The Crossover Saga
By Stoney (stoney107@yahoo.com)
Chapter 9 Encounters
Kapi motioned the two forward. They were traveling through one of the more familiar portions of the castle, but there were no back passageways or side paths for them to sneak through here. As a result, they had to use the main passages, which meant avoiding the cautious guards that roamed everywhere. Thankfully, Kapi was a guard herself, and knew the guard schedules. The little Koopa was rapidly becoming more and more invaluable, Mario reflected. She led them past the guarded portions when the guards were taking their short breaks in-between shifts, and found hiding places for them when the guards came back. If two or more guards began talking to each other, she could translate for Mario. Kirby, like usual, somehow understood their speech without needing the translation.
Silently the trio crept across the stone floor, looking about and trusting Kapi to get them away before the Koopas came back. So far, Mario hadn't seen any Troops except for Koopas inside the castle. He was rather puzzled at this. Where were the Goombas, Lakitus, and Bomb-ombs?
At one intersection, while waiting for the guards' break to come, Mario saw that a bipedal rabbit had replaced one of the Koopa Troopas as guards. Mario was familiar with anthropomorphic animals ever since visiting Dreamland, but he did not understand how one of them got into the Mushroom Kingdom.
Kapi noticed the new guard, too. "That's one of the new recruits for the Koopa Troop that Bowser has enlisted." She whispered to Mario. "I'm not sure where they come from, but they're the best fighters I've ever seen. I sure wouldn't mind if one of them were helping us take out Kamek.unfortunately, that dang MagiKoopa also cast his hypnotization spell over them, making them swear blind loyalty to the Koopa Empire, and to himself."
Mario studied the rabbit carefully. Besides carrying a standard-issue Koopa spear and armor, the rabbit also had a deadly looking shotgun gripped in one hand. An ammunition belt was slung over one shoulder and across its chest. An eye patch covered one of its eyes, and a scar could be seen stretching from its forehead underneath the eye patch, and down to its chin.
"Are the new recruits all rabbits?" Kirby asked.
"Nope. They're all kinds of animals; Bears, lizards, dogs, cats, rhinos, tigers, squirrels, foxes, fish, et cetera."
"Quite a list." Mario mused.
"Yeah." Kapi replied absently. She was gazing steadily at the guard.
"How many new recruits do you think there are?" Mario asked.
"Yeah." Kapi replied, in that same distant tone.
Mario looked at her in surprise. "Kapi, are you okay?"
"Yeah." She replied absently again.
Mario arched an eyebrow. "How now, brown cow?"
"Yeah."
"Which came first, the Yoshi or the egg?"
"Yeah." A dreamy look was slowly taking over her expression. Mario shared a glance with Kirby, and both of them began snickering. The sound snapped Kapi out of her trance. "What? Huh? Wha? What'd I miss?"
"Nothing." Mario chuckled. "Do you know that guard's name?"
"Well, yes, I do.his name's Hack. He's a genius with computers, or so I've heard."
"Well, I think he's leaving for break." Mario pointed out.
Kapi stuttered in surprise. "Oh! Well, uh, yeah, I, um, I guess he is. Uh, okay, come on then." She began to guide them through the formerly-guarded intersection. Mario and Kirby followed, each of them wearing a knowing grin.
Ow. That hurt.
What just happened? My head felt like it was gonna split open at any second.
Wait, I remember now. I had been running recon in Robotropolis, and was checking out the last sector before heading back.then I ran into some weird green light, and now I was here.
Well, I might as well get up and see where I was now. Man, I'm sore. Ouch.
Wow. Who lived here, Doctor Frankenstein? Really creepy dark motif going on here. I'd like to know what kind of lunatic designed this place's interior...it almost looked like a medieval castle, but it couldn't be. The Mobian Middle Ages happened around 2000 years ago! Nothing I know of can be that old and still be this well-kept.
Aha! Of course! The green light thing that I had run into looked like a portal. Had I entered a new Zone?
I had to have. None of the other Zones I've been in looked like this one. Awesome!
Time to explore!
Let's see...oddly-shaped suits of armor...crossed axes hanging on the walls...primitive torches lighting the way...maybe Dracula lives here too?...stone walls...paved floor...small armored turtles looking at me...barred windows...hey, wait a second!
Yep, they were definitely turtles. Wearing metal armor, carrying shields and spears. They're speaking some sort of weird language; I don't have a clue as to what they're saying. Man, Nicole would probably love to try and translate this...
Uh-oh. Now one of them is pointing his spear at me. Different language or no, I can tell a threat when I see one. I'd better leave!
ZOOM!
Yahoo! Nothing like a good run to wake you up in the morning. I love the exhilaration of speed that I get whenever I juice like this. Two seconds later, I'm in an entirely different section of the castle. If it is a castle, that is.
Man, how was I ever gonna find my way outta here? This place seems huge...
At about this point I made a huge mistake. I was so busy looking around myself that I forgot to look where I was going. I didn't see the hole in the floor until I was already falling into it.
"HOLY shiiiiiiiiiiii...."
Agh! Now I'm in some sort of tunnel. Ow! Did it have an end?! Oof! Every time it took a turn I got slammed up against the sides. Ouch! Maybe if I curled up and shielded my face....yeah, that's better. Now at least I had some protection against this crazy ride.
I could feel myself being tossed around every which way as the tunnel took several more turns. The whole time it continued to slant downwards at a steep angle. It seemed like a nightmare roller-coaster ride with no end...
Finally I felt myself shoot out of the tunnel into open air. The next thing I know, I'm breathing in a mouthful of unidentified gray muck. Gack! I uncurled and pulled my head up above its surface, gasping and choking for all I was worth. I coughed once and then went into a major coughing fit that left my throat burning. In this fashion I continued to expel the foul liquid until I was sure I'd gotten it all out. Man, whatever this stuff was it tasted horrible. Where was I?
I was in...
"A garbage pit?"
Oh man, and I'd nearly swallowed some of its sewage. Excuse me while I quietly retch. Yuck!
I hauled my dripping body out of the disgusting ooze and stood up to my full height to take stock of my surroundings. I'd apparently wound up in the castle's sewer. Joy. Hunks of rotting I-Don't-Want-To-Know surrounded me along with rusty pieces of metal and other unidentifiable objects. Gee, what an interesting smell this place had. It reminded me of...sweaty socks. No, wait, worse than that. More like Geoffrey St. John on a rainy day. Yeah, that's more like it.
Man, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. I think I preferred the creepy castle landscape to this place. Gross!
Crud, I can't get up enough speed for a good run outta here while my legs are underwater. Great, just great...
Waitaminnit, I've got an idea! I jumped up and began revving in midair. I came down running and shot off over the surface of the sewage like a bullet from a gun. Yee-ha! This was more like it!
Say, there's something up ahead.it almost looks like.a person! Hey, move out of the way! I can't slow down on top of the sewage! Quick! Move! Uh-oh, look out!!
CRASH! SPLAT!
Eeew, yuck! More sewage. Yecch, the collision had sprayed it everywhere. Who'd I run into?
!!!
It's an OVERLANDER! A human! What on Mobius was one of them doing here?! I thought all of them were supposed to be extinct, except for Robuttnik and Snotley! Oh wait, I forgot I was in another Zone. There's probably hundreds of humans here. I'll have to remember that...
"Hey, are you all right?" I asked, moving over to help her. She gave a shrill scream and scrambled to her feet to get away.
"Don't come near me! I won't go back to Bowser! I mean it!!" She screamed.
I got confused. "What the heck is a 'Bowser'?" I asked. It sounded almost like something you'd eat in breakfast cereal, I thought.
