Many apologies for the extended hiatus. That thing I said a few author notes back about life being butts? Yeah, that kind of ramped itself up into maximum overdrive lately. Hopefully it won't take me half a year to update again, though, sorry again about that...
"Mount Manjaw... I've heard stories about this place, and none of them have been pleasant."
Luigi let out a whimper as Yassie spoke. The two were clambering desperately after the quickly dissipating trail of luminescent goo that Spooky had left behind, struggling to keep an eye on it within the dark pathway they were on. It thankfully was the only pathway that had appeared since they entered the volcano, but both Luigi and Yassie knew that wouldn't be the case for very long.
"They say this was where a fierce battle took place ages and ages ago between the legendary hero, Kardarius Koover, and invaders from one of the neighboring kingdoms." Yassie said, somewhat impressively while running. "His forces were supposedly massively outnumbered, yet somehow, his small group overcame the odds dramatically and routed the opposing army. I suppose having something like a Dream Caster on your side would help in such a matter, but who knows how much of that story is actually true. Beyond that, Mount Manjaw is usually forbidden from the public, not only because its, well, lethally hot in here, but because there's supposed to be all manner of terrifying beasts roaming its caverns. Let's hope they really did all get chased to the other side of the volcano and we won't have to deal with them..."
"That's not likely..." Luigi grumbled, knowing full well already that they would end up having to cross paths with the hideous things, as that was just how things always seemed to work with him.
Chatter was soon brought to a minimum so the two could focus on keeping up with Spooky's trail, and soon enough, they had emerged from the long entry corridor into a, well, cavernous room, so to speak. To their slight relief, a few lanterns hung along the walls, giving the room a dim light, enough for the two to be able to see a few feet in front of them, at least. Unfortunately, that also meant the other occupants of the room, a small group of X-Nauts, could see them as well, and they quickly rushed at the duo, giving them little time to prepare.
"Gah!" Luigi groaned as he picked himself back up from one of the X-Nauts' surprise attack. "Urgh, not quite the warm welcome I was expecting..."
"Ugh, now's not the time for awful wordplays, Luigi!" Yassie chastised, as she too hopped back to her feet and into a battle pose. "I know pretty much the same as you do about these freaks, unfortunately, but they seem like pretty lowly mooks, if you ask me. HP is 5, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. Just looking at them, I can tell that they probably don't know how to do much more than throw their weight around at us, so just time their bodyslams and we should be golden, Luigi!"
The X-Nauts, predictably, took offense to being called 'lowly mooks', and even more predictably, proceeded to throw themselves at Luigi and Yassie again. This time, without the element of surprise, their attacks did little to the duo, and they were quickly taken care of.
"Urgh, I hope it's just because they've been in a volcano all this time, but those guys smell like they haven't bathed in years..." Yassie shuddered as the X-Nauts ran off, waving her hand in front of her face to try and dissipate the already hot and now also rancid air that pooled around her.
"I doubt the volcano has anything to do with it." Luigi muttered, thinking back to the vivid descriptions both his brother and the princess had used in describing the X-Nauts in the past. "Although, something tells me we won't be smelling like roses by the time we get out of here either."
"...Bleah." Yassie whined. "Let's get out of here as soon as possible, in that case, so I can get somewhere with a nice, hot shower... Er, scratch the hot part."
Getting back on the trail of Spooky's slobber, the two soon realized that they wouldn't likely be getting out of there anytime soon at all.
"Oh, no!" Luigi groaned, as the duo reached the end of the trail, which lead directly up to a predictably locked heavy metal door. Try as they may, neither Luigi nor Yassie could get the door to budge an inch, and they slumped down in unison, the overwhelming heat making their exhaustion that much more noticeable to them.
"Oh, great. Now what do we do?" Yassie exclaimed, glaring sourly at the door.
"I... Guess we look for the key." Luigi said, letting out a heavy sigh soon afterwards as he looked out at the rest of the cavernous room. Besides the entrance they had come from, and the one they were at now, there were two other openings, neither of them impeded by a door, but both also too dark to see very far down from where they were.
"Gah, but what about Kobaltia and Spooky?" Yassie whimpered, kicking the door in frustration. "Who knows how long it'll take us to find the key in a place like this, we'll probably end up going down the wrong path first and everything!"
Luigi stood still for a moment, a thoughtful look coming over his face as his mind processed the current situation. "...You know, this is probably going to sound really, REALLY dumb, but something tells me Spooky can handle this until we find the key." As Yassie looked back at him incredulously, Luigi tried his best to explain. "See, Mario and I have been in situations like this before, lots of times, actually, where we seemingly had no time to spare but had to go through a ridiculously long and complicated process to finally reach our destination, and we always somehow managed to arrive just in the nick of time, even when it seemed like it was literally impossible for us to have taken so long and for nothing bad to have happened in the meantime."
"Yassie blinked. And blinked again. "...You're joking."
"Nope." Luigi said simply, shaking his head. "Still, it'd probably be in our best interest not to dawdle regardless, because even in those times, we were still in a rush, so I'm not too keen on pushing the limits on this... Thing."
