Chapter 8-Sweet Dreams
He was on a train. A second later, he was sitting in a dumpster. Half a second earlier, he had been in a coffee house on the moon. Time didn't have any meaning. The scared loner in the strange new world shivered. Orange hail was raining sideways out of the window of a tall building, and landing on the purple wall across the street. Toad was standing in front of the hotel he had stayed at in Flarch. A muffled and slow techno beat played in the background, coming seemingly from nowhere. It was so low it was hard to say whether it was his heartbeat or actual music that was coming from everywhere and nowhere. A taxi threw up on the street, and a McDonald's exploded. A newborn baby ran down the street with a can of salt in his hand. Toad was exhausted. He couldn't bring himself to do anything to turn his head to the left to look at his boss through half-closed eyes. The Chancellor had a flaming mustache. His robe had holes in it. They glowed with white light. The green spots on his head were brown and pink. The man had no eyes. He stood tall and rigid as a statue. He was silent, but the noise was killing Toad's ears. The Chancellor spoke up.
"Toad, what's happened?" he said, as his mouth moved very slowly, and the pitch of his voice changed several times. Toad's hand felt like it was on fire. He looked at it and his finger grew to the size of a pickle. His whole hand fell off. The stump closed up neatly, and all Toad was able to do was stand there and watch the other repeat the process without saying a word. "Toad, what's happened? Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor's face got blurrier and blurrier with each repetition. Toad's jaw dropped as he slowly dropped to his knees. He stared at a manhole as millions of empty black identical cars sat in a four-way intersection and faced him. He hadn't noticed until now, but the noise had fled, the sky had turned an empty white, and everything was still. There were no people and no trash around. Out of fear, Toad darted to the left and tried to run. All he could do was hobble to the slow beat of the music that was being spit out of the air. He hung his head, and the sight in the corners of his eyes turned to blind spots. He lifted his head and walked into a phone booth. For some reason, he felt like he was lying down the whole time.
"No, you guys. You can't... keep doing this. It isn't... right."
"Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor repeated. The Chancellor was far away, but his voice was right next to Toad's ears.
"Not... right." Toad's voice echoed off the airwaves. He wandered away with his arms drooping. He sat in the middle of a four-way intersection. Something was wrong. There were about a million identical and empty cars lined up stopped at the red lights. They were all pointed at Toad. There wasn't a sound at all. No cars, no people, no birds, no insects. Toad let sweat pour out onto his forehead. His hands fell off again. Out of fear, he darted to the side. He ran down the sidewalk, studying the cracks on the ground. "I have to get out of here! What do I do?" Not even knowing his own frame of mind, Toad tried to lift his head enough so that he could see what he was walking into. This was a dangerous move, since he needed one of his eyes to monitor the moving sidewalk. He stepped into the phone booth. It was very roomy. Eerily roomy. He put in three gold coins and started to dial the number of the Chinese restaurant he liked to order from about once a week.
"Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" the phone asked Toad. The phone was talking to him. It also sounded like English was the phone's second language. Now Toad had seen just about everything. "Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" Although someone had already answered, Toad still heard the rhythm of the ringing tone. Frightened, he lazily put the phone back on the hook and wandered off like a child with ADD. What he was feeling now was indescribable. He was in another world created by his own mind. Everything was different. His take on life was temporarily changed. He couldn't stop his arms from moving. He passed Wario and Waluigi's apartment. But it wasn't above a bar. It was a tree house. Without the tree. It was a wooden cube hanging off the side of Goomba's greedy Gala. A tear fell from Toad's eye, and he started to sprint down the sidewalk. A haunting piano tune played. Toad ran faster. He stopped using his feet. The sky turned red and flaming rocks fell from the sky.
"Toad, be strong! We're going in!" The sky turned bright green and started to rain acid.
"Toad! It'll be okay. Try to rest! Don't leave the girls!" The sky then showed a mixture of pink and light orange. Every brick on every building shone with the infinite light of false hope.
"TOOOOOAD! SAVE US!" The sky turned back to white. The black identical cars returned. They weren't moving at all, but the drivers still had barely enough time to yell at Toad from their windows. Toad started counting, just to try to get a grip on things.
