Ludwig and Lemmy have finally arrived! Who will run out of time? Stay tuned for the next chapter… Kidding! It's all happening now!
-o-
Together 'til the End
Location: Desert jail, front gate
As the rubble and debris settle and the legions of soldiers arrive at the entrance, Lemmy walks toward the entrance, freezing the tongues of fire burning the wreckage of the front gate. He pulls out his wand, posing to attack as a few soldiers charge at him, ready to fight.
"Yo, Wiseguy! Now what? I'm free to go all out, right?"
No answer.
Lemmy gets a little disconcerted, and looks everywhere for his sibling.
"Yo, Ludwig!"
He quickly realizes he was abandoned, and remembers their previous conversation, cackling soon after. "I see. Doing your own thing now, eh, wily snake? Okay then, so shall I."
…
The scene cuts to Ludwig flying at high speed towards the tropics…
Ludwig flies the Clown Car as fast as possible, leaving Lemmy behind. The blue haired Koopaling's face beams with determination, knowing that his sibling would be able to follow through with the Master's orders, letting him try out his own scheme. He is very focused on the southern constellations, just like before. Suddenly, a screen of a highly advanced GPS located on the right-hand side of the control panel lights up, a voice comes out of the speaker above it:
"Monsieur Von Koopa, state your desired destination."
"Mount Lavalava, on the double."
A map of the island pops up on the screen, with many of its locations highlighted clearly, spread out throughout the island. Ludwig presses a large tree icon on the screen.
"Arrival in two hours," says the GPS.
'Excellent,' ponders the Koopaling as the cold evening wind rushes through his blue hair, 'The Master's strategy progressing at a vigorous rate, and soon, I believe, will achieve its full realization. Once we acquire our final sacrifices and the fruit, we can venture to the austral lands, away from the wretched, boreal kingdoms allied with the despicable 'shrooms. And then…' He chortles. 'My stratagem will too become a reality. Nevertheless, I must be patient and not let the Master lose his trust in my work, so I must tarry still and work in the shadow. Only then, the Master will truly acknowledge me as the genius that I am.'
…
The scene cuts to the shadow of a winged, triple-headed being, zipping through the night sky at near sonic speeds. Slyklyde is about half way to his destination, the jail in the darkness of Desert Hill.
"The Maxter ordered me to arrive ax fax ax poxxible, but I don't think I'll arrive xoon. I should make it in 2 hourx topx. I'm to be the back up, but everything should be ready at my arrival."
…
The scene cut again, this time back to the jail with Lemmy past the front door, a trail of half frozen soldiers behind him…
And some soldiers in front of him. He has a few ice shots scattered across his chest and arms, but having and affinity to the cold in general, Lemmy did not feel uncomfortable at all. His sinister maw and deep laugh strikes fear even upon the most courageous soldier, but they were resolved to stop the menace that had arrived at their door step. Another legion of Toad soldiers scurry from behind, this time carrying an assortment of items, mostly Fire Flower canisters for their guns and Volt Shrooms.
"Halt! Or else, we will shoot!" yells a random Toad soldier.
Lemmy's eyes glow an evil blue hue. "Try and stop me," he whispers under his breath.
…
Location: Cavern, Warden's side
Despite the chaos that ensued in the cavern, Warden Leroy remains unfazed, ready to attack whoever moved first. Just then, the doogan warden spots Draco and the soldiers accompanying him arriving at the area, and begins fiddling with his moustache while his nose twitched as he sniffs the air.
"Ah! The real Draco has finally arrived. Welcome to you too, you thieving turtle," he states in a relaxed tone. He grunts; the soldiers accompanying the Fire Brother aim their Ice Flower guns at him.
Draco raises his hands, confused among the legion of weapons. "Um, thanks for the warm welcome. What did I do?"
"Conspired with the Koopalings. Intel gotten straight from the source." He stares at Hitatsu, who is still engulfed in blue flames. "I don't know if they are connected with the recent world wide catastrophes, but they are an enemy we don't take kindly to in these parts. Surrender or else!"
Hitatsu doesn't waste any time landing a right fire kick on Warden Leroy, who simple shields himself with his left forearm. The warden grabs the Fire Brother swiftly by his leg, slamming the Fire Bros into the ground while electrocuting him via his doogan hand.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DUDE?" exclaims a convulsing Hitatsu, his voice shaking from the shock, "Help me out!"
