Fighting in the Streets
Chapter 37 – Hammer Bro and Fire Bro
February 5, 2015 – 12:00PM
Mushroom City, Mushroom Kingdom
Lunchtime.
For the wealthiest Toads of Toad Town and Daisy and Pauline.
The entrances to Toad Town were all locked, yet a certain friend of the government still stands outside the main barricaded black walls of an entrance. Enrique waited for the doors to open, being summoned to the castle by Peach. Though she was still inside the castle on the top floor, the Brigade guards and government workers that operated inside the boundaries of Toad Town were able to let him in secretly, without letting the public set foot in also. Ever since she decided to lock up the entrance doors to the town, those who walked down the streets seeing it every day would keep questioning why it became locked in the first place. The mind of the average person does not question how Peach is doing, and instead they just live their lives, conditioned to not ask questions.
There are some that do tend to ask questions however, especially when they have experienced princess Peach up close, and seen her with others, dealing with situations one wouldn't see every day.
For the past few days, Revan the Koopa became more and more curious about the real personality of his Queen to the point where he would sometimes watch from a distance every time she would unlock the doors into Toad Town. After watching yesterday's disappointment of a race in his eyes, he thought that maybe it was time he tried to sneak in to get his first ever look of the secluded town whilst it's blocked off from the rest of the city. He was currently watching Enrique across the street from one of the food joints on the street. He was having his lunch and was overhearing the conversation made by two humans on a different table, for they too were watching Enrique, laughing about how awkwardly he was standing outside of the town's entrance. The two humans were George and Toby, waiting for their lunch. It didn't look like they were going to leave with Enrique.
Standing above the walls of the town was one of the Brigade guards who worked there. Now was the time for Revan to get up and blend in with the public across the street to get towards the entrance. The Brigade guard looked down at Enrique and gave him a nod, moving over to what looked like a mechanism which controlled the movement of the double doors to the town. Revan walked across the street when the streetlights were red and leaned against the hedges of the walls as the door opened. Enrique turned around and looked back at George and Toby at the food joint before setting foot into the town. Revan dashed along the wall and snuck in before the doors closed behind him. Inside, the Toad operating the doors was already walking in front of Enrique as if he was escorting him towards the path leading to the main road of the town. This path became bricked, and went around the lake with all of the houses along it. Revan had no idea whereabouts Peach's Castle was, he only assumed that Enrique and the Toad escorting him were going the way towards it. He thought that if he directly he followed he could be seen by them and sent out of the town, and he didn't want that to happen. Instead, he wondered off the right side of the path and into the woods. Through the grass he strolled, seeing flowers so bright and colourful that they looked unrealistic to him. But the scents he smelled as he walked past them made it feel real to him. It all felt so natural until he came across another bricked path. This one was much less open and leading away from the main road of Toad Town. It led him down to another part of the town, only this part was far more quiet, with few houses and instead a road linking them together. The road had arrows painted on the ground in one direction. In the other direction the road led to what appeared to be a tunnel under a bridge. This view popped into his head telling him that this was the racetrack of Mario Circuit in the sixth series racing tournament, a track not yet chosen by anybody yet.
Revan knew that going towards the tunnel will eventually lead him to a sandy patch of land with the road curving around it. When he got there he could see all the brick houses just like how he remembered them. Except this time the town was quiet, and almost looking like it had been completely abandoned. Past all of the houses and the road of the track he could see one side of Peach's Castle, and whilst looking at that he noticed somebody walking down the road, just about noticing him. It was Pauline.
"Oh, hey." He just noticed her.
"Hey, are you meant to be here?" She said softly, trying to escalate anything or be a threat to him.
"Hi, uh, no. Not really." Revan replied. "I was just very curious, and the gates are locked and today they were open for a bit since Enrique was let in and I kind of just snuck in."
"Oh yeah, Enrique stopped by today. His friends are out looking for Rosalina." Their awkward conversation continued.
"Oh yeah I heard about that. I don't know where she is."
"Wouldn't blame you... ...You're not one of those hostiles are you?"
"A northerner? No, not at all." Revan smiled with relief. "I don't want any part with those guys."
"What made you want to come in to Toad Town then? Do you think different?" Pauline grinned, happy to see somebody who might just be a little bit different to the common citizen.
