Reunited

Chapter 5: Prophecies

Eggo lays on the floor, screaming in pain while holding his shoulder with his hand. The beastly bird known as Rawk Hawk stands over him, coming in to finish the job. The Yoshi's eyes begin to close until he hears a yell.

"Eggo!" yells Goombella as the bird nears, "You have to fight! Not just for us or the world or yourself, but for Mario too!"

Upon hearing this, the Yoshi most know as Gonzalez Jr. begins to rise up while still holding his shoulder. As Eggo stands up, he is again punched down by Rawk Hawk who then grabs him and rolls him back to the ring then follows. There, the Yoshi again rises and is again punched down. And again. And again. After five or six times, the Hawk growls as if to say, "Stay down!" then swoops in for a tackle.

The Yoshi jumps and kicks Rawk a few times. While falling downward, he suddenly creates a shell around himself and fires directly into the front of the mask, blowing both combatants to the mat. The egg then disappears as Eggo jumps onto the shoulders of the hawk, who has sit up, and wraps his arms around his neck, beginning to strangle the bird.

Now the chants get even louder than ever. "GON-ZAL-EZ! GON-ZAL-EZ! GON-ZAL-EZ!" screams the crowd as Rawk begins fading out of consciousness. Just as Gonzalez Jr. begins to tighten his grip, the bird pulls himself to his feet and wraps his arms around the Yoshi in a bear hug. What looks like from far away an emotional embrace is instead a two-sided attempt to make the other man pass out first.

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Popple and Peasley walk through the streets of the city of Marrymore, looking for a place to restock.

"So, what kinda stores do they got up through here?" asks the thief of his royal ally.

"Well," replies Peasley, "there's a shop that sells weapons and mushrooms and stuff, but I doubt that we'll find anything we actually need to stock up on there besides drinks."

"Is that so? Well, what else, Princie?"

"That's about it for stores. There's a chef nearby, but he mostly caters to cakes and such. Plus, he's such a big fan of cooking that I highly doubt that he'd sell any ingredients to us for anything."

"I guess we'll go stock up on the drinks then. Any area nearby where I might be able to find stuff to buy for stock purposes?"

"Well, about half a day to the east is a small coal-mining town called Moleville. They sell barrels worth of nonperishable food along with your basic digging tools and some powerful weapons there in case there is ever a rock slide or something."

"Then I guess we're going there, see? And we'd better be quick about it. We don't want to keep that stupid shark waiting."

Actually, Peasley did. He still wasn't comfortable about the idea and was only staying along with Popple on land because he knew that the thief could out-run him any day.

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Nothing's happening, thinks Vivian while watching the two fighters choke each other for what seemed like an eternity. I'd rather just see Rawk Hawk win than deal with the stress that comes with awaiting the decision. Similar thoughts run through the heads of her two comrades.

The two competitors in the ring continue their choking, neither one daring to remove even the slightest amount of pressure from the other. As the two's physical warfare appears to be in a stale-mate form, Gonzalez Jr.'s busy fighting Rawk Hawk in his own mind.

I've come this far, darn it! I cannot lose right here!

The Yoshi begins to tighten the grip on Rawk Hawk as the same is done by the bird on Eggo. Little do the two know that all they're doing is playing right into the plans of a certain apprentice who is watching from afar in the upper rows of seats.

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Doopliss sits in his throne, this time reading a small green book.

"Ah that Luigi. What a great story."

Upon saying this, the Duplighost sets down the book and picks up a similar book of a different color.

"I wonder if he ever rescued her or if someone else wound up doing it."

Suddenly the ghost recieves a knock on his door. He sighs, marks his place, and yells, "Come in!" In walks a tall, beautiful brunette woman. She wears a green shirt and green pants. Doopliss thinks she looks a touch familiar, but doesn't say anything.

"And who might you be?" asks the Duplighost of his unexpected visitor. I love these perks of being king, Doopliss thinks while looking at the woman.

"I'm just a goodwill ambassador from a nearby island and was wondering if I could have permission for myself and my group to set up a local government at that beach you bought from Isle Delfino recently," replies the woman, "I have a few ideas on how to improve the area and I also have reason to believe that a very valuable artifact is buried underneath of the hotel there. I can obviously only have the place torn down in order to obtain it if I have power there, which I don't. Believe me though, this is an extremely valuable artifact that would not only allow the entire building to be rebuilt but also boost the economy so greatly that it could compete with that of the Beanbean Kingdom."

"You mean the Sierra Beach?"

"Yes, I do."

"Oh, alright then. But this artifact had better prove to be as valuable as you claim it to be."

"Oh it will. You can trust me on that."

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Rawk Hawk and Eggo's struggle continues as both continue to apply pressure onto the other. Everyone can tell that Gonzalez Jr.'s lapsing in and out of conciousness just by looking at his face, but Rawk Hawk, though he is too, isn't as obvious because of the mask that he is wearing.

"I can't stand it! I wish that this would just end so that it wouldn't be so suspenseful!" yells Goombella over the louder-than-ever chants of Gonzalez.

As if one cue, the pressure releases from both of the combatants just seconds later until absolutly no damage is being done by either one and they both fall over to the ground and let go with Eggo laying on top of the out-cold Rawk. The promoter walks up, grabs Eggo's right art and Rawk Hawk's left, and holds them up. He then drops them, and both fall back down limply. He grabs his microphone after this and says, "Ladies and gentleman, both the champion and challenger have been rendered unconcious by each other. Because Rawk Hawk was locked into the move for longer and therefore further withstood the pressure, I hereby declare that Rawk Hawk is the winner and still the Glitz Pit Champion!"

