Paper Mario: The Leader of the Drybones

Chapter 2: Mario and Parakarry made their way through Desert Land. It was night, making visibility a bit difficult for them. They were both still in shock about the unusual abilities the Dry Bones zombies had. Laser vision? Being able to detect their target without the need for seeing them? Exactly what kind of Dry Bones were these? Mario and Parakarry just couldn't figure this out. Mario, however, had other thoughts as well.

"Parakarry was right about the Dry Bones only trying to attack me," he thought; "But then that means Parakarry doesn't really have anything to do with this…I hope he's not putting himself in danger…He DOES, have a bad wing after all. I wonder if Luigi's all right…I hope so."

Parakarry also had thoughts of his own. "I hope Mario doesn't find out that I wanted to avoid my boss. He might think I'm a coward, or I was just using him…which I'm not! But if my boss ever found out about this…he'd surely fire me…I really hate it when he gets mad…" Parakarry then thought of the Postmaster's scary, stern look. He grimaced, then shivered.

Mario looked at the anxious paratroopa. "Are you okay?" he asked, "You look worried…"

Parakarry jumped. "Huh?" he said. "Oh…I'm fine…"

They continued walking. Desert Land was chilly at night. The cool wind blew bits of sand in their faces, making visibility even harder. Nevertheless, they kept walking. Just then, something came to Parakarry's mind. "Mario?" he said. "How far back do you think those Dry Bones are?"

"I never really thought much about that…" said Mario.

The wind suddenly picked up. As they took more steps, the wind kept blowing harder and harder. "Um… Mario?" said Parakarry. "What's going on with the wind? Is there a storm brewing?"

"It can't be…" said Mario. "I've been here several times in the past, and it hardly ever rains here…"

"No. I meant like a windstorm."

Mario stared, not moving a single inch. "Mario… Could you stop looking at me like that?" said Parakarry. "You're making me nervous…"

"Um… Parakarry?"

"What? What is it? More zombies? If so, I'll blast their skulls off!"

"No… It's something a lot worse…"

"Like what?"

"Parakarry!"

"WHAT?!"

"Turn around and tell me what you see…"

Parakarry did so, and as the wind picked up even more, he could see a tall, swirling mass of sand heading right towards them! Parakarry turned back to Mario. "I see a tweester," he said. He thought for a second. "A tweester?!" He whipped back around. "TWEESTER!" he screamed.

They both ran away, but to no avail. The Tweester simply sucked them up. After a few seconds of swirling, they were flung far and wide!

Mario pulled himself out of the sand. He looked all around him. Parakarry was nowhere to be seen. He got up. "PARAKARRY?!" he called. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" No answer. Mario was getting worried. Maybe Parakarry really had put himself in danger. Mario kept his hopes high however and walked off to find his partner.

Parakarry woke up. The landing had knocked him out. He looked around. "W-w-where am I?" he asked himself. He looked down at his chest. He saw nothing but ribs! He screamed. After a few seconds, he stopped. He was still alive. Then he realized he was half-buried in the sand, with the ribs of a dead koopa lying on top of him. Parakarry felt relieved, though somewhat embarrassed, even though no one was watching him.

The Super Scope lay ten meters away from him. Parakarry pulled himself out of the sand. He winced as he felt a sharp pain in his wing. He went over to the weapon and picked it up. He looked around. Where was Mario? Was he okay? Parakarry was a little too nervous to call for him, so he set off to find Mario.

After about fifteen minutes, he stopped. He literally got a sinking feeling. He looked down. His feet were missing! He looked all around him. He had stepped into quicksand! Before he could panic, he remembered an old trick; don't move. Parakarry didn't move a muscle. He sunk more slowly, but that still didn't help the sinking. Parakarry still didn't move. He couldn't move even if he wanted to. He was scared stiff, so stiff he couldn't speak. He would've preferred getting fired than death. Parakarry could only hope that Mario would come and save him, even if it was at the last second.

Mario charged across the sandy plains. He was doing two things at once: looking for Parakarry, and trying to evade something else. Mario continued running. Suddenly, he spotted something up ahead. It looked like half the body of a koopa sticking from the ground. As Mario got closer, he could see that it was Parakarry, slowly sinking into the sand! Mario ran over to him. A relieved Parakarry stuck his arm out. Mario started tugging. "Don't worry," said Mario. "I'll have you...out of this in...no time…" Mario said in between grunts pulling on the paratroopa.