"I watch all of the races, and see some of them live actually. But what happened in Koopa Cape with that hostile Koopa really got me interested in finding out what it's like being somebody like you. I went to that big town up north with all of those cult guys to help out. I saw Peach up close, it really made my heart beat rush! But she was acting so different. That's completely changed my view of her." Pauline began to laugh for a few seconds, putting Revan off slightly.
"I guess who wouldn't feel that way if they met with the most powerful person in the south. The more you see her, the less you will feel that way. She's not in the best of moods right now anyways. Toad Town became locked because she worries about being snuck upon by strangers, but even now you managed to enter without any problems at all I assume?"
"I knew there was something not right about her."
"Koopa, there are a lot of things not right about her. Nobody is perfect; she just has a lot of weight on her shoulders." Pauline paused for a few seconds, being reminded of other things. "Now we all have a big pain on our shoulders thanks to a certain friend of mine."
"After watching you there yesterday, I knew something wasn't right."
"You were watching yesterday's race on the stands?"
"I've even paid for tomorrow's." He said with a now developing sense of frustration. "Everything's gotten so expensive now. I paid for Parkway, I paid for Highway, and I paid for Daisy Cruiser. Watch as they'll be disappointing like Pipeway."
"You're right." Pauline began to feel bad not just for Revan, but all the others who became worse off because of the expensive ticket prices as well as the increased prices of everything else. "Some people are going to find it really difficult, unless we give things back. I will let Peach know about this the next time I see her."
"I hope my money's going towards something useful. It's not going to a company. It's going straight to the government."
"Come with me back to the centre of Toad Town. Peach is in her castle, I'm sure you will be fine." Pauline walked up to him and offered to escort him back through the woods to the front side of Peach's Castle. Revan began to follow her, and the two set foot off of Mario Circuit and strolled into the woods beside the castle walls. Heading into the centre of Toad Town they saw Daisy and Enrique, sitting on opposite sides of the picnic bench, mid conversation. Most of the Toads in the town were on the other side of the lake by their own homes, way out of sight for Revan and Pauline.
"So you're sending me up to check on the Powerhouse?" They overheard Enrique and Daisy's conversation before being noticed.
"You shouldn't take long; just take the train up th-. Hey Pauline, back from the walk I see... and who's this Koopa?" Daisy noticed the two returning from the woods, surprised to see a Koopa in the bounds of Toad Town let alone to be walking with Pauline.
"I remember this guy, you're Revan right?" Enrique turned around and saw the two approach. "Hey Pauline, by the way."
"Yeah that's me." The two both waved back at them and sat down on the picnic bench together. Daisy had a small buffet laid out on the bench, dining with Enrique before they returned.
"How did you get yourself inside here then?" He beckoned Revan over to come and sit next to him on the bench. "You a good climber or something?"
"I noticed you didn't look behind yourself when you went through the gates today. The security didn't even notice me walk in behind you. You might want to relay that over to Peach if she cares about it. Why is it locked now anyways?" Revan asked Enrique back.
"Well you remember what happened in Koopa Cape..."
"So what makes this Koopa so special?" Daisy interrogated, giving him a harsh look.
"He helped save Peach's life in that incident. Why he's here I am not sure but surely he does get some credit for helping me stop that hostile Koopa from blowing himself up." Enrique backed him up, looking back to Daisy.
"You too should know about this Daisy. Were you not there when a Koopa almost tried to blow up the tent at the end of the race?" She took that response from Revan as both a threat and an insult, making her extremely angry on the inside. She said to herself in her head that she would give him one more chance to address her nicely.
"I think you should address me in a nicer way. I'm well aware of what happened. I was only ordered to return home with Luigi and the others while you went off to Aypyidaw with her. Don't come to here uninvited and talk to me like you're a regular here. Keep talking like that and I will have to get you to leave."
"She's got a point." Enrique turned his head from facing Daisy to facing Revan. "You made it through, but why are you here? We barely know you compared to you knowing us."
"I just wanted to see what things were really like. I know they are tough times."
"We all know they are tough times. But this is none of your business." Daisy confronted him, reaching diagonally across the table. "The problems faced by the highest levels of power are not to be toiled with by someone of the likes of you. You can't jump in and expect to fit in."
"How am I supposed to fit in then?" Revan stood up on the bench, making Daisy more furious than she had been in a long time.
"You don't. Now get out of Toad Town before I force you out by calling the security." Revan felt defeated by Daisy and upset to still be in the grounds of Toad Town.
"People are going to know about the way you treat people like us." He muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, it wasn't quiet enough for Daisy to not understand what he was saying.
