Chapter 5: Dodgy Day
In retrospect it probably wasn't the smartest move, but we bolted back to my house in a panicked frenzy. We didn't know what else to do! Dark Bowser, the one with the power to end games in this current society, had probably heard everything I had said aloud; I had unknowingly put all three of us at war with many of the countries that he controlled.
"Shit! What do we do now?" I wailed as I paced back and forth, almost wearing a groove in the floor.
"Maybe we can wait it out here?" Kory suggested.
"Are you crazy? We can't wait it out here; the TTIA might have a lead on us and come directly here!"
"Well, miss, I don't see you spouting out ideas."
"Is that really necessary, Toadsworth?! I mean, think! Where can we go? Rogueport is out, Isle Delfino is out, only those with special Visas can get in or out of the Beanbean Kingdom, the Waffle Kingdom is too far away, no one's been to Sarasaland in ages…"
"Hope, what you need is to calm down," Kory finally interrupted. He pulled me out of my path and sat me down on the couch. Reaching for the TV remote, he said, "Let's just watch some nice television, okay?"
Toadsworth, getting the gist of what Kory was trying to do, followed along and encouraged it. I finally gave in after a few seconds of silence. At first it was a little soothing watching the commercials of whatever channel was on. But then…
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast for this breaking news report!" The TV blared. I forgot my mom left it on TNN; I felt very nervous again needless to say.
"We're live on the scene at Dark Bowser's castle where reports of a murder took place earlier this afternoon. Our one and only Dark Bowser called it in not a half hour ago and in a state of frenzy. Here is a clip from the 911 call."
The words flashed on screen as they were said, making me cringe even more. I guess it was his turn to lie about us to everyone's faces.
"As evidenced by the phone call, it's clear that these criminals murdered the only free leader left in our modern era. Yes, that's right, President Antapi is dead. So far, no traces of his body have been found but it is assured that he is dead. Citizens are highly advised to stay indoors and to lock their doors and stay away from windows. These tips could save you if these murderers decide to strike again. Reporting live from Dark Bowser's castle, this is Newsy T. for TNN."
"Thank you Newsy, and in addition to who is dead we have a rough report on the identity. Two teenagers, one Toad and one Human, and an elderly Toad with brown spots that goes by the name of Toadsworth. Historians are crying foul at this because they say that A) he would never do such a thing and B) he's been missing for the past twenty years. If you have any infor—"
Kory clicked off the television as we all continued to stare at the screen in disbelief. Our stiff tensions filled the already uncomfortable air we breathed. We were all doing our best to calm ourselves from what we just heard. After a few moments, I finally spoke up.
"I bet Mrs. Goomley already called in about us."
"We won't have much time." Kory followed. "The most important thing right now is to protect you, Toadsworth."
"Me? I've been naught but the catalyst in all this. Why would you do this?"
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life in a dungeon that you never knew existed?"
"Well, I see your point now Master Kory. Thank you."
"I think I have an idea that'll get us out of here before the TTIA comes over…" I said. I then dashed for my nearest closet and got the loosest clothes out of it I could find in the span of thirty seconds.
~*-Beyond-*~
"This is the TTIA! We've got you surrounded," yelled the squad leader through a megaphone. Onlookers started gathering behind and started mumbling about things like "Is this where those wretches live?" or "I can't believe Lucy T's daughter would do such a thing!" and "After what she did to her this morning, I'm not surprised she went over the deep end," as a response. All of those comments were maddening.
After a minute or so of silence from both, the new crowd and the original squad outside the house, the leader motioned for two to approach the door. One of them started counting down from three and when all his fingers had been used up, the door came flying off its hinges into our entry hallway. There were a few screams from the crowd, but other than that it was just silent anticipation.
Thankfully Kory, Toadsworth, and I were safe and sound hidden in the crowd. I'm grateful for reading up on the Toads from Dry Dry Outpost, making the costumes much easier to prepare; I ripped up some old shirts and pants and wrapped them around our caps. Kory was much harder to disguise, however. I don't know when I got one, but I gave him a basketball jersey, a pair of shorts, and a spare cap to hide his messy red hair. I still can't believe that those fit him so well.
"Brilliant thinking on your part, Miss Hope," Toadsworth whispered over to me. "I do say you've bought us some more time."
"Yeah, and thanks for carrying my regular clothes and backpack," Kory whispered. I nodded in acknowledgement, reviewing in my head how I hid those so perfectly. I somehow found time enough to construct a makeshift knapsack big enough for Kory's clothes and that spiky backpack. I worried that he'd have holes where he wouldn't want them.
"We've gotta go somewhere where we can be safe." I whispered back to them. Slowly we nudged our way out of the crowd and outside of the block. I already had the idea to head over to the library since no one ever goes there, so I led us over in that direction.
On our way over there, a large crowd was gathered in the Shopping District… particularly outside of the Clinic.
"What's going on?" I asked a random Koopa.