"One, two, three..." Every time he moved his mouth, the rest of the world moved with it. He couldn't stop himself from counting. He took a look to the center of the city. He noticed that in this neo version of Flarch, Goobma's casino was no longer the tallest building. Behind it stood a thick black skyscraper. The higher Toad looked, the more spikes and turrets he could see mounted into the sides. At the top, he saw an interruption of the white sky. There was a sharp swirl of red and black. It was intimidating and ominous. He stumbled across the street, tripped over a fold in space and fell down fifty feet into the lobby of a building. His old buddy from high school was sitting on the couch.
"Dude, where have you been?" Scott was surprised that Toad was so late. "I've been waiting for you for like, twenty minutes, man. What the crap?"
"I-I'm sorry." Toad stammered. He stared blankly at Scott for a few minutes. After the pause, Scott just directed him.
"Just get upstairs. I think some people are looking for you." As if on cue, a few pink and blue Goombas knocked Toad on his face, hoisted him up onto their heads, and carried him to the elevator. They dumped him in and the doors snapped shut. Toad heard his own voice in the elevator music. He'd had just about enough of this. Although, he wasn't exactly sure what any of this was. He was having a hard time remembering his own name. He feared for his life at the moment, but he was thinking about other things, like whether or not the Mushroom HQ was finally going to give him a laptop computer to work with. He danced lazily around the elevator. Toad knew that from the second he started counting, he kept doing it consistently and quickly. But somehow, he was only on five. From this, he concluded that in the world he was in now, time had no meaning or powers whatsoever.
The elevator finally opened at floor one hundred. Toad approached out and noticed he was standing on the swirl of fire and steam over the top of the building. The white sky was no longer there. Instead, the entire thing was a swishing mixture of dark blue, purple, black, and yellow.
"Having a bad dream! Heh heh. probably about getting fired. Wreh heh heh!" A boiling deeper voice accompanied the cold high-pitched one.
"Yeah! Got his wallet! Wah hah hah! Guess you're stuck with these guys forever!" Not knowing what that meant, Toad just brushed it off. The sky faded into black nothingness. The cloud Toad was standing on settles into a white mist. Four giant tulips shot out from within. Toad was exhausted, and too tired to feel afraid of anything anymore. Just then, a familiar entity materialized in from of him. He was a white, silky ball of ectoplasm. He was perfectly round except for his short stubby arms, his sharp gnashing teeth, and the short trail left by his floating body that resembled a tail. He wasn't wearing his usual crown. He wanted to appear only as what he was. As a representative to his people. He had small black eyes that almost looked cute and innocent. However, those who knew him for more than about twelve seconds could sense he had a much more hideous agenda. This otherworldly creature was the leader of its kind, and not one to be toyed with.
"Boo!" snapped the ghost. Toad held back as much of the faint flinch as he could. He lifted his head and neck so he was standing up straight. He yawned, and his mouth stretched to five times its normal size. He finally responded to the spirit's attempt.
"Yeah. That's your name. What's your point?" The numb audacity of the mere mortal mushroom made Boo furious. He slapped Toad's face hard. The bone-chilling cold that came from Boo's hand only had begun to compare to his true potential.
"Don't get cute with ME, lab rat! When these men are finished with you, I'll take care of you PERSONALLY! Once and for all!" There was one noticeable thing that separated Boo and his underlings, the Boo Crew, from the rest of the monsters and fiends that were known to, from time to time, act in support of the Koopa family, the Smithy Gang, and their own selfish interests. It was that Boos have control beyond death. People see a piranha plant and are afraid of the sharp teeth. People see a Boo and fear having their soul literally eaten. By harnessing the spirit of a deceased Goomba, King Boo was created by the Koopa Magic Department in the early nineties and was named their greatest scientific breakthrough. Boo was placed in a house called Boo's Mansion where further experiments were conducted on it. It never needed to eat or sleep, but it got stronger by consuming the souls of its prey. Luckily, this was a rare event thanks to the Mario brothers, and no one had to worry much about the Boos, especially after the mini-war that Luigi and Professor E. Gadd won against them. More and different types were fashioned, but they eventually broke off and became an independent group of evil beings, employed by power-hungry madmen, and still headed by the original Boo. Aside from assisting the invasion of Dinosaur Land and taking hostages in Peach's castle, they were never able to stray far from the abandoned Boo's Mansion, their home of power. Now, it seemed they were up to something new, and Toad decided to counter that by being an outright smartass.
