Paper Mario one and a half

Chapter 7

Mario ran to the middle of the arena, dropped in the small ditch, and waited. After 10 seconds, he remembered he had the torch and used the fire to burn the ropes off, and he pulled the bandanna off of Goombario.

"Mario! Bow! Kolorado! Is that you? What is-" Goombario exclaimed in shock.

"No time! We must leave this place!" interrupted Mario, and he grabbed Goombario. Together, they ran to the other side of the room and came to a metal door. Mario smashed it open and the group ran inside the new room.

With the help of the torch, they could see this darkened room. It was an area with a high ledge above, but there were steel steps by the ledge that leaded to the top! Running so fast they thought they would die, they ran up the stairs and entered through the door.

Finally, the last room! This showed a very wide area with a path going to the right, and the ceiling was daylight! Below, they saw the lava very high! By the looks of it, they had only 30 feet left before the lava got them! Still, they had only a 20 feet climb left!

They ran along the path on the side, went up the stone steps, and finally came to the small steps that led to the very top of the volcano. They just had 3 feet!

To spoil the happiness, Mario suddenly tripped over a rock and fell to the edge! Without noticing, Goombario walked behind Bow, stepped on Mario's fingers, and made him let go of the ledge, falling in the lava!

The team walked up the stairs, not noticing Mario falling, and they were finally on the top of the volcano! Suddenly, Kolorado dropped his hook, and it rolled down the steps. It connected to the rock Mario tripped over, and the rope fell right in front of the lava, so Mario could grab it!

He snatched the rope and climbed up to the top, and ran up the stairs. Filled with utter anger, he grabbed the hook and stomped over to Bow, Kolorado, and Goombario.

"You… almost… killed… me… back… there…" He was so angry, he could hardly speak!

"Huh? What do you me-" said Bow.

"SILENCE! GOOMBARIO, YOU STEPPED ON MY HANDS! YOU MADE ME FALL! HERE IS YOUR PRESENT!" and Mario walked over to Goombario, and kicked him.

"KOLORADO, YOU DIDN'T HELP! THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF YOU!"

Mario grabbed the hook, walked to the lava, and dropped the hook into the lava, where it boiled and burned.

"AND BOW, GIVE ME YOUR FAN!" and Mario walked over to her, snatched her fan, and smacked Bow with her own fan very hardly! He then threw the fan at Bow and stomped to the other side of the volcano, away from the group of 3.

Suddenly, the group of 3 looked down, saw the lava only 5 feet from them, and ran to Mario.

"Mario, we must leave now! The lava is only like 5 feet from us!" said Bow, Goombario, and Kolorado in panic.

"I don't care! I would rather die!" screamed Mario.

"What a bumming idiot!" hollered Bow.

"No worries, I will save us!" said Kolorado, and he came and picked up Mario. Now that they were ready, they ran to the edge and slowly walked down 10 feet, then they sat and slid all the way to the end, which ended up being the 1/4 of Jade Jungle that was never explored!

Finding a sturdy tree by the volcano, they jumped under the leaves and behind the bushes. Bow opened them and peeked inside.

The volcano finally let go. It suddenly shot lava into the air and sending fire meteors in all directions! Lava shot down the sides of the volcano in a quick stream, and it was heading for the tree where they were! With panic, Bow looked behind them and saw a river, but someone was standing in front of it with what looks like a huge wad of bombs! He used the nearby flinger to shoot it into the heart of the volcano, and the guy threw a smoke bomb and once Bow looked back, he or she was gone!

The bomb was going into the lava, until it lit. The fuse cord got smaller and closer to the bomb until…

BOOM!

A thunderous roar was heard from the volcano as it was spitting lava, and a large puff cloud shot out of the volcano, followed by lots of cracks building all over the rock! It cracked large cracks until it at last busted, sending one-ton rocks shooting in all directions. Most rocks missed the tree, 3 hit the tree, and once shot RIGHT PAST BOW'S TAIL, and she barely avoided it.