"Don't play stupid with me! I can tell you're one of those new recruits he's been hiring!" I suddenly noticed that there was another human beside the first. While the one talking to me was so covered in sewage as to render her clothes indescribable, the second was wearing a bright yellow dress with gloves. On her head she wore a pink crown. Say, now that I thought about it, the first person seemed to have a crown on her head too.
"Are you two princesses or something?" I asked curiously. Hey, it's not often that you meet two members of royalty at the bottom of some rat- infested sewer in an unknown medieval castle.
The first rolled her eyes. "Oh, give me a break. Like we'd really believe that you don't know who we are! Nice try pal, but we're not falling for it!"
I seriously wracked my brain, searching for any memory whatsoever pertaining to these two. I came up empty. I shook my head, and she snorted in disbelief.
The second tapped the first on the shoulder. "Um, Peach? Maybe he's telling the truth. After all, I don't recall any of Bowser's new recruits looking anything like him, even if they were different from Koopas."
I looked at myself. Tan belly, dark blue fur, and spines sticking out of my back that would put a porcupine to shame. I had to agree, there weren't many other animals in the universe that looked quite like I did. I looked at the first.what did that other girl call her? Peach?.and studied her expression, waiting for a response. At last she relented. "Maybe you're right, Daisy. Who are you, then?" This last was directed at me.
I gave a mock-bow. "Name's Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive. And believe me, I'm not joking when I say that. And you are?"
"Princess Peach Toadstool, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. This is my cousin, Princess Daisy, ruler of Sarasaland." She indicated the girl in yellow. She waved, and I waved back.
I rubbed the back of my neck, careful to not prick myself on my spines. "Um, sorry about what happened just now. I have trouble putting on the brakes while hydroplaning."
Peach looked at her sewage-soaked dress and laughed without humor. "Well, this is the icing on today's cake of bad luck." She exclaimed with odd uncaring. "We've been looking for a way out of here for the past hour."
I looked around. I hadn't noticed it before, but the sewer was huge. "Yeah, I can see why it'd take so long." I admitted.
Peach brushed her dripping hair out of the way and narrowed her eyes at me. "So, you're not allied with Bowser?"
Again with that name. "Who or what is a 'Bowser'?"
"A really big turtle with lots of spikes. He can breathe fire, and he weighs around one ton." Daisy clarified.
I tried to picture this creature and wound up laughing at the mental image I came up with. "Gee, sounds really ugly." I snickered. "I take it you two don't like him that much?"
"Are you KIDDING?! We-" Peach began. Daisy clapped a hand over her cousin's mouth to muffle her yells.
"No, not really." She replied casually as Peach began to struggle. "He's kidnapped Peach, here, several times." I nodded, and she let Peach go.
Peach glared at Daisy for a moment before addressing me. "Well, Sonic, any enemy of Bowser is a friend of mine. Nice to meet you."
"Same here!" Daisy chimed in.
I grinned. "Ditto, to both."
Brief silence resumed. Water dripped in the distance. Daisy let out a small cough.
"So.I take it that you got here through a drainage tunnel, correct?" Peach asked, more to start a conversation than anything else.
"If that's what you call that long tube I went through, then yeah." I pointed behind myself with my thumb. "I'm just walking along, minding my own business, right? When suddenly this huge freakin' hole in the floor shows up outta nowhere! I fell into it and now I'm here."
"Well, we're on the run from a whole bunch of armed guards named Koopa Troopas." Daisy piped up.
I nodded. "Yeah, I met some of 'em upstairs. Friendly, aren't they?"
Peach rolled her eyes again, but this time I knew the gesture wasn't aimed at me. "Sonic, you don't know the half of it. I suggest we start moving again before one of them finds us."
"Excellent idea." I approved. "But I know of a way that'll get us out faster. Here, each of you grab an arm." I turned around and held my arms out back behind me for them to take, and reluctantly they did so. "Now, whatever you do, HANG ON TIGHT. We'll be traveling pretty fast, and I don't want ya to slip loose, okay?"
Before either of them could voice a nervous objection I performed the same trick as before, jumping up and then coming down running. We were off! Their screams of surprise reverberated off the walls long after we were gone.
Link and Luigi arrived at Lon Lon ranch to find a near-hysterical Malon awaiting them. After several minutes of trying to get her to calm down, she finally managed to explain that Mario had disappeared from his room shortly after they'd left yesterday, and had been missing ever since. Luigi and Link were stunned. How'd he wake up? Where had he gone? Had someone kidnapped him?
Link almost decided to not go to the Lost Woods and instead stay to search for Mario, but that night Saria contacted Link again. She convinced him to continue the journey by pointing out that there was just as big a chance of Mario being in the Lost Woods than anywhere else. So the next day, Link and Luigi left the ranch and headed south towards the Kokiri Forest.
As they walked, Link talked openly to Luigi about his adventure through time to stop the supposed 'King of Evil', Ganondorf. The Lost Woods lay far to the southeast, near the edge of Hyrule's border. Between it and them were several miles of open plain, dotted sparingly with thin, skinny trees. Luigi didn't complain, though. Walking in the short, sparse grass would keep him a lot cleaner than, say, traversing a mud pit as a shortcut. Besides, the long journey gave him and Link more time to talk.
".and then when I used it, it sank down into the water and ALL of the fish went after it! I finally managed to catch the largest fish in the pond!" Link exclaimed, holding his hands out away from each other to show the length of the aquatic creature. "When I held it up to show it to the owner, the fish was taller than me! He said it was a monster of a fish, and it was too big for him to put on his weighing scale, but he estimated that it was at least 22 pounds!"
"Wow." Luigi was in awe.
"You said it! Anyway, we're almost there!" Link reported. He pointed up ahead of them to a thick, dense clove of trees which marked the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. From there, they would be able to travel to the adjoining Lost Woods. Luigi nodded. He was carrying provisions for their journey inside a small backpack which he had slung over one shoulder. Link had a similar bag attached to his back. Both of them had had plenty of time to wonder what this urgent threat to the forest was. Luigi, having been rather inexperienced with Hylian monsters, first thought of the Koopa Army. Then he had to keep reminding himself that he was in a different dimension, and that the Koopas wouldn't be there.
Link, for his part, thought that he might know. The possibility of a stray Wolfos or lost Deku scrub seemed to be the most logical explanations; However, Saria had described to him the destruction of the giant Redoak in her message yesterday, so he ruled that possibility out. He strained to think of some monster that could cast powerful magic. Perhaps the sorceress sisters Koume and Kotake had returned to Hyrule? He'd defeated them in the future, which meant they still existed in the past. It was entirely possible that they had decided to start wrecking havoc upon the Kokiri by themselves rather than wait for Ganon's orders.
Link slowly smiled. If the sisters had indeed returned, then he'd be prepared for them. One section of the flap which covered his pack's opening slipped off, revealing a brilliantly polished silver surface underneath that reflected the sunlight perfectly. Link noticed, and replaced the pack's cover. Yep, he'd definitely be prepared.
He and Luigi entered the dense thicket of trees side-by-side. A long, hollow log lay before them. The thing must've once been part of a colossal tree, since it was big enough to admit them both without their needing to stoop over. "This is the entrance to Kokiri Forest." Link explained. He shifted the weight of his pack from one shoulder to the other and glanced at Luigi. "Ready?"
"Yep!"
No more words were exchanged as they both ran inside.
Mario blinked. No way. It couldn't be. Had he just seen what he thought he'd seen?
He tapped Kirby on his head and motioned for him to look in the same direction he was. Kirby did, and nearly jumped in amazement.
"Pikachu?!"
The Pokemon froze from where he had been traveling down the hallway. As he turned to look at them, they saw that Dark Matter's purple glow was still present in his eyes. It recognized them, and suddenly bolted the rest of the way down the hallway at high speed. Within moments he was lost from sight.