"...If you say so, Luigi." Yassie said finally, deciding to trust Luigi's judgment despite every bit of common sense in her mind screaming at her not to, because it's not like they had any other way to get through the door any faster, right...? "...Er, so which way do we go first?"
"Left is ALWAYS right." Luigi said, making an L shape with his left hand and then finger gunning it in the direction of the pathway that was in the northwest corner of the room.
"...Okay, maybe it's not ALWAYS right..." Luigi muttered in slight embarrassment. The duo didn't get very far into the room to the northwest before things suddenly got very bright, and somehow even more blisteringly hot than it already was. In fact, they didn't get very far into the room at all, seeing as the cause of the sudden brightness and heatwave was a massive chasm filled with boiling magma. Or lava. Or... Something. Listen, I'm just the narrator, not a volcanologist or anything, you can't expect me to know the difference between these type of things... ANYWAYS, their progress was halted rather abruptly, although tauntingly enough, there appeared to be another small opening into another room on the other side of the lava lake.
"Well, I can't imagine the key's going to be this way, at least." Yassie stated, trying to remain hopeful. "I mean, if we can't get over there, then there's no way those Koopa Brother morons or their goons could."
"Y-Yeah..." Luigi muttered, though he seemed too distracted by the entrance at the other side to pay much attention to what Yassie what saying.
"At least we didn't waste too much time going this way first." Yassie said, as she turned to leave the room, before having to turn back and grab Luigi to drag him back out with her. "Come on, Luigi! What happened to no dawdling?"
"...O-Oh, y-yeah, right..." Luigi mumbled, as he stared back longingly at the mysterious entrance until it faded from his sight. If there was one thing that years of adventuring had taught Luigi, besides left ALWAYS being right, it was that rooms like that ALWAYS held the rarest and most priceless of treasures... But no matter, they'd soon be back, surely.
Back out in the larger room, the two this time took the final southeastern passageway, emerging on the other side to a much more narrow room, though one that thankfully had torches adorning its walls as well. They were quickly spotted in this brighter room by a group of X-Nauts accompanied by a trio of miserable looking Goombas, one of each variety, who nonetheless made their way over to the duo to engage in battle with them. While the heat exhausted Goombas were easily dispatched, the X-Nauts proved a bit more troublesome. Taking advantage of the Goombas' presence as distractions and veritable meatshields, they managed to land a few solid hits on the also heat exhausted Luigi and Yassie before they were defeated. On the plus side, the room also contained a few items boxes, though they merely yielded a pocketful of coins, a rather unpleasantly warm and brown looking Honey Syrup, and a Dried Shroom, which Luigi regarded with contempt, taking it almost as a taunt after receiving the damage they did from the X-Nauts.
Regardless, once they had harvested the room of its meager treasures, they were faced with another branching path, both of them quite near to one another at the far end of the narrow hallway of a room. Figuring his sage wisdom couldn't be wrong twice, Luigi again chose the leftmost path. It took even less time for him to be proven wrong this time, as the room they emerged in no keys or chests to speak of. What it did contain, however, was a large wall of iron bars splitting the room in half, with an alarmingly high number of ragged, near game over townsfolk being blocked off on the side opposite Luigi and Yassie. On their side, all it contained was a single, snoozing X-Naut sitting at a small desk in front of the jail. Noticing this, the duo quickly brought the fingers to their lips in an effort to keep the jailed citizens hushed before they made any noise to wake it up.
"OH MY STARS, NORMAL PEOPLE!" instantly shouted one of the townsfolk as he caught sight of the heroes, causing the rest of them to all clamber over to the bars and clamor at them as well. Soon enough, a deafening roar of "SAVE US!" and "GET US OUT OF HERE!" began to echo around the cramped room, ending their stealth mission rather hastily, as one might expect.
"Jeez, something tells me we aren't going to be catching any breaks anytime soon..." Yassie said with a sigh, as she and Luigi readied themselves for battle with the now alert X-Naut. Unexpectedly, rather than bumrush them as the previous X-Nauts had all done immediately once they had caught sight of them, this one pulled out a whistle, its shrill noise being amplified greatly in the echo chamber of a room, and as Luigi and Yassie instinctively clutched their hands over their ears, they were taken by surprise by a group of three more X-Nauts which rushed in the entryway behind them, slamming them both painfully into the iron bars.
"...Welp, so much for that rescue." one of the townsfolk said with a sigh, which was echoed by the rest of the jailed citizens as they all slumped back down in depression at the sight of the heroes being knocked about like ragdolls.
Undeterred, Luigi and Yassie gritted their teeth and got back up quickly before the X-Nauts could get any more cheap shots in. Luckily, they were all predisposed buhing and huhing amongst themselves, something they seem to have picked up from Sliver, and the duo were able to get a few quick shots in themselves before the playing field evened itself out. Seeing this, the fickle townsfolk soon perked back up and were piled up against the bars, shouting words of encouragements at the heroes, making the fight feel as if it were taking place in the Glitz Pit rather than the middle of a volcano.
