A/N – Hello everyone. Sorry for the extreme delay in this story. I was dealing with quite a bit of writer's block, but hopefully I'm over it for at least a while now. Please read and review! Enjoy.
Chapter Seven – New Friends and Secrets
Jimmy sat up against one of the cold, stone walls of the jail cell, his new friend Bombette perched silently by his side. The movement of the other bob-ombs inside the prison echoed off of the concrete walls that rose up high and disappeared from view.
"I wonder if my friends will ever come," Jimmy said sadly.
""C'mon, Jimmy. Have a little faith in your friends!" Bombette said reassuringly, getting to her feet. "I know they'll come through for you. They've known you for years; they wouldn't lose you in some strange, unknown land."
"I suppose," Jimmy said. But then, something caught his ear. It was a low, distant rumbling. Jimmy watched as the tiny pools of filthy water that dotted the stone floor began to dance and shake. The rumbling was getting louder now. And soon, it wasn't just a rumble, but a full on roar.
"Bombette, do-does a train g-go by here or something?" Jimmy said, his eyes wide as the ground now began to shake. Bombette backed up against a wall, fear too showing in her eyes.
"No, Jimmy. That's not a train."
"Then what is it?"
"It almost sounds like…Fuzzies!" she said, and as soon as the words left her mouth, the jail began to dim.
"Something's moving in front of the windows!" Jimmy screamed as he watched one window after another abruptly become devoid of light. The other occupants of the jail cell now ran about amid the chaos, screaming in fright. The whole jail was now completely engulfed in darkness, and suddenly, new screams mingled with those of the old ones.
"Who's there?" Jimmy yelled, clinging on to Bombette for dear life as he looked wildly around in the darkness.
Then, bright light flooded the prison cell as the windows suddenly became unblocked. Jimmy squinted in the sunlight, and noticed that the prison had become suddenly overpopulated. Koopas were everywhere, looking confused as they picked themselves off the floor to observe their new surroundings. Many new bob-ombs also had join the ranks of new captives in the large fortress.
"What the heck is going on here? And who are all of you?" Bombette asked, looking around the crowded cell.
"We're from Koopa Village. It's not far from here, but, we were all dragged here by…well, by a huge group of Fuzzies!" one koopa said. "Besides that, though, I guess we're kinda not sure what happened."
"Fuzzies! I knew it. How many were there?" Bombette asked.
"Enough to sweep a whole village all the way here!" another koopa said.
"I wonder why this happened," Bombette said. Jimmy's eyes widened.
"My friends! I bet those…Fuzzies are working for the Koopa Bros., and they used the Fuzzies to bring them here. But," Jimmy looked around the crowded cell. "I don't see anyone from Peach Creek."
"Peach Creek…are you talking about those kids that are traveling with Mario?" a koopa nearby asked.
"Yes! Those are my friends. Have you seen them?" Jimmy said hopefully. The koopa gave a look of anger.
"Yeah, I've seen them. They ran through our village just before those Fuzzies ripped through our town!" he said heatedly.
"Oh," Jimmy said, looking to the floor.
"Well, but they did help us out when we were in a tough situation," another koopa said. "And they drove the Fuzzies away in the first place."
"Well, where are they now?" Jimmy asked. The blank faces of the koopas did nothing to settle the young boy's stomach.
"I'm, not really sure. I haven't seen them since those Fuzzies swept us from the village."
"Great," Jimmy said. Bombette looked sympathetically at her friend. Suddenly, something caught her attention. A strange, muffled sound was echoing into the chamber. But there were too many people mumbling and shuffling around in the jail cell.
"Quite down, people! I hear something!" she shouted, and immediately the crowded cell fell silent. Now, it was clear that someone else had entered the fortress. But who did those voices belong to? "Jimmy…can you hear that?" she asked.
Jimmy lifted his head and looked at Bombette, and soon heard the voices of many people he knew quite well. "Yes! That's Sarah's voice, I'm sure of it. They did come to find me! They've finally come!" Jimmy exclaimed. Some of the other inhabitants of the cell began to catch Jimmy's infectious smile.
"Maybe they'll free us all! It would be nice to finally see the sun after all this time in this filthy cell," said one bob-omb hopefully.
"I can hear the voices now! It sounds like Mario and the other children," piped up a koopa from the far side of the cell. The people in the chamber now began to buzz with hope as Jimmy and Bombette struggled to make their way to the front of the cell, where they could listen better through the cold, metal bars.
"It sounds like they're very close," Bombette said. Jimmy nodded.
"I can make out more voices now. It sounds like they've got Kevin with them…there's Jonny and Rolf…ugh, Eddy…Sarah again…Nazz, Double D, Mario…Ed and Goombario! They're all there. But whose voice is that?" Jimmy said, looking at Bombette.