"Huh?" He turned around to face us. "Oh, haven't you heard? Dark Bowser is giving a speech in front of the old abandoned library. Somethin' about not restin' 'til the guilty party is captured. I dunno. I'm too far away to hear."
"The library is three blocks away! How did he get a crowd this big?" I asked him.
"It's Dark Bowser. How do you expect him not to? You from out of town or somethin'?"
"Yes. We're from Dry Dry Outpost," I quickly recited.
"Oh. I guess that explains your turbans and stuff. Welcome, I guess." He turned around just in time for the crowd to exclaim in one voice "NO!"
"Well, now what do we do?" I asked, turning to face Kory and Toadsworth.
"There is… one more place we can go." I was surprised Toadsworth spoke up, even if it was reluctant. "If you recall, I mentioned a pipe here in the Shopping District."
"Yeah… Hey, didn't you trip over a pipe last night?" Kory asked, careful not to say my name. I gasped when I remembered that moment. Of course! The random orange pipe blocked by years of rubble, Toadsworth mentioning coming out of a pipe after so many years of hiding, it all made sense.
"We've got to get to that pipe pronto." I excitedly said. We rushed over to the Clinic, accidentally bumping into a few people now and again, hoping that our only sanctuary was not adulterated by any means. Thank the Stars that this was the case. We all climbed up onto the weight sensitive platform blocking the tube and we were lowered down.
When we resurfaced, we were in a strange, dark room composed of padded walls and floors. When I stepped off, it squished beneath my feet.
"Eww, what did I step in?" I asked no one in particular.
"Lady and gentleman, welcome to Bowser's… well, insides for lack of a better word."
Kory and I looked at each other and instantly gagged. Soon after, we were feeling thankful instead of ungratefully making fun of our environment.
"Any reason why the lights are out, Toadsworth?" Kory asked, after we started walking to somewhere Toadsworth was leading us to.
"My best guess is that Bowser is, well, dead. Amazing how preserved he has stayed all these years."
"I guess that explains the stench as well…" Kory added, holding his nose.
"How did we get in here in the first place?" I asked.
"Remember when I told you about Bowser finding the ability to vacuum up things? Well, I suppose he found it in a forest and started vacuuming things up there and among those things were various pipes from all over the Mushroom World."
"What makes you say that?" I further asked him, passing all kinds of trees and shrubberies and other various pipes without even noticing at the time.
He looked at me funny and said, "Just a hunch," and chuckled to himself.
"Are you sure no one will notice us?"
"Sir, not one person discovered me hiding out in here for twenty years. Rest assured that we will be safe until the dead of night when we can start our daring escape."
"Wait, we're not staying here for another twenty years?"
Toadsworth stopped in his tracks and turned to us with a heavy expression on his worried face.
"I've been thinking about what you said in Dark Bowser's castle, Hope, and I only now realize that you are correct in trying something that daring. Over my years of watching over fair Princess Peach I only now realize that I wanted to stay away from interfering with foreign affairs. All I wanted was the Princess' safety and I dare say I obsessed over this.
"But what good does that do in a crisis such as this? Already I have endangered the lives of so many by emerging from the depths of history. The world has become a darker place since I've been away and I cannot let that happen any further. I know the Princess would want me to. So I propose that we wade out our wanted status until all the residents go to bed and then we can go to our next destination."
"And where is that?"
"I believe I shall pay old Lady Bow and her friends a visit. Toadbert should be at her mansion by now, so that will be an added bonus."
We continued walking when he finished talking, but I couldn't shake this nagging feeling off of my mind. He mentioned Lady Bow only recently, but why couldn't I remember the context? And where did she live again? I couldn't remember that either… I eventually got over it when we reached our destination, a place Toadsworth called 'Toad Square'. It wasn't exactly the town Toad Town was, but I suppose it was town enough for Toadsworth and his friend.
Actually, now that I think about it, I hadn't even seen any buildings other than a few shops.
So now the only thing we could do was wait until the right time. We talked for a long time about the Princess, the Mario Bros. and their many adventures, even of Bowser at one point or another. He pretty much informed us about the former history of the Mushroom Kingdom, the real history and not the Dark Bowser/Fawful sanctioned version.
I suppose that's another reason why I preferred WooHoo University over U Goom. The latter had recently updated their curriculum to match the standards of Dark Bowser and Fawful, which is something I was opposed to. It burns me up that they tried to rewrite history to glorify their exploits. I admit some of the things they did was progress, such as the expansion of the Fawful Express Railway Co. That has actually helped out in shipping and receiving food that we're running short of. It's also a convenient way of traveling (even if it does lack the class the fabled Excess Express offers). The rest of their actions… no.
Our conversation finally stemmed past the royals and tangented on to us.
"So, Hope and Kory. We've been talking an awful lot about me and my memories of the Princess and her friends. How about we change the subject and speak about you two for a while?"
"Sure," we agreed.
"What do you want to know?" I asked.
