Chapter 12: Facial Expressions and Complicated Escapes

"We need to get to the castle and warn the king!" Peach whispered. He doesn't know they're coming!"

"No talking!" one of the koopa troopas guarding them shouted. Peach was instantly quieted. The guards went back to disregarding them, but they still knew they couldn't talk.

Peach leaned forward and looked at Mario and gave him a questioning look, asking him what to do. Mario gave her a questioning look in return and shrugged his shoulders, answering that he did not know. Then he looked to everyone else, and they gave him the same look. They all sat thinking for a minute. Suddenly, Ian's eyes lit up and he leaned forward and looked at Jessie excitedly. Several of them raised an eyebrow as Jessie responded with another questioning look.

Ian wasn't sure how to do this. He turned his face into an expression of deep concentration. Jessie still looked at him inquisitively. Ian sat for a moment and tried to think. He then pointed to his head and mocked getting free. Jessie mouthed, "What?" After a few seconds Ian picked up a small twig and waved it around like a weapon. Jessie started to mouth, "What?" again but Ian exclaimed loudly, "Sword, for crying out loud! Use your brain!"

"I thought I said, 'no talking!'" the koopa troopa shouted. "I ain't gonna tell ya again!"

It didn't matter though. Jessie's expression finally changed to one of understanding. She now used her brain... literally. The rope slowly untied and they were all free. They sat there very quietly, though, as the rope snaked its way over the ground and silently made a huge circle around their guards. The ends then came together and tied into a slipknot. The circle then raised into the air. As soon as the creatures saw it and jumped up in surprise, the slipknot pulled tight very quickly, closing the circle around them and trapping them.

"Hey! How'd you get free?" they all shouted.

"Long story short, my brain's a bit more powerful than yours," Jessie said as the end of the rope rose into the air and tied around a tree branch, suspending the creatures in the air.

"Bye! Ta-ta!" the gang called as they ran down the trail.

Waluigi called up hopefully to Jessie and Mario in the front, "Does that run in the family?"

"Sorry, no, that's just me!" Jessie answered as they kept running down the trail. After a few minutes they could see two familiar figures, followed by several others, running down the trail toward them.

"Hey! Toad! Luigi! Hey!" they all shouted. Luigi and Toad recognized them and called back.

"Guys! The castle's under attack!" Luigi told them as soon as they were close enough.

"We know! That's why we were coming! We wanted to stop those things from getting to the castle and destroying it, or at the very least warn the king," Peach answered. Luigi and Toad then noticed the two newbies.

"Who're they?" Luigi asked.

"Simply put, the tall dude, Waluigi, is Wario's brother and our cousin, and this girl, whom I found near where the whirlwind dropped me, is my friend, Nic-."

Suddenly they heard the sound of several very loud fuses.

"Oh, crap! They're using bob-ombs!" Mario exclaimed.

"Why would they want to destroy my castle?" Daisy asked.

"Your castle?" Yoshi asked.

"Guys, this is Princess Daisy. Her parents, the king and queen, are dead. She's the ruler now, and she doesn't want to die too!" Toad said very quickly. They could hear the meanies and the servants running from the castle, so they took off too. Without warning, the bob-ombs exploded, and the debris was sent flying into the air. They all stopped running. Mario covered Peach, Luigi covered Daisy, and Yoshi covered all three of the kids while Toad hid behind a tree and the Wario brothers stood there and looked on.

When it was all over, they heard the meanies shouting in triumph. A few minutes later their footsteps were heard making their way back toward the gang. The gang cut through the woods to avoid being seen and found Daisy's servants.

"What's the damage?" she asked one of them.

"Your highness, the whole castle is destroyed, not to mention a lot of the surrounding area," the servant answered.

"Darn," Daisy muttered. "That castle's been standing for several centuries and they destroyed it in several minutes."

"What will you do?" Luigi asked.

"I don't know," Daisy answered sullenly. "Nothing like this has ever happened..." Everyone stood there either staring at Daisy or their feet.

Finally one of the servants spoke up, "Your highness, what will happen to us."

"Whatever you want," Daisy told them.

"You mean-?"

"Yes, you can do what you will with your lives."

"But what about you?"

There was another long silence.

"She can stay in the castle with us for a while, can't she, Peach?" Ian offered

"That's an excellent idea, Ian" Peach said. "Princess Daisy, does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds wonderful!" Daisy exclaimed. "Thank you so much!"

"Of course, it's the least we can do," Peach said.