Chapter 10: Riverstomp

"Does anyone wanna go back and ask Lady Bow for a flashlight or something?" I asked, fearing that we'd be walking into trouble if we couldn't see just where we were going. I didn't want to go back and visit the Boos again; I had enough of being scared witless all night. Unfortunately no one volunteered, so it was me who had to backtrack a little bit to ask for some light. If only we had that Li'l Sparky that supposedly lives with the Shy Guys in their toy box. Despite years of searching for it, I never found it.

Luckily enough, Lady Bow was waiting at the top of the stairs leading back up. Needless to say she startled me anyway.

"Oh! Um, hi there." I exhaled.

"I was on my way to check if you were finding everything in order, but from your coming back it looks like there's something wrong?"

"Well yes and no. We found the tunnel just fine, but it's really dark. Do you have some flashlights or something that we could borrow? I don't wanna get us lost."

"Are the lights not working? Those electricians… I guess they never flipped the switch on for the lighting system. I'll go do that for you; wait right here." She disappeared right in front of me, no doubt teleporting. The simplicity of teleporting sounded really appealing right about then.

I walked back down the steps, getting a little exercise in for myself, and informed the guys all of what Lady Bow revealed to me. They agreed to wait a little extra time for the added security. After a few minutes, I heard in the distance a feint clanging noise. The others caught on to it as well, and before long we learned that it was the lights turning on. They were those huge fluorescent lights that hang from the ceiling of a school gym. With that kind of wattage, we wouldn't have any problems going through, is what I thought initially.

Lady Bow appeared right next to Toadbert, who was sitting on a crate in the corner of the room. "There you guys go. Everything should be in order now, so I'll leave you to your travels. Again, be safe and may the you-know-which-spirits watch over you." A few more good-byes later and we were now walking through the big portal opening to the tunnel. The lighting really did help us out in the end.

"I don't believe we properly welcomed you to our humble little group, Toadbert." Toadsworth said in an effort to strike up some conversation as we walked. "We are so glad to have you with us."

"Thanks, old chum. I'm thrilled to be here with you guys. It's been ages since I've been out and about on an adventure like this! The last time was twenty years ago, come to think of it."

"Well, we're glad to have you!" I cheered. "Isn't that right, Kory?"

"Sure." I rolled my eyes at his indifference; it wasn't too bothersome, so I let it go.

"Sadly, I do need a refresher with your names… please indulge a somewhat aged Toad."

"No problem! My name is Hope, and this is my friend Kory." I motioned to him. "If you want to know anything else, just feel free to ask. I feel we'll be walking for quite a while and it's a safe guess that we'll get bored easily."

He thanked me for the offer, but declined it for now. He said that if he thought of anything he would certainly ask it. I didn't have a watch on, but we continued on in silence for what felt like an hour or so. Those brown rounded walls that surrounded us were starting to fade in and out of my vision as we kept on walking; my senses were reeling, and the echoing of our footsteps on that wet concrete floor was driving me insane. And between you and me, I was beginning to regret requesting lighting for the tunnel. Squinting wasn't the best thing to do, but it helped reduce the brightness and making myself comfortable was a good enough reason to do it. I started getting uncomfortable with the no talking thing too, but then there was a new sound and it was coming from up ahead. As we continued forward, it grew louder.

"Um, guys?" Kory asked, breaking our vocal silence. "Do you hear that? It sounds like… it sounds like rushing water or something." It wouldn't be all too surprising, since we were walking in the sewer systems of the town, after all.

We finally reached the source of the loud water, and it ran a river across our path. It was wide enough for none of us to jump across and the swift current crossed swimming off of our list of possible ways to cross. We weren't going to test how deep it was, either. I groaned loud enough to have it echo over the water.

"Well this is a snag in our travels, by boogity… the worst part is that there doesn't seem to be a means of crossing it leftover from construction. No poles or ropes or long boards of wood. We're certainly up a creek without a paddle, ho ho ho!" Toadsworth joined in on Toadbert's joke with a giggle of his own. I have no comment on that joke, even years later. Kory, on the other hand, facepalmed.

"Quite the conundrum, eh what?" Toadsworth said. "I suppose plans for a bridge of some sort were left out as Boos can ultimately float over this with ease. We however, require extra help that we can't seem to find. It's too far to turn back around at this point; we've come so far already. Hope, do you see anything?"