Kirby cursed, and Mario cringed at his use of language. "I should have known!" the Dreamlander scolded himself. "It'd only make sense that Pikachu would be here if the rest of Dark Matter was!"
Mario unhooked his walkie-talkie. "Hey, Mega Man?" He then remembered that they weren't in Dreamland anymore. Darn, the walkie-talkie wouldn't work now-
"Yeah? What is it?" Mega Man's voice answered, surprising Mario far more than glimpsing Pikachu had.
"You can still hear us?!" Mario gasped.
"Yeah. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. What's the problem?"
Kirby snatched the small radio from Mario's grip. "Mega, you need to get to the problem's source, NOW. Pikachu and Dark Matter somehow managed to come here!"
There was silence on the other end for a couple seconds. "Hello? Mega? Can you hear us?" Kirby persisted.
Mega Man's sudden reply was slow in coming, and Kirby asked if he was there several more times. When the robot finally answered, his voice was grave. "I'll be right there. I just saw a few of Dark Matter's Eyes go in the direction of the disturbance. Hang on, guys." The connection broke. Kirby switched his Walkie-talkie off and handed it back to Mario, who re-attached it to his overalls.
"Man, this day is just getting weirder and weirder." Mario exclaimed.
Kirby grinned at him. "Mario, I believe you've just mastered the art of understatement."
Kapi, who had remained silent while all this was going on, now spoke up. "Who was that you were talking to just now?"
"A friend of ours. He's pretty far away from us, and I was surprised that the signal could still reach him."
"Oh. And that thing that ran down the tunnel?" Kapi asked while pointing at the tunnel in question.
"Also a friend. He's been possessed, just like you were."
Any further conversation was cut off by a soft humming noise, accompanied by Mega Man materializing in front of them in a green flash of light. He stumbled unsteadily and fell onto his back, dizzy and disoriented by his trip to Reality. Mario and Kirby raced over to help, while Kapi stayed back and watched.
"Mega Man! Are you okay?" Mario cried.
"Oh wow..what a ride.." Mega Man faintly replied. The world was spinning circles in front of him and his vision swam in and out of focus. "Could someone stop the room, please? I'd like to get off."
"C'mon, up you go!" Kirby grunted while trying to lift the heavy robot to his feet. Mario lent a hand, and steadied Mega Man when he wobbled unsteadily after becoming upright.
"Man, Kirby, you should've warned me about the side effects before I entered that portal. Yikes." He finally spoke. "I never knew trans- dimensional travel could be so disorienting."
"Yeah, well, now you know. How'd you manage to appear HERE, though?"
"Beats me." He muttered. "All I know is that I teleported to the problem's source, and landed right next to a green portal. Before I knew what was happening I got blown into it." He glanced at Kirby. "I think I understand what you meant by 'adverse wind currents', now."
Mario blinked. What? Had he missed something? He shook his head and turned to see where Kapi was.
.and froze in shock.
He spoke up. "Hey, guys? Uh.we've got company."
Kamek was floating on a newly-carved broomstick not ten feet away from the entire group. Standing next to him, surprise and anger written all over his face, was none other than Bowser himself.
Link and Saria greeted each other like old friends, which only made sense, because they were. Unfortunately, Saria was too worried to exchange pleasantries. Immediately after being introduced to Luigi, she asked them to follow her to the site of the blasted Redoak. She took them on a quick trip through some more log-tunnels, then abruptly turned off the path and dove into the trees. They followed, sticking close together. There was a very good reason for why this forest was named the Lost Woods; it was extremely easy to get lost in here, and once you got lost, you were never found again.
As Luigi walked close to Link's side, he recalled how the Hylian had told of his exploits in this forest, both in the present and seven years in the future. He'd explained with excitement how he'd gone to the Forest Temple and bested the ghost of Ganondorf's father, along with five sibling poltergeists, and rescued Saria from an enchanted sleep. He'd talked in great detail of the numerous times that he himself had gotten lost in these woods, by taking the wrong log-tunnel at intersections.
Link had warned Luigi very strongly against wandering off the ancient path that wound through the forest. It was said that the very first Kokiri to ever settle in the forest made the trail to help unwary travelers. As long as you stayed on it, you'd always find yourself at the Woods' entrance when you get lost. But if you strayed, the woods would swallow you up and no one would ever find you again. Only the Kokiri, with their heightened senses and strange connection to the forest, could navigate the woods without using the path.
As Luigi thought this he became increasingly nervous. What if they got separated from Saria? How would they get out again?
From what Link had told him, they wouldn't.
He suddenly hurried ahead until he was walking side-by-side with Saria, feeling a bit safer once he was close enough that there was little chance of them getting separated. Link followed and did the same.
Despite her worries, Saria had to giggle a bit at this. They both looked so cute when they were nervous.
"There it is." She spoke up, startling them both. She grinned at them, then her smile vanished as she remembered why they were here. They'd arrived at the edge of the clearing that marked the tree's former resting spot. Link hurried ahead, Luigi followed, and Saria brought up the rear.
Link studied the crater very closely. Something about it seemed familiar to him.
Luigi blinked over Link's shoulder when he saw and recognized the damage. "Hey! that's the crater from a laser-blast!"
Link looked up at him. "Huh?"
Luigi launched into a brief explanation on what a laser was, how they were made, et cetera. Link scratched his head when the plumber finished. "So.it's a beam of energy? And the energy comes from the sun?"
"No, no, no. It has energy SIMILAR to that of the sun. The energy is called 'plasma'." Luigi corrected. "It comes from small battery-packs that you attach to the laser-gun."
"Battery-packs?"
"Kind of like containers for storing energy."
Saria blinked twice. "Wow. That went completely over my head."
Luigi sighed. "Never mind. The point is, I know what weapon was used against the tree."
Link shot a confused glance at Saria. "I've never heard of a monster that could throw lasers-"
"Actually, the lasers are shot. Kind of like how you use a slingshot, only think of the laser beam in place of the stone."
"Oh, okay. Well, anyway, I can't think of any monsters that can.shoot.lasers. Whoever did this must've come from another world."
"You mean like an alien?!" Luigi gasped excitedly.
Link gave him a quizzical look. "A what?"
"Um.nothing, forget it."
Link shook his head. "No, I mean they got here from another dimension, like how you got here."
Luigi 'Ah'd in understanding. Link stood up. "Well, we're not going to find whoever it is around here. By the looks of things, they're long gone. They might not even be in Hyrule anymore."
Saria smiled. "That would certainly be a relief." She agreed. "Let's get back to the village and tell the other Kokiri." She bounded back into the forest, and they hastily followed.
"Tell me, Luigi. How do you know so much about lasers?" Link asked as they hurried after their guide.
"Well," Luigi started, "Bowser has a couple laser-guns that he sometimes uses on us as a last defense. One time he managed to build a massive laser- gun that could fire a beam with a 15-foot diameter."
"Ouch." Link winced.
"No kidding. He was planning to use it on the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom unless we handed Princess Peach over to him. But Mario destroyed it at the last minute, I think."
"You think?"
"Well, I wasn't there, so I don't really know for sure. At the time I had been visiting Peach's cousin, Daisy, in a neighboring kingdom called Sarasaland. I only heard about what had happened after I had gotten back."
Link gave Luigi a small smile. "You seem to like this Daisy a lot."
Luigi turned red. "Well.I, um.I mean, I don't.I.er." He stuttered.
"I mean, from what you've told me, you visit her quite often. Why?"
Luigi was completely red in the face by now. "I.I was checking up on her. You know, making sure she was safe and all."
Link rolled his eyes and grinned. "Right. Never mind." He cut Luigi off, seeing as how the topic made the plumber unusually nervous. Best to let him figure it out for himself, Link decided. It's funny how a lover can be blind to their own love, even when the love is glaringly obvious to everyone else, he mused.