"You show up, uninvited, and address me in this way. You have no manners! Security!" Daisy shouted, getting the attention of the Toad castle guards at the doors. The four of them rushed over and ran past Revan, instead grabbing hold of Enrique.
"Hey what are you doing? Not me!"
"Not him! The Koopa, get him out! He snuck in." The Toads let go of Enrique and left him unbalanced on the bench. They grabbed hold of Revan and started taking him out of Toad Town, going along the street path and towards the locked front entrance. The three still on the bench watched him get dragged all the way out of the main area of Toad Town.
"I would have expected him to show more respect to me." Daisy growled, finished with her lunch on the bench.
"He didn't seem that rude to me when I saw him." Pauline mentioned, trying to find the good in him.
"You didn't know he was trespassing."
"What is it with your guards and thinking I am the problem?" Enrique asked Daisy.
"Why would I know? They're not my guards." The three watched as some of the castle guards return back to their positions by the door. Some appeared to have stayed at the front entrance, making sure it's locked.
"If that Koopa ends up becoming a hostile, it will be your fault." Pauline patronised Daisy, stressing her out even more.
"I think I might head up north now to check on the Powerhouse." Enrique got out of his uncomfortable spot on the bench, also finished with his lunch.
"Why don't you take Pauline with you as well? That way I won't have to put up with any more of her comments." Pauline became slightly enraged at Daisy's bitchy attitude.
"Hey you're the one who-." ...until she was quickly interrupted by Enrique.
"Don't worry about her, Pauline, she's barely been angered. She'll give us both an apology once we return tomorrow." His charm managed to work on both of them.
"Fuck you." She said plainly whilst looking away from them both. "Don't make me get the security on both of you as well."
"You already did to me just now." Enrique giggled, walking down the path of Toad Town with Pauline, heading out of the town...
2:30PM
Frinméy Beach, South Mushroom Kingdom
Tom had ordered his expedition group to search all parts of the town. Each of them was tasked with different sectors. The Hammer Bros dealt with the upper gardens, the Mario Bros had the lower gardens. Lakitu searched the main precinct, and Paratroopa and Dry Bones had the north and west entranceway respectively, leaving Tom with the place he deliberately wanted to search alone: the beach. The first part of it he began to search was the small cove on the western edge of the beach, a place he remembered well for spending time with Rosalina. He remembered just days ago where they both took a swim by the cove and cleaned their clothes afterwards at the boulevard just nearby. There was no trace of her here. Tom knew that wherever he would go to search for her he wouldn't be able to go too far for two reasons. He now became relatively distant from Neodjan, who was last updated wondering the village of Sutfort in central Delfino. Eventually he would have to discontinue his need for Tom if he were to keep patrolling the coastline. Places started to become too far away for Tom to reach quickly. Secondly, the next race tomorrow was Mushroom Gorge, which was situated in the open centre of the Mushroom Kingdom; a place full of a mix of mountains, valleys, and natural woodlands, not a very populous area.
Throughout the morning, Tom and his group searched other areas on the coast. It felt to him that it was like a repeating process where he would have to go with someone or some few to have a look around the same towns situated on the south coast in attempt to search for something that is most likely not there.
He began hearing the rattling sounds that Dry Bones would make from excitement. Across onto the boulevard he spotted Dry Bones walking over towards him. Tom got up from the grass he was sitting on to view the beach and walked over to meet with him. He hoped that Dry Bones would have something to offer.
"What's up?" Tom said to Dry Bones, looking at what he had in his finger bones.
He offered him a platinum-blonde hair strand, seeming excited to have found it. However, Tom only gave him a sigh back, knowing that this was most likely found by the hair dryer booths further up the west boardwalk.
"Did you find these near a hair dryer?" He said to Dry Bones again, receiving an immediate nod from him. "Sadly that doesn't tell us anything useful. Thank you though, for it."
"Something wrong?" Dry Bones croaked, managing to make off some sort of audibleness.
"I think this is just a waste of our time. We should go back to the plaza and meet with the others." He went with Dry Bones through the streets of Frinméy back to the town centre, keeping the strand of hair in one of his pockets. Others would come to meet them eventually, to say to him what they had found. There was one thing in common with everything they found: they found nothing.
"Are you sure this is-a worth it?" Mario started to complain. He had been craving lunch for a few hours now, and wanted to go with his brother to get something to eat. "All this searching is getting me hungry."
