No Such Thing
Chapter 16 - Amnesia
Well, since it's pretty obvious that the mission for Mario and the gang is not going to be just a walk in the park, I say that things are finally starting to kick off... slowly. The plot is slowly going to build from here on out as everyone tries to solve everything.
Still, it took sixteen chapters to finally get this going. Slow startup sure, but since I came back from my big hiatus, it was worth it in the end to finally start writing again. Not much to say here, so I guess I'll say more in the outro.
~KF
"Okay, so how bad is this one?"
Mario, Peach, and Ludwig were all in a hospital room in the Dark Lands. Once they have gotten Yoshi to agree to the plan, they knew that they had to act as fast as possible before the situation could go downhill even further. To no one's surprise, there were quite a number of victims that were injured. However, no exact number was reported to the channel 10 Dark Land News, yet. Nonetheless, with the numerous way of transportation getting Yoshis and cavemen from Dinosaur Land, one could already tell that there were quite a lot of casualties.
The reception to the inhabitants of the Dinosaur Land coming to the Dark Lands were mixed to positive. For the most part, people were either glad to have them because of the circumstances, or they simply did not care too much for them, since they knew that Bowser had little to no relationship with the people of the former. That being said, it is the reason on why some inhabitants of his own land were not exactly in the best mood.
In spite of all this, at the end of the day, they were still victims who needed help no matter what. No one could ever imagine what they went through. Of course Ludwig felt somewhat guilty of the whole thing for obvious reasons, and Peach kept the most saddened look on her face. Mario meanwhile simply stared at the chaos that was going on. He could not even think of what was happening in the emergency room.
Yet in this case in particular, the victim the three were staring at in the hospital bed was completely irrelevant to the recent events. A cavemen from Dinosaur Lands happened to be already in the hospital prior to the catastrophe of his home land. He was visiting the Dark Lands with his family and ended up staying for a week, but during a walk on the final day of their say, a car accident occurred as the caveman was hit by a drunk driver after running through a red light and almost killing him while it was his turn to cross the street.
"On a scale of one to ten," a Paratroopa doctor looked at his patient. "I'd say an eight. He only woke up one time since the accident, but luckily he's going to be fine. The family should return here shortly."
All Peach could do is stare at the caveman. She knew that unbeknownst to him, he was going to hear that a lot of his fellow inhabitants from his home land were also being transported to the Dark Land hospital.
The main reason on why she, Mario, and Ludwig were at the hospital was simply because of curiosity. Since Peach expected this to be bad, she asked Ludwig if she could take her to the hospital. Ludwig did not mind, since he was curious himself. They managed to drop off Yoshi at Dinosaur Land to help with the victims. Besides, since there was the possibility of Bowser returning to Dinosaur Land, they needed a hero to aid them
"..." The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom sighed and slowly shook her head.
"All I could say is that this one came here at the right time." The doctor continued to speak. "He could have been one of them you know."
Suddenly, a loud, rapid knock was sounded on the door, making the four of them rotated their heads around almost immediately. The doctor opened said door to find himself staring at one of his co-workers.
"Dr. Jean, we're getting even more company." A Koopa with a pink shell explained. "Dinosaur Land was apparently attacked again."
"WHAT!?"
"Bowser was apparently faster than we thought." Luigi explained to Toadsworth. "He uh... Well, at least we know where he is now, but still. Dinosaur Land is going to have an even more tragic time, now. ...It... it saddens me... All those poor Yoshis..."
Watching him hanging his head down, Toadsworth glanced behind him to see Roy and Larry there listening to the conversation. "...Boys, your father is at it again. I don't know what we're gonna do."
"...Okay, so Plan B, right?" Roy asked.
"What do you mean?"
"We were thinking if there are too many Dinosaur Land inhabitants for the Dark Lands to accommodate, if they need some of those people to come here to the Mushroom Kingdom, then we need to do that." One of the Peach's servants informed as he walked up to the older Toad.
Luigi sighed and turned around to walk in another direction. "I hope Mario, the princess, and Ludwig come back soon. Now we have even more stuff on our plate we need to worry about."
"Yeah, Ludwig better come back with his airship fast." Roy agreed. "I'm not the best with time, but it's already four in the morning, and we haven't gotten any sleep. He'd better hurry up."
"...And if he doesn't?" Larry questioned cocking his head to the side.