Link's train of thought derailed as Luigi suddenly stopped walking and asked, "Where's Saria?"
Link blinked, looked up, and also stopped. They were standing in a completely unfamiliar section of the forest, and Saria was nowhere to be seen. Link looked all around in a circle, but he saw no sign of the little green-haired Kokiri.
"SARIA!" Link called out, hoping she could hear him. "SARIA, WHERE ARE YOU? SARIA!!"
No response. Birds twittered overhead. Branches creaked. Leaves rustled in a light wind. Luigi's breaths began to quicken with fear. Link cupped his hands around his mouth and called again.
"SARIA! LET ME HEAR FROM YOU!" He listened, but no reply came.
"We're lost." Luigi whispered, the implications of what was happening finally beginning to sink in.
"Shut up, Luigi! We're not lost!" Link growled, while praying that what he said was true. He called again, but either Saria was too far away to hear them, or wasn't able to hear his yells because of the plants and trees around them which muffled the noise.
"We're lost. We're lost!" Luigi repeated in fear, nearly hyperventilating. Panic was slowly taking over his mind. "WE'RE LOST!"
"Luigi, calm down! We're.hey! Get back here!" Luigi had succumbed to his panic and was now running into the trees, screaming his head off. Link quickly followed, not wanting them to get separated again.
Link could still hear his companion's yells from up ahead, and followed them. Every now and then, he would catch a glimpse of Luigi ducking through the forest. The green plumber was running blindly, heedless of where he was going. He crashed through a tangle of bushes that formed a near-wall inbetween two trees, and as Link ran to catch up, he got his foot caught on a vine and fell flat on his face. He came up struggling, and wound up getting himself even more tangled in the plant than before. Finally he sighed and cut himself free with his sword. He didn't like harming plants, but right now he was in a hurry. He ran up beside Luigi and brushed excess dirt off himself. The plumber had stopped running and was staring, openmouthed, at something ahead. Link followed his gaze, and nearly fell over again in surprise. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't this.
A makeshift campsite was set up in a clearing in front of them. A roaring fire crackled off to one side, with a pot of bubbling soup hanging over it. Tents dotted the area, and going to and fro between them were Koopas. They looked just like how Mario had described them. Link knew he would have laughed at their comical appearance if the situation hadn't been so serious.
Luigi's panic resumed full-force. He screamed. "AAAAAAHHHH!"
Everything froze. Silence descended upon all present.
Link took his hands off his ears. A ghost of Luigi's scream still rang in the air, reverberating off trees throughout the forest. Every Koopa in the clearing stopped whatever they had been doing and looked straight at the newcomers. Several of them recognized Luigi and grabbed spears and other weapons, held them up in a threatening gesture, then began advancing slowly forward. Link attempted to count them. His total: a heck of a lot. He gave Luigi a worried look. This wasn't good.
The Koopas charged.
Sonic was thought by some of his friends to be rather ignorant. Some of them even went so far as to think him stupid. The truth was, he simply saw some things as more important to know than others. Who really cared if he could do advanced Calculus, or quote lines from some obscure book? He certainly didn't. If he had been able to think of a single time that he'd ever use that nonsense in the future for practical purposes, things might be different. But as it was, he had erased it from his memory after the initial lessons and tests he'd been put through during his youth to see if he knew the information. It wasn't like he couldn't remember the knowledge if he tried -- he just didn't care enough about it to do so.
Despite this, however, there had always been certain categories in which he was very well learned. It never ceased to amaze people how well he knew them, but knew them he did, since he put them to good use every day:
Inertia, momentum, horsepower, velocity, centrifugal force, acceleration, deceleration, friction, gravity, vectors, Newton's Laws of Motion. He knew it all, if only because it played an integral role in his running. He remembered how he had always aced his Physics tests, even if he performed dismally in all his others. He knew the science so well, in fact, that within two seconds of running he could calculate his speed in miles per hour, like a mental speedometer.
At this point, while he was towing along two princesses through Bowser's sewer, he mentally calculated approximately how long he could continue running at this speed with Peach and Daisy's extra weight slowing him down. He estimated that at his current stamina, he could probably run for another nine to ten minutes before he collapsed from exhaustion. He made a mental note to be out of this dump before then.
There was a wall up ahead. Without thinking, Sonic tried to put on the brakes. Nothing happened, he just continued to slide along the liquid's surface at the same speed. He remembered that he couldn't stop on top of the sewage and almost growled in annoyance. At this speed, hitting that wall would hurt. Not to mention that he was towing two fragile humans that weren't as durable as he was.
Luckily, the Blue Blur noticed a broken piece of thin metal pipe lodged firmly in a mountain of garbage up ahead. The pipe was sticking out into his path. With mere miliseconds to act, he reached out and grabbed the metal cylinder with one hand.
Sonic gasped as the sudden, abrupt halt nearly made his arm dislocate from his shoulder. Fiery pain shot up his torso and engulfed his entire side. He gritted his teeth in agony and quietly told the princesses that they could let go now. They quickly did so, glad that their wild ride was over.
Sonic looked around, ignoring the throbbing pain around his shoulderblade. They had arrived in a small square room that adjoined the rest of the garbage pit. Unlike the rest of the pit, whose walls were made of stone, this room had rusty metal plating on its walls. The garbage was piled up impossibly high in here, creating small hills and valleys that blocked of his view from most of the room.
Peach blinked. "Where are we now?"
"I'd wager we're still in the garbage pit, Princess." Sonic ventured. He wrinkled his nose. "My, what a lovely smell we've discovered! It seems like it's even worse in here!"
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Daisy muttered.
A sudden chill swept through Sonic as he felt something cold and slimy slither by him. He yelped in surprise and pulled his foot out of the muck.
"What is it?" Peach demanded.
"Something just moved past my leg!" Sonic cried out.
A single eyeball placed on a thin stalk of membrane emerged from the water behind the princesses and looked around. "There!" Sonic yelled, pointing. "Do you see that?!"
Peach and Daisy whirled, but the eye dropped back into the water with a 'plop' just before they could see it. "See what?" Daisy asked, looking around and finding nothing unusual.
Sonic's reply was cut off as he was abruptly dragged underneath the water. He was cut off in mid-yell as he went under. Both Daisy and Peach screamed.
"Sonic!" Daisy cried, pushing flotsam and jetsam aside to get a clear look under the liquid. "Sonic!!"
Sonic suddenly burst up to the surface, a thick, brown tentacle the size of a tree trunk wrapped firmly around his neck. He gasped and wheezed for breath, grabbing the tentacle with both hands and struggling to get it off. He attempted to form some words. "Hit it! Hit it!"
"Where?" Peach cried. She was looking around frantically, looking for the source of the tentracle.
"Anywhere!" Sonic choked.
Peach pulled out the shiny sword she'd obtained earlier and began swinging with it while Daisy grabbed a couple sharp pieces of metal from the garbage and helped. Both of them randomly slashed into the water, hoping to hit whatever it was that had grabbed the hedgehog. Apparently they must have, because something let out a deep, pained roar and Sonic was pulled back under.
"Sonic!!"
Sonic suddenly burst to the surface again, this time without the tentacle. He sucked in breath after breath, relieving his oxygen debt and grateful to be alive.
"Where'd it go??" Peach demanded.
"I don't know.it just let go of me and swam away!" Sonic coughed, getting to his feet. He'd almost breathed in a mouthful of liquid under the surface.
All three of them paused as they heard a deep bass rumble and a clank of extending chains.
They blinked at each other. All was silent for a moment, then-
The creaking and squeaking of active machinery grew in pitch and intensity until it drowned out almost all other sound. Meanwhile, the metallic walls of the room began to slowly crush inwards. Their eyes grew wide in horrified realization as they realized where they were.
"It's a trash compactor!!" Sonic yelled.