"Uh… not yet?" I responded. I almost thought to ask Kory, but decided not to because of his little silent treatment. I kept looking around, trying to ignore the echoing annoyance. Toadbert had been right about everything so far. There were no supplies we could use to cross over. I almost stopped moving my head around, but then I saw it. A lone vine that hung down from a set of pipes from above.

"There!" I shouted over the water. I got everyone's attention with that and they all looked to where I was pointing. Sure enough, Toadbert had missed seeing that vine.

"By boogity, you've done it! Excellent work, Hope! All we have to do is swing across now. With the right momentum and velocity, I believe we can clear this pesky obstacle with ease." The good news was that it wasn't too far out from the dry-ish ground. We pulled it in towards us easily. Toadbert volunteered to try it out first to test if it was safe or not. He got a running start, jumped for lift-off, and swung straight ahead. At the exactly right moment, he let go and landed safely on the other side with a graceful tumble.

"See? It's fine! Now it's someone else's turn."

To my astonishment, Toadsworth decided to go next. His tenacity to perform physical feats with no complaints about being old is something I strive for whenever I get to be his age. He gripped that vine with all his might, somehow keeping his cane in his hand as well, and charged forward. I cringed and covered my eyes, afraid that he would fall.

Kory tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that everything was all right and he wasn't hurt. Soon after, still mute, he swung his way across with ease. The vine made a funny noise, but I figured that was normal for vines. They make funny noises when stretched out and stuff, right? He threw the vine back to me. I prepared myself mentally for this, and after I made my running start I jumped up. I was too nervous to let go and missed my chance to join them. I swung back all the way and then a little bit forward. It made that funny sound again; I looked up and saw that it was tearing! Preparing for my imminent fall, I tensed up real tight.

"HOPE!" Kory called out. I didn't open my eyes to see what he was doing to make a lot of noise, but he was doing whatever it was in vain as the vine snapped and sent me falling into the waters below. I thought I'd fall below the water level, but instead I ended up hurting my tailbone as I fell straight onto the floor. I did make a bit of a splash that got me all wet. I spat all the water off of my mouth and straightened my locks of hair back behind me where they belong. There was hacking and coughing for a good few seconds, until I finally opened my eyes to see Kory holding out a long pole he must have found on the other side of the 'river,' just staring at me with his mouth agape and speechless. That time I understood why he didn't say a word.

"Um—" started Toadsworth.

"NO." I cut him off abruptly. "Don't you say a word about this."

I was livid at this point, and used that anger to power myself to get up from my embarrassing position and strut across the water. They all spun, their focus on me as I walked past them.

"Are you—?"

"AH."

And that was the end of talking for another good half hour. I continued to drip the sewer water off of me as we all walked ever forward. My shoes now squished along with echoed. We eventually came across a peculiar looking table with many plans spread across it. One of them was a blueprint with a design for an entire town labeled 'Decalburg.' The weird thing is that it was abandoned; I remember it was marked up with a huge red Xs and cross outs.

"Huh… I wonder why they decided to abandon this project. And why it's in the middle of the sewer systems."

"Decalburg…" Toadsworth pondered. "It rings a slight bell. I believe the princess commissioned such a town for a grand festival commemorating the arrival of the Sticker Comet. I suppose it goes without saying that this astronomical occurrence is one of the few that has escaped the Mushroom Kingdom unscathed."

"Well I don't blame them for leaving it here." Kory commented. "Who'd want to celebrate the power of stickers? Sounds really dumb to me."

We left it exactly the way it was, in case someone wanted to come back and retrieve the plans one day. I've never gone back to check, but I'm willing to bet that they're still there decaying and disintegrating into dust. Or they've been washed up.

We finally began to hear the excited chattering of a crowd hundreds of yards ahead. I started to perk up at that discovery, and walked with even more flair. Surely it was true: The train station was waiting at the end of the tunnel, and I could even make out the red steam engine waiting for its passengers to board. I started to get giddy, I'll admit. Slowly I became who I was before falling into the shallowest river known.

"Guys! The train station! We made it with time to spare!"

And then I froze.

"Oh Underwhere, I just thought of something."

"What is it, Hope?" Toadbert asked. "Perhaps there's something I can do to help that?"