"Whew," Bow said "that was clo-"

Suddenly, a great finale happened! A HUGE clear shockwave shot out of the volcano, and it easily uprooted trees and sent rocks flying in the air, smashing into more trees. The shockwave smacked Mario, Bow, Kolorado, and Goombario right in the gut and sent them flying right through the trees.

Bow could barely keep her eyes opened as she slammed into tree after tree after tree until it finally stopped, then they skinned right into the beach and slid along the surface, dropping a small trail of blood on the beach there. All 3 were unconscious…

"Are they still alright?"

"Who are these people?"

"Hey, isn't that Mario and Bow and Goombario!"

"Isn't that that guy who was hunting for the treasure in the volcano 2 weeks or so ago?"

These were whispers Mario heard as his eyes finally came into focus. Once he was awake, he was staring into the eyes of some Yoshis leaning over them. He then very slowly got up, and a nearby Yoshi asked, "Do you know what just happened, Mario?"

Mario shook his head, and the Yoshi pointed to the island. Once Mario walked over to the edge of the ship they were on, Mario's mouth dropped open.

The once primitive and filled-with-life island was now destroyed. There were black, crispy trees, burnt grass, and piles of wood which Mario knew were the huts. That shockwave trashed the whole island!

The leader Yoshi came to Mario and explained about the island, "Mario, the island is obviously now gone. We were able to escape just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, this still didn't stop the evil shockwave. However, after the shockwave, we sent some scouts to check the volcano, for we knew that it came from that. Maybe we can look at possibly any clues for help on how this all happened! Well, we might as well wait. So, how did your adventures g-"

A Yoshi yelled to the leader, interrupting the speech. He told the leader to come to him.

After some seconds, the leader jumped in shock and ran to talk to Mario, "Mario! Our captain was reading a book on this island's history, and he says we can bring our island back to normal! You see, there is something called an Emerald Key somewhere underground, and he who has the key can put it in the locked box I have and a spirit comes out! And, he can grant ANY WISH! You know what this means!"

Mario responded by saying, "So I have to find an Emerald Key somewhere under this island, take it to you and unlock the locked box, and wish that your island is back to normal?"

"Yes!"

"Well, how do I find this if it is underground?"

"I remember seeing a cave in Green Fuzz Jungle!"

"Where's that?"

"The part of Jade Jungle you never explored!"

"What about you?"

"The part you never explored!

"Ohhh…"

And Mario got ready to go, when the scouts came back to the ship and walked up the rope ladder.

"We both found a marble-like thing! You will not believe this! Read it for yourself!" exclaimed one of the scouts, and he showed it to Mario and the leader. Both of them stared in shock as they read:

This is the Ultra High Tech Sonic Bomb

Copyright 2104

Made in USA 2.0

Use at own risk

Throw it, and once it is lit, it will explode, which is followed by a Hyper Sonic Blast, which spreads out by about 2 miles.

Mario said in shock to the leader: "This is impossible! How can it be made in the year 2104 if it is right now 2004! This thing will be made in 100 years!"

The leader answered by saying: "I don't know. This should be the first thing checked out, for if we revive it, they could blow it up again! First, go find out more about this weapon, then do something!"

"Okay! I also have some clues! The guy who threw them jumped in a river in the Green Fuzz Jungle, in the river!"

"Of course! Everyone knows that once you follow it to the end, you will find a cave underwater! Go to the river and follow it! Ohhh, and here are the keys to the jeep the scouts were driving. To reach the river, just follow the tire track trail the scouts left!"

The leader threw Mario the keys. Leaving Bow, Kolorado, and Goombario behind, Mario grabbed the keys, ran to the edge of the ship, and jumped down to the rope ladder, and climbed down. He swam to the land, climbed on, and ran to the jeep. After climbing in, he inserted the keys in the hole and started up the engine. With the roaring engine, Mario sped along the tire tracks.

Everywhere he look was covered in fire, black debris, or torn down trees and flipped rocks. After a long time of driving, he pulled over by the trashed volcano, hopped out, and ran to the tree they hid behind. After running along the path, he jumped in the river and waited for the river currents to stop shooting him down the river. After 3 minutes, he stopped at a dead-end. He dived underwater and sure enough there was an opening. He sped threw it, and was in the cave, he swam up to the surface, emerged, and swam to the piece of land.