By Stoney (stoney107@yahoo.com)
Chapter 9 Encounters
Kapi motioned the two forward. They were traveling through one of the more familiar portions of the castle, but there were no back passageways or side paths for them to sneak through here. As a result, they had to use the main passages, which meant avoiding the cautious guards that roamed everywhere. Thankfully, Kapi was a guard herself, and knew the guard schedules. The little Koopa was rapidly becoming more and more invaluable, Mario reflected. She led them past the guarded portions when the guards were taking their short breaks in-between shifts, and found hiding places for them when the guards came back. If two or more guards began talking to each other, she could translate for Mario. Kirby, like usual, somehow understood their speech without needing the translation.
Silently the trio crept across the stone floor, looking about and trusting Kapi to get them away before the Koopas came back. So far, Mario hadn't seen any Troops except for Koopas inside the castle. He was rather puzzled at this. Where were the Goombas, Lakitus, and Bomb-ombs?
At one intersection, while waiting for the guards' break to come, Mario saw that a bipedal rabbit had replaced one of the Koopa Troopas as guards. Mario was familiar with anthropomorphic animals ever since visiting Dreamland, but he did not understand how one of them got into the Mushroom Kingdom.
Kapi noticed the new guard, too. "That's one of the new recruits for the Koopa Troop that Bowser has enlisted." She whispered to Mario. "I'm not sure where they come from, but they're the best fighters I've ever seen. I sure wouldn't mind if one of them were helping us take out Kamek.unfortunately, that dang MagiKoopa also cast his hypnotization spell over them, making them swear blind loyalty to the Koopa Empire, and to himself."
Mario studied the rabbit carefully. Besides carrying a standard-issue Koopa spear and armor, the rabbit also had a deadly looking shotgun gripped in one hand. An ammunition belt was slung over one shoulder and across its chest. An eye patch covered one of its eyes, and a scar could be seen stretching from its forehead underneath the eye patch, and down to its chin.
"Are the new recruits all rabbits?" Kirby asked.
"Nope. They're all kinds of animals; Bears, lizards, dogs, cats, rhinos, tigers, squirrels, foxes, fish, et cetera."
"Quite a list." Mario mused.
"Yeah." Kapi replied absently. She was gazing steadily at the guard.
"How many new recruits do you think there are?" Mario asked.
"Yeah." Kapi replied, in that same distant tone.
Mario looked at her in surprise. "Kapi, are you okay?"
"Yeah." She replied absently again.
Mario arched an eyebrow. "How now, brown cow?"
"Yeah."
"Which came first, the Yoshi or the egg?"
"Yeah." A dreamy look was slowly taking over her expression. Mario shared a glance with Kirby, and both of them began snickering. The sound snapped Kapi out of her trance. "What? Huh? Wha? What'd I miss?"
"Nothing." Mario chuckled. "Do you know that guard's name?"
"Well, yes, I do.his name's Hack. He's a genius with computers, or so I've heard."
"Well, I think he's leaving for break." Mario pointed out.
Kapi stuttered in surprise. "Oh! Well, uh, yeah, I, um, I guess he is. Uh, okay, come on then." She began to guide them through the formerly-guarded intersection. Mario and Kirby followed, each of them wearing a knowing grin.
Ow. That hurt.
What just happened? My head felt like it was gonna split open at any second.
Wait, I remember now. I had been running recon in Robotropolis, and was checking out the last sector before heading back.then I ran into some weird green light, and now I was here.
Well, I might as well get up and see where I was now. Man, I'm sore. Ouch.
Wow. Who lived here, Doctor Frankenstein? Really creepy dark motif going on here. I'd like to know what kind of lunatic designed this place's interior...it almost looked like a medieval castle, but it couldn't be. The Mobian Middle Ages happened around 2000 years ago! Nothing I know of can be that old and still be this well-kept.
Aha! Of course! The green light thing that I had run into looked like a portal. Had I entered a new Zone?
I had to have. None of the other Zones I've been in looked like this one. Awesome!
Time to explore!
Let's see...oddly-shaped suits of armor...crossed axes hanging on the walls...primitive torches lighting the way...maybe Dracula lives here too?...stone walls...paved floor...small armored turtles looking at me...barred windows...hey, wait a second!
Yep, they were definitely turtles. Wearing metal armor, carrying shields and spears. They're speaking some sort of weird language; I don't have a clue as to what they're saying. Man, Nicole would probably love to try and translate this...
Uh-oh. Now one of them is pointing his spear at me. Different language or no, I can tell a threat when I see one. I'd better leave!
ZOOM!
Yahoo! Nothing like a good run to wake you up in the morning. I love the exhilaration of speed that I get whenever I juice like this. Two seconds later, I'm in an entirely different section of the castle. If it is a castle, that is.
Man, how was I ever gonna find my way outta here? This place seems huge...
At about this point I made a huge mistake. I was so busy looking around myself that I forgot to look where I was going. I didn't see the hole in the floor until I was already falling into it.
"HOLY shiiiiiiiiiiii...."
Agh! Now I'm in some sort of tunnel. Ow! Did it have an end?! Oof! Every time it took a turn I got slammed up against the sides. Ouch! Maybe if I curled up and shielded my face....yeah, that's better. Now at least I had some protection against this crazy ride.
I could feel myself being tossed around every which way as the tunnel took several more turns. The whole time it continued to slant downwards at a steep angle. It seemed like a nightmare roller-coaster ride with no end...
Finally I felt myself shoot out of the tunnel into open air. The next thing I know, I'm breathing in a mouthful of unidentified gray muck. Gack! I uncurled and pulled my head up above its surface, gasping and choking for all I was worth. I coughed once and then went into a major coughing fit that left my throat burning. In this fashion I continued to expel the foul liquid until I was sure I'd gotten it all out. Man, whatever this stuff was it tasted horrible. Where was I?
I was in...
"A garbage pit?"
Oh man, and I'd nearly swallowed some of its sewage. Excuse me while I quietly retch. Yuck!
I hauled my dripping body out of the disgusting ooze and stood up to my full height to take stock of my surroundings. I'd apparently wound up in the castle's sewer. Joy. Hunks of rotting I-Don't-Want-To-Know surrounded me along with rusty pieces of metal and other unidentifiable objects. Gee, what an interesting smell this place had. It reminded me of...sweaty socks. No, wait, worse than that. More like Geoffrey St. John on a rainy day. Yeah, that's more like it.
Man, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. I think I preferred the creepy castle landscape to this place. Gross!
Crud, I can't get up enough speed for a good run outta here while my legs are underwater. Great, just great...
Waitaminnit, I've got an idea! I jumped up and began revving in midair. I came down running and shot off over the surface of the sewage like a bullet from a gun. Yee-ha! This was more like it!
Say, there's something up ahead.it almost looks like.a person! Hey, move out of the way! I can't slow down on top of the sewage! Quick! Move! Uh-oh, look out!!
CRASH! SPLAT!
Eeew, yuck! More sewage. Yecch, the collision had sprayed it everywhere. Who'd I run into?
!!!
It's an OVERLANDER! A human! What on Mobius was one of them doing here?! I thought all of them were supposed to be extinct, except for Robuttnik and Snotley! Oh wait, I forgot I was in another Zone. There's probably hundreds of humans here. I'll have to remember that...
"Hey, are you all right?" I asked, moving over to help her. She gave a shrill scream and scrambled to her feet to get away.
"Don't come near me! I won't go back to Bowser! I mean it!!" She screamed.
I got confused. "What the heck is a 'Bowser'?" I asked. It sounded almost like something you'd eat in breakfast cereal, I thought.
"Don't play stupid with me! I can tell you're one of those new recruits he's been hiring!" I suddenly noticed that there was another human beside the first. While the one talking to me was so covered in sewage as to render her clothes indescribable, the second was wearing a bright yellow dress with gloves. On her head she wore a pink crown. Say, now that I thought about it, the first person seemed to have a crown on her head too.