Perhaps taking note of this, Luigi decided to add a bit of flash to his attacks, never one to disappoint a captive audience. The stylish moves he pulled off wowed the 'crowd', even making Yassie step back and take notice, as she hastily shifted her focus to catching his display on camera, as he was handling the remaining X-Nauts with ease all on his own. Everyone oohed and ahhed, completely dazzled by Luigi's stylishness, right up to the point where he made one hammer-assisted backflip too many, crashing his head straight into the regrettably unlit and shockingly low ceiling, causing him to fall limply and harmlessly back to the ground as if he were a mere piece of paper.
... *COUGH*
Right, anyhow, this display thankfully got the X-Nauts laughing once more alongside the 'audience', giving Yassie enough time to knock them both out with a couple of swift egg shots before they could capitalize on Luigi's blunder. As soon as they were ran off, Yassie hustled over to where Luigi lay, rubbing the back of his head in pain.
"Shoot, you okay?" Yassie asked in concern, as she held out a hand to help Luigi up with.
"...Er, y-yeah, so long as you make sure that little bit gets erased from your archives, I will be." Luigi muttered out of earshot from the townsfolk as he got to his feet, seemingly hurt more in his pride than anywhere else, thankfully.
"Oh, of course, Luigi, sure thing!" Yassie said, grinning and nodding enthusiastically, distracting him from noticing her crossing her fingers behind her back. "Anyhoo, let's go and see if any of those poor townsfolk know where the key might be. Oh, and get them out of here too, of course. Probably in reverse order, ehehehe..."
Nodding, Luigi walked alongside Yassie up to the bars, where the townsfolk were all still wildly cheering like they'd just seen the Great Gonzales Jr. whoop another fool's behind at the Glitz Pit.
"Oh wow, that was SO AWESOME!" shouted the nearest townsperson as the duo approached the cage. "You guys got sent by the Axems to get us out, right?!"
Luigi and Yassie exchanged beleaguered glances at one another at the word 'Axem', neither of them in the mood to deal with any more nutjobs.
"If we say yes, will you tell us HOW to get you out of there, and then by chance how to open that big iron door in the main lobby?" Yassie asked in exasperation, not at all wanting to have to convince anyone else that they were talking crazy that day.
"Sure thing!" the Toad girl chirped, more than happy to assist another Axem devotee. "You need keys for both!"
"Yeah, we uh, kinda guessed that already, sunshine." Yassie stated irritably, already growing more impatient with this group than she had with the group in the shack. "You wouldn't happen to know where either of those keys are, would you?"
"Oh, of course!" the Toad responded with an eager nod, and to Luigi and Yassie's combined shock, she procured two keys from the swath of villagers, one large and iron, the other much smaller and more makeshift looking. "We snatched these from that dumb ol' guard a little while ago when he fell asleep a little too close to the bars, hehehe!"
"Wait, why haven't you used them to escape already, then?" Luigi asked in confusion, the obvious immediately springing to his and Yassie's minds.
"Oh, well, actually, to tell the truth, THIS one is the key to that big iron door you were talking about, I think..." the Toad said, holding the larger key aloft, before shifting to hold the smaller one up in its place. "...But THIS one, is actually for another jail cell in a completely different part of the volcano, rottenly enough! I guess that gross, wrinkly Ratooey didn't have too much faith in his guard in the first place, since when the putz called him to tell him he had 'lost' the keys, the Ratooey started going on about how it was a good thing he had given him and the other guard the wrong keys, since he knew something like that was bound to happen. Then he started buhing and huhing in this really creepy way, and told him he was lucky that he was too busy looking into a more mustachioed matter to deal with him at the moment."
"Oh..." Luigi said, as he and Yassie blinked at each other, dumbfounded. "Well, that's... Inconvenient."
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to give us that iron key so we can take care of business first, and then come back to get you guys out after we've driven those Koopa Brother morons and Axem Ranger idiots out from here, huh?" Yassie asked, putting on a sweet, innocent smile that she knew probably wasn't going to help at all.
The Toad grinned and nodded happily back, to Yassie's surprise. "Sure! I mean, you guys seem tru-"
"WAIT JUST A MINUTE!" snarled a Koopa from behind the Toad girl, who suddenly and swiftly snatched the iron key from her grasp as he pushed his way to the front of the cage. "Did you just call the Axem Rangers IDIOTS?!"
The other villagers simultaneously gasped in horror once they collectively realized what Yassie had said, and their gazes went from welcoming and gracious to hostile and suspicious in an instant.
"U-Um..." Yassie blinked rapidly, immediately smacking herself inwardly once she realized herself what she had said. "Gah, me and my big mouth..."
"YOU'RE NO HEROES AT ALL, ARE YOU?!" the Koopa shouted in disgust, the sound of the dreaded 'H word' striking a nerve with both Luigi and Yassie. "There's NO WAY that we'd give ANYTHING to the likes of a couple of Axem haters!"
"Oh man, not this again..." Luigi muttered in annoyance, pinching his nasal bridge between his fingers as he shook his head. "Okay, listen up, all of you. No, we're not friends of the Axems, but we're also not friends of the Koopa Brothers. As a matter of fact, the reason we're in such a rush to get through that iron door is because there's a good chance they're about to do something awful to the mayor's granddaughter, Kobaltia. We realize that it's only our word, but please, we HAVE to get through there as soon as possible, we SWEAR on our good names that we'll get you guys out of here as soon as we've dealt with them, so please, could you give us that key?"