"Go and get something then. I'm not dictating when to eat your lunch." Tom sat on a bench next to Lakitu, who also felt worn out from wondering the town pointlessly. Dry Bones went and sat on Tom's other side.
"Here's the problem, I have-a no coins on me." Tom looked back at Mario with a very confused expression. He thought how could somebody be walking around town with literally no money on them?
"Why haven't you got any?" He reached in to his pockets, hoping to find some gold coins to give to Mario to pay for his lunch. He was expecting Mario's response to be something among the lines of 'I'm not used to having to pay for my meals'.
"I'm-a not used to having to get my food from the fast-food joints. The Toads always make me the food for free." Almost as what Tom had expected him to say.
"Peach has dismissed your services. You are just another person in these lands now." Lakitu taunted him, putting his arms relaxed behind his head on the bench.
"Perhaps I could learn a few things from being another person. I can tell she's suffering." Mario smiled back at Lakitu, surprising Tom, who thought he would lash out back at him. "Do you think everyone still sees me as the Mario from before though?"
"Probably." Tom replied to him. "I'll tell you what. Get yourself a completely new set of clothes. Maybe people won't see you as the Super Mario from before. Everyone will make jokes of you if they saw you walking around like a normal person with those clothes on." The two watched Mario take off his cap. By this time the Hammer Bros and Paratroopa came back to the town square, seeing him without his hat.
"No hat?" Paratroopa questioned.
"I have a better idea." Mario took his cap and started leaving the town square and headed towards the beach. Everyone else in the group except Luigi – who was still walking around the lower gardens – followed behind him.
"Are you seriously going to do this?" Tom said to Mario as they walked down the steps to the sandy shore. Mario treaded on the grass, still with his cap in his hands. He kept walking until he reached the shore. The tide was low and the waves were quiet. There was virtually no wind in the air. After a few seconds of everybody watching him silently, Mario tossed his cap southwards to the sea, watching it spin in the air until eventually landing on the flat water far out at sea. The cap floated briefly until it began to sink underwater, disappearing from sight.
"I don't think we're ever going back to the old days." Mario wondered. "I think we're breaking from the cycle now."
"I'm glad you're making yourself happier by doing this." Tom said back to him respectfully. "I'm assuming your brother is going to change after seeing this on you."
"That's up to him to decide. If he still wants to serve Peach he can do it in any way he wants to. I hope she doesn't brainwash him like how she did to me all these years." Mario said with a slight pinch of anger. Dry Bones and the Hammer Brothers walked back slightly after noticing his twitches.
"Easy there." Fire Bro looked at him.
"I'm fine." Mario said. "Don't worry about me. I'm going to get food now."
"I have some money. We can all get something together." Hammer Bro insisted, now that he saw Mario without his cap on. "Maybe if you actually did get a new set of clothes you'd be completely unnoticeable!" He and Fire Bro smiled at the thought of changing Mario's appearance.
"Come! Let's get you some new clothes in town!" Fire Bro beckoned him to head back to the town from the beach. The others who didn't go with him went to get lunch themselves.
...
After spending some time browsing the local shops, the two brothers laid out sets of clothes for Mario to try on. He chose a casual wear composed of short jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt, similar to the ones that Koopas wore at the beach. Hammer Bro paid for the clothes, but Mario openly said he'd pay him back at Mushroom Gorge tomorrow.
"Thanks for that. I will have to go on a spree in the capital myself for some more formal wear for future days." He cheered with them as they left the store. They headed down the road and turned into an alley where Mario could discretely change his clothes. Before doing so, he changed his hair style slightly just to be sure.
"We'll make sure nobody sees you." Hammer Bro stood by the entrance of the alley and looked out onto the road whilst Mario changed clothes behind one of the dumpsters there. By the time Mario was finished, the two looked back just to check on where is overalls were. Mario walked into sight from the dumpster and held his overalls, creased from odd folding.
"What are you gonna do with it?" Fire Bro asked. Mario stood and looked at them for a few seconds before then diverting his attention to his clothes for another few seconds. Lastly, he turned to look at the dumpster, and then tossed the clothes into there.
"I will wear these no more." He said to himself as he tossed them in.
"Way to go, Mario!" The two cheered for him. "I like the new you!"
"Of course you do. I can't believe the amount of times I would show up in that stupidly signature outfit."
"But what about the races?" Fire Bro wondered. "People are going to realise you've changed." Mario froze for a second and then realised.