Parakarry spotted something. "Um… Mario?" he said. "I don't like to be the barer of bad news, but look out behind you…" Mario looked back, seeing about twenty dry bones.

"I know," said Mario. "They were chasing me earlier."

The dry bones moved slowly towards them while Mario struggled to pull Parakarry out of the quicksand. Then came more trouble. A piranha plant suddenly rose from the quicksand! It leaned towards Mario and Parakarry and snapped at them. Mario pulled even harder. The dry bones began throwing bones at them. Mario jumped out of the way, while Parakarry ducked his head into his shell to avoid getting hit by accident; as well as avoiding the piranha plant. He was still holding the super scope, but with his hand that was in the sand. Parakarry tried to pull the super scope up. Mario jumped around wildly while avoiding the flying bones. He suddenly charged towards them. He jumped on one, which fell apart. He jumped on another. And another. And another. He kept jumping on them until they were all in pieces. He rushed back to Parakarry. The piranha plant suddenly snapped at him. Parakarry popped his head back out, and stuck out his arm. Mario began pulling again, ducking to avoid the piranha plant's snaps.

Mario suddenly looked over. The dry bones, had reassembled themselves! Now Mario and Parakarry had their hands full with twenty Dry Bones and one hungry piranha plant! Mario pulled for dear life while Parakarry still struggled to free his arm and the Super Scope. Mario suddenly felt Parakarry coming out of the quicksand. The dry bones got closer. Mario gave it one more good heave, and finally pulled Parakarry out. Parakarry shook himself off and began blasting at the dry bones with the super scope. One by one, each dry bones was blown to pieces. Parakarry then turned to the piranha plant and blasted it. The plant then retreated into the quicksand. Mario and Parakarry took off running. They ran until they saw a pipe in the distance. They ran up to it.

"Do ya think this pipe will take us to Sarasaland?" asked Parakarry.

"It's worth a shot," said Mario. They jumped in.

Mario and Parakarry emerged from the pipe. They looked around. They could see nothing but trees, grass, and bushes. Where were they? In a forest kingdom perhaps?

"Where are we?" Asked Parakarry.

"Not sure...a new kingdom maybe."

Parakarry gulped. "Well…let's go before all those Dry Bones catch up…" The paratroopa said nervously.

They walked off into the forest. Parakarry was still a little worried about Mario discovering his secret about avoiding his boss. But then he was also starting to get second thoughts. Had he made a good choice? After all, he was almost killed by a quicksand-dwelling piranha plant as well as the quicksand itself. Then again, Luigi was in trouble…there's a good reason why he should keep going. He was helping Mario. Right? Suddenly Parakarry's wing pain started to come back.

Mario was thinking about Luigi. Exactly who kidnapped him? Mario was stumped. He looked over at Parakarry and noticed he was wincing. "What's wrong?" said Mario. "Is it your wing?"

Parakarry looked at him. "Uh… Don't worry about it…" he said. "It's nothing serious…"

Mario didn't fall for it. "Did you fall on it in that windstorm?" he asked.

"I'm fine!" Parakarry protested.

Mario still wasn't convinced. "Okay...well, tell me if it really gets worse," he said.

"Really! It won't! It's fine!" Parakarry said. He winced again. His wing felt a bit worse than before, but if it meant avoiding his boss, then he would have to take it.

Mario was concerned about Parakarry. "Parakarry's acting a little strange..." thought Mario. "I wonder if something is bothering him...I'll ask him about it later though…I don't want to annoy him."

Suddenly, something interrupted Mario's thoughts. He looked all around. Parakarry noticed him. "What's up?" he said.

"Something's not right here…" said Mario.

"What do you mean?" asked Parakarry.

"Sh-h-h!" said Mario. Parakarry began to feel nervous. What was about to happen? Suddenly, they heard nearby bushes crackling. Parakarry shivered.

"Who's there?!" yelled Mario. No answer. Mario kept looking around. Parakarry shook even more. His teeth began to chatter a little. Then they heard footsteps! Mario started to get a little nervous himself. He motioned Parakarry to follow him. Parakarry reluctantly followed. They heard more footsteps. Parakarry's legs quivered. Suddenly, they saw two silhouettes walk out of the bushes ahead.

"HEY YOU!" yelled Mario. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The two figures froze. Parakarry got the Super Scope ready just in case. The figures suddenly jumped back into the bushes.