While the villagers all seemed decidedly nonplussed with nearly everything that had come out of Luigi's mouth, namedropping Kobaltia seemed to have struck a chord, and the Koopa quickly huddled together with the rest of the townsfolk as they decided what they should do. Finally, they broke from their huddle, and the Koopa marched back up to the bars, getting right in Luigi's face but making sure to keep they key out of his and Yassie's reach.
"Alright, if what you say is true, then I suppose we have no choice but to surrender this key to you two..." the Koopa grumbled, Luigi and Yassie's eyes lighting up in excitement. That light was soon snuffed however, as the Koopa sharply continued. "BUT! There's the chance that you're lying, too! So here's the deal: We give you guys THIS key, the one to the other cell, you use it to free whoever they have cooped up in there, then get OUR key from the guard there, and come and free us. THEN, and only then, will we give you your precious key."
"Gah, but..." Luigi began helplessly, as he and Yassie looked pleadingly back at the Koopa, whose stance they realized wasn't going to be budging.
"...Fine, we'll do it your way." Yassie said bitterly, not wanting to waste any more time as she walked over and snatched the cell key from the Koopa. "But if anything happens to Kobaltia, it'll be on your heads, and we'll make sure the mayor knows all about that when we get out."
The duo decided to go without another word, leaving the Koopa and the other villagers to stew on Yassie's parting words, some of them already beginning to regret letting the stubborn Koopa speak for all of them.
"Well, hopefully it's not too much further to the other jail..." Yassie said with a sigh, though she knew with the way things were going so far that that was about as good of a chance of happening as a snowball surviving for longer than a second in their current location. Nevertheless, she and Luigi soldiered on through the other passageway, the two emerging in what had to be the longest, most narrow passage they had discovered so far. The hallway was so long, that even with the abundance of lamps, the two couldn't see all the way down to the other end of it. Though, disconcertingly enough, they could sure hear something, and whatever it was seemed to be getting closer and closer to them. Suddenly, the two caught sight of the source of the noise, as a couple of Bullet Bills shot out of the darkness in front of them, heading on a collision course straight for them!
Thinking quickly, or at least as quickly as he could given the situation, Luigi managed to pull out his hammer just in time to smack one of the Bullet Bills off course, sending it careening into a wall where it exploded. Unfortunately, neither he nor Yassie were quick enough to divert the course of the second one, and it slammed right into Luigi, hitting him for a good chunk of damage.
"L-Luigi!" Yassie cried, as she clambered over to Luigi.
"N-No time, keep moving!" Luigi groaned painfully, as he stumbled back to his feet as fast as he could and continued rushing forward, Yassie following in confusion right behind him.
"Luigi, what are you-"
"JUMP!" Luigi yelled suddenly, as another group of Bullet Bills appeared from the darkness ahead of them, the duo just managing to avoid them thanks to Luigi's cue. Noticing a small alcove to the right, Luigi hastily herded Yassie over to it, slumping down against the wall once they were out of harm's way in order to catch his breath as more groups of Bullet Bills continued to fire seemingly endlessly down the hallway.
"Those things never stop firing once they catch sight of somebody..." Luigi explained once he had gotten some air back into his lungs. Unfortunately, the small break also caused his adrenaline to wear off, and all the pain that came with getting smashed in the gut with a giant bullet came flooding into his body. He hated having to do it so soon, but he pulled out one of the few Mushrooms they had left and downed it in one gulp, as he knew he had to have been in the danger zone by that point after all the abuse he had taken since coming into the volcano.
"Ah, nuts, I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if you wanted any." Luigi said in shame once he realized he hadn't offered Yassie any of the Mushroom, realizing she had been beaten up pretty badly herself during the trip so far.
Yassie shook her head, however. "No worries, I'm good. But man oh man, I'm not looking forward to stepping back out there..."
"Yeah, me neither..." Luigi said in agreement, as he began studying the small alcove to see if there was anything that would be of use to them in getting through the hallway unscathed. As it turns out, right above them was a blue exclamation mark box, which neither had noticed up to that point as it was somewhat hidden in the darkness of the unlit alcove. "Well, it can't hurt." Luigi stated with a shrug, as he hopped up and bopped the block with his fist. Unfortunately, nothing happened as the two waited for it to take an effect on the barrage of Bullet Bills, the only thing either of them noticed was a faint ticking sound, like that of a clock, which slowly got more and more rapid and it finally stopped, causing the blue block to reappear above Luigi's head.
Luigi let out a sigh as he frowned. "Hmm. Well, whatever this does, it's on a timer, but I think we're gonna have to stop the Bill Blasters before we can figure out just what that is."
"Great." Yassie whimpered, as the two prepared to step back out into the open fire. Waiting until just after a pair of Bullet Bills whizzed by, the two scrambled back out into the hallway and rushed forward as fast as their tired legs could manage, using the sounds of the Bullet Bills as a cue for when to jump. Finally, after what had to be a good half a minute of near misses, the two found their way at the end of the hallway, the only thing standing between them and freedom being the pair of Bill Blaster that were sending out the endless stream of pain and terror. Raising his hammer above his head, Luigi timed one last jump over and sent it crashing down upon one of the Bill Blasters, doing a pitiful amount of damage to it.