Two more Boos crawled out of King Boo's sides. They were large and red. They floated quietly and slowly behind Toad. They grabbed his arms and held them lightly in place. King Boo pulled himself up to Toad. "Lots of things kill. Only I can harm beyond that." Toad flailed his large headpiece.
"Only your MOTHER can harm beyond. your mother. man!" Toad shook a clumsy finger of accusation. Boo nodded in recognition at Toad's attempt. He floated upward and dissolved out of the area. The four mammoth tulips that had been standing in front of Toad for the past three hours fell over lightly and flared their petals. Toad's absent fear returned. Out of each flower jogged an overly sized Frog-Gog troopa. Four behemoth meatheads were ready to massacre Toad beyond repair. Toad forgot to breathe. The scenery around him began to change again. The cloud shook violently, and the entire sky turned to television static. It was bleak, vivid and frightening. It looked like. well, nothing. No one's ever seen something as intensely mind-blowing as a sky of static. The buildings underneath flashed like malfunctioning Christmas lights. The more things changed, and the more Toad didn't change one bit, the less he felt he fit in. One of the Frog-Gogs made the first move and struck Toad across the face with a crude wooden club. He couldn't do anything about it, as the red Boo guards were still holding him. As Toad felt the inside of his cheek get crushed against his teeth, he saw and felt the whole world shake with it. His blood tasted like duck. His nausea felt like victory. Suddenly, his wrists inflated. They did this so quickly that it scared the Boos off for good. Another Frog-Gog elbowed Toad in the stomach. The whites of his eyes turned dark blue, and his pupils glowed with white light. Toad's shape hadn't changed once in this trip to the highly unorthodox world. His body decided to fix that. Toad felt like he was going to vomit. He did just that, But nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, he felt his entire body coarse with energy, like his mind and spirit were exploding. His height expanded to fifty feet in about three seconds. His teeth gnashed and his limbs whipped through the air. Tentacles grew out of him. His much deeper voice surprised him when he spoke for the final time.
"You. can't. keep doing this. to me!" Whether it had any meaning, Toad knew not. All he knew was that he was now fighting a winning battle. On a broader note, he had just learned that he was fighting any battle at all. He knocked his muscular arms onto the ground made off vapor. This sent the four soldiers flying in different directions to the ends of the planet. Toad panted, and he slowly deflated. His clothes returned to normal, and the world around him disappeared for the last time. He closed his eyes. He woke up. He was free.
The psychedelic version of Flarch was gone. The frightening version of the Chancellor ceased to exit. King Boo and his men were defeated. Toad remembered who he was. He spoke to himself softly, just to check himself. "I am Toad. Retainer of the Mushroom Kingdom. Servant to Princess Peach. Friend to the Mario Brothers. Bothered by the other Mario brothers. Significant other to Toadette." He was Toad again. He was happy. He was back on Earth. His wallet was gone, along with his money, his castle and headquarters keycard, and all other ID. Still, it was better than being mutilated by Frog-Gogs and then consumed by King Boo himself. He grabbed a towel that was next to him and wiped what was on his mouth. "Guess I did throw up a little." He could barely remember what exactly had happened. But he remembered it as something concrete and real. Had he tried to piece together the fact that it was all a dream, he would have fallen unconscious again. He had long since forgotten that it was Boshi that did this to him. He looked at the clock. It was four. A harmless time. He looked outside. The beach looked nice, and the sky was blue. A harmless atmosphere. He looked around him. The four Frog-Gogs were lying in chairs, perfectly still, sleeping, with electrodes attached to their ears. King Boo was in a large cylindrical tube, floating in suspended animation with his eyes closed. Now that Toad was awake, he noticed the two large metal clamps chewing on his ears. He lazily but carefully removed them with a gentle yank. He looked across the top of the wall opposite the window. There was a mirror. A badly placed one. It was about four feet high and twelve feet across. It was a mirror you couldn't look into unless you were about nine feet tall. Toad had seen this type of mirror before. It was a device far removed from what he was used to, but he knew what it was. To his surprise, along with his expectation, the mirror coughed. They were watching him. It was a one-way mirror. Toad sort of knew where he was, but in his state of mind, he knew thinking about it wouldn't make a difference so long as he got the hell out of there as fast as he could. He wobbled out the door, and looked for an exit.