"Is that Kooper I hear?" said a koopa amidst the crowd at quite the convenient time.
"Kooper? Who is Kooper?" Jimmy asked.
"Kooper is a koopa from our village. Red scarf, blue shell…come to think of it, I haven't seen him since the Fuzzies swept through," the koopa answered.
Just then, the sound of a heavy iron door, with quite a bit of rust upon its hinges, echoed off of the stone walls of the large jail chamber. The voices, which had sounded muffled as they moved about the large fortress, suddenly sounded crystal clear.
"Oh great, where the heck are we now?" Sarah said, irritated. Double D squinted through the gloom, looking at the tiny windows perched up on the wall.
"This fortress' lighting is one of the poorest I've ever seen on a structure of this size," he exclaimed, causing Eddy to roll his eyes.
"It's called 'creating a mood', Mr. Know-It-All, jeez! It's not supposed to be all bright and cheery, it's a creepy fortress!" he said loudly as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Whatever," Kevin said, leaning against the wall.
"Oh my gosh! Guys! Guys, can you hear me? It's Jimmy, help!" Jimmy cried from in his jail cell. Sarah immediately perked up.
"Jimmy? Jimmy where are you?" she screamed.
"I'm in jail!"
"Jail? Why the heck are you in there?"
"It was those evil Koopa Bros.! They threw me in here!"
"Is that really why you're in there?"
"Shut up, Jonny!"
"Have you seen any of the village people, Jimmy?"
"I'm not really into disco…"
"Yes! It's us, from Koopa Village, we were swept into this jail cell. Save us!
"But we don't know where you are!"
"Why don't you follow this path up to…this extremely normal platform?"
"What? Who was that? Who are you?"
"Um…oops."
"Well, it looks like that mysterious voice might know something," Double D said, observing the room. "The only place we could go is up that ramp."
"But it sounds like Jimmy voice is coming from below us!" Sarah said.
"But no ramp leading downwards has been built here," Rolf pointed out.
"What? Are you leaving?" Jimmy said frantically.
"Do not worry, little one. We will be back!" Ed said as the party made their way up the ramp that wound around the wall. After walking for a couple of minutes, all the while the cries and pleas of Jimmy and the koopa's from the village getting more and more silent, the group finally came upon a platform.
"It's quite interesting how all of these…'question mark boxes' float in the air unassisted," Double D remarked, examining the box, which was the only thing on the platform that seemed to lead to nowhere. Everyone looked to Mario.
"Don't-a look at me."
"Well, just punch it or whatever," Kevin said. Mario nodded.
"Wait, I've got an idea! Let's crowd around Mario!" Nazz said.
"Great idea! I could get a closer look at these mysterious boxes," Double D exclaimed, and within seconds, Mario was at the center of a mass of people.
"Uh…is this-a necessary? Oh, whatever," Mario said, and with that, he jumped up and punched the block.
Gravity brought the chubby plumber back down from his jump, but his feet didn't hit solid stone. Instead, Mario, as well as everyone else, fell through the new trapdoor that had been triggered by the block. Now plummeting through gloomy space, the Peach Creek gang and their new friends let out collective screams as a voice suddenly made itself known…for the second time.
"Wow, that was easier than I thought. The great Mario and his little friends aren't smart enough to fall right into my trap!" said one of the Koopa Bros, though the kids did not know which one it was.
Soon enough, however, the gang's fall was broken by the cement floor of the jail cell, and the heads of many of its inhabitants.
"Ouch! What the…" screamed Bombette as many koopas toppled over her and Jimmy. Jimmy pushed the many creatures off of him to see what had just fallen into his cell. His face lit up as he saw that it was his friends.
"Sarah!" he screamed, as he scrambled over the bodies of many koopas to get to his friend.
"Jimmy!" Sarah screamed back, and pushed over anyone in between herself and Jimmy. The two met midway, and embraced as they celebrated their reunion.
"Oh, barf," Kevin said, rolling his eyes.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Eddy said.
"Well, now that we've found your friends…" Bombette interrupted, as Jimmy and Sarah broke their hug.
"Oh, yes. Guys, this is my new friend, Bombette. Bombette, these are my friends fromPeach Creek. They've come to save us!" Jimmy exclaimed happily.
"Uh oh," Rolf said, knowing what was coming.
"Um, Jimmy," Nazz said, smiling as nicely as she could. "Where are you?"
"In jail," he said brightly.
"OK…where am I?"
"In jail," he said, equally as bright.
