In this chapter, our heroes are going to look for more stolen belongings. And they'll also meet Gourmet Guy. Fortunately, bribing him is a piece of cake. And yes, I'm sure you saw what I did there.
They just might find a new party member inside the toybox.
Of course, if you've played Paper Mario, you probably know who it is.
Chapter 30: Watt's Up?
Lemmy Koopa hopped around on his yellow ball.
"Hahaha!" laughed the smallest of the Koopalings. He never got tired of riding upon it. Though he had to be careful to watch out for tacks, for obvious reasons.
The yellow ball had orange stars on it...because Lemmy Koopa envisioned himself as a star.
Why were the stars orange? They matched his shell, of course.
He giggled as he did so.
"I've been doing this for ages, yet it never stops being fun." remarked Lemmy. He was so happy thaf he got the ball as a birthday present from Bowser.
Though Lemmy couldn't see it, General Guy frowned underneath his mask.
He decided to call him out on it.
"How can you be so happy in a time like this? We're being invaded!" exclaimed General Guy. Already, some of the Shy Guys were starting to feel rather worried. They knew full well just how much Mario was a threat.
Bowser wasn't convinced Mario could beat him with the Star Rod in his possession (even though Mario had obtained three of the Star Spirits at that point), but General Guy wasn't nearly as strong as Bowser was, even if he was strong in his own right. That tank of his would no doubt come in handy, however.
"I don't think he'll get too far. We have Gourmet Guy to thank for that." answered Lemmy.
"I'm not so sure that he's trustworthy." answered the general. Apparently, bribing him was a piece of cake...literally.
"Well, you have your army. Do you trust them?" asked Lemmy.
"Yes, I do." nodded General Guy. He was sure that his army would obey the commands he gave them...even if they were ridiculous. Especially if they were ridiculous. He wondered if he had made a good choice recruiting such goofy soldiers. But at least they had strength in numbers.
"Good!" exclaimed the small Koopa. Personally he trusted him to keep the Star Spirit safe.
But of course, if he failed, he would guard the Star Spirit himself. Sometimes people just couldn't keep their promises.
Lincoln discovered that there were some chefs with the stolen cook book.
Apparently they wanted to make lots of sweets.
"Who wants chocolate?" asked one of the Chef Guys.
"Me! Me!" answered another one of the Shy Guys, raising his hand in the air.
"Tayce T is going to want that back..." noted Lincoln.
Although, some sweets wouldn't be bad right about now. Maybe they would restore his flower points?
He wasn't sure how food did that, but he wasn't complaining about it at all.
Lynn threw a football at one of the Shy Guys.
A Medi Guy suddenly showed up and started providing first aid to the injured Shy Guy.
"Hmm, maybe we should take care of him first." noted Lisa.
An enemy like that could prolong the battle...and give the other enemies more opportunities to attack.
So attacked the Medi Guys they did.
Without the Medi Guys, the Shy Guys felt demoralized.
They began to flee.
Those that didn't were stomped on by Mario.
"I wonder how many recipes Tayce T has..." said Lincoln.
Shortly afterwards, they encountered Gourmet Guy. He always seemed to carry silverware wherever he went.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like they could fight him to get through.
They would probably get crushed flat.
Maybe they could come up with a different method to get past him.
"Would you be willing to let us pass?" asked Lincoln.
"Not until you give me my favorite food!" exclaimed Gourmet Guy.
"And that is?" asked Lynn.
"CAKE!" exclaimed Gourmet Guy.
"He sure has an appetite." noted Lincoln.
"I sure hope he doesn't have a heart attack." remarked Lisa.
Lily nodded.
"I know a ghost who died from a heart attack..." remarked Lucy.
"Maybe I should meet him." answered Bow.
Fortunately, they had already returned the cookbook to Tayce T.
As such, making a cake for him wasn't so difficult.
Since Tayce T was so grateful for Mario and his friends for returning her cookbook to her, it was on the house.
As soon as Gourmet Guy ate the cake, he felt exquisite.
He began to jump up and down.
"Strange, I don't ever recall there being earthquakes in this toy box." questioned a Blue Shy Guy.
"Thank you so much! I love you guys!" exclaimed Gourmet Guy.
However, they didn't seem to be shy aside from Lucy.
He decided to leave to search for more food.
Apparently, he was a guy of his word.