As Toad ran down the impersonally threatening hallway, he remembered why he wasn't remembering anything. Boshi forced the marijuana onto him, and it pushed him into an incomprehensibly weird dream. Toad was temporarily but seriously messed up, but he didn't care. He would return to normal by the end of the day. For now, he was having trouble making decisions past the complexity of what foot to put in front of him.
Things didn't look as they were supposed to. Granted, Toad had never been here before, but his outlook on everything was just cut and dry. Like everything was in a straight line. A point vs. B point. He saw a door at the end of the hallway that was quickly narrowing. Although the text said "MAIN POWER, DO NOT ENTER" the sign itself was screaming, "What are you waiting for? Get in here!" Toad twisted the knob. He lifted up his headpiece to wipe the sweat off his head. The panel was decorated with many knobs and buttons, but Toad knew what he had to do. Actually, he had no idea it was what he had to do, but it seemed like the most helpful thing that he could have done all day. He grabbed the lever marked "EMERGENCY POWER SHUTOFF" and yanked down. The aging, rusted, and unused lever squealed with a creak. The sound of a massive switch was heard. The sound of computers whirring, lights humming, and machines running all slowed to an eerie halt. Everything went black. This time, Toad was still awake. He couldn't see because the lights were off. The building was in a coma. Toad had won.
He was on a train. A second later, he was sitting in a dumpster. Half a second earlier, he had been in a coffee house on the moon. Time didn't have any meaning. The scared loner in the strange new world shivered. Orange hail was raining sideways out of the window of a tall building, and landing on the purple wall across the street. Toad was standing in front of the hotel he had stayed at in Flarch. A muffled and slow techno beat played in the background, coming seemingly from nowhere. It was so low it was hard to say whether it was his heartbeat or actual music that was coming from everywhere and nowhere. A taxi threw up on the street, and a McDonald's exploded. A newborn baby ran down the street with a can of salt in his hand. Toad was exhausted. He couldn't bring himself to do anything to turn his head to the left to look at his boss through half-closed eyes. The Chancellor had a flaming mustache. His robe had holes in it. They glowed with white light. The green spots on his head were brown and pink. The man had no eyes. He stood tall and rigid as a statue. He was silent, but the noise was killing Toad's ears. The Chancellor spoke up.
"Toad, what's happened?" he said, as his mouth moved very slowly, and the pitch of his voice changed several times. Toad's hand felt like it was on fire. He looked at it and his finger grew to the size of a pickle. His whole hand fell off. The stump closed up neatly, and all Toad was able to do was stand there and watch the other repeat the process without saying a word. "Toad, what's happened? Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor's face got blurrier and blurrier with each repetition. Toad's jaw dropped as he slowly dropped to his knees. He stared at a manhole as millions of empty black identical cars sat in a four-way intersection and faced him. He hadn't noticed until now, but the noise had fled, the sky had turned an empty white, and everything was still. There were no people and no trash around. Out of fear, Toad darted to the left and tried to run. All he could do was hobble to the slow beat of the music that was being spit out of the air. He hung his head, and the sight in the corners of his eyes turned to blind spots. He lifted his head and walked into a phone booth. For some reason, he felt like he was lying down the whole time.
"No, you guys. You can't... keep doing this. It isn't... right."
"Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor repeated. The Chancellor was far away, but his voice was right next to Toad's ears.