"AFTER THEM!" said Mario.

They ran towards the bushes. When they got there, the two figures were nowhere to been seen. "W-w-where'd they go?" stuttered Parakarry.

"I'm not sure…" said Mario. "I think they went… this way…"

Mario and Parakarry crept slowly forward. The two figures were hiding behind a tree. They both peered from behind the tree.

"All right," said one, "listen. On the count of three, we'll jump on 'em."

"Gotcha," said the other.

"One… two… three!"

They both jumped out into Mario and Parakarry just as the two were walking by.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YA DOING?!" cried Parakarry. "OW! LET GO OF MY WING!"

"ALL RIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH!" yelled Mario. They threw the two figures off. Mario and Parakarry got up and walked over to the two figures. One of them was a red yoshi with green shoes and hair. The other was a yellow-shelled Koopa with blue shoes and hair.

"What is your problem?!" Parakarry scolded.

"Gee… Sorry about that…" said the Koopa. "We thought you were gonna kill us with that…" He said pointing at the scope.

"Now why would we do something like that?" said Mario. Then the koopa and yoshi stared at him.

"Hey…" said the Yoshi. "You're that Mario guy I've been hearing so much about."

"Um… Yeah…I am… And who are you guys?"

"Oh… I'm Riley"

"And I'm K.C.K."

"K.C.K?" said Parakarry. "What does that stand for?"

"Uh… I'd rather not say it…" said the koopa.

"Oh… Okay."

"Anyhoo," said Riley "what're you guys doing here?"

"We're trying to get to Sarasaland so we can save my brother," said Mario.

"Your brother?" asked K. C. K. "… Hmm… Isn't his name… Luigi?"

"Yes."

"Oooh… Well be careful, guys," said Riley. "We saw some Dry Bones back there." The yoshi points ahead.

"MORE Dry Bones?!" asked Parakarry. "We have twenty of 'em on our tails! ... How many did you guys see?"

"About thirty…" said K.C.K

"T-THIRTY?!" Parakarry screamed.

Suddenly, they all heard some clicking and clacking noises. They looked ahead to see ten dry bones zombies slowly walking towards them!

"Uh oh!" said Riley. "Here they come now!"

"Don't worry," said Mario. "You guys are safe. It's me they're after, not you."

Then the twenty dry bones from the desert were coming towards them. "Well…" said Parakarry, "here we go…"

The dry bones started firing laser beams from their eyes. They all dodged. The other ten threw bones at them. Riley swallowed a dry bones and spat it out. Crashing into five of them. Parakarry started blasting at the Dry Bones. He hit two of them. Mario wildly jumped around to avoid the laser beams, eventually jumping on a dry bones. He jumped on another, but was then surrounded by three others. Another dry bones snuck up behind Mario, its eyes glowing. Mario didn't see him.

"Mario! Behind you!" Called K.C.K Mario whipped around and ducked just as the dry bones fired its laser. Riley swallows another dry bones and sent it flying into another group of dry bones smashing them to pieces. The other three dry bones were hit by a spinning blue shell. Parakarry blasted the dry bones as they all tried to charge at Mario. K. C. K smashed into two other dry bones just as they were about to throw bones at Mario. Riley swallows another dry bones and threw it at another. Mario jumped on two more. Riley ground pounded near four other Dry Bones. Three of them fell apart. K.C.K slammed into a dry bone that avoided Riley's attack. Parakarry blasted the remaining dry bones.

"Phew!" said Parakarry. "Let's go before they put themselves together!"

The four ran away. Ahead was a pipe. They all jumped into the pipe and all four emerged from the other side. They looked around. There were pipes everywhere.

"Great…" said Mario. "Now we're in Pipe Land."

"Oh well… Maybe one of these pipes will takes us to Sarasaland…" Parakarry said, although he didn't sound hopeful.

"Hey, thanks for helping us fend off those dry bones," said Mario to K.C.K and Riley

"No prob!" said K.C.K

"You guys need any more help?" asked Riley.

Mario paused, what else might possibly lay ahead for them? How many more dry bones would they have to out-battle? Should he bring these two along? He already felt bad for bringing Parakarry along.

I'll let you decide if Mario should bring the two partners along. So please review! I don't know what to decide.

Fun fact: I was planning on having K.C.K's initials be K.K.K. But I didn't want to stir up any problems.