"Well, you know how Toadsworth, Kory, and I are all wanted fugitives and stuff? We can't exactly go up to the ticket booth and buy our tickets."

"That's easy, you just have me do that. No one knows who I am," he reassured.

"But what about boarding? We don't have disguises this time." Toadsworth stopped dead in his tracks as I said that.

"She has an excellent point. What shall we do?" Toadbert looked around fervently for something. I couldn't tell exactly what it was until he found it. "Toadbert, you've come through yet again. Newspapers are an excellent way to hide ourselves!"

"I could only find the one though, so we'll have to get more copies up at the desk. Hope, how much are tickets?" I told him. "And newspapers?" I gave him that price too. "Good, now does anyone have that kind of money?" I reluctantly pulled them out from my supply. "Thank you. I'll return momentarily!"

That he did with four tickets and two additional newspapers. I remember the front page vividly: Crude sketches of me, Kory, and Toadsworth under a caption of 'TERRORISTS IN TOAD TOWN' and the story ran on the entire front page. It gave me shivers that someone considered me something of a terrorist, and the poor depiction of us wasn't helping much either. I looked much better than that!

"Wow, Dark Bowser sure isn't joking around with us. He really means business."

"There's no time for that, Kory! The morning commuter train leaves in five minutes, so we have to hurry if we want to catch it on time." We all took that seriously and ran after Toadbert. Lucky him, not having to hide his face behind a newspaper. I was slightly jealous of him in that moment, able to freely do what he wanted without having to hide himself. That feeling passed as we all queued up to board the train.

Kory was first of us three fugitives, and I have to tell you that I was starting to worry even more. He was a human, and being the only human that's also a fugitive of the law is something really hard to hide yourself from. When the conductor let him on through without a question, I let out a heavy sigh of relief. Toadsworth was next and he was allowed on easily after his ticket had been punched. And then it was my turn.

"Ticket?" he asked. Not looking out from my newspaper, I handed it to him.

"Ya know… you're the third person in a row who's done this today." I could feel him getting closer, inspecting the newspaper. "And that's not even today's paper. Did you miss this one from a few years ago?"

"Uh…" I said, disguising my voice by deepening it quite a bit. "Well, you know how it is. You miss one newspaper and you're suddenly behind in everything."

"I see." He said plainly. "…Then explain why you're all wet. It's not raining outside and that paper is dry."

Fuck, that conductor had an eye for detail!

"Well, you see… I, uh… Sleepwalked into my, uh, pool this morning. Yeah. And then I realized I was late for work and I did not have time to change clothes."

"You slept in your clothes?"

"Would you if you had a commute by train?"

"Very well." That hole punch was the sweetest sound to me that day. "If you want, there's a private bathroom with a shower and some towels close to the back of the train if you want to clean yourself up. I can go reserve it for you if you'd like."

"That would be great, thanks." I gave a deep laugh and then stepped on board. He called all aboard, and when no one came rushing for the train he gave the all clear to the engineer to start the engine. I can imagine the wheels shifting on the rails, trying to pull all of those carriages, and then finally sticking and proceeding forward. The jerk of the train cars also told me that, I remember.

I ventured through the cabins to find my party, and by sheer coincidence they were in the compartment next to the private bathroom with the shower that the conductor told me about when boarding.

"You made it! I was starting to get worried." Kory got up out of his seat and gave me a warm hug. He didn't seem to care that I was still wet with sewage all over me or that I smelled like a Dried Shroom.

"Yes I made it, but I'm cold and wet and tired and I'm going to go take a shower and come back for a well-deserved nap." Looking back, I didn't realize how harsh I had been to him, nor had I seen the sympathetic faces Toadsworth and Toadbert gave Kory after I completely gave him the, quite literal, cold shoulder. I guess it's too late to apologize for that now, so I shan't worry about that.

The shower was nice and the temperature control was perfect. There was no differing between Lavalava Island and the Crystal Palace; it was a perfect Ricco Harbor kind of temperature. It was a blessing to get all that gunk off of me. It did make me even sleepier than I had been in the mansion, so right after I got dressed I kept to my word and slept on one of the seats. They all followed my lead, and we slept our way to the badlands where Old Bowser's Castle stood empty and in need of housewarming.