Oddball dumped a handful of Capture Gems on the desk. Dooplex stared at him from the other side.
"Excellent." He said, tenting his fingers. "Good work, Oddball."
"Where do you want me to bring them, sir?" Oddball asked.
Dooplex shook his head and rubbed his temple. "Um... put them in the holding cells for now. I'll be needing them for experimentation later."
"As you wish." Oddball said, bowing to Dooplex before picking up the Capture Gems and leaving the office.
Dooplex leaned back in his chair and pulled out a piece of paper from his desk, laying it flat on the desktop.
"I'm so close..." He muttered to himself. "Only a few more of the smaller civilizations, and I'll finally have an army big enough to take the larger cities..." He continued.
He turned to look behind his chair. "Are you there?"
"Yes, my lord. I await your command." somebody asked, their yellow eyes glowing in the darkness behind Dooplex.
"Join the hostages in the holding cells. Spy on them, and report to me if they start to do anything fishy." Dooplex commanded.
"It will be done, my lord." said the mystery person, their yellow eyes disappearing from sight.
"Here we are." The guard said, opening the door to the holding cells, deep in the basement levels of the Crystal Palace. Inside was a dank, damp, cold room made entirely out of roughly carved crystal. Cells covered the walls, set into the walls with large, thick, heavy doors of crystal bars. Several of the holding cells were already full with all sorts of different kinds of people. Toads, Koopas, even some Bob-Ombs here and there.
The mission squad filed in, and the guard, a Duplighost wearing a tacky aviator cap, led them to the nearest empty cell, where every squad member, Oddball included, tossed their Capture Gems inside.
Soon, a small herds-worth of Yoshis sat, dazed, inside the holding cell. The heavy door closed before any of them could regain their senses, and the guard laughed.
"Only a few more left, guys! Then we can start tackling the bigger cities once we get these guys assimilated." the guard said, looking around the holding cell area at the other prisoners.
"Indeed." Oddball stated matter-of-factly.
There was a long, awkward moment of silence, broken only by the growing jabbering of the Yoshi prisoners, who were just now getting their heads together.
"Anyone want to hit the mess hall?" One random soldier asked.
A chorus of whoops and yeahs rose from the small group of soldiers as they all left the room, leaving Oddball alone with the guard.
"Sooo..." the guard started. "What do we do now?"
"We wait, Doopligan." Oddball answered. "Soon enough, Dooplex will request of us another raid, and we will go and capture the peoples of whatever unfortunate little hamlet he chooses. It's as simple as that."
Doopligan just scratched his head.
Suddenly, the two of them heard a peculiar sound.
Footsteps. Approaching the holding cell area.
A bright red Yoshi with an even brighter orange mohawk peeked into the room, immediately realizing his grave error when Oddball and Gilligan both raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh crap."
Yori gasped as he stepped back onto the ground outside the Crystal Palace after his long journey through the air on the Crystal Army Carrier. He fell to his knees and made love to the beautiful, beautiful earth beneath him.
"Oh Earth, how I missed you..." He moaned, kissing the ground. "Noone will ever take you away from me again..." He continued. "Noone will ever know of our forbidden love..." He continued again, flat out delirious from relief at this point.
Slowly he came to, dizzy with leftover adrenaline, and he looked up at the Palace in front of him. It was massive, with high spires and sprawling balconies and paths, forming a truly majestic web of crystalline structures.
It was all made of shining, shimmering crystal. It kinda hurt Yori's eyes to look at it, actually.
The front doors were locked, or barred shut, or whatever, as Yori quickly found out. It was a second later that he realized that would probably set off a couple alarms inside, so he quickly ducked to the side, hiding behind a pillar on the outside of the building just as a duplighost sporting a well-kept mushroom cut of blonde hair and carrying a large mace unlocked the front doors and stepped out, surveying the area for a short moment before closing the doors.
Yori sighed with relief.
"Who's there?!"
And instantly realized the guard hadn't necessarily gone back inside before closing the doors.
The guard duplighost's footsteps grew closer, and Yori began to sweat furiously. Finally, just when he could stand it no more, he bolted, sprinting for the corner of the palace and ducking around the corner.
The guard saw him, unfortunately.
"Get back here!" He shouted in a young, but husky voice.
Yori wasn't listening. He kept running around the palace until he found a convenient open window. Without even looking behind him to see if the guard was still there, Yori dove inside.
This proved to be a mistake, as he found himself in some sort of indoor spa, where several of the soldiers had shedded their armor and were getting massages.
Somehow- Yori didn't dare question it -, everyone's eyes were closed, be it from relaxation or from some kind of meditation. They hadn't heard him come in, either, it seemed.
The guard walked by outside. Yori had officially lost him.
