Paper Mario one and a half
Chapter 21: Hero's Haven- Newcomer's Stadium
When Mario woke up about an hour later, he noticed he was in a fancy hotel room. "Whazzgoingon?" asked Mario groggily.
"You see", said Bow, "we found a fancy hotel while you fell asleep. We then carried you here and explained the story to the manager. He gave us a free room for us to stay in!"
"Sweet." replied Mario. "Hey, I'm going to get a snack. Be back in a bit." Mario then set off! He left the hotel room to enter a hallway with gold and red wallpaper! There was also shiny red carpeting. What a fancy hotel! He then walked to the right (facing ahead) from his door and followed the hallway to an intersection (facing forward). He then turned left at the first intersection. After a bit more walking, he turned right (for now on, he is facing forward) to another path. From THIS, he walked ahead until he finally found a vending machine to the left. "My god, the builders of this place sure made it a maze!"
He then walked inside the tiny break area and pulled out 5 coins. However, once he approached the machine, he found out that the machine was out of Mushroom Krunch Bars!
"Ohhhh….my…..God! THIS IS A NIGHTMARE!" yelled Mario, and he dashed around the hotel until he found the elevator. He then dived in, startling the Toads inside, and jammed the "lobby" button! Everyone looked uneasy as Mario breathed very deeply who looked like he would attack them any second! When the door opened, the people scurried out while Mario ran to the counter! He said in a shaky tone: "Ttthere aaare nnno Mmmushroom Kkkrunch Bbbars!"
"Sir," said the fancy Toad "we won't be getting any for a month."
"A MONTH! I will DIE by then! I NEED the bar!"
"Well, I have three. I could sell one for one hundred coins."
"DEAL!" Mario then stupidly reached into his pocket, pulled out 100 coins, and gave it to the guy in exchange for ONE candy bar. He then happily trotted back to the hotel room with Kolorado, Watt, Goombario, and Bow inside. Once inside, he ate the rest of it and told them about the 100-coin bar. This really startled Kolorado! "Old chap! You realize we are almost out of coins because of that!" "No. By the way, what supplies do we have?"
"Everyone, dump your junk onto the bed!" Everyone did, then Kolorado emptied the supplies. "Alright, everyone! We have: 25 coins from Mario, 1/2 a pancake, 3 packs of gum, 40 coins from the 'pack, the clue involved with that wild Yoshi, an enemy guide book, a grappling hook, 10 bombs from the 'pack, and finally, 2 bottles of water."
"Not too bad." says Bow. The group then decided to have (ewww) 1/10 of a pancake per person, 2/5 bottle of water per person (the hotel had cups w/ ice), and finally 6 pieces of gum per person (each pack had 10 pieces of gum). After that odd dinner, Kolorado checked the time. 7:45 PM. Since they slept so long, they decided to ignore sleeping for the night. The quintet traveled to the counterman at the entrance to the hotel. Kolorado asked for: 10 chocolate bar pack (25 coins), 2 litters of soda (20 coins for both), a booklet of the area (5 coins), and a "wireless lamp" that ran on oil, which has a 1 litter bottle of oil included (15 coins). After taking Mario's 25 coins, they used up all of the coins! They were poor (for now)!
After their shopping trip, Kolorado strapped back on the backpack and lead the way out of the hotel, since he was the one with the booklet.
"Hey, how come you get the guide book?" complained Bow.
"Because I've been doing archeology, so I know how to read maps better than you." replied Kolorado calmly.
"Jerk." whispers Bow, and the group follows him along the sidewalk.
They walked along the sidewalk for a while until they reached the bank. It was natural… at first. The group walked in because Mario said in a "lie-style" voice that he "had something in the bank to get". Once the quintet walked inside, they saw about 15 robbers with everyone tied up! "Go find a police officer, you four! I will take them head on!" yelled Mario, and the other four went dashing out of the building.
When everyone left, Mario rushed in to punch a robber, but it teleported behind him and sent Mario flying into a wall. Mario got up, turned around, and dashed to the robber, but when he got close, the robber started exchanging kicks and punches. He wasn't getting tired as Mario started to get badly injured. He finally fell on the ground, covered in bruises and blood. The plumber got up and exclaimed: "Wow! These guys are really tough for humans."
A red aura surrounded Mario as he became Fire Mario. The robber simply smirked as he threw off his mask. The results were frightening! His face was an orange, scaly beast with glowing, blood red eyes. He dad two silver horns where his ears would be, a very pointy snout like a bird beak, and a dark green shade on his chin. His mouth looked normal, except for the fact two sharp fangs were hanging out of his mouth. Finally, he had a couple strands of black hair. The head was a human shape and size… almost.