"Are you two princesses or something?" I asked curiously. Hey, it's not often that you meet two members of royalty at the bottom of some rat- infested sewer in an unknown medieval castle.
The first rolled her eyes. "Oh, give me a break. Like we'd really believe that you don't know who we are! Nice try pal, but we're not falling for it!"
I seriously wracked my brain, searching for any memory whatsoever pertaining to these two. I came up empty. I shook my head, and she snorted in disbelief.
The second tapped the first on the shoulder. "Um, Peach? Maybe he's telling the truth. After all, I don't recall any of Bowser's new recruits looking anything like him, even if they were different from Koopas."
I looked at myself. Tan belly, dark blue fur, and spines sticking out of my back that would put a porcupine to shame. I had to agree, there weren't many other animals in the universe that looked quite like I did. I looked at the first.what did that other girl call her? Peach?.and studied her expression, waiting for a response. At last she relented. "Maybe you're right, Daisy. Who are you, then?" This last was directed at me.
I gave a mock-bow. "Name's Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive. And believe me, I'm not joking when I say that. And you are?"
"Princess Peach Toadstool, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. This is my cousin, Princess Daisy, ruler of Sarasaland." She indicated the girl in yellow. She waved, and I waved back.
I rubbed the back of my neck, careful to not prick myself on my spines. "Um, sorry about what happened just now. I have trouble putting on the brakes while hydroplaning."
Peach looked at her sewage-soaked dress and laughed without humor. "Well, this is the icing on today's cake of bad luck." She exclaimed with odd uncaring. "We've been looking for a way out of here for the past hour."
I looked around. I hadn't noticed it before, but the sewer was huge. "Yeah, I can see why it'd take so long." I admitted.
Peach brushed her dripping hair out of the way and narrowed her eyes at me. "So, you're not allied with Bowser?"
Again with that name. "Who or what is a 'Bowser'?"
"A really big turtle with lots of spikes. He can breathe fire, and he weighs around one ton." Daisy clarified.
I tried to picture this creature and wound up laughing at the mental image I came up with. "Gee, sounds really ugly." I snickered. "I take it you two don't like him that much?"
"Are you KIDDING?! We-" Peach began. Daisy clapped a hand over her cousin's mouth to muffle her yells.
"No, not really." She replied casually as Peach began to struggle. "He's kidnapped Peach, here, several times." I nodded, and she let Peach go.
Peach glared at Daisy for a moment before addressing me. "Well, Sonic, any enemy of Bowser is a friend of mine. Nice to meet you."
"Same here!" Daisy chimed in.
I grinned. "Ditto, to both."
Brief silence resumed. Water dripped in the distance. Daisy let out a small cough.
"So.I take it that you got here through a drainage tunnel, correct?" Peach asked, more to start a conversation than anything else.
"If that's what you call that long tube I went through, then yeah." I pointed behind myself with my thumb. "I'm just walking along, minding my own business, right? When suddenly this huge freakin' hole in the floor shows up outta nowhere! I fell into it and now I'm here."
"Well, we're on the run from a whole bunch of armed guards named Koopa Troopas." Daisy piped up.
I nodded. "Yeah, I met some of 'em upstairs. Friendly, aren't they?"
Peach rolled her eyes again, but this time I knew the gesture wasn't aimed at me. "Sonic, you don't know the half of it. I suggest we start moving again before one of them finds us."
"Excellent idea." I approved. "But I know of a way that'll get us out faster. Here, each of you grab an arm." I turned around and held my arms out back behind me for them to take, and reluctantly they did so. "Now, whatever you do, HANG ON TIGHT. We'll be traveling pretty fast, and I don't want ya to slip loose, okay?"
Before either of them could voice a nervous objection I performed the same trick as before, jumping up and then coming down running. We were off! Their screams of surprise reverberated off the walls long after we were gone.
Link and Luigi arrived at Lon Lon ranch to find a near-hysterical Malon awaiting them. After several minutes of trying to get her to calm down, she finally managed to explain that Mario had disappeared from his room shortly after they'd left yesterday, and had been missing ever since. Luigi and Link were stunned. How'd he wake up? Where had he gone? Had someone kidnapped him?
Link almost decided to not go to the Lost Woods and instead stay to search for Mario, but that night Saria contacted Link again. She convinced him to continue the journey by pointing out that there was just as big a chance of Mario being in the Lost Woods than anywhere else. So the next day, Link and Luigi left the ranch and headed south towards the Kokiri Forest.
As they walked, Link talked openly to Luigi about his adventure through time to stop the supposed 'King of Evil', Ganondorf. The Lost Woods lay far to the southeast, near the edge of Hyrule's border. Between it and them were several miles of open plain, dotted sparingly with thin, skinny trees. Luigi didn't complain, though. Walking in the short, sparse grass would keep him a lot cleaner than, say, traversing a mud pit as a shortcut. Besides, the long journey gave him and Link more time to talk.
".and then when I used it, it sank down into the water and ALL of the fish went after it! I finally managed to catch the largest fish in the pond!" Link exclaimed, holding his hands out away from each other to show the length of the aquatic creature. "When I held it up to show it to the owner, the fish was taller than me! He said it was a monster of a fish, and it was too big for him to put on his weighing scale, but he estimated that it was at least 22 pounds!"
"Wow." Luigi was in awe.
"You said it! Anyway, we're almost there!" Link reported. He pointed up ahead of them to a thick, dense clove of trees which marked the entrance to the Kokiri Forest. From there, they would be able to travel to the adjoining Lost Woods. Luigi nodded. He was carrying provisions for their journey inside a small backpack which he had slung over one shoulder. Link had a similar bag attached to his back. Both of them had had plenty of time to wonder what this urgent threat to the forest was. Luigi, having been rather inexperienced with Hylian monsters, first thought of the Koopa Army. Then he had to keep reminding himself that he was in a different dimension, and that the Koopas wouldn't be there.
Link, for his part, thought that he might know. The possibility of a stray Wolfos or lost Deku scrub seemed to be the most logical explanations; However, Saria had described to him the destruction of the giant Redoak in her message yesterday, so he ruled that possibility out. He strained to think of some monster that could cast powerful magic. Perhaps the sorceress sisters Koume and Kotake had returned to Hyrule? He'd defeated them in the future, which meant they still existed in the past. It was entirely possible that they had decided to start wrecking havoc upon the Kokiri by themselves rather than wait for Ganon's orders.
Link slowly smiled. If the sisters had indeed returned, then he'd be prepared for them. One section of the flap which covered his pack's opening slipped off, revealing a brilliantly polished silver surface underneath that reflected the sunlight perfectly. Link noticed, and replaced the pack's cover. Yep, he'd definitely be prepared.
He and Luigi entered the dense thicket of trees side-by-side. A long, hollow log lay before them. The thing must've once been part of a colossal tree, since it was big enough to admit them both without their needing to stoop over. "This is the entrance to Kokiri Forest." Link explained. He shifted the weight of his pack from one shoulder to the other and glanced at Luigi. "Ready?"
"Yep!"
No more words were exchanged as they both ran inside.
Mario blinked. No way. It couldn't be. Had he just seen what he thought he'd seen?
He tapped Kirby on his head and motioned for him to look in the same direction he was. Kirby did, and nearly jumped in amazement.
"Pikachu?!"
The Pokemon froze from where he had been traveling down the hallway. As he turned to look at them, they saw that Dark Matter's purple glow was still present in his eyes. It recognized them, and suddenly bolted the rest of the way down the hallway at high speed. Within moments he was lost from sight.