"Gah, I forgot how tough these things were!" Luigi winced, as the force of the collision between his hammer and the Blaster reverberated throughout his aching body.
Yassie hastily whipped out her camera, as she realized she wasn't going to be able to do much else against the Blasters if Luigi's hammer couldn't. "You're not kidding, Luigi, these things are HARD! They've got 5 HP, 'technically' 0 Attack, and a hearty 2 Defense, but like you said, they're gonna keep shooting those Bullet Bills at us until we dismantle 'em! The Bullet Bills themselves only have 1 HP and 0 Defense, but they have an Attack of 3, and I don't think I need to tell you how much getting hit by one of them is gonna hurt! Oh, and don't bother wasting any Fire Flowers against the Blasters, by the way, 'cause they're immune to fire, too! I hope you have plenty of FP left, 'cause the only thing either of us can do to even scratch them is gonna be a Power Smash!"
Nodding in confirmation to Yassie, Luigi began to charge up a Power Smash, but was quickly interrupted by another group of Bullet Bills, and he ended up having to waste the attack on one of them as it zoomed towards him.
"Dang it!" Luigi grumbled, as he began another charge.
"Luigi, let me take care of the Bills, you focus on the Blasters!" Yassie exclaimed, as she hurled an egg at her Bill, then reached into her camera bag for something.
Nodding confidently, Luigi rushed forward and delivered a heavy strike to one of the Blasters before it could get another shot off. Nonetheless, it just barely clung on, giving it and its partner time to fire off another round while Luigi charged once more. Yassie, however, was ready, as she set down a Fire Flower in front of their opponents. While it indeed did absolutely nothing to the Blasters, that wasn't the case for the unfortunate Bills, both of whom blew up harmlessly as the Fire Flower's spores made contact with them.
"Nice thinking!" Luigi said to Yassie with a grin, before rushing forward and delivering a final, definitive strike to the first Blaster, cracking it in half right down the middle and putting it out of commission. With one out of the way, the other Blaster was no problem at all, as Yassie easily took care of the lone Bills, and Luigi was able to charge his last two Power Smashes at his leisure, making sure to finish the second Blaster off with a regular strike so as to conserve the precious little FP that he had. Feeling a little depleted regardless, Luigi made sure to chug down one of his Honey Syrups, which of course didn't taste at all pleasant after being superheated during the volcano trek, and it took Luigi considerable strength not to hurl it all back up.
Once the ordeal was over, Yassie wiped her brow and let out a heavy sigh. "Whew, that was intense..."
"Yeah it was." Luigi said in agreement, once his stomach stopped churning quite so much. "Oh, before we go on though, stay here for a second, I'll be right back."
Before Yassie could do much more than give him a puzzled looked, Luigi backtracked to the blue block from earlier, hitting it once more. Unable to see Yassie, he yelled out to her, "Hey Yassie, has anything appeared all of a sudden down there?"
"Yeah, there's red version of the blue block from earlier floating around now!" Yassie shouted back, before adding, "I'll just go ahead and hit it before you strain your voice anymore to ask me to!"
Smirking, Luigi made his way back to the other end where Yassie was, the ticking having stopped abruptly, signaling Yassie's deed.
"Here Luigi, these popped out of the block when I hit it." Yassie said once Luigi was back in view, walking up to him and handing him a small handful of five blue coins.
"Ooh, Blue Coins?" Luigi said in interest, as he studied the coins briefly before pocketing them. "These things are pretty rare, something tells me we shouldn't spend these like regular coins."
"You're the boss." Yassie said with a nod, though her words carried a tone of urgency to them. "We should get a move on, though."
"Ah, you're right." Luigi said, nodding back, and the two continued on their trek through the caverns. The next room was much more open than the last few rooms had been, though still not as large as the 'lobby' was. It was also rather empty, sans a group of haggard looking enemy Koopas and a single X-Naut. Learning from their earlier encounter, Luigi and Yassie took the X-Naut out first this time before focusing on the Koopas, and they managed to get out of the battle with hardly a scratch, a welcome change to the way most battles seemed to have been playing out so far. Once they had been dealt with, Luigi collected the one item box that was in the room, which actually happened to be an Attack FX R badge, uselessly enough. Luigi put it on regardless, and from then on every time he jumped or swung his hammer, he made a strange fwooshing sound, akin to that of a Podobo jumping out of a pool of lava.
"Well, it couldn't hurt." Luigi said with a shrug, as Yassie looked at him with doubts as to the badge's usefulness. "I mean, who knows, my bro beat a dragon by making his attacks sound like a cricket, maybe the Koopa Brothers or Axem Rangers have an intense phobia of Podobos or something."
Yassie folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Which is why they're in the middle of a volcano. Obviously."
Luigi looked back, stonefaced. "...Let's... Let's just move on."