"Just as I thought. These robbers aren't human!" Fire Mario then charged to the guy and started punching at him in a fury. The creature easily blocked all of the blows and sent a sharp cut to FM's head, making him fly back. Fire Mario got up and shot a wave of 100 fireballs at the thing, which it reflected back at FM! He got hit by the balls and laid limply on the ground. He finally got up and weakly laughed a bit. "You are…good. But I still have two forms left." Fire Mario then transformed to MAXIMUM Fire Mario again. Now, knowing speed would kill him, he decided to use his most powerful attack, the Flame Obliterator.
FLAME OBLITERATOR
This
attack is a very powerful, damaging spell. The user gathers energy in
his fists, raises their power so they are glowing with fire energy,
and then they let out the energy in their fists and in their body at
the same time, which sends a wall of red fire at targets, who get
caught in a bubble of fire. All of the "bubbles" gather up to a
mass, and then they flatten to less than half an inch with a lot of
pressure. Finally, the victim's body fills up with heat, melting
their insides and sending them to their doom.
MFM sent the attack at the warrior, but after the flame filled his body and the smoke cleared, he was covered in fire, and then he faded back to normal. "Nnnnno wwwwway!" stuttered MFM as he turned back into Mario. He then fell on his knees in defeat. Right before the creature was going to kill Mario, he felt himself being lifted into the air and teleporting!
After he finished teleporting, he found himself in a city in the clouds! The roads were made out of black bricks, and millions of houses in shaded of white and gray surrounded him. He looked up and found… two suns! Wondering where he was, he walked forward, where he found a guy behind a counter labeled "Welcome!"
"Where am I?" asked Mario.
"You are at Hero's Haven." stated the man.
"Where's that?" asked Mario.
The man said, "At the Northern Galaxy, a place that is 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 light years away from the galaxy you lived in."
"Why am I here! How did I get here!"
"Calm down! I'm explaining everything. You see, right before a hero dies- oh, wondering what we call a hero? A hero is someone who has saved a royal person more than 5 times. Anyway, right before a hero dies, we take them to this place, let them train a bit, and we warp you back down, 1 minute after the time we took you down. Before you do go down, though, we set an enemy you have to defeat before you are ready to go back down. You spend a lot of time up here before you are nearly skilled to actually fight the enemy. Believe it or not, but you can get better than you are now! Well, there is A LOT of stuff to do up here, so I guess you should start out somewhere! I really recommend the Newcomer's Stadium first, since you really want to start out there. I will warp you."
"Got it."
The guy then swarms Mario in a red circle, and he is warped to a dimly lit, small, square room lit by candles. In the middle is a machine. Mario walks up to it and it comes to life!
"WELCOME, NEWCOMER. BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN, YOU MUST GET YOUR STATUS CHECK FIRST. PLEASE STEP INSIDE."
Mario does so. He is surrounded in a wave of light, then a piece of paper prints out. Mario grabs it. It says:
MARIO
Power Level: 207
Transformations: 3
Combat Type: Mage/Fighter
Form 1: 207 (Normal)
Form 2: 521 (Fire Mario)
Form 3: 1076 (Ultra Fire Mario)
Form 4: 3978 (Maximum Fire Mario)
Starting Rank: (12 stars: exceeds normal by a normal degree)
Attack Level: 387
Defense Level: 214
Energy Level: 402
Intelligence: 115 (basically your IQ)
Skill Technique Level: 65
Skill Technique Range: knows 2 special moves
Martial Arts Level: & (& mark: slightly above normal)
Spirit Connection Level: 7
Techniques (from level 1 to level 7):
Flame Obliterator (level 4 skill: very powerful and effective, but drains energy)
Super Fire Ball (level 3 skill: pretty effective, but drains energy and not that good)
Overall Ranking/ (4/7: above average)
"Not too bad, but I think I could do better." states Mario. Suddenly, the wall in front of the machine goes up, revealing a hidden passage. Mario follows it to a wooden door, which he opens. The second he enters, an elf with red hair, clothes that look exactly like Link but blue instead of green, a pack of arrows on his back, and a golden bow appears. "Finally! Some help!" says the elf.
"Uhhh, who are you?" asked Mario.
"My name's Jink. I'm Link's brother. Link is a famous hero. Anyway, I've been rescuing a princess several times without Link knowing. He doesn't even know he has a brother! Sad, right? Anyway, I almost died because I fought something called Ganondorf, but he nearly killed me! So, who are you?" He said all of this unusually fast.
"I'm Mario. Hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. I've rescued a princess literally along the lines of 100 times." stated Mario with pride. "Hey, why do you need help?"
"This is a puzzle. It says you need a friend to complete it. I already found out what to do. You have to hit each switch on each side of the door in front of us, but from a distance. If you do it close, you get hit by a dark matter ball! We have to do it at the same time. I can shoot an arrow. Do you need an arrow to throw?"
