toothless body before wandering back and finding the only other person he trusted even slightly being strangled to death. Now for some reason he was throwing the mushroom charm that she always wore at her. Saying he was confused was an understatement.

Koji heard the charm land nearby. It was right near her, but she couldn't see her own body yet. Wait!—there was the shaking form of the strangler, just barely at the bottom of her vision.

She reached out for the charm, desperately grabbing into the leaf-littered earth. Where was it where was it where was it where was it where was it…?

She almost had it! CRUNCH— Paraplonk slammed his foot down onto her hand, just before she could grab the golden mushroom. The only vision left was of the still shaking shell of her killer as he stole the last of her life from her.

The shell…the back…

"Just lay back and die, please." Paraplonk whispered down to her. He probably wasn't enjoying this.

"Hmmm…" General Goomp had been thinking silently the entire time. "What about backbones? Could you manipulate backbones?"

"Spines are not organs." Koji responded quickly, shutting Goomp down.

"No…they are not. But what about the organs around the spine?" General Guy thought quickly. He seemed to still have the odd knowledge of anatomy he had gained from being the Koopa Castle torturer, before he had handed the position over to Lucky. "Consider the…nerves. The nerves near the spine that control all movements."

Darkness was beginning to overtake her sight. Now that she tried, she could sense wavelengths coming from the shell of her attacker. They were blue and…echo-y…unlike the other wavelengths, but she had no time to think about that mysterious detail. The spine…the nervous system…it's my only chance.

It was right as Koji was crushing random spots along her target's nerves that Dirge suddenly whacked Paraplonk in the back of the head with his backpack. While Dirge was still a child, yoshis were known to be in general the strongest of the species that were common to the Mushroom Kingdom area. It only took a single whack from Dirge to send Paraplonk flying.

"AAAAAAaaaaAAAURRRRGHHAAAAA!" Koji's strangler screamed incoherently as the wavelength attack hit the area around his spine. In a half-second he completely lost control of the middle-third of his body as well as a lower portion of his neck. He fell over on to his side and kicked his legs hopelessly, his distorted screams getting quieter and quieter as he lost the ability to breathe.

"No…no...FUCK!" Paraplonk screamed, crashing to the ground from Dirge's attack. He scrambled to his feet and started trying to back away.

Koji put the mushroom charm, with its chain automatically repaired, back around her neck. She began to walk towards Paraplonk.

Dirge, meanwhile, slumped against his backpack, his adrenaline rush ending as abruptly as it had started.

"Please don't…oh tor fuh love of Eld…" Paraplonk slipped backwards in panic and landed awkwardly on his bottom. Koji smiled because it didn't really matter, he wouldn't have gotten away anyway.

"This could be interesting…" Koji commented sadistically as she approached the terrified koopa. She had a new idea for an experiment, and she had to try it right then.

This is the story of a sad princess

Who found herself in a terrible mess

Though she was pretty

And wondrously well-dressed

She found herself trapped in void-like darkness.

Princess Peach was her title

The most beautiful in the land

And yet here she was left to cry

Until her body had turned to sand.

Mushroom City,

It's such a pity,

…This is my ditty?

No. No no no NO NO! Peach thought despairingly. It was almost perfect…

It had been about two hours since her druggie cell mate had broken down into tears. Peach had spent the time being alternatively angry and depressed and had just now started trying to create her own poem. Unfortunately, in her misery and confusion, she couldn't decide on what rhyme scheme to use and her poem was suffering from an inconsistent rhythm partially because of it.

This is all…this is all because of…

What was his name? Everything…this whole mess had started withhim.

P…Pen…Penance! Yes…something like that…Penance…Penance…she couldn't remember his last name. Whatever. That insubordinate Penance…everything had started with him. He had staged his little rebellion, breaking Bowser out of the dungeon, and then Mario showed up as an insane monster shortly afterwards. She didn't know exactly how but it had to be Penance's fault.

Yes! And then…and then…if you followed the chain long enough…it was his fault Marty was gone! Poor Marty…what had happened to him? He was…he had been acting a little funny, but he didn't deserve to disappear.

"Marty…" Peach sobbed without meaning to. She trudged over to the jail cells and shook them pointlessly. How many times had she done that now, in the darkness? She couldn't remember.

She pushed with all of her strength against the bars, her sudden determination reaching beyond the understanding of the utter futility surrounding her, but nothing continued to happen.

Somber quiet returned to the inside of the cell.

The auction was being held in one of Warioware's basements, a large concrete-walled one designed to hold about six hundred people comfortably. At one end of the large room was a stage, on top of which was a large Question Block on top of a small table.

Four Warioware security guards stood surrounding the table, each one looking more threatening than the one on the right— it was rather similar to an Escher illusion. Two of them were pionpis and two were nokonokos, both tough species only found in Sarasaland.

Below the stage, and surrounding the room were more tables, these piled high with a variety of food and drinks. Most of the drinks were extremely alcoholic, most likely an attempt by Warioware to get its bidders as drunk as possible, and in the best possible position to make extreme declarations. The dim lights set everywhere helped to increase the intoxication.

Ghrea moved around swiftly, sampling the food but avoiding the drinks. Wes followed after closely.

"Is there something wrong with the drinks?" Wes asked nervously. He took a chicken leg.

"Nah, nah, go ahead and have em'. I'm just not thirsty." Ghrea stuffed three doughnuts into her mouth.