The entire jail cell, which was now even more uncomfortably crowded, all looked at Jimmy, whose smile had not yet faltered. The cell sat in silence as the wheels inside the young boy's mind finally began to move. Of course, this turning process was slowed by the considerable amount of rust that had formed as of recently, but nonetheless the wheels were turning, and as they did, Jimmy began to cry.
"We're never going to get out of jail!" he cried loudly, as Sarah bent down to console her friend. Double D, however, whose wheels were not rusty but perfectly oiled and even a bit shiny, was formulating a plan as his young Peach Creek friend sobbed.
"Um, Bombette," Double D said over Jimmy's loud wailing. "You are a…bob-omb, and as a bob-omb you have the capability to explode, right?"
"That is correct. Why?" she said.
"Well, these stone walls seem to be a bit thin, and not in the best condition. I would think that you could probably blast a hole through the wall if you were to explode up against it," he said, pointing at the far wall of the jail cell. Suddenly, the cell got very loud.
"You mean all this time, all we had to do was blow a hole in the wall and we could have been free?" screamed a bob-omb, who had suddenly become quite mad.
"Well, I'm not saying that-" Double D started.
"Our freedom was always that close? That makes me MAD!" another bob-omb screamed, turning a bright red. And sure enough, the cell was soon dotted with angry bob-ombs who were steaming.
"I have a bad feeling about this, man," Nazz said, backing up against the wall with Rolf, Kevin, and numerous koopas.
Without warning, all of the bob-ombs in the jail cell blew, and of course, the force of a dozen bombs going off in a small area is enough to break through even a thick wall in perfect condition, made of much better concrete than the Koopa Bros. Fortress was made of. Within seconds, the walls, ceiling, and much of the second floor blew to pieces, and the fortress was, for the most part, destroyed in a flash.
Double D slowly opened his eyes, and looked around at his new surroundings, remembering the blast that had happened earlier. He was in a large hole that had appeared in the ground. He could see many of the walls of the ruins of the Koopa Bros. Fortress, and as he sat up, he saw many of his friends lying about on the ground, as well as all of the villagers and the previous jail cell inhabitants, the bob-ombs.
"Well, at least we're out of jail," he said, standing up and dusting himself off.
"Well, that was odd," Nazz said looking around and seeing that no one was seriously injured.
"How are we not…?" said Kevin, confused.
"Oh, well, you see, we could never seriously harm another person. And well, we were mad about being locked up in that stupid fortress, so we directed all of our explosive power towards the building. Of course, the blast effected everyone in the cell, with such close…closeness, but, at least we destroyed the building," Bombette explained. Suddenly, Rolf scooped Bombette off her feet.
"Rolf likes pink bomb creature and her taking action instead of sitting in the cell-of-do-nothing! Join us pink-bomb-who-speaks!" he said, looking enthusiastically at the destruction that was slightly visible at the top of the hole.
"Oh, really? You want me to come with you? That would be awesome! Is it OK, Mario?" she said happily.
"I don't-a see why not," he said.
"Lovely, lovely, everything's all better. Now could someone figure out a way out of this stupid hole?" Eddy yelled. Everyone looked around, and finally, Sarah spotted some vines, growing quite unexpectedly up the side of the hole.
One by one, the many people that had somehow found their way into the jail cell of the Koopa Bros. Fortress climbed their way out of the hole and back into the ruins of the fortress. Double D was the last one to start to climb the vines, but as he began his ascent, he slipped, and to catch his fall he grabbed the dirt wall of the hole, only to have it break away and send the boy falling a few feet to the ground.
As he got up, looking around to see if anyone had noticed his graceful flop, he himself noticed the stone that the dirt had been hiding. His eyes widened as he saw small, crude drawings that graced small bit of stone. Little figures of nine people, all drawn next each other. One wore a green shirt, another had a mop of blonde hair. Another had something that looked quite like a hunk of wood. One had a black hat the covered most of his head. Double D let his mouth drop open as he saw something that looked very much like crude drawings of himself, and his friends from Peach Creek. He was 10 feet underground, in a world in which he had never even known about. What were pictures of the Peach Creek gang doing anywhere in this world?
"For crying out loud, Double D, get a move on!" Sarah screamed, and Double D scrambled up the vines and joined his group of friends, many more questions than he ever imagined turning in his mind.
A/N – Well, it is FINALLY done. I felt really guilty on how slow the progress was going on this story, so I took nine hours out of my fall break Monday to get this chapter finally complete. I guess I was feeling a bit silly, because this chapter is one of my more comical and slightly random ones. I hope everyone likes it, because this is the first time I've had to look something up to put it in my story. Well, it took long enough to get here, so enjoy, and remember to read and review! Thanks.