The promoter then picks up the belt from outside the ring and lays it next to the bird, much to the anger of the entire crowd.

The audience boos extremely loudly, tossing garbage into the ring. Goombella, Koops, and Vivian go over the barricade and into the ring with Koops picking up Gonzalez Jr. and slinging one arm of the Yoshi's over his shoulder with Vivian doing the same on the other side. Goombella meanwhile bends over to pick up the belt when, to her surprise and shock, a bat swoops in, grabs it with its legs, and flies off out of the building!

"Goombella, where's the belt?" asks Koops as he and Vivian turn around to face Goombella while holding up the Yoshi.

"It was stolen by a bat!"

"A bat? That's odd... I wonder if this has anything to do with what we heard when we got here," replies Vivian, "I think that we should get back to Professor Gadd and tell him about this."

"Good idea."

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The next morning at around 3 a.m. the apprentice comes through the ground inside the compound in which she communicates with her master. There, she bows and holds the belt above her head.

"Ah... you not only brought the jewel, but the whole belt. Good, we can sell it for some extra funding. Now, the next jewel that you must seek out can only be aquired during a full moon- luckily tonight happens to be one."

"I shall not let you down. However, as it turns out, there is competition to us after all."

"Hmm? Is that so? Who is it then?"

"Just a group of three has-beens along with that fighter in the Glitz Pit known as Gonzalez Jr."

"Heh, that's it? I expect them to get one, maybe two, before us but the rest... all ours. Now get going to the sight of that pitiful King Boo's old mansion. There is where you shall find the Midnight Mansion where a demon known as Deathnify holds the Jewel of Memories."

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Goombella lies in bed asleep within a large hotel room with two beds. Vivian is in the other bed and Koops and Eggo are asleep in a similar room next door. Goombella is tossing and turning, groaning as sweat rolls down her face. She suddenly shoots up, gasping for breath.

"Vivian... Vivian!" she whispers to her friend. The Shadow Siren begins to stir and yawns, then sits up.

"What is it?" Vivian whispers back before yawning again.

"I just had an odd and extremely realistic nightmare. I think it has something to do with our quest. I figured I should tell you since you know about that kind of stuff."

"Alright, how'd it go?"

"It started off like this: all four of us found ourselves walking on floating blue land with all kinds of machines and stuff there. We walked along a bit and found an old assembly line cluttered with things like spears, axes, and spray paint. None of it worked. After this, we kept going and found a giant alarm clock. It was down just like everything else. We then continued even further and reached a factory. This factory was down just like everything outside it. There, we saw an odd bean-bow thing who told us that he'd his revenge upon on us and left, which was certainly odd as I've never seen this guy before yet he looked extremely familiar.

"Then there was a large silver vat thing filled with yellow liquid, but it looked like it hadn't been used in years just like everything else. As we walked past it, a huge door appeared before us and swept us all into it. Then I lapsed into an old recurring nightmare that I'd had from the time I got lost in an empty mall that my mom was downstairs taking inventory in when I was two to the time I was around seven.

"The dream was that I was a toddler and was lost again and no one was in the building at all this time. There were doors and windows and such that I could see people through, but even though they looked right at me they didn't seee me and the doors and windows were all locked. I even tried jumping at the windows but just... just bounced off.

"As I ran through, screaming and crying, it got to the weirdest part of all: flashes began to appear of Koops fighting Hooktail but being unable to damage her, you fighting Beldam and Marilyn with the same results, and Eggo reliving his fight with Rawk Hawk. Then all of us saw a bat except you. The one in your part came behind you and I woke up before I saw what it did."

"I don't like the way this dream sounds. It does sound a bit prophetic. This is especially considering that night before last I had a dream just like this only focusing on me fighting my sisters instead of on you. I even saw the bat behind me, but didn't see what happened because I woke up."

"See what I mean? It's creepy."

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Peasley carries a barrel of fish onto the ship while Popple carries a large box containing such items as grease, Reese Cups, and bread. After these items are put on board, the two go back down and carry up four 24-packs of Kero-Cola each(needless to say, that cost quite a bit). The two then go back and bring up a barrel filled with salt and a large amount of firewood.

"Well, I doubt that you actually needed for us to stock up this heavily for such a trip," Peasly says to the pirate while whiping sweat from his face.

"Well, I figured that I might as well stock up. Saves time for later, see? Plus it's a two-way trip and all... so really I've gotten a great amount. Plus, anything left over can be used by my crew."

"Good point. Anyway, what are you going to do to Jonathon Jones anyway?"

"I'm going to take that fish apart, that's what! I'm gonna rip out his teeth and kill his men with them! Shove that stupid thing of his straight through him! Destroy the whole ship!"

"Is that really such a good idea? It seems to me as though simply taking an eye for an eye would be enough..."

"Eye for an eye? Not good enough for me."

The two beans get to putting everything away.

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The two girls sit in the hotel room, talking about the dreams and what they could mean when suddenly the door to the room opens. The two turn toward it as Eggo and Koops both walk into the room looking the same way as Goombella had when she woke up. After both explain the dreams they've just had, they all come to the general consensus that someone is trying to do one of two things.

"I think that this villain's playing some psychological warfare on us," Goombella concludes, "or that someone is trying to warn us about this door."