Without another word, that's what they did. The room once again branched off into two paths, but this time, Luigi knew better than to take the left path, not wanting to look like a fool three times in a row. This took them to a room with a bridge... Or rather, a room that ONCE had a bridge. Now, however, there was merely a pool of lava with its charred remains standing on both sides of it, an entrance at the other side blocked off with a sign in front of it, crude lettering proclaiming that it was for "AWESOME AXEMS ONLY, NO STUPID NINJAS ALLOWED".
"Okay, I think I'm gonna let you start choosing which path to take from now on, Yassie..." Luigi muttered in annoyance as the two made their way back to the last room and through the other passageway. This room, thankfully, only had one other passage, though of much more interest was the grubby, makeshift looking key that sat against the wall... Directly on the other side of a small but still too large to jump over river of lava. The only other point of interest in the room, a lone, particularly unfortunate X-Naut, was very quickly taken care of, leaving Luigi and Yassie to stare longingly at the unreachable key.
"Luigi..." Yassie began, her tone grim. "I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but... That looks an awful lot like the key we have, doesn't it?"
"I was uh, trying not to think about that." Luigi replied, quickly breaking down into a whimper as he knew full well what that key was for.
"Hey, let's not be hasty!" Yassie stated quickly, before Luigi had too much of a chance to blubber. "Maybe... Maybe we can find something to reach it with in the next room!"
Luigi looked at her with heavy doubt, but shook his head and walked into the next room with her, realizing that there might at least be half of a percentage point that she was right.
Safe to say, neither were expecting to see what was actually awaiting them in the next room. As they somewhat expected, what with the key being right outside it in the room next door, it was the other jail cell. What they weren't expecting, however, were the occupants of said jail. Far opposed to the massive number of townsfolk that had been stuffed into the tiny cell in the first jail, this cell contained but two prisoners.
Two very familiar prisoners.
"S-S-Spooky? Kobaltia?!" Luigi stuttered in shock and dread at the sight in front of him.
At the sound of his name, Spooky instantly perked up to attention, rushing over and through the bars instantly to greet his master.
"Spooky, how in the world did you two-?!" Luigi began, gently rebuffing Spooky's overexcited licks as he and Yassie's gazes focused squarely on Kobaltia. As the two rushed up to the bars, Spooky phased back through them and nudged back up to Kobaltia, whimpering and giving her a few wake up licks, which thankfully seemed to stir her, at least a little bit.
"...Oh, no..." Kobaltia murmured in distress, reshutting her eyes as she caught sight of her 'visitors'.
"Kobaltia, are you alright?" Yassie asked, eying the battered looking Koopa with great concern.
"Do I look alright to you?" Kobaltia said defensively, as she glared bitterly back at Yassie.
"Kobaltia, we tried to tell you-" Luigi began, quickly being cut off by a vitriolic Kobaltia.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." she spat. "Go ahead and laugh at me, tell me you told me so, you're right and I'm wrong, just like I always am... I can't do anything right... Even when I'm told point blank to my face, I can't... I can't just listen and accept it..." Kobaltia's anger was fast turning into tears, and Luigi and Yassie looked at each other with absolute pity for the poor girl. Though Spooky tried valiantly to cheer her up, she seemed remarkably immune to his charms, likely from being used to it with Chompers.
"Kobaltia, we're not here to make fun of you or gloat or anything like that." Yassie stated softly, trying to maintain eye contact with her. "We just want to help, honest. That's all we've been trying to do this whole time. Now please, stop acting like you have something to prove and let us help you."
"..." Kobaltia looked back at Yassie and Luigi, studying both of them for a long minute.
"We're sorry we had to fool with you before, but honest to the stars, we're here to help you and everyone else from Nimbihurst." Luigi added, hoping he and Yassie had managed to get through to her.
"...I... I'm sorry..." Kobaltia finally whimpered.
She didn't bother to contain her emotions any further.
Gone was the brash, boisterous Blue.
All that was left was a scared, vulnerable, broken girl.
"I'm sorry I didn't listen... I just... I wanted to be a hero... I wanted to make a difference... Nimbihurst has always been so... Boring... When the Koopa Brothers arrived, everything got so... Exciting... I thought this was my way out of my boring little village... My boring, lifeless life... My chance to... Live my dream... But I should've... I should've listened to Grampa... I should've listened to you guys... All I ever do is screw things up and make a mess of things... Ever since I was little..."
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic." Yassie said, waving her hand in dismissal. "Everyone makes mistakes, Kobaltia. The thing that separates the strong from the weak is how you learn from them. Sure, you could just wallow in self pity, say 'Woe is me', and let it get to you and bring you down with it... Or you could face it head on, own up to it, and let the resolve of never doing it again make you stronger. It doesn't matter how big you think it was, or how awful it may seem to you, there's always a way to come back from it, Kobaltia."
"Shoot, she's right, you know." Luigi stated, letting out a chuckle. "If I were to let all the mistakes I make on a daily basis get to me, I don't think I'd be much of a person, let alone a hero. Contrary to what you might think, heroes aren't perfect Kobaltia, we mess up just like everyone else, some of us more than others, ehehehe... But like Yassie said, you can't let what you've done in the past weigh you down, you have to keep moving on and looking towards the future. That's the mettle of a hero, Kobaltia, whether you may think so or not."
