Chapter 10 Breaking Down

The two girls zoomed through the mountain pass. Celia felt like she was being pressed inside of a sandwich, as the two slices of rock loomed over her. Wind whistled through the pass, making both Celia's greasy hair and Aqua's shiny hair flap in the wind. Celia pressed the accelerator, allowing her to catch up with the Princess. Aqua flashed a smile at Celia, although it looked more like a smirk.

"I should have known that someone who's father is a turtle monster would be slow."

Celia felt a pang. She gritted her teeth and cast the young Princess a glare.

"That's a lot of talk coming from the sister of Princess Peach," she responded with a hint of bitterness. Aqua just snickered.

"Can't really argue there." She pressed her foot on the accelerator, causing her go kart to zip off. Celia applied more pressure to her own gas pedal.

The further along they went through the pass, the more obvious it became that they were passing into Cap Kingdom territory. The mountains started to turn a muted gray. The sky became dark and desaturated. It was as if all the colors in the land had been soaked away via the use of a sponge. Before long, Celia found that she and Aqua were driving over a meadow. The grass was the same color as a storm cloud. Street lamps aligned the roads, what few there were.

Given the gray color of the surrounding area, Princess Aqua stood out like a sore thumb. Celia put more pressure on the accelerator. The speedometer was going off the charts.

"Hey, Aqua!"

Aqua looked back at Celia. Celia cast her a smug little smirk as she zipped past.

"Who's the slow poke now?"

Now she was ahead of the Princess. This probably wasn't the best idea, as Aqua would be the best person to know the way to the Lake Kingdom. But then again, Celia had to get back at her for making fun of her Koopa half.

The wind whooshed around Celia. She felt as if she was in a horizontal freefall as she barged through the grass. Walls started to appear around the meadow's perimeter, but Celia hardly took notice of them. She had never gone this fast before, yet it felt perfectly natural to her.

"Hey! Slow down!"

Celia looked back and saw the Princess. She looked overwhelmed, if her worried eyes were any indication. Celia chose to ignore her.

"The faster we go, the sooner we get you home!"

"Celia…!"

Celia put even more pressure on the accelerator. She wasn't going to listen. She didn't need to listen. She was perfectly…

CRASH!

An airbag shot out of Celia's steering wheel. If it weren't for her seat belt, she would have gone flying head first into the wall that she had rammed into. Celia gasped for breath as she pushed her airbag down. Aqua came to a complete stop.

"Celia!" She said as she got out of her kart. Celia held her hand to her head as she stood up. It felt like her skull was in pieces. She stumbled out of the bent, smoking go kart.

"Aqua…"

Celia immediately noticed how slurred her speech was. She nearly collapsed, but Aqua managed to catch her. The Princess of the Lake Kingdom looked ever more concerned.

"Celia, are you crazy?"

Celia looked up into Aqua's face. As she did, her head throbbed. She winced and held her hand to her forehead.

"No. I just...wasn't paying attention."

Aqua smirked.

"You can say that again!" She looked over at the go kart, then back down at the hybrid in her arms. "I think there might be a town nearby. I am going to see if I can get you a doctor."

Celia just nodded. Aqua slung her arm over her shoulder, and together they started to make their way forward.

…

Bowser sighed. He slouched down into his throne and put his hand to his temples. He was starting to get a headache. A searing hot pain shot through his eyes.

"Where are those kids? Why haven't they returned yet?"

Really, how hard was it to find a missing Princess and a rogue hybrid? It was one of the most obvious and weird combinations out there! The Koopalings should have found the girls by now!

Suddenly, Bowser heard the door to his castle open. He glanced upward and swallowed a groan. Mario was barging through the castle. By his side was Princess Peach. Both parties looked extremely frightened.

"Where is she?" Mario demanded as he approached the throne. Despite his headache, Bowser started to chuckle nervously.

"Mario! Peach! What a surprise!"

Mario scoffed.

"Really? You're surprised? Did you really think Peach and I were going to just sit back and let you hold onto Aqua?"

Bowser laughed again.

"Uhh...maybe?"

Peach stepped forward. Despite the calm demeanor that she was sporting, Bowser saw cracks in her expression. Her eyes were glimmering, her brow was scrunched up.

"Where is she? Where is my sister?"

Bowser sighed. Embarrassment took hold of him as he swallowed his pride.

"She's not here."

Mario and Peach blinked. Then Mario's eyes grew wide.

"What!"

"What do you mean she's not here?" Peach asked. Bowser nearly cringed when he saw that her frightened eyes looked even more scared. He bit his lip.

"She escaped. The girlfriend of one of my children helped her out."

Mario, surprisingly, laughed.

"Wow," he said. "It's about time that you get some karmic retribution." He grinned. "I sure would like to thank the Koopa who developed common sense."

Peach, on the other hand, did not appreciate the irony of the situation. Instead, her eyes were wide with fright.

"So you have no idea where she is?"

"No," Bowser said as he miserably shook his head. "I sent my children to go find her." He chuckled. "You wouldn't be interested in having the hostage negotiation after we locate them, would you?"

Peach's eyes filled with disgust.

"Are you insane?" She turned to Mario. "We need to go find her before the Koopas do!"

Mario nodded, prompting the two of them to run out of the throne room.

"Wait!" Bowser called out. "I'm coming with…"

SLAM!

"...or, I guess I'll stay here; that works too."