"You're right. Darn it! I guess I will have to wear it for those. I wouldn't want the whole world to know or they will end up still believing I am me but having an episode!" He leaped up and fell into the dumpster, searching for his overalls that he just put in there. They already became very smelly once he found them, but would be able to have them cleaned when he got back to Mushroom City.
"You might want to get a bag for those. They're going to start smelling!" Fire Bro became put off by the smell that lingered from the bin on to the overalls Mario had retrieved.
"I'll find one over lunch." Mario carried them out of the alley and headed into town with the other two in search for a nice meal covered for by them as well as a place to buy a bag to carry his signature overalls.
6:00PM
Somewhere near Tigell, Northeast Résethal
Through a car rental on the edges of Urscan, Enrique and Pauline journeyed together past the Koopa Cape up the east coast of Résethal, en route to the Powerhouse Peninsula. The roads were empty, paved and clean, giving them a nice smooth ride. The weather was nice up here as it normally is, and the view of the cliffs to their right was visible in the distance as they drove at high speeds along the straight flat roads. Before they left Mushroom City, Pauline had changed her clothes to look less noticeable again.
"Are you sure you don't want me to take over for you? You're starting to look a bit tired." Pauline said with regards to their journey. Enrique had driven them all the way up to Saljiya before taking the train from there up to Urscan. Their train journey was not the most pleasant experience of them all, for it was an unusually crowded train – full of Koopas – at that time of day. They both presumed that most of the Koopas journeying up to Urscan were either unemployed or hostile natives of the north but hiding their identities. They were noticed on the train, but no actions were made towards them.
"We're almost there, don't worry." Enrique replied, eventually getting on to the part of the road where the paving started to disappear. The road became a dirt path, making them have to slow down immensely. The woods became more densely packed as they ventured further north and east of Tigell. It would only be a few minutes before they passed the edge of the forests and reach the peninsula. As they drove along the path, Pauline began to notice tracks of other vehicles made on the ground. The area around them looked a little bit trampled recently, as if others were in the area.
"Slow down." Pauline informed Enrique of her surroundings. "Wait, what's that up ahead?" She asked, pointing past the trees. The end of the woods was in sight, and beyond that appeared to be some sort of blockade by the entrance to the peninsula.
"There's fucking hostiles here. How are we supposed to track Rosalina if they're here?" Enrique complained, bringing the car to a near-stop. "I don't want any of them to damage this car or this will cost me lots of coins." The two drove into the woods on the left, going off-road. He hoped to find a convenient, quiet place on the northern coast to park their car. That way it would be well out of sight from any of the Hostiles here.
"Are we going to have an encounter with them?" Pauline asked, looking backwards to see the blockade disappear from her sight.
"One way or another." Enrique stopped the car behind a small hill just before the ground started to drop downwards. In front of them the ground became a downward slope on the edge of the cliffs, transitioning into a beach further to the west.
The two got out of the parked car and started making their way through the woods back to the peninsula, interested to see which Koopas would be at the blockade. Pauline didn't know any names of Hostiles in the north, but with Enrique having connections to some, perhaps they would be the ones up here doing no good. Before they revealed themselves to the Koopas at the blockade, the two stood behind a large tree and peered around the trunk, getting a closer look on them. They were now close enough to just about hear the conversations the Koopas were having too.
"I know that those little kids show up at completely random times, but right now, when we need them would be very nice!"
"I'll give those two idiots a bit of a clubber. That'll teach them a lesson not to play about with our electricity!"
"You clubber them they'll shut it off for good! Those two are the only ones who are keeping up our power lines, not that stupid bitch in the south."
Enrique had no idea who these Koopas were, judging on how they sounded. They may have been from the local area, but not a town he had visited. He decided to reveal himself from the trees, and introduce himself to the hostiles, despite them being armed.
"What's going on here then?" He complained at them and their barricade. "Why have you blocked access to the Powerhouse?" The Koopas looked back at Enrique with anger, but none raised a weapon at him.
"Oh look, the blonde boy of the south is here to save the day!" A hostile Koopa, with a funny sounding deep voice, alerted everyone else there that Enrique showed up. The background chatter and muttering of Koopas started coming from their mouths as he stood in front of them all.
"What are you here for then? You been tasked by Peach to get rid of us? You won't go down without a fight you know." Another hostile taunted him. It was confirmed that he did not know any of the Koopas there.