Kobaltia looked back at the two, her eyes wide and wet as she sniffled softly. "...Ah... That... That was so... So cheesy..."
Luigi and Yassie pratfalled in unison, their words seemingly falling on deaf ears.
"...Th-That means you guys really ARE heroes...!" Kobaltia exclaimed, suddenly seeming to get her spirit back, if only a little. "B-But you're right! I know it, you HAVE to be! Anything as inspirational sounding as that HAS to be right, right?"
"Er, r-right..." Luigi said back, scratching his head in confusion as he and Yassie exchanged wary glances at one another.
"Gosh, how could I be so stupid?" Kobaltia said to herself, as she picked herself up off the ground and struck a heroic pose. "My mistakes can only make me stronger, that's just what Grampa used to tell me all the time when I was little and, er, 'accident prone'... I can't believe I forgot... Or maybe I just wasn't listening to it, like everything else he says... But no more! From this day forward, my head is henceforce out of the clouds, I've seen the light, and it is oh so righteous, yes indeed!"
"I... Uh, that's great, Kobaltia..." Yassie began, struggling to find space to speak now that Kobaltia was back to 'normal'. "Not to rain on your parade or anything, but you're still kind of stuck in a cage..."
Kobaltia blinked, her mantra of heroic justice screeching to a halt. "Huh? ...Oh shoot, I... I forgot about that..."
"How the heck did you and Spooky get in there, anyways?" Luigi asked, shaking his head. "We had Spooky chase after you so we could follow his trail, but it ended at that locked metal door back in the lobby. I mean, I'm glad you guys are okay and all, but there's no way you should've been able to get to this room before us without us noticing or anything..."
"Oh, that..." Kobaltia muttered. "Well, after I, ahem, confronted those jerks, it went about as well as you'd expect. Your doggy tried to help me, but he couldn't really do much, and they managed to knock me out but good. As far as I can tell, they used one of their secret passageways to get me here from their room, but I'm pretty sure they blocked it off so I couldn't get back through it."
"I see." Luigi said, frowning. "Well, at least we don't have to be in such a huge rush anymore."
"Huh?" Kobaltia spoke, looking puzzled for a moment before letting out one of her gasps. "Oh gosh, I... I didn't make you guys worry, did I?"
"Yeah, but you're fine now, and that's all that matters." Yassie exclaimed decisively before Kobaltia could get worked up about it. "Anyways, lets get you out of there so you can get home to your grandpa. He's still worried sick about you, after all."
"Oh..." Kobaltia said, her tone faltering a bit as her eyes drooped downwards. "...Um..."
"Kobaltia..." Yassie said firmly, folding her arms at the Koopa.
"Gosh, you guys..." Kobaltia began, looking back up at the two and walking over to them to look them both in the eye. "I... I know Grampa's worried about me... Especially after what I said to him the last time I saw him... But he's also probably really, REALLY mad at me, too!"
"I'm sure any anger he has is going to be outweighed by his joy at seeing you safe and sound, Kobaltia." Luigi stated.
"But, you guys, you don't understand!" Kobaltia pleaded. "I might not ever be able to leave my room ever again for the rest of my life if I go back now! I have to do something to make it up to him! I have to... I have to..."
"Oh, no..." Yassie said in anticipation to what she knew was about to come out of the Koopa's mouth. "No way, no how! If you thought you were in over your head with the Koopa Brothers, you have no IDEA how bad it'd be with us!"
"W-Wait, I didn't even get to ask yet!" Kobaltia pouted. "Come on, PLEEEEEEEEASE? You've seen how good I am in a fight, I almost kicked both of your guys' butts on my own, remember?"
"Yeah, uh, that was only through blatant trickery, and on your home turf, at that." Yassie responded instantly. "Something tells me you wouldn't be able to do that again."
"Oh, come ON!" Kobaltia whined, turning her attention solely to Luigi. "You guys are going to go and stick it to the Koopa Brothers, right? Well you won't even stand a CHANCE against them without me!"
"I seem to recall my brother handling them pretty easily..." Luigi stated, not particularly convinced. "In fact, he made it a point to tell me just how much of a joke they were, now that I'm thinking about it."
"Yeah, well, that was before!" Kobaltia said stubbornly, refusing to give up. "They're a lot tougher now, thanks to Sliver's training or whatever! But I know all their secrets! I mean, of course I couldn't take them all on myself, especially not in the state I was in, but with our powers combined, they wouldn't stand a chance!"
"I dunno..." Luigi said, still skeptical. "I don't think your grandpa would be too keen on the idea."
"Oh please, do you even realize how much he gushed on and on about you guys when I went back to make sure he and Chompers hadn't been blown to smithereens thanks to your, ahem, 'bomb'?" Kobaltia exclaimed. "If anything, he'd be thrilled to know I finally have some REAL heroes to look up to and train under! And also, that might counterbalance the whole 'grounded for eternity' thing down to just 'grounded for life', or possibly even less!"
Yassie let out an exasperated sigh and turned to Luigi. "Oh, geez... Well, it's your call, Luigi. If you really think she'd be more of a help than a hindrance to us..."