Now came the tricky part. Yori began to quietly tip toe through the room, praying to Arceus nobody opened their eyes. On several occasions, he would nearly back into somebody or almost walk into someone from not watching where he was going, but against all odds, he managed to make it out of the room, stepping into the hallway.
Now he just needed to figure out where the other Yoshis were being held.
Yori began to run through the halls of the Crystal Palace, careful not to turn a corner until he was sure it was safe, and narrowly avoided getting caught several times.
Eventually, he made it to the main hall, where he was able to keep to the shadows and out of sight long enough to catch sight of a billboard on the wall.
There was a map. Yori thanked Arceus.
The Holding Cell Area was in the basement. Yori bet his saddle that was where they were being held.
And where was he...?
The Main Hall. Now that he realized it, those were the main front doors over there, weren't they...?
Keeping to the dark, he snuck back out of the room, emerging into the hallway once again only to be met face-to-face with a young female duplighost who, judging from her reaction, was expecting literally anything else to have suddenly appeared in front of her in the hallway.
"EAGH!" She cried, jumping at Yori's sudden appearance. Yori took advantage of the momentary distraction and awkwardly flailed past her, running down the hall just as a small group of guards rounded the corner he'd come from, alerted by the lady duplighost's cry.
Yori turned another corner just as he heard the lady he'd almost crashed into telling the guards which way he'd gone, and soon he began to hear the sound of light footsteps pounding in his general direction. Turning another corner he found a flight of stairs leading down just as he'd seen on the map, and he screamed down them. He'd always been fast.
Emerging on the basement floor, Yori could only hope he remembered the correct path to the holding cell area. The guards were fast approaching behind him- he could already hear them coming down the stairs -, so he had to act fast. He dashed for a door and opened it to find...
A broom closet.
Huffing sharply, he dashed to another door and opened it, only to find...
Another broom closet.
"Oh come on." He muttered. The guards were almost here, he didn't had time for this crap!
Wait, scratch that. The guards were already there. Yori dove into the broom closet, closing it behind him just as the guards stepped out onto the floor.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Yori exhaled.
"Did you hear that?"
Yori inhaled sharply.
...
...
...
...
...
Yori exhaled.
...
Nothing.
Heaving a deep sigh of relief, Yori opened the broom closet. Fortunately, there was nobody waiting for him outside. Stepping out, he began to check each door in the room. Amazingly, every single door in this room led to a broom closet.
...Nah, I'm just kiddin. The next one he tried lead to a hallway, which he promptly headed down. This should be the place, he thought...
Sure enough, when he turned the corner, there it was. A sign on the wall said "Holding Cells". He was here! He broke into a run, slowing before he reached the door.
He leaned his head into the doorway to peek into the room, and a Pichu and a duplighost looked back at him, each raising an eyebrow at his appearance.
"Oh crap."
Oddball dusted off his hands. The sudden arrival had been a toughie, but he and the guard had been successful in detaining him and shoving him in the next holding cell over. Unfortunately, they weren't able to put him in with the other Yoshis (the prisoners would no doubt have overpowered the two while trying to escape), but having him in his own holding cell would have to do for now.
"You'll never get away with this..." Yori muttered from inside his crystal prison. Oddball laughed.
"Get away with what? Recruiting subjects for the glorious Crystal Empire? I see nothing wrong with that. Your little Yoshi Village was so utterly backwater anyway. You should be thanking us! Your lives in the Crystal Empire will be so much more rewarding than they were on that ancient island." said Oddball, smiling up at Yori from the other side of the bars. Yori grimaced, an unreadable expression on his face.
...
Oddball narrowed an eye at the Yoshi.
"What's that look for?", he inquired. Yori blinked once, then raised an eyebrow.
"What... happened to you?" Yori asked. "When we first met at the Pokemon League, you were such a loose cannon. It seemed like you had no idea what you were going to do once you got outta there. What made you suddenly join the Crystal Empire, and start kidnapping whole civilisations, no less? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would have done.", he continued.
"Pff." Oddball huffed, turning away from the Yoshi. "Like I would give my secrets away to the likes of you." He said.
Yori squinted his eyes. Something about Oddball's tone of voice made him think...
"Do you even remember why you're here? In the Crystal Empire?", he asked. He could see Oddball's shoulders tense before the Pichu turned to face him.
"Do you take me for a fool? Of course I remember why I'm here. What a stupid question." Oddball admonished. Yori only smirked.
"Oh yeah? Then tell me. Why are you here, Oddball the Pichu?"
Oddball scoffed again.
"That's none of your business, lizard." Oddball said, sneering at Yori from behind the bars.