After pulling himself out, he approached the switch and stepped on it. Suddenly, the entrance slammed shut and water poured in the place, flooding it! Mario was forced to swim, so he went into the middle as the water level rose. Now, the stone walls were now wooden walls! The water kept rising until it finally stopped. He then climbed onto the nearby land and stepped on the switch. The nearby wall cracked away, and an opening in the wooden wall sucked up all of the water in some sort of pipe, and once it was all gone, it sealed itself again. With the opened passage, Mario ran outside and ran across the grass bridge. It was amazing how odd all of this was!

Once the ending was reached, Mario stepped on the nearby switch and a laser suddenly shot him, and he was shrunken to 1 inch! As a midget, he ran through the hole in the wall and walked up to an elevator. Once he stepped in it, 2 leaves covered the elevator and the elevator connected to the bamboo rails. Now, it shot down very fast and it started to get warmer. Either it was Mario's imagination, but he saw the bamboo become blacker! Now, the elevator catched on fire as the fireball shot down, lighting up the darkened place! As the bottom, the elevator splashed into water to immediately put out the fire. It slowly went down until it was right above a glass walkway. The elevator landed in front of a small tube, and the leaves slightly opened up. Mario walked in the tube and slid down into the glass walkway and followed it to the end. After some pounding, the door opened up and Mario continued inside.

He was on a small ledge in front of a dark purple lake. He walked to the nearby page and read it out loud:

Dark Eco Lake

This is something called Dark Eco, which is found in about 400 years. After this was taken back from the future after some difficulty, it was untouched in this lake. To get past this, one must cross it without ANYTHING touching it, or you could either transform into a weaker creature or die, depending on the user's strength. Good luck on trying to cross it!

Well, Mario was stuck, for he had to but couldn't cross it… until he noticed an odd-looking rock. He picked it up and suddenly the rock turned into what looked like a missile! Mario jumped on, pressed the large red button, and it shot forward over the dark eco lake! Right before it smacked into the wall, Mario jumped off and the missile smacked into the wall and exploded! With that out of the way, Mario continued to the door and opened it with unusual ease to be in the final room, which was empty except for a key! Mario has finally found the Emerald Key!

Mario darted to see, but unfortunately it was only a skull key. Mario still picked it up and stuck it into a camouflaged stone padlock and opened the stone door. After following the large corridor, he arrived in a HUGE circular room filled with another dark eco lake and LARGE stairs! When he walked forward, another beam shot him and he returned to his normal size. Now, the room became smaller, but it was still pretty big. He walked up the stairs to a rock with a tube, and a carving read:

This is the Portal of Time. To make this work, you must first past the test, then you must speak the year, and it will teleport you to that year, the exact same second, minute, hour, day, week, and month of the time you jumped in the portal, so this can be useful! For the test, you must show true Chi. If the number on the tube exceeds 1,000 on the Power Level Scanner, then the portal can be used. Transformations are allowed.

So Mario stuck the tube on his head, and the numbers started bubbling until it read "192". Knowing this wasn't enough, Mario became Fire Mario and his strength and power greatly rose. Still, the number was only "496".

Fire Mario pushed hard and he screamed as fire rose around him, and his power level was sky-rocketing! Finally, Fire Mario became Ultra Fire Mario, which is the same, but he is a lot more buff and strong and has a lot more power, though his speed greatly goes down. The chart read "1,043" and the portal suddenly appeared. Impressed with his new Ultra Fire form, UFM walked into the portal to finally warp.

Once inside, UFM said clearly "Year 2104" and the portal turned a dark red. He walked into the portal and this is where things really got weird!

Well, this portal was certainly the oddest thing Mario ever went through! He was in a dark, swirly, colorful place as the scene did mind-boggling things. The temperature went up and dropped, and this place really seemed like a nightmare!

After the feeling of being pulled in, he was finally shot out of the portal, and he was in the year 2104, which is an unbelievable future!

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Thanks for reading this extra-long chapter! I bet you are wondering what the future is like! Please R&R, and await the next exciting chapter!