"The answer to that is yes, by the way!" Kobaltia chimed in before Luigi could utter a word.
Luigi gave Kobaltia a long, hard look. The Koopa, to her credit, didn't back down an inch, standing resolutely and confidently in front of the plumber. Finally, Luigi let out a sigh of his own and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if you're REALLY sure about this, Kobaltia, then okay, you can come with u-"
'OH YEAH!" Kobaltia bellowed, leaping high in the air in absolute bliss to such a degree that she startled Spooky. "Gonna be a real hero, heck yes!"
"You do realize we aren't just here to stop the Koopa Brothers and Axem Rangers, right?" Yassie asked, raising her eyebrow in concern at Kobaltia. "We're kind of on a journey to save the entire universe, so you might not be able to come back home for a while."
"Oh wow, even better!" Kobaltia exclaimed in excitement. "That'll DEFINITELY get me some brownie points with Grampa, if I help save the whole world, I might only be punished for a year, if even that!"
Luigi and Yassie looked at one another, but all either of them could do was shrug in exasperation and sigh. Taking the key out of his pocket, Luigi walked over to the cells door and stuck it in, opening the door with a loud creak and allowing Kobaltia and Spooky to join the party properly.
"Yeah, villains beware, for no one will be able to stop the combined might of our supreme justicular squad of justicey justice!" Kobaltia shouted in triumph, Spooky hopping up and down and barking in excitement alongside her, as Luigi and Yassie could do little more than merely shake their heads and chuckle.
KOBALTIA JOINED THE PARTY!
Kobaltia is a loud, dramatic, and ever-so-slightly justice obsessed Koopa girl. What she may lack in common sense she more than makes up for in sheer enthusiasm and stubbornness, and once she has her mind set on something, good luck getting her to change it. While on the field, she can assist Luigi and his party with her ancient ninja 'Foot of the Starman' technique, allowing Luigi and company to travel a short distance over any form of liquid or even spikes, no matter how vile or dangerous it may be. In battle, she can use her Koopa Leaf shurikens to attack any enemy on the field regardless of their position,
and she can also use her powerful Slide Kick technique to slip past an enemy's guard and pierce their defense!
"So hey, let me show you guys what I'm capable of!" Kobaltia said in excitement, as she rushed out of the room in a hurry. The others followed after her, stopping beside her as she looked over at the unreachable key on the other side of the lava. "You see that key? That dumb guard they had posted at my cell threw it over there and ran off once he caught sight of Spooky, the disgusting, nose-picking coward."
"I didn't know those X-Naut things even HAD noses..." Yassie whispered to Luigi.
"I'll bet you both thought it completely out of reach, did you not?" Kobaltia exclaimed with a wide grin, before shaking her head and finger at them in a 'tut-tut' motion. "But alas, nothing is out of reach for a skilled Ninja Koopa such as myself!"
"Oh, cool, that's right, you can just shoot your shell over there and yoink that, can't you?" Luigi said.
Kobaltia merely flapped her lips together in indignation at Luigi's assertion. "Pfft, as if! Sure, maybe if I were an ordinary, average, plebeian Koopa, I could do that, but I have a much better way of reaching it. Behold!"
Once she was sure everyone was watching her, Kobaltia went into a short meditative trance of sorts, moving her hands to and fro frantically, before her eyes suddenly shot back open and she, against all common sense, took a step into the lava. Or rather, onto the lava. Luigi and Yassie both gasped in shock, both of them looking away on instinct until they realized that they heard no horrifying screams of pain. Looking back, they were astounded to see Kobaltia run atop the lava as if it were nothing, grab the key, then run back across the lava in one fell swoop, looking none the worse for wear afterwards, either, as she triumphantly marched over to Luigi and dropped the key into his hand.
"Well, what'd you guys think of that?" Kobaltia asked, smirking. "Bet you won't find anyone else that knows how to perform the ancient 'Foot of the Starman' technique on your little journey!"
Luigi and Yassie were momentarily speechless, as they looked at one another in shock.
"...H-How... How in the world did you learn to do that...?" Luigi asked in utter amazement once he had regained his voice.
"The internet." Kobaltia stated simply. "All those secret ninja training lesson videos on ShroomTube have really been paying off, you guys oughta look into it yourselves some time!"
Luigi blinked. "...O-Okay. Um, well, anyways, I think we've spent enough time yammering about here, we may not be in a huge hurry anymore, be we still shouldn't dawdle."
"Ah, of course!" Kobaltia said, nodding intently. "Lead the way, o capitan! I will follow you to the ends of the world, such are the lengths of my devotion to the righteous justiceness of your cause!"
"Er, super..." Luigi stuttered, sharing a sideways glance with Yassie that stated clearly their thoughts on their new traveling companion.
"How did we think this was a good idea?"
So unfortunately, one of the reasons it took me so long to get this chapter out is because it dawned on me rather suddenly and without warning that I am absolutely horrible at coming up with dungeon designs. So yes, I can see this being a considerable hiccup so to speak with not just this story, but pretty much anything else I plan to write in the foreseeable future. My apologies if this chapter was exceptionally boring as a result of this.