"Not... right." Toad's voice echoed off the airwaves. He wandered away with his arms drooping. He sat in the middle of a four-way intersection. Something was wrong. There were about a million identical and empty cars lined up stopped at the red lights. They were all pointed at Toad. There wasn't a sound at all. No cars, no people, no birds, no insects. Toad let sweat pour out onto his forehead. His hands fell off again. Out of fear, he darted to the side. He ran down the sidewalk, studying the cracks on the ground. "I have to get out of here! What do I do?" Not even knowing his own frame of mind, Toad tried to lift his head enough so that he could see what he was walking into. This was a dangerous move, since he needed one of his eyes to monitor the moving sidewalk. He stepped into the phone booth. It was very roomy. Eerily roomy. He put in three gold coins and started to dial the number of the Chinese restaurant he liked to order from about once a week.
"Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" the phone asked Toad. The phone was talking to him. It also sounded like English was the phone's second language. Now Toad had seen just about everything. "Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" Although someone had already answered, Toad still heard the rhythm of the ringing tone. Frightened, he lazily put the phone back on the hook and wandered off like a child with ADD. What he was feeling now was indescribable. He was in another world created by his own mind. Everything was different. His take on life was temporarily changed. He couldn't stop his arms from moving. He passed Wario and Waluigi's apartment. But it wasn't above a bar. It was a tree house. Without the tree. It was a wooden cube hanging off the side of Goomba's greedy Gala. A tear fell from Toad's eye, and he started to sprint down the sidewalk. A haunting piano tune played. Toad ran faster. He stopped using his feet. The sky turned red and flaming rocks fell from the sky.
"Toad, be strong! We're going in!" The sky turned bright green and started to rain acid.
"Toad! It'll be okay. Try to rest! Don't leave the girls!" The sky then showed a mixture of pink and light orange. Every brick on every building shone with the infinite light of false hope.
"TOOOOOAD! SAVE US!" The sky turned back to white. The black identical cars returned. They weren't moving at all, but the drivers still had barely enough time to yell at Toad from their windows. Toad started counting, just to try to get a grip on things.
"One, two, three..." Every time he moved his mouth, the rest of the world moved with it. He couldn't stop himself from counting. He took a look to the center of the city. He noticed that in this neo version of Flarch, Goobma's casino was no longer the tallest building. Behind it stood a thick black skyscraper. The higher Toad looked, the more spikes and turrets he could see mounted into the sides. At the top, he saw an interruption of the white sky. There was a sharp swirl of red and black. It was intimidating and ominous. He stumbled across the street, tripped over a fold in space and fell down fifty feet into the lobby of a building. His old buddy from high school was sitting on the couch.
"Dude, where have you been?" Scott was surprised that Toad was so late. "I've been waiting for you for like, twenty minutes, man. What the crap?"
"I-I'm sorry." Toad stammered. He stared blankly at Scott for a few minutes. After the pause, Scott just directed him.
"Just get upstairs. I think some people are looking for you." As if on cue, a few pink and blue Goombas knocked Toad on his face, hoisted him up onto their heads, and carried him to the elevator. They dumped him in and the doors snapped shut. Toad heard his own voice in the elevator music. He'd had just about enough of this. Although, he wasn't exactly sure what any of this was. He was having a hard time remembering his own name. He feared for his life at the moment, but he was thinking about other things, like whether or not the Mushroom HQ was finally going to give him a laptop computer to work with. He danced lazily around the elevator. Toad knew that from the second he started counting, he kept doing it consistently and quickly. But somehow, he was only on five. From this, he concluded that in the world he was in now, time had no meaning or powers whatsoever.
The elevator finally opened at floor one hundred. Toad approached out and noticed he was standing on the swirl of fire and steam over the top of the building. The white sky was no longer there. Instead, the entire thing was a swishing mixture of dark blue, purple, black, and yellow.
"Having a bad dream! Heh heh. probably about getting fired. Wreh heh heh!" A boiling deeper voice accompanied the cold high-pitched one.