"Not to get rid of you, actually." Enrique responded. "But something completely different."
"What's that?" The hostile Koopa that stood in front of the rest said.
"My friend and I are here to track down the whereabouts of a suspicious character that was said to have been here recently. He or she may have been responsible for messing up with the power." He lied in front of their eyes, but it seemed that they were all completely oblivious to Rosalina's disappearance to the world. None of these Koopas must be watching television. Pauline began to stand beside him, and even still they didn't notice her in the slightest with her different outfit. "Are there any of your own on the other side of this blockade?" Enrique continued asking.
"A fair few, but they're just on the other side. This technology on this little bit of land is way too much for any of us." The hostile Koopa in front of the rest said.
"It's the same for either of us too. We will just be having a look around to see if anyone left anything behind. Whereabouts are you lot from anyway?" Some of the Koopas got up and moved closer to Enrique with discomfort, bickering amongst themselves and accusing him of spying on them.
"Why would you want to know that?" They questioned him.
"I know a little bit about the area. If your power isn't working then maybe I know where else it might not be working."
"Oh our power is working."
"...Then why are you here?" Enrique looked at them a bit confused.
"Cuz we heard threats from some other idiots about shutting off the power. We ain't gonna let any of them pass unless they wanna throw hands." The Koopa explained, giving Enrique a better understanding of their purpose here. He originally thought they showed up to contest and complain about a power cut. If that were to happen, there would be way more than just the seven or so Koopas he saw in front of them.
"And what kind of Koopas are the ones that are threatening to fuck up the power? Are we talking Zurlon...? Tigell Koopas?"
"Precisely." The head hostile Koopa nodded. "Ever since rich Mywithe came back from his weapon hunting in the south, he's been trying to get us to submit to him or he'll cut the power! We don't think he can, but just in case."
"Where are you lot all from? Do you support Mywithe and the other towns?" Enrique tried to get as much information as he could at the moment, since he was unable to get across to the Spire or the Powerhouse in the meantime.
"We're from Unhalvalor, and my name is Bursk. I ain't gonna tell you what these people are since that's not up to me to do." The main Koopa guarding the blockade put his weapon aside and greeted Enrique and Pauline more formally.
"I take it you've heard of some more notable Koopas from other towns nearby, such as Illias Fonavan?" Bursk stood silently for a few seconds with the Koopas behind him speak the name amongst themselves quietly.
"We've got mixed views of him and that town of Zurlon. It's gone very downhill recently. He's one of three Koopas that wants to be the one to unite us all, but he's probably the least likely contender for that. With Mywithe threatening us with the power it kind of gives us only one option to stand behind and that is Ata E, and he is just as crazy as the other two."
"Why don't you try to win the people over?" Enrique suggested.
"Because we're not a thriving town unlike the other ones. It's literally Zurlon, Vilrus, and Takhar fighting over control of the others." Before Bursk might think of how this is leading on, Enrique stopped asking questions. He thought that if he asked too much they might get on to the fact that he knows more than they think he should.
"Well whatever way it goes, make sure everyone you love is safe." Enrique small-talked his way out of the topic. "May you let me and my friend past so we can search the Spire and the Powerhouse?" Bursk stood out of his way and raised his arm at the blockade.
"Climb over. It's easier on the other side." Enrique thanked Bursk and took Pauline with him in climbing over the cars and crates stacked together, spanning long enough to block the gate to the peninsula almost entirely. The Koopas on the other side of the blockade were overhearing the conversation, so they just nodded at Enrique and Pauline as they climbed down, letting them pass.
From the outside, the entirety of the Powerhouse looked completely untouched, and the Spire appeared very untouched as well. It looked already as if neither the twins nor Rosalina were ever here recently. Enrique escorted Pauline inside, who was basking on the design of such an odd piece of construction surrounded only by grassland.
"Wow." Pauline said. "I've never been here before. Everything looks so... futuristic!" She gazed in what she believes to be a magnificence of the interior of the building, only to be used as a control room for the land's power grid. Enrique examined all of the controls to see if any were out of place. He knew that it would be best to not interfere with any of them and that he had no idea what any of them meant. Only that if one seemed completely different to the rest then there would be a problem with that specific area.
"It seems like nobody has been interfering with any of these at the moment. We have to make sure that those Koopas at the blockade don't let anybody play around with these. Fiddling with them can mess up the power in a lot of places, including the Mushroom Kingdom if I recall correctly. I don't know which switch represents which but we need to leave them alone." Enrique sat on a seat inside the powerhouse and had a look around the room whilst letting Pauline take in the design of the interior.