On the subject of food, for some strange reason, there was spaghetti in front of a treasure chest.
"What is that doing there?" asked Lynn.
"I don't know." answered Bombette.
Mario decided not to question it, though he wondered for a second if the spaghetti had been poisoned.
As it turned out, it was not.
"Yummy!" cheered the plumber.
The treasure chest turned out to contain a key.
"My instincts tell me this leads to Harry's storeroom." said Lisa.
"Good. I would love to go shopping again." spoke Lola. And it would help them get the Star Spirit from the toybox.
"Besides, Lily is going to want another diaper change sooner or later." noted Lana.
"Poopoo!" shouted Lily.
Nearby, Kammy scratched her head. Maybe she should have stuck to blocks like before. But Mario was a pretty fierce hammerer.
As a reward, Harry gave them a few items from the storeroom.
As they explored the toybox once again after doing some shopping, they encountered General Guy.
"I think he's in charge here." suggested Goombario.
"He seems more serious than his troops." said Lisa.
For some strange reason he was in a dark room.
"Are you in charge here?" asked Lincoln.
"I sure am. You bribed the guard, didn't you?" asked the general.
"Yeah..." noted Lana.
"I figured hiring him as a guard was a tactical error. I always knew that bribing him would be a piece of cake..." noted the commander. Now he went AWOL.
"It kind of was." nodded Goombario.
"However, I still have this." claimed the leader of the Shy Guys.
The general pulled out one of the Star Spirit cards.
"You give that back!" exclaimed Kooper.
"If you manage to defeat me, I'll give it up. But before you do that, how about you fight the ghost that lurks in this room...he likes a challenge." noted General Guy.
At that very moment, a ghost with a big lantern appeared.
Though he did bear some resemblance to the Boos, he didn't appear to be as shy.
"Is this the guy?" asked Bombette.
"It's actually not a Shy Guy but yes." answered General Guy.
General Guy left while our heroes prepared to fight the poltergeist.
For some strange reason, the lantern seemed to be almost...alive.
"I'm going to hide in the darkness so you can't hit me! Hahahahaha!" laughed the Big Lantern Ghost.
BLF turned off his lantern.
"Where did he go?" asked Lincoln.
He suddenly found himself being punched in the face.
"Ow! Who hit me?" asked the boy.
He looked around to find out who did so.
Apparently, Big Lantern Ghost could see in the dark.
"Wasn't me." answered Lola. Though Lincoln might be a bit surprised to hear that given that she's been known to have aggressive tendencies.
A white fireball was then launched at Lana.
"Yikes! Where did that come from?" asked Lana.
It then occurred to them that perhaps BLG liked to perform sneak attacks.
"BOOO!" shouted BLG, appearing right behind Lily.
"Wahhhhh!" cried Lily.
"It seems with the Big Lantern Ghost using the cover of darkness, we won't be able to hit him...or see where his attacks are coming from." noted Lisa.
To put it simply, they were at a disadvantage. How were they supposed to defend themselves?
However, it turned out that Bow could also see in the dark.
She slapped Big Lantern Ghost with her fan.
"Ow! Darn it, I didn't think they would have a Boo on their side..." noted Big Lantern Ghost. Generally Boos liked to hide out in castles and scare people...yet ironically they were easily scared themselves.
"Why not?" asked Bow.
"I figured Mario and his friends would fear the darkness..." remarked the ghost.
"I'm afraid of the darkness..." noted Parakarry.
Unfortunately, that impaired his ability to fight.
Lucky for Lucy, she could see in the darkness too.
She proceeded to bite Big Lantern Ghost on the cheek.
He flinched.
"Are you some sort of vampire?" asked Big Lantern Ghost. Perhaps Gourmet Guy had some garlic that he could give him.
"Well, I would probably heal from that attack if I wasn't already full on health." noted Lucy.
But there was only so much that Bow and Lucy could do by themselves. It seemed this ghost was on the resilient side. He was definitely tougher than the Shy Guys that they had fought earlier.
Suddenly, Lincoln remembered something.
Didn't the Big Lantern Ghost turn off the lantern at the beginning of the fight?
Perhaps if they turned it back on, they'd be able to fight him more efficiently.
It was good of an idea as any.
"Hey Bow, could you hit that lantern? I think it might make our lives easier if you do." suggested Lincoln.
Bow nodded and began swatting the lantern.
Light began to fill the room.