"...Then I'm getting someone to take me to the Dark Land hospital myself." He replied. "We might as well get Lemmy, Wendy, Morton, and Jr."
"I don't think we can all go..." The younger son of Bowser shook his head. "Peach said that it's probably best if at least a few of us stay here..."
"Why?"
"I forgot, okay!" Larry sighed in frustration holding his hands up. "It's hard trying to remember everything since the last couple days have been the worst of our lives, Roy!"
He facepalmed in response. "Okay, then. You and me."
Mario, Peach, and Ludwig have decided to leave the hospital to see the numbers of victims coming in the hospital from numerous ambulances. At that point, it was pretty clear that Dinosaur Land was trying their best to take care of their inhabitants of their own, but since the first attack already proved too much for them to handle, the second attack did not make anything better.
It started to show at the Dark Land hospital by doctors and nurses constantly panicking.
"Dr. Steven, I don't know how many more we can take." One of the nurses warned. "We'd better start transporting them to another hospital here. We already have our own to worry about, anyway."
With a heavy sigh, a Koopa with a blacks shell started to make his way back inside. "I'll make sure they'll make an announcement."
Peach was listening and she heard every word. She walked back to Mario and Ludwig who were busy looking at the new victims being carried into the hospital. "They're almost stuffed."
Mario sighed. "Great. ...Do you know how many more hospitals there are in the Dark Lands, Ludwig?"
"Quite a few." The blue-haired prince responded. "Then again, we only have so many. If things get even more out of control, Plan B is our next option. We need to inform everyone else back at the Mushroom Kingdom. I think we've spent enough time here for now."
"Ludwig?"
The eldest son of King Koopa whipped his head around thanks to a tap on the shoulder by the same nurse who was with Dr. Steven. "You might wanna take a look at this. Please come back inside."
As Ludwig, Mario, and Peach went to another patient's room, the Koopaling stared at the patient for a few moments in slight confusion before suddenly widening his eyes. "...Oh, Star Spirits..."
"What's wrong?" Peach asked out of curiosity.
"...I know this guy... He works at the castle."
-/-
Minutes later, Ludwig was in deep conversation with the patient in room 224. What was astonishing to Ludwig was that he remember the employee, but apparently the employee did not remember him.
"...You don't remember me? Do you remember father at least?"
"...No...? I don't know who your 'father' is." The irritated Koopa shook his head. "...The last thing I remember was me waking up with a large headache and me being surrounded by debris a few days ago."
"The nurse with red shell face Ludwig again. "I already told him that the debris he was mentioning was likely the castle that was destroyed."
"Oh, so he basically has amnesia." Mario concluded. "Simple as that."
"Can I go now?" The Koopa became more annoyed by the second.
"You can't go anywhere until you're cleared." The nurse replied. "Now you're expecting someone to see you in a few minutes."
"I'm here."
Ludwig widened his eyes again. The next Koopa that walked in was yet another employee of his father's back at the castle. He was actually the same chef who gave Wendy that steak.
"..."
"Prince Ludwig." He said. "I've been looking all over for you and your siblings. It took me a while to figure out that the eight of you were in the Mushroom Kingdom. How are you all holding up?"
"...Fine..." He could not find anymore words to say. His eyes met with Mario and Peach's. "This is Gervase. He serves as one of the chefs at the castle."
"...The castle? Then that means that not every minion of Bowser is on his side." Peach thought out loud. "Where were you during all this time? How did you get here? Are there any more of you here?"
"Yes, some of your co-workers attacked my siblings while we were trying to get to father." He formed a small glare. "...Do you know anything about this?"
Gervase stared blankly, and he was surprisingly calm during this whole time. However, he still heaved a great sigh out of the feeling of being overwhelmed. "...My apologies, Prince Ludwig Von Koopa. ...I have a simple answer: Most of Bowser's henchmen have been brainwashed."
I bet you didn't see that coming!
So yeah, plot twist right at the end of the chapter. Even without it, we still get to see how chaotic it was back at the Dark Lands now that they're taking care of some of the victims in Dinosaur Land. But the plot twist, though? Yeah, obviously this is going to have significant impact on the story. So with this cliffhanger, I bet some of you guys are excited on reading some of the answers to this big predicament, here.
Questions:
1. What was you overall view of the chaotic atmosphere of the Dark Lands?
2. Do you think the minions being brainwashed makes sense to why they aren't siding with the Koopalings in saving Bowser?
What do you like/dislike? I encourage everyone to review.