Kirby cursed, and Mario cringed at his use of language. "I should have known!" the Dreamlander scolded himself. "It'd only make sense that Pikachu would be here if the rest of Dark Matter was!"
Mario unhooked his walkie-talkie. "Hey, Mega Man?" He then remembered that they weren't in Dreamland anymore. Darn, the walkie-talkie wouldn't work now-
"Yeah? What is it?" Mega Man's voice answered, surprising Mario far more than glimpsing Pikachu had.
"You can still hear us?!" Mario gasped.
"Yeah. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. What's the problem?"
Kirby snatched the small radio from Mario's grip. "Mega, you need to get to the problem's source, NOW. Pikachu and Dark Matter somehow managed to come here!"
There was silence on the other end for a couple seconds. "Hello? Mega? Can you hear us?" Kirby persisted.
Mega Man's sudden reply was slow in coming, and Kirby asked if he was there several more times. When the robot finally answered, his voice was grave. "I'll be right there. I just saw a few of Dark Matter's Eyes go in the direction of the disturbance. Hang on, guys." The connection broke. Kirby switched his Walkie-talkie off and handed it back to Mario, who re-attached it to his overalls.
"Man, this day is just getting weirder and weirder." Mario exclaimed.
Kirby grinned at him. "Mario, I believe you've just mastered the art of understatement."
Kapi, who had remained silent while all this was going on, now spoke up. "Who was that you were talking to just now?"
"A friend of ours. He's pretty far away from us, and I was surprised that the signal could still reach him."
"Oh. And that thing that ran down the tunnel?" Kapi asked while pointing at the tunnel in question.
"Also a friend. He's been possessed, just like you were."
Any further conversation was cut off by a soft humming noise, accompanied by Mega Man materializing in front of them in a green flash of light. He stumbled unsteadily and fell onto his back, dizzy and disoriented by his trip to Reality. Mario and Kirby raced over to help, while Kapi stayed back and watched.
"Mega Man! Are you okay?" Mario cried.
"Oh wow..what a ride.." Mega Man faintly replied. The world was spinning circles in front of him and his vision swam in and out of focus. "Could someone stop the room, please? I'd like to get off."
"C'mon, up you go!" Kirby grunted while trying to lift the heavy robot to his feet. Mario lent a hand, and steadied Mega Man when he wobbled unsteadily after becoming upright.
"Man, Kirby, you should've warned me about the side effects before I entered that portal. Yikes." He finally spoke. "I never knew trans- dimensional travel could be so disorienting."
"Yeah, well, now you know. How'd you manage to appear HERE, though?"
"Beats me." He muttered. "All I know is that I teleported to the problem's source, and landed right next to a green portal. Before I knew what was happening I got blown into it." He glanced at Kirby. "I think I understand what you meant by 'adverse wind currents', now."
Mario blinked. What? Had he missed something? He shook his head and turned to see where Kapi was.
.and froze in shock.
He spoke up. "Hey, guys? Uh.we've got company."
Kamek was floating on a newly-carved broomstick not ten feet away from the entire group. Standing next to him, surprise and anger written all over his face, was none other than Bowser himself.
Link and Saria greeted each other like old friends, which only made sense, because they were. Unfortunately, Saria was too worried to exchange pleasantries. Immediately after being introduced to Luigi, she asked them to follow her to the site of the blasted Redoak. She took them on a quick trip through some more log-tunnels, then abruptly turned off the path and dove into the trees. They followed, sticking close together. There was a very good reason for why this forest was named the Lost Woods; it was extremely easy to get lost in here, and once you got lost, you were never found again.
As Luigi walked close to Link's side, he recalled how the Hylian had told of his exploits in this forest, both in the present and seven years in the future. He'd explained with excitement how he'd gone to the Forest Temple and bested the ghost of Ganondorf's father, along with five sibling poltergeists, and rescued Saria from an enchanted sleep. He'd talked in great detail of the numerous times that he himself had gotten lost in these woods, by taking the wrong log-tunnel at intersections.
Link had warned Luigi very strongly against wandering off the ancient path that wound through the forest. It was said that the very first Kokiri to ever settle in the forest made the trail to help unwary travelers. As long as you stayed on it, you'd always find yourself at the Woods' entrance when you get lost. But if you strayed, the woods would swallow you up and no one would ever find you again. Only the Kokiri, with their heightened senses and strange connection to the forest, could navigate the woods without using the path.
As Luigi thought this he became increasingly nervous. What if they got separated from Saria? How would they get out again?
From what Link had told him, they wouldn't.
He suddenly hurried ahead until he was walking side-by-side with Saria, feeling a bit safer once he was close enough that there was little chance of them getting separated. Link followed and did the same.
Despite her worries, Saria had to giggle a bit at this. They both looked so cute when they were nervous.
"There it is." She spoke up, startling them both. She grinned at them, then her smile vanished as she remembered why they were here. They'd arrived at the edge of the clearing that marked the tree's former resting spot. Link hurried ahead, Luigi followed, and Saria brought up the rear.
Link studied the crater very closely. Something about it seemed familiar to him.
Luigi blinked over Link's shoulder when he saw and recognized the damage. "Hey! that's the crater from a laser-blast!"
Link looked up at him. "Huh?"
Luigi launched into a brief explanation on what a laser was, how they were made, et cetera. Link scratched his head when the plumber finished. "So.it's a beam of energy? And the energy comes from the sun?"
"No, no, no. It has energy SIMILAR to that of the sun. The energy is called 'plasma'." Luigi corrected. "It comes from small battery-packs that you attach to the laser-gun."
"Battery-packs?"
"Kind of like containers for storing energy."
Saria blinked twice. "Wow. That went completely over my head."
Luigi sighed. "Never mind. The point is, I know what weapon was used against the tree."
Link shot a confused glance at Saria. "I've never heard of a monster that could throw lasers-"
"Actually, the lasers are shot. Kind of like how you use a slingshot, only think of the laser beam in place of the stone."
"Oh, okay. Well, anyway, I can't think of any monsters that can.shoot.lasers. Whoever did this must've come from another world."
"You mean like an alien?!" Luigi gasped excitedly.
Link gave him a quizzical look. "A what?"
"Um.nothing, forget it."
Link shook his head. "No, I mean they got here from another dimension, like how you got here."
Luigi 'Ah'd in understanding. Link stood up. "Well, we're not going to find whoever it is around here. By the looks of things, they're long gone. They might not even be in Hyrule anymore."
Saria smiled. "That would certainly be a relief." She agreed. "Let's get back to the village and tell the other Kokiri." She bounded back into the forest, and they hastily followed.
"Tell me, Luigi. How do you know so much about lasers?" Link asked as they hurried after their guide.
"Well," Luigi started, "Bowser has a couple laser-guns that he sometimes uses on us as a last defense. One time he managed to build a massive laser- gun that could fire a beam with a 15-foot diameter."
"Ouch." Link winced.
"No kidding. He was planning to use it on the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom unless we handed Princess Peach over to him. But Mario destroyed it at the last minute, I think."
"You think?"
"Well, I wasn't there, so I don't really know for sure. At the time I had been visiting Peach's cousin, Daisy, in a neighboring kingdom called Sarasaland. I only heard about what had happened after I had gotten back."
Link gave Luigi a small smile. "You seem to like this Daisy a lot."
Luigi turned red. "Well.I, um.I mean, I don't.I.er." He stuttered.
"I mean, from what you've told me, you visit her quite often. Why?"
Luigi was completely red in the face by now. "I.I was checking up on her. You know, making sure she was safe and all."
Link rolled his eyes and grinned. "Right. Never mind." He cut Luigi off, seeing as how the topic made the plumber unusually nervous. Best to let him figure it out for himself, Link decided. It's funny how a lover can be blind to their own love, even when the love is glaringly obvious to everyone else, he mused.