"Your business with the hostiles really confuses me. How do you know all about what's going on?" She asked him whilst looking at the walls. After being done with that, she sat down in a chair next to him.
"I have been up here a lot of times recently, and I have learnt that in this section of the north there are several towns that used to be all united together. This not the case anymore, as I think something happened and now Koopas from each town are trying to take the power of the people for themselves to rule. We've met with Illias before, but I am not very sure about the other two. I believe they were Mywithe and Ata E... Wait... Eoréc told me about that name, Ata E." Enrique suddenly realised that the name was one that was written down on the late Kugen's list of hostiles from South Port. "It's on the list of Koopas who radicalised the Toads and Koopas." Pauline also realised and leaned forward in reaction from knowing about it in her chair.
"He was the boat driver. I remember Daisy and Rosalina telling me about him as well!" She added.
"Then they must have escaped the Toad Brigade at sea and made it back home. The blockade Koopas must be Ata supporters."
"They might know about Ratharmas, the Koopa that escaped Daisy from South Port as well!" Enrique leaned to his right and eyed out of the doorway of the Powerhouse, getting a look at the Koopas guarding their side of the blockade from a distance. Uncertain about whether he should ask them for more information or not. From the way Bursk was talking, it seemed like they didn't really know who he was. It was actually a surprise to him since he's been heard of by many other hostiles up north.
"I think its best we make sure we search the rest of this place in hopes to find Rosalina before doing any of that. If we find her somehow, she would be of great help to us in finding out more about the radicalised southerners." Enrique got up from his seat and headed out of the door of the building. "Search upstairs if there is any sign of her, then meet me outside the Spire."
"Where's the Spire?" Pauline called from inside the Powerhouse.
"Look out the window." Enrique replied.
She turned back forwards whilst walking up the stairs to see, out of the window, a hundred-or-so-metre structure, standing further out on the peninsula. Pauline stared at it for a few seconds, amazed, before investigating the other floor of the Powerhouse. It was completely empty, and there were no traces of Rosalina.
Pauline rushed through the grasslands on the peninsula to behind Enrique, where they entered the Spire together. The area spanned tens of floors, and was filled to the brim with chromic walls, cables, pipes and wirings everywhere. The two gave a half-hour long search on all the floors of the building in attempt to find traces of Rosalina or the twins...
Nothing.
The sun began to set behind the mountains to the south and the sky started to darken. Pauline and Enrique felt slightly defeated after spending lots of time looking around the building and double-checking every spot. Pauline was still full of delight in seeing such a design of a building as this, especially for one she had never seen before and one that was so out of place.
The blockade was still there, and the Koopas guarding it were too. The two called it quits on searching for Rosalina or the twins here and had to make it back to Mushroom City before the start of Mushroom Gorge tomorrow. Thankfully, having the Koopas not know about them made them save a lot of time being interrogated by them. But now Enrique and Pauline know that there is a hostile blockade of Koopas from Unhalvalor not letting many people pass in to the peninsula to potentially mess around with the electricity. Enrique and Pauline climbed over the mess and were met with only two Koopas on the other side: Bursk and somebody else.
"Where did all of your friends go?" Enrique asked Bursk whilst getting down the crates and vehicles piled up along the blockade.
"It's just another fight going on in a town, thankfully not ours. Did you know that sometimes the Koopas in the major towns go so crazy, they set a few trees on fire?" Bursk leaned against his car whilst aiming his weapon out into the woods.
"Well me and my friend are about to make our way back home. Is it going to be safe on the roads?" Enrique got down and shook hands with the Koopas.
"I'm not sure. Just try not to get in the way of any open fighting. They've got guns you know."
"So I've heard." Again, Enrique did all the talking.
"Where are you two going back to? You're not crown worshippers in the south are you?" Enrique giggled at hearing that again.
"No, we are not crown worshippers." He laughed. "We got a hire car from Urscan, and with these prices, I hope I don't damage my car from the gunfire!" The four all laughed at the blockade, going with the joke.
"Well it's not every day I see a human this far north. Make sure you get home safe." Just as Pauline and Enrique thanked Bursk, the other Koopa grew suspicious of the two before they settled off to their car in the woods.