"Nope. I have fire powers, so I can simply fire a fireball."
They each line themselves up with each switch, and Jink shoots an arrow while Mario fires a fireball. Both connect at the same time, dropping a key. "Follow me." says Mario, and he picks up the key. After unlocking the door, they walk inside to a portal. A sign says, "Now You Must Separate Your Friend". Mario and Jink understand. Jink goes running in, followed by Mario.
Mario arrives at a dark, large room. Right in front of him is what looks like a Shyguy on fire with muscular arms. A sign reads, "Attack the Enemy Who Has the Same Strengths as You". Mario ran up to the enemy and started exchanging blows with it. Surprisingly, the enemy blocked everyone with ease and elbowed Mario backwards into the stone wall. He got up and quickly shot a fireball at the enemy, who simply absorbed it. This might be trouble thought Mario. He then transformed into Fire Mario and started exchanging a lot of blows. The enemy was having an easy time still avoiding the blows, and he kicked Mario into the wall. Fire Mario, getting desperate, transformed at last to Maximum Fire Mario, and charged into the enemy. He started punching forcefully into the fire thing, and it was taking a little bit of damage. The enemy suddenly got grabbed by MFM, and MFM started beating the thing with his free hand. Finally, he let go and kicked it into a wall, where it died. Breathing very hard, he became regular Mario again.
"This is the first time I knew that there were so many enemies stronger than me! I really have to make progress here." stated Mario surprisingly. Suddenly, a loud rumbling came from the door, indicating that a new passage opened. The plumber followed the passage to another door, which he entered.
This room was pitch black, so he made a fireball he used for light and walk forward to the large part of the room. Inside, he met yet another sign, which read "Use Your Spirit Connection to Guide You through the Room". Having no clue what that meant, Mario's fireball suddenly went out! He then walked more inside the room, and guessing he had to, Mario sat down, closed his eyes, and tried to get a spirit connection. Suddenly, he was surrounded by a mass of white things, which combined into a white sphere! He, with his eyes closed, followed it to the other end of the room, around all of the dark energy balls scattered all throughout the room. At the other end, Mario opened his eyes and the sphere went away. The door creaked as Mario walked through into a much better lit room. To the left and right were 8 wires connected each to an up and down arrow and "A" button pad with a screen. There were four on each side. In the middle of the room was a bookshelf with books. A sign right by him read "Solve all of the puzzles by intelligence. The books have the answers." Knowing what that meant, Mario walked to the farthest one to the left and pressed "A". The screen lit up and a computer voice said: "WHAT DOES 'TNT' STAND FOR?" Then, 5 options appeared below. Having no clue, Mario walked to the bookshelf and browsed through books until he found one named Roman's Guide to Explosives: R-T. Mario flicked through the pages until he found a page for TNT. It said:
TNT, or trinitrotoluene, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene is better known by its initials, TNT. It is an important explosive, since it can very quickly change from a solid into hot expanding gases. Two moles of solid TNT almost instantly changes to 15 moles of hot gases plus some powdered carbon, which gives a dark sooty appearance to the explosion. This is where another explosive,
TNT is explosive for two reasons. First, it contains the elements carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, which means that when the material burns it produces highly stable substances (CO, CO2 and N2) with strong bonds, so releasing a great deal of energy. This is a common feature of most explosives; they invariably consist of many nitrogen or oxygen containing groups (usually in the form of 2, 3 or more nitro-groups), attached to a small, constricted organic backbone.
However, explosives like TNT, actually have less potential energy than gasoline, but it is the high velocity at which this energy is released that produces the blast pressure. This very high speed reaction is called a detonation. TNT has a detonation velocity of 6,940 m/s compared to 1,680 m/s for the detonation of pentane in air, and the 0.34 m/s stoichiometric flame speed of gasoline combustion in air.
The second fact that makes TNT explosive is that it is chemically unstable - the nitro groups are so closely packed that they experience a great deal of strain and hindrance to movement from their neighboring groups. Thus it doesn't take much of an initiating force to break some of the strained bonds, and the molecule then flies apart. Typically 1 gram of TNT produces about 1 liter of gas, which is a 1000 fold increase in volume. This expanding hot gas can be used to propel a projectile, such as a bullet from a gun, or for demolition purposes.
There are a number of advantages that TNT has for ammunition manufacturers. First, it melts at a reasonably low temperature (81°C), which means it can be readily melted and poured into shells and bombs. Secondly, it is not too unstable - allowing it to be handled reasonably safely during manufacture and operation. TNT will not spontaneously explode, and in fact can be treated quite roughly. In order to initiate the explosion, TNT must first be detonated using a pressure wave from another, more easily induced explosion from another explosive called a detonator. One such detonator is lead azide, Pb(N3)2, which explodes when struck or if an electric discharge is passed through it.