The Big Lantern Ghost immediately realized what was going on.
"There goes my advantage..." remarked the aptly named ghost.
Mario leapt on the Big Lantern Ghost several times.
He might have been big, but he wasn't spiky, so Mario could leap on top of him.
Big Lantern Ghost attempted to stomp Mario, but with some careful maneuvering, Lana made him step on Bombette instead, who exploded.
"YEOW!" shouted the ghost.
He almost dropped his lantern. He wouldn't be happy if that happened.
Lincoln punched BLG.
Big Lantern Ghost fell on the floor.
As he did so, his lantern shattered.
"Fine. You win. I'm going to go visit some Medi Guys to patch me up. And I need a new lantern anyway." noted Big Lantern Ghost.
The big poltergeist left the scene.
Shortly afterwards, they heard a cry of celebration.
"Who said that?" asked Parakarry.
"Yes! I'm finally free! I'm free as a bird!" cheered Watt.
Much like a bird, she was capable of flight...and she had every intention to do so.
Watt began to fly around happily.
The party were surprised at the occurrence.
To be honest, Mario was reminded a bit of a Starman. But he got the feeling that touching the Spark wouldn't make him invincible.
For a moment, Lincoln wondered if it was one of the Star Spirits, though it was unusual considering they had just seen it earlier in the hands of the general. But upon closer inspection, the star-like being was emitting sparks. And last time he checked,
"There was somebody inside that lantern?" questioned Lynn.
"Well, the lantern didn't seem to be lit with a flame..." noted Lisa. Perhaps it made sense that it was lit by something that was alive.
Goombario nodded.
At that very moment, Watt noticed her rescuers.
"Thank you for saving me!" exclaimed the baby girl.
Lily noted that Watt reminded her of herself. Perhaps she too was smart for her age.
Mario gave Watt the thumbs up.
"How may I repay you?" asked the ball of electricity.
"Well, we need to get through the toy box somehow. You're actually not the only one who got imprisoned here..." said Lisa.
"Her abilities are the opposite of mine...how ironic." remarked Bow.
"Whatever gives us a versatile arsenal." said Goombario.
Curious, Lincoln wondered if he could try using Watt on his enemies.
All that electricity was bound to hurt.
She might be vulnerable to wind enemies, since it was an electric insulator (Lisa had told him that), but she would be great against Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps.
At that very moment, some Dark Boos appeared.
They began to examine their surroundings.
"Where'd the big guy go?" asked one of the Dark Boos. They were pretty sure he was there just a few minutes ago.
Unlike normal Boos, these Dark Boos could turn themselves invisible...much like Bow who was rather strong by the standards of her race.
Mario wondered if he should ask his brother for help. But his brother was petitioning for another Luigi's Mansion game at the moment.
Watt attacked the Dark Boos with electricity.
"Yeow!" exclaimed the Dark Boos.
Now they knew how a lightbulb felt.
They decided to leave. Watt was just too bright for them.
"Looks like making new friends is working out for us." said Goombario.
"Yeah." nodded Kooper.
"I'll say." answered Bow.
Meanwhile, General Guy realized the Big Lantern Ghost had been defeated.
He was going to have to come up with another strategy to keep the Star Spirit safe. Three of them had been lost already, so he was making extra sure to keep the fourth spirit safe.
Lemmy himself didn't seem too worried, but General Guy decided that he wasn't going to take any chances.
However, he realized that perhaps he could make a supersoldier.
The Smart Guys had made a formula that could enhance the fighting prowess of a Shy Guy.
There was only enough for one though at the moment.
There might be more in the future, but Mario and his friends were already approaching the war room. Basically they were out of time.
Which was a shame.
But even so, using a supersoldier against Lincoln and his family (honorary family included) could be useful.
He decided to go check on the results.
For some strange reason, this Shy Guy wasn't dressed so colorfully.
He was dressed in black.
In addition, he had a dark blue mask.
It seemed he was ready to take on the heroes.
"I just hope they don't bribe him with lemon candy." noted General Guy.
He didn't want a repeat of the incident with Gourmet Guy.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
In the next chapter, our heroes are going after General Guy. Can they defeat his army? And of course, there's also that tank to deal with.
If they manage to defeat General Guy, they'll be fighting Lemmy next. Maybe he should take the situation more seriously.
But before they face either of the two, they're going to be facing Lemmy's minion. His mighty one.