"Yeah! Got his wallet! Wah hah hah! Guess you're stuck with these guys forever!" Not knowing what that meant, Toad just brushed it off. The sky faded into black nothingness. The cloud Toad was standing on settles into a white mist. Four giant tulips shot out from within. Toad was exhausted, and too tired to feel afraid of anything anymore. Just then, a familiar entity materialized in from of him. He was a white, silky ball of ectoplasm. He was perfectly round except for his short stubby arms, his sharp gnashing teeth, and the short trail left by his floating body that resembled a tail. He wasn't wearing his usual crown. He wanted to appear only as what he was. As a representative to his people. He had small black eyes that almost looked cute and innocent. However, those who knew him for more than about twelve seconds could sense he had a much more hideous agenda. This otherworldly creature was the leader of its kind, and not one to be toyed with.
"Boo!" snapped the ghost. Toad held back as much of the faint flinch as he could. He lifted his head and neck so he was standing up straight. He yawned, and his mouth stretched to five times its normal size. He finally responded to the spirit's attempt.
"Yeah. That's your name. What's your point?" The numb audacity of the mere mortal mushroom made Boo furious. He slapped Toad's face hard. The bone-chilling cold that came from Boo's hand only had begun to compare to his true potential.
"Don't get cute with ME, lab rat! When these men are finished with you, I'll take care of you PERSONALLY! Once and for all!" There was one noticeable thing that separated Boo and his underlings, the Boo Crew, from the rest of the monsters and fiends that were known to, from time to time, act in support of the Koopa family, the Smithy Gang, and their own selfish interests. It was that Boos have control beyond death. People see a piranha plant and are afraid of the sharp teeth. People see a Boo and fear having their soul literally eaten. By harnessing the spirit of a deceased Goomba, King Boo was created by the Koopa Magic Department in the early nineties and was named their greatest scientific breakthrough. Boo was placed in a house called Boo's Mansion where further experiments were conducted on it. It never needed to eat or sleep, but it got stronger by consuming the souls of its prey. Luckily, this was a rare event thanks to the Mario brothers, and no one had to worry much about the Boos, especially after the mini-war that Luigi and Professor E. Gadd won against them. More and different types were fashioned, but they eventually broke off and became an independent group of evil beings, employed by power-hungry madmen, and still headed by the original Boo. Aside from assisting the invasion of Dinosaur Land and taking hostages in Peach's castle, they were never able to stray far from the abandoned Boo's Mansion, their home of power. Now, it seemed they were up to something new, and Toad decided to counter that by being an outright smartass.
Two more Boos crawled out of King Boo's sides. They were large and red. They floated quietly and slowly behind Toad. They grabbed his arms and held them lightly in place. King Boo pulled himself up to Toad. "Lots of things kill. Only I can harm beyond that." Toad flailed his large headpiece.
"Only your MOTHER can harm beyond. your mother. man!" Toad shook a clumsy finger of accusation. Boo nodded in recognition at Toad's attempt. He floated upward and dissolved out of the area. The four mammoth tulips that had been standing in front of Toad for the past three hours fell over lightly and flared their petals. Toad's absent fear returned. Out of each flower jogged an overly sized Frog-Gog troopa. Four behemoth meatheads were ready to massacre Toad beyond repair. Toad forgot to breathe. The scenery around him began to change again. The cloud shook violently, and the entire sky turned to television static. It was bleak, vivid and frightening. It looked like. well, nothing. No one's ever seen something as intensely mind-blowing as a sky of static. The buildings underneath flashed like malfunctioning Christmas lights. The more things changed, and the more Toad didn't change one bit, the less he felt he fit in. One of the Frog-Gogs made the first move and struck Toad across the face with a crude wooden club. He couldn't do anything about it, as the red Boo guards were still holding him. As Toad felt the inside of his cheek get crushed against his teeth, he saw and felt the whole world shake with it. His blood tasted like duck. His nausea felt like victory. Suddenly, his wrists inflated. They did this so quickly that it scared the Boos off for good. Another Frog-Gog elbowed Toad in the stomach. The whites of his eyes turned dark blue, and his pupils glowed with white light. Toad's shape hadn't changed once in this trip to the highly unorthodox world. His body decided to fix that. Toad felt like he was going to vomit. He did just that, But nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, he felt his entire body coarse with energy, like his mind and spirit were exploding. His height expanded to fifty feet in about three seconds. His teeth gnashed and his limbs whipped through the air. Tentacles grew out of him. His much deeper voice surprised him when he spoke for the final time.