When Mario finished reading, he learned a lot about TNT, not only its real name. Because of this, his IQ went up! Anyway, Mario walked to the arrow contraption and moved the selector to trinitrotoluene and pressed "A". The thing glowed and turned red! Mario, moving to the next one, pressed the button on the one right next to it. It said, "DEFINE EMC2." Mario yet again ran to the bookshelf and found a book labeled Common Abbreviations. He found the small paragraph, which said:
EMC2
Energy mass times the speed of light squared
Einstein's equation.
Mario yet again ran back to the button thing and selected the right answer, so it also turned red.
This basically repeated 4 more times, the questions being "HOW OLD WAS GEORGE WASHINGTON BEFORE HE DIED (Mario looked up in A President's History)?", "WHAT IS 360xr/66+352, for r 2 (Mario looked up in Algebra: Level 1)?", "WHO IS MARIO'S BROTHER (Mario thought it was an odd question, since the answer needed no research)?", and finally, "WHAT WAS YOUR POWER LEVEL BEFORE YOU WENT INTO THE FUTURE EARLIER (Mario remembered it was 192, so he didn't need to research it)?"
After all of the questions were answered, the door creaked open, so Mario walked through to another room.
This room was very weird. There was a bench press right in the middle of the room, but some metal fists hanged above it. A sign nearby read, "This exercise raises your strength and defense (endurance)." The sign made everything make since, so Mario hopped under the weight and started lifting. Wow, it was easy! The weight weighed only 10 pounds! Suddenly, the fists came down onto Mario's chest, but it felt kind of light, so it didn't hurt him.
After the fists, the weights increased to 20 pounds, and the fists came down harder. Then 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds, and finally, at 60 pounds, the metal fists grew some spikes on the bottom. Mario, slightly sore, wasn't looking forward to that. After they did some damage to Mario, the weight went up to 80 pounds! 100! 120! 140! 160! At 180 pounds, the fists suddenly turned into diamond and the spikes grew longer. Mario wasn't enjoying the pain. Weights went to 210 pounds. 240. 270. 300. 310. At 310 pounds, lifting started to become difficult, but worst of all, the fists grew bulkier. Next thing Mario knew the fist SLAMMED into Mario's chest, hurting him a lot. But, he kept going! 350 pounds. 390 pounds. 430 pounds. By 430 pounds, Mario looked as if he would die! His whole body hurt, his chest throbbed, but he KEPT GOING! Finally, the weights skipped from 430 pounds to 500! The fists suddenly glowed in a yellow energy and it SLAMMED the fists into Mario, who cried louder than any living creature! He jumped off, then the door opened. Thankful, Mario ran through to a stone ramp. He ran up it to a door. After opening it, he came to a long, steep upward stone ramp. After taking a minute of running up, he finally reached a glass door, which he opened. He was outside, on some black street, next to around 20 glass doors all evenly spaced. 30 seconds later, he saw a glass door open up to the right of his, and out stepped Jink, puffing frantically and covered in bloody scratches.
"What happened!" cried Mario as he ran to him.
Jink replied, "It was (huff) a very har (huff) d journey in (huff) there. Got (huff) beaten up by a (huff) (huff) monster that has my same abilities (huff) (huff) (huff) (huff)."
"Well, at least it's over." said Mario as a paper suddenly appeared above his glass door. He looked at it again, which was his status.
MARIO
Power Level: 207(old) 243 (new)
Transformations: 3
Combat Type: Mage/Fighter
Form 1: 207 (Normal) (old) 243 (new)
Form 2: 521 (Fire Mario) (old) 589 (new)
Form 3: 1076 (Ultra Fire Mario) (old) 1112 (new)
Form 4: 3978 (Maximum Fire Mario) (old) 4217 (new)
Starting Rank: (13 stars: exceeds normal by a chunk degree)
Attack Level: 387 (old) 434 (new)
Defense Level: 214 (old) 276 (new)
Energy Level: 402 (old) 430 (new)
Intelligence: 115 (basically your IQ) (old) 123 (new)
Skill Technique Level: 65 (old) 67 (new)
Skill Technique Range: knows 2 special moves
Martial Arts Level: & (& mark: slightly above normal)
Spirit Connection Level: 7 (old) 45 (new)
Techniques (from level 1 to level 7):
Flame Obliterator (level 4 skill: very powerful and effective, but drains energy)
Super Fire Ball (level 3 skill: pretty effective, but drains energy and not that good)
Overall Ranking/ (5/7: above average by a high amount)
"Wow, I really improved."
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Well, that was Chapter 21! Don't forget to review! Until next time!