"Wait just a moment." The Koopa beckoned them over. "I recognise you two, you especially." He pointed at Enrique. "You're the guy who comes up here often. That's how you knew about Illias."
"Yeah I know about him. He's quite the spineless Koopa isn't he? Especially recently."
"How do you know about him?"
"He and I go way back, but until recently I hadn't seen him. I knew nothing about the state of this land." The Koopa let him off, not pointing his weapon at him and instead pointing away from him.
"You may have been told this already, but for both of you, tread lightly around here. You never know if you come across the wrong Koopa around here."
"If you do see Illias, tell him that the Unhalvalorians have no respect for him." Bursk asked Enrique, who saw that as a bad idea.
"You know that would only make his friends want to fight you guys as well."
"...Better not say that to him then. Just say nothing about us." Bursk smiled before waving Enrique and Pauline away. "Nice seeing you!"
It was now night time, and the two had just got back to their car parked discretely on the top of the northern cliffs. The biggest problem with driving on roads around here at night time was that they only had their full beam lights and the light reflecting from the moon to guide them on their journey back home. In order to get to Urscan, the two would have to stick to the road at this hour, since going off-road would get them both lost.
"I'm going to have to stick to the road." Enrique relayed his thoughts to Pauline. "It's gotten dark so fast." And it was only getting darker. It was nearly nine at night, and the two had just gotten on to the road. The woods were quiet at first, but as soon as they started to approach one of the turn-offs, they began to hear voices and gunfire coming from the woods to their right. The two had just passed the junction that lead to Tigell, the closest town to the peninsula. Unfortunately, the sounds of violence echoed throughout the woods as they kept driving south. The road would then lead them straight to the edges of Vilrus, another hostile town. As they drove past the road leading to that town, Pauline noticed to her left that the road was completely blocked off and lit up by another blockade, with many more Koopas guarding that one. They now got to the point on the road where they would pass several other settlements. These were all much smaller than the towns seen on maps and were usually much less controlled or learnt about. All of these towns would appear as Red on the level of danger to the Red Martyrs and were a complete no-go.
The road was much more peaceful on the way up to the peninsula, when it was still bright. It became most dangerous where they reached the junctions leading to several other towns nearby, making Enrique greatly slow down from his seventy miles per hour speed he was going at on the straight and curved parts. Amarian, Zurlon, Takhar, Unhalvalor, Fan Fagaan, all these towns as well as the tiny settlements surrounding them were at conflict, and all lied north of one of the most dangerous and hostile-controlled areas in recent times: Vurduresa. They could hear gunfire coming from the woods on both sides, frightening Pauline. She slouched in her seat as Enrique kept driving through the slower roads. On their left they saw the road heading to Unhalvalor, home to the Koopas of the first blockade they saw. The entrance to the town was locked, only torches were lit by the entrance, and nobody was guarding it. Further down the road were the entrances to Takhar on the right, and Fan Fagaan on the left. Takhar looked very fortified, but the entrance to Fan Fagaan was run down, with a few bodies on the grass beside it. Enrique and Pauline did not see any bodies or anybody on their way up, meaning that a fight literally took place within the last two hours. Enrique believed that it was still going on due to the ongoing screams, shouts and gunfire from all sides, making him slam the peddle and drive even faster down the roads as he reached long flat straights.
"This is crazy!" Pauline began to panic in her seat, lying down as low as she could. Whilst driving down, Enrique began to wind down his window, trying to hear the sounds outside more clearly. Pauline covered her ears whilst he listened in. The shouting he heard was in old Koopish, but it was very hard to distinguish proper words from how far away he was from them. The gunfire kept frightening Pauline, but Enrique managed to brave up and get the hire car down the road quickly. They reached the final junction. To the left was Urscan, and where they came from, and to the right was Vurduresa, a complete no-go zone. As Enrique steered to the left, the car swerved and got on to the left road just about perfectly. The further down they went on there the quieter the sounds behind them were until eventually they disappeared. They were now heading towards Koopa Cape, and everything sounded calm to them. Pauline was relieved to no longer hear the sound of war and instead hear the sweet sounds of wind, leaves brushing, and waves crashing onto the rocky cliffs further out. Urscan was known to be one of the safe havens in eastern Résethal, they were both safe for now...
EOC: I realised when completing this chapter that my link doesn't work for my land map and I really would like to find a way to link it on here without it breaking. Also, the chapter after this will be the final one of the second quarter, with the second Prologue Extract being released after that.
Anyways, see you next chapter!