"You. can't. keep doing this. to me!" Whether it had any meaning, Toad knew not. All he knew was that he was now fighting a winning battle. On a broader note, he had just learned that he was fighting any battle at all. He knocked his muscular arms onto the ground made off vapor. This sent the four soldiers flying in different directions to the ends of the planet. Toad panted, and he slowly deflated. His clothes returned to normal, and the world around him disappeared for the last time. He closed his eyes. He woke up. He was free.
The psychedelic version of Flarch was gone. The frightening version of the Chancellor ceased to exit. King Boo and his men were defeated. Toad remembered who he was. He spoke to himself softly, just to check himself. "I am Toad. Retainer of the Mushroom Kingdom. Servant to Princess Peach. Friend to the Mario Brothers. Bothered by the other Mario brothers. Significant other to Toadette." He was Toad again. He was happy. He was back on Earth. His wallet was gone, along with his money, his castle and headquarters keycard, and all other ID. Still, it was better than being mutilated by Frog-Gogs and then consumed by King Boo himself. He grabbed a towel that was next to him and wiped what was on his mouth. "Guess I did throw up a little." He could barely remember what exactly had happened. But he remembered it as something concrete and real. Had he tried to piece together the fact that it was all a dream, he would have fallen unconscious again. He had long since forgotten that it was Boshi that did this to him. He looked at the clock. It was four. A harmless time. He looked outside. The beach looked nice, and the sky was blue. A harmless atmosphere. He looked around him. The four Frog-Gogs were lying in chairs, perfectly still, sleeping, with electrodes attached to their ears. King Boo was in a large cylindrical tube, floating in suspended animation with his eyes closed. Now that Toad was awake, he noticed the two large metal clamps chewing on his ears. He lazily but carefully removed them with a gentle yank. He looked across the top of the wall opposite the window. There was a mirror. A badly placed one. It was about four feet high and twelve feet across. It was a mirror you couldn't look into unless you were about nine feet tall. Toad had seen this type of mirror before. It was a device far removed from what he was used to, but he knew what it was. To his surprise, along with his expectation, the mirror coughed. They were watching him. It was a one-way mirror. Toad sort of knew where he was, but in his state of mind, he knew thinking about it wouldn't make a difference so long as he got the hell out of there as fast as he could. He wobbled out the door, and looked for an exit.
As Toad ran down the impersonally threatening hallway, he remembered why he wasn't remembering anything. Boshi forced the marijuana onto him, and it pushed him into an incomprehensibly weird dream. Toad was temporarily but seriously messed up, but he didn't care. He would return to normal by the end of the day. For now, he was having trouble making decisions past the complexity of what foot to put in front of him.
Things didn't look as they were supposed to. Granted, Toad had never been here before, but his outlook on everything was just cut and dry. Like everything was in a straight line. A point vs. B point. He saw a door at the end of the hallway that was quickly narrowing. Although the text said "MAIN POWER, DO NOT ENTER" the sign itself was screaming, "What are you waiting for? Get in here!" Toad twisted the knob. He lifted up his headpiece to wipe the sweat off his head. The panel was decorated with many knobs and buttons, but Toad knew what he had to do. Actually, he had no idea it was what he had to do, but it seemed like the most helpful thing that he could have done all day. He grabbed the lever marked "EMERGENCY POWER SHUTOFF" and yanked down. The aging, rusted, and unused lever squealed with a creak. The sound of a massive switch was heard. The sound of computers whirring, lights humming, and machines running all slowed to an eerie halt. Everything went black. This time, Toad was still awake. He couldn't see because the lights were off. The building was in a coma. Toad had won.