Link's train of thought derailed as Luigi suddenly stopped walking and asked, "Where's Saria?"
Link blinked, looked up, and also stopped. They were standing in a completely unfamiliar section of the forest, and Saria was nowhere to be seen. Link looked all around in a circle, but he saw no sign of the little green-haired Kokiri.
"SARIA!" Link called out, hoping she could hear him. "SARIA, WHERE ARE YOU? SARIA!!"
No response. Birds twittered overhead. Branches creaked. Leaves rustled in a light wind. Luigi's breaths began to quicken with fear. Link cupped his hands around his mouth and called again.
"SARIA! LET ME HEAR FROM YOU!" He listened, but no reply came.
"We're lost." Luigi whispered, the implications of what was happening finally beginning to sink in.
"Shut up, Luigi! We're not lost!" Link growled, while praying that what he said was true. He called again, but either Saria was too far away to hear them, or wasn't able to hear his yells because of the plants and trees around them which muffled the noise.
"We're lost. We're lost!" Luigi repeated in fear, nearly hyperventilating. Panic was slowly taking over his mind. "WE'RE LOST!"
"Luigi, calm down! We're.hey! Get back here!" Luigi had succumbed to his panic and was now running into the trees, screaming his head off. Link quickly followed, not wanting them to get separated again.
Link could still hear his companion's yells from up ahead, and followed them. Every now and then, he would catch a glimpse of Luigi ducking through the forest. The green plumber was running blindly, heedless of where he was going. He crashed through a tangle of bushes that formed a near-wall inbetween two trees, and as Link ran to catch up, he got his foot caught on a vine and fell flat on his face. He came up struggling, and wound up getting himself even more tangled in the plant than before. Finally he sighed and cut himself free with his sword. He didn't like harming plants, but right now he was in a hurry. He ran up beside Luigi and brushed excess dirt off himself. The plumber had stopped running and was staring, openmouthed, at something ahead. Link followed his gaze, and nearly fell over again in surprise. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't this.
A makeshift campsite was set up in a clearing in front of them. A roaring fire crackled off to one side, with a pot of bubbling soup hanging over it. Tents dotted the area, and going to and fro between them were Koopas. They looked just like how Mario had described them. Link knew he would have laughed at their comical appearance if the situation hadn't been so serious.
Luigi's panic resumed full-force. He screamed. "AAAAAAHHHH!"
Everything froze. Silence descended upon all present.
Link took his hands off his ears. A ghost of Luigi's scream still rang in the air, reverberating off trees throughout the forest. Every Koopa in the clearing stopped whatever they had been doing and looked straight at the newcomers. Several of them recognized Luigi and grabbed spears and other weapons, held them up in a threatening gesture, then began advancing slowly forward. Link attempted to count them. His total: a heck of a lot. He gave Luigi a worried look. This wasn't good.
The Koopas charged.
Sonic was thought by some of his friends to be rather ignorant. Some of them even went so far as to think him stupid. The truth was, he simply saw some things as more important to know than others. Who really cared if he could do advanced Calculus, or quote lines from some obscure book? He certainly didn't. If he had been able to think of a single time that he'd ever use that nonsense in the future for practical purposes, things might be different. But as it was, he had erased it from his memory after the initial lessons and tests he'd been put through during his youth to see if he knew the information. It wasn't like he couldn't remember the knowledge if he tried -- he just didn't care enough about it to do so.
Despite this, however, there had always been certain categories in which he was very well learned. It never ceased to amaze people how well he knew them, but knew them he did, since he put them to good use every day:
Inertia, momentum, horsepower, velocity, centrifugal force, acceleration, deceleration, friction, gravity, vectors, Newton's Laws of Motion. He knew it all, if only because it played an integral role in his running. He remembered how he had always aced his Physics tests, even if he performed dismally in all his others. He knew the science so well, in fact, that within two seconds of running he could calculate his speed in miles per hour, like a mental speedometer.
At this point, while he was towing along two princesses through Bowser's sewer, he mentally calculated approximately how long he could continue running at this speed with Peach and Daisy's extra weight slowing him down. He estimated that at his current stamina, he could probably run for another nine to ten minutes before he collapsed from exhaustion. He made a mental note to be out of this dump before then.
There was a wall up ahead. Without thinking, Sonic tried to put on the brakes. Nothing happened, he just continued to slide along the liquid's surface at the same speed. He remembered that he couldn't stop on top of the sewage and almost growled in annoyance. At this speed, hitting that wall would hurt. Not to mention that he was towing two fragile humans that weren't as durable as he was.
Luckily, the Blue Blur noticed a broken piece of thin metal pipe lodged firmly in a mountain of garbage up ahead. The pipe was sticking out into his path. With mere miliseconds to act, he reached out and grabbed the metal cylinder with one hand.
Sonic gasped as the sudden, abrupt halt nearly made his arm dislocate from his shoulder. Fiery pain shot up his torso and engulfed his entire side. He gritted his teeth in agony and quietly told the princesses that they could let go now. They quickly did so, glad that their wild ride was over.
Sonic looked around, ignoring the throbbing pain around his shoulderblade. They had arrived in a small square room that adjoined the rest of the garbage pit. Unlike the rest of the pit, whose walls were made of stone, this room had rusty metal plating on its walls. The garbage was piled up impossibly high in here, creating small hills and valleys that blocked of his view from most of the room.
Peach blinked. "Where are we now?"
"I'd wager we're still in the garbage pit, Princess." Sonic ventured. He wrinkled his nose. "My, what a lovely smell we've discovered! It seems like it's even worse in here!"
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Daisy muttered.
A sudden chill swept through Sonic as he felt something cold and slimy slither by him. He yelped in surprise and pulled his foot out of the muck.
"What is it?" Peach demanded.
"Something just moved past my leg!" Sonic cried out.
A single eyeball placed on a thin stalk of membrane emerged from the water behind the princesses and looked around. "There!" Sonic yelled, pointing. "Do you see that?!"
Peach and Daisy whirled, but the eye dropped back into the water with a 'plop' just before they could see it. "See what?" Daisy asked, looking around and finding nothing unusual.
Sonic's reply was cut off as he was abruptly dragged underneath the water. He was cut off in mid-yell as he went under. Both Daisy and Peach screamed.
"Sonic!" Daisy cried, pushing flotsam and jetsam aside to get a clear look under the liquid. "Sonic!!"
Sonic suddenly burst up to the surface, a thick, brown tentacle the size of a tree trunk wrapped firmly around his neck. He gasped and wheezed for breath, grabbing the tentacle with both hands and struggling to get it off. He attempted to form some words. "Hit it! Hit it!"
"Where?" Peach cried. She was looking around frantically, looking for the source of the tentracle.
"Anywhere!" Sonic choked.
Peach pulled out the shiny sword she'd obtained earlier and began swinging with it while Daisy grabbed a couple sharp pieces of metal from the garbage and helped. Both of them randomly slashed into the water, hoping to hit whatever it was that had grabbed the hedgehog. Apparently they must have, because something let out a deep, pained roar and Sonic was pulled back under.
"Sonic!!"
Sonic suddenly burst to the surface again, this time without the tentacle. He sucked in breath after breath, relieving his oxygen debt and grateful to be alive.
"Where'd it go??" Peach demanded.
"I don't know.it just let go of me and swam away!" Sonic coughed, getting to his feet. He'd almost breathed in a mouthful of liquid under the surface.
All three of them paused as they heard a deep bass rumble and a clank of extending chains.
They blinked at each other. All was silent for a moment, then-
The creaking and squeaking of active machinery grew in pitch and intensity until it drowned out almost all other sound. Meanwhile, the metallic walls of the room began to slowly crush inwards. Their eyes grew wide in horrified realization as they realized where they were.
"It's a trash compactor!!" Sonic yelled.