"Oh, uh, okay. Um, but is there anything wrong with the meat?" Wes looked closely at a chicken leg. Ghrea had taken every food group except meat so far.

"Mmph? No, no. It's just that I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat." She picked up a salad bowl and held the item above her head so that the contents dumped into her open mouth.

Isn't she worried about attracting attention? Wes wondered. But then, it didn't seem like anyone else really noticed them. Was everyone there as strange as he and Ghrea were?

Strange… He guessed that he considered himself strange, especially with the whole—

Death. Red. He fell back and covered his mouth to stop himself from screaming. The hole was filled with the various body parts of a multitude of species: koopas, goombas, toads, shy guys, and even twisted, disfigured things that he couldn't recognize. It was all of the things that whoever actually lived here didn't eat- a monstrous, gory, bloody soup of leftovers. What he had smelled all day was the scent of death: of rotting flesh and fresh dead. They had been the meals of the house's occupant.

—oh god.

"Stop freaking out about it," Ghrea swallowed an entire paper plate with something unidentified on it. "The meat's fine, I'm sure."

"MEAt! WhErE iS mY mEaT?" Mario screeched, an unearthly rhythm trembling through his words.

Wait…what? That…he couldn't remember anything specifically, but he was sure that was not his memory. He felt certain that had not happened to him.

"Excuse me, I-I am incredibly hungry." A crumpled voice stuttered slightly. Someone pushed past Wes to the food table.

Wes spun away a bit and grabbed onto another table in order to keep himself from completely collapsing.

"Bwa ha! God, you're such a wuss!" Ghrea laughed happily. She slapped Wes on his shell and pushed past to yet more food. "C'mon, eat up. The fun's going to begin soon! You didn't even have breakfast anyway, right?"

—awake he had loudly offered to "make breakfast", and had grabbed two of the dead Magikoopas on the floor, including the one that had called himself Kamek.

Kamek? But the memory was gone again in just another flash. An evil snickering sounded right behind his head, somewhere inside of his shell.

"C'mon Wes, enjoy the party," Ghrea exclaimed a bit irritably off to his side. "We're going to crash it soon. It'll be the biggest criminal party you'll ever be in."

"Uh…" He managed to dodge the oncoming memories like stones about to crash into his head. "Yeah. There is…a lot of people here."

There were all sorts of different people. It was a little baffling. The richest, the poorest, and every level in-between all seemed to be here. All those connected deeply to Warioware, apparently. There were even some interesting kinds of people he hadn't seen before, probably foreigners: a big pink thing with a large snout and bow, a fat blue human-ish thing with a small tree sticking out of its head, and onelittle yellow thing he could hardly describe at all that was scurrying in and around the guests.

Both men and women shrieked as the thing brushed by their legs.

"Now what the hell is that?" Ghrea asked with eager curiosity in her voice. She started after it, much faster than Wes was prepared for.

"Hey—! Wai…" Wes tried to follow after but he immediately bumped into a toad, standing a bit shorter than him.

"Oh, excuse me." Wes apologized with some fluster.

"Oooh…hee hee hee." The toad snickered, flashing a manic grin that was unpleasantly familiar. He looked up at Wes and nodded slowly. "You're the first koopa I've ever…eh hee hee…touched."

"Um…" Wes looked over for Ghrea but she had disappeared into the crowd. Accompanying the moment, a weird whining noise started echoing from somewhere.

"…eeaaoooeeeeoaaaaooeeeaaooooeeeeeeeeeeaaaaeeeaoo…"

"Have you ee-hee seen Wario?" The toad asked, grabbing at the empty air as if to grasp something.

"No…" Wes shifted uncomfortably. He was feeling a natural fear from being near the toad similar to the ominous feelings he had felt from the moment he had seen the Warioware building: it was a feeling of terrible inevitability.

"Okay…" The short guy cocked his head. Wes noticed with some nervous fright that there was a small gang of toads that were standing right behind him, each with a different look on their face. Something was…wrong…

There was a small part of him that was scared of what was about to happen, but Blii ignored it. Abused as a child and regarded as nothing by the others, it was only right that he got his turn to do something important, wasn't it? Yes, the murder of an innocent…an eye for an eye and all that…

And what was more innocent than a baby?

Wes was deeply repulsed. How, he wasn't exactly sure of. Why, however: this person was evil. There was no other side to it.

"E-excuse me…" Wes backed away and rushed into the crowd. He couldn't be near that toad any longer.

"How interesting….he he he he…" Blii grinned. This was so exciting. So many people to meet! So many to recruit!

As Blii explored, the NEA members that he thought were under his command followed, all silently tense and awaiting their false captain's imminent death.

Blii looked around excitedly. Recruiting is my number one mission…but I'm sure I'll have some extra time to kill along the way.

It was just then that Wario walked onto the basement stage.

/A/N/: As the chapter title suggests, we are at the edge. Next chapter and onward things are going to be surging practically nonstop and many mysteries are going to get answers. This may be one of the moments you've been waiting for.

And thank you for being patient and still reading, I've recently had to deal with some extreme schedule changes. Writing is still the most important thing to me, though, so I still try to make up writing time on the weekends.

Lastly, I'm going to move character bios to the References page. They take up a lot of space due to this site's formatting, and so the one I had on the last page looked very cluttered. (So: Mario's Info has been added)

Thank you deeply for reading, I know it's a very long story but you can't build a world of mystery without so much content. Next Time: Pandemonium