"Well, I suppose I should ask where you two are in your lives first. College? High school? Anywhere outside of school?"
"We're both technically seniors now at the local high school." Kory said. "Today was our last day of school for the school year."
"Well congratulations! I must say you two are growing up very well in this twisted society. Have you two known each other long or did you meet in school?"
"Actually," I started answering this time, "We've known each other since we were kids. It's a funny story how we met actually." I paused so I could laugh; I noticed Kory blushing a deep red at the thought of this escapade.
"He had actually just moved to Toad Town in first grade and he got picked on for being a Human. One day at lunch, some of the tougher Koopas and Goombas were harassing him again—mind you these are first graders—calling him silly, nonsensical names or something. I had been watching this the whole time and finally felt the need to, you know, get involved. I don't know why I did it, but I went up to the lead bully and I pushed him onto his shell. Everyone gasped when I kicked him around the playground."
I couldn't control my laughter anymore. I even fell backwards.
"Yeah, but what you didn't know was that it was Kent C. Koopa's kid."
"Kent C. Koopa? Oh dear, he can be nasty even at the best of times." Toadsworth commented. "What did he do to you for doing that to his child?"
"I was a first grader, what could he do?" I laughed even harder at the thought of the giant Koopa trying to punish a sweet, innocent first grade Toad girl.
"That certainly, huff, is an interesting way of meeting someone. You two mentioned that you're now seniors? Have you two put any thought into what college you want to attend?"
"WooHoo University," I blurted out excitedly.
"Really? How intriguing. I never had the chance to tour its campus the last time I was in the Beanbean Kingdom."
"Whoa! You were in the Beanbean Kingdom? What's it like?"
"Very green, I must say. Colour aside, it was a charming little kingdom where everyone was just as pleasant here in the Mushroom Kingdom. My only dislike was their erratic economy and how fast their coin could fluctuate from equaling 1 Mushroom coin to less that 1 to 100 million!"
"What? That's crazy! How does that even work?"
"I never took the time to investigate what they do differently from what we do. It is simply one of those little things in life that you never question."
"Oh…" I frowned unsatisfactorily. Well, I suppose this is valuable information when deciding to travel abroad for college. Had I known, I would have saved up more than 150 coins.
"I have another question for you two," Toadsworth said. "How come you call Toad Town Mall the 'Shopping District' and why does it look bigger?"
"That's an easy one," Kory started. "It's because after Dark Bowser and Fawful took over, they decided to expand the district; they were unhappy that it was only a few shops big. When they were done expanding, the title you used didn't fit the location anymore so they came up with 'Shopping District'."
"I see now. Interesting. They did this out of concern for the people?"
"No." I answered bluntly. "They did it for more tax money."
An awkward silence.
"Hey, Toadsworth," Kory began, "have you ever wondered where Bowser's body is?"
"Well as a matter of fact yes, but sadly I could never find out because his eyes are shut tighter than his lock jaw. It is not imperative that we find his body, yet I hope we do to satisfy my insatiable curiosity."
"I think we're running out of things to talk about."
"I think you are right, Hope. This may actually be a good time to check back into Toad Town and sneak into Forever Forest. What do you guys say?"
I could hardly breathe anymore when he mentioned those two words.
"Th-th-the F-F-Forever F-Forest?" I quivered. "But th-that's, like, off-limits! We can't go in there!"
"You didn't seem to object to Toadbert entering last night." He countered.
"I was spacing off during that part. I'm sorry."
"Besides, who said it was off limits?" To my surprise, Kory called my bluff.
"Uh, Dark Bowser of course! You silly…" I was overplaying myself, making my voice sound much more chipper than I wanted it to sound and making my smile much wider than I had wanted it to be. I prepared myself to lose this argument and accept the fact that I might die in a forest instead of at the claws of our oppressor.
"Miss Hope, if I didn't know any better I would say that you are scared of the woods." I was hoping Kory would come to my defense like the good friend I knew him to be, but he didn't. Do you want to know what he said instead?
"Ha ha, yeah. She always chickens out when I dare her to even get close to the entrance."
I was not going to stand for this; I quickly rebutted with: "Well I'm sorry that I don't want to get lost in that forest for forever!"
"I guess that's why they call it Forever Forest." Kory snickered to Toadsworth, who joined in with laughter. I started getting livid with them for laughing at me and my completely rational fear.
I suddenly found myself yelling, "Well if you want me to prove to you I can go in the Forever Forest, I will!" They stopped their laughter to stare at me with both eyebrows raised. I noticed my breathing wasn't so much breathing as it was heaving. I don't often get this mad, so this was a pretty new experience for me as well.
Finally breaking the rigidity of the moment, Kory said, "Reverse psychology to the rescue again."
With that, Toadsworth got up and started leading Kory back to the Pipe Yard while I stayed behind a minute, realizing the error of my ways.
My jaw was wide open. I couldn't believe I had fallen for the oldest trick in the Book of Ages so easily!