"Of course not. I didn't mean to pry." Yori said, grinning. Oddball growled and turned away, walking past the guard to the door leading upstairs.
"Doopligan!"
"Y-Yes, Corporal!"
"Tell Dooplex I'm checking in for the night."
"Y-Yes, Corporal."
...
They were gone.
Yori sat down in the cold cell, shivering when he realized the floor was even colder than the air.
The cell was fairly drab, at least, for the Crystal Palace. It was still made entirely of shimmering crystal, but compared to the sleekly carved surfaces and designs of the upper floors the ground and walls down in the basement floors were rough and unpolished. The glimmer was less down here, too. The bars were made of a very transparent, but apparently still very durable gem that no matter how hard he tried, Yori couldn't seem to scratch. Of course, Yoshis weren't exactly known for their sharp claws…
"Hey, Yori."
Yori perked up.
"Eh?" He voiced, trying to pinpoint where the voice had come from.
"Over here. It's me, Oddball." the voice said again. Yori could tell now that it was coming from the cell next to him, where the other Yoshis were being kept. It was Oddball, one of Yori's two best friends.
Yori grimaced. There were two Oddballs. That wasn't going to get confusing at all. He needed to come up with nicknames for them or something… maybe Oddshi for his friend…
"So you got captured too, huh?" Oddshi asked Yori. "When I noticed you weren't with us, I hoped for the best… guess they found you."
"Well, I was going to try and save you guys…" Yori sighed. "And I almost managed it too, but I wasn't expecting there to be somebody in here…"
"Hey, don't sweat it, man." said Oddshi. "Say, that stuff you said to that Pichu guy… how much of that was just guessing?" He asked, obviously inquiring to Yori's off-the-cuff putting-on-the-spot of the Corporal.
"Ah, most of that was just improv." Yori explained.
"Well, I think it might have done something. If he remembers something from before he was here, maybe it'll be something that makes him turn good! …Or something." said Oddshi.
"Oh come on, Oddball. What are the chances of that happening?" Yori replied, leaning against the back wall and slowly sliding onto the floor.
Though Yori couldn't see it, Oddshi just shrugged, and then neither of them spoke.
Oddball was… conflicted. Or confused, perhaps.
He hadn't really ever thought about what his life had been like before he had joined the Crystal Empire. It had never seemed important; his life in the Crystal Empire made him happy, that was all that mattered, right?
But… now that he thought about it, now that that Yoshi had pointed it out to him… he couldn't remember his life before the Crystal Empire. It was like a blur in his mind. It was troubling, to say the least.
But, I mean, like, whatever, right? Right…? All that mattered was that he was happy now, right?
No. He was too curious. He needed to find out what kind of life he had lived before being brought into the Crystal Empire.
He would ask Dooplex. There was absolutely no way that could possibly ever backfire.
Knock knock knock.
"Yes?" Dooplex asked, reading over papers at his desk.
"It's Oddball", Oddball answered from behind the door.
"Come in."
Oddball the Pichu opened the door and entered Dooplex's office. It was a moderately small, well-furnished room with a desk made of polished wood in the center, and a large, black leather chair behind it. The wall paper was an elegant mix of red, gold and black, arranged in intricate designs that resembled vines crawling up the walls, and the carpet was a simple ornate rug of the same three colors.
Dooplex was seated in the chair, at the desk, opposite Oddball. He looked up from the papers on his desk and tented his fingers. "What is it?" He asked.
"I've been wondering something recently." Oddball started. Dooplex raised one eyebrow. "One of the prisoners we captured from Yoshi's Island said something that really got me thinking." Dooplex's brow furrowed into a glare.
"Out with it." Dooplex snapped impatiently. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Of course." Oddball stammered. "It's… I can't remember anything from before I joined the Crystal Empire." He explained.
Dooplex stopped for a second.
"If you know anything about me before I came here, I would love to know." Oddball continued.
Dooplex stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment.
…
"I suppose I can oblige." He finally replied. He opened a drawer on his desk, and rummaged around for a second before pulling out a small manila folder. "Here." He said, placing it on the table and sliding it toward Oddball.
"Thank you, sir." Oddball said, picking up the folder.
"Leave me." Dooplex said simply, already having returned to poring over the papers on his desk.
…
Oddball left.
Happy munchkins, Chapter 2 for the winnow. You know, like, the fish.
I dunno.
Music for your listening pleasure:
Dooplex's Theme: Neo Bowser Sunrise (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team)
Quiet Crystal Palace: Dark Castle (Secret of Evermore)
Crystal Palace 1F-B1F: Into the Thick of It (Secret of Mana)
Crystal Palace 1F-B1F (Near Enemy): Did You See the Ocean (Secret of Mana)
Tension: Fearful Experience (Persona 3)