Draco snaps out of his daze, and just as quickly as the doogan Warden, he swipes around his left leg and trips the soldiers nearest to him, rolling over and using him as a shield, narrowly dodging the multiple Ice Flower shots.
Many shots are randomly fired, hitting rocks, other soldiers, and Hitatsu; his flames evaporate the shots. Daisy hides behind Morton Jr., who himself gets shot in the mouth and lands on his butt.
"Mmm, icy…" says Morton Jr., happy, oddly enough, for the "treat."
Hitatsu begins fire bending the flames from his body and attacks the Warden relentlessly, who defends himself with lightning punches and kicks. Unbeknownst to everyone, a low rumbling and subtle quakes begin threatening the underground place.
Out of the wild blue, the shadow of a large object quickly approaches them. Mole-Yoshi, carrying Geno and Johnny on top, drops in from the jail above and is about to crush many of the personages in the cavern below. Everyone, even the Koopaling klutz, jumps out of the way. Daisy hides behind the warden as Morton stands a few feet away from the epicenter. The ensuing tremor blows sand into a dust cloud.
While confusion reigns and the dust covers them, Geno jumps off and gets ready to battle, readying his gun from his right arm, as his forearm is missing. "Yosh! Start digging!" he orders, "I'll tango with these jocks. Who knows how much time we have left!" Yoshi begins to dig into the ground, but he forgot about the shark, so Johnny slips off his metallic back onto the cavern floor.
As the dust is settling, Geno spots Daisy near the warden. When she sees the wooden doll, he waives at her to leave, but the general confusion doesn't let her rationalize this. However, Morton Jr. also sees him, accidentally misunderstanding the gesture, thinking it was for him. Surprisingly (one could say beginner's luck!), he quickly comes up with a plan; he clumsily runs behind the warden and pretends to kidnap Daisy in the most obvious way, running later toward the other three. Daisy still has no idea what is going on and shrieks. Everyone else is just as confused, especially with the recent fall of their new guests.
Geno glares at his ally's folly in disbelief, wanting to bury his face in his left hand. He then shrugs as the corpulent Koopaling makes his way over, proud of his accomplished setback.
"I got her, now what?" inquired the star-faced Koopaling.
"Nice going," scolds Geno, "I had this all figured out, and you just blew it worse that a Bob-omb."
"But I thought you wanted me to…"
"That hand sign wasn't for you. It was for… some…thing else. And now, we have nowhere to hide."
Both turn toward everyone else present. The doogan warden had ordered his soldiers to surround Geno, Johnny, and Morton. He runs and jumps over Morton, snatching Daisy by her left wrist, and kicking the Koopaling into the ground. When he lands with the princess in his arms, he turns to the Fire Bro bounty hunters.
"Our little scuffle can wait. I'm sure you'll agree that we can't let our prized prisoner escape."
Hitatsu grins, appearing more devilish. "For once, we agree, dude." Draco glances at his partner, noticing the discreet money hand gestures. He rolls his eyes as he focused on the trio.
"Well, then," begins the warden, "I hereby give you the capital punishment. Except for the scourge, you all had promising lives, but this is what you all decided to do with it. May Eldstar have mercy on your wretched souls. On my word!"
"Wait," interjects Daisy as the warden sets her down, "Don't they have a last request?"
Warden Leroy turns to her as he gently grabs her left hand. "As much as I wish I to grant them that, they went too far when they tried to get our prisoner out of jail." The doogan warden slowly leans closer to Daisy as he pants softly as she struggles to free herself and not smell his nasty breath.
"Well, I guess the show ends here," Morton says hopelessly. Just then, a pop echoes from below the hole Yoshi dug out.
Geno chuckles. "I'm not giving up until the very end, so give us your worst." He looks around. "Umm… Where's Stuffwell?"
Yoshi pokes his head above the hole and is about to climb out. "Sorry, Gee. I ran out of juice. What should we do…? Oh…" The green dinosaur is speechless when he also sees the soldiers ready to shoot at the warden's word. "Morton, this would be a great time for you to fart our way out of trouble."
"No matter what you may want to try," begins the warden diplomatically, "I will not let you have even the smallest chance. Todd!"
"Sir!" the bandit soldier in his underwear and paper bag mask bellows, throwing a smoke bomb at the group. The gas itself isn't venomous, but it is made from extract of fuzzies from Yoshi's Island, which makes Yoshi intoxicated, and somehow disables Geno so he can't speak or move except for his eyes. The wooden doll clacks on the floor next to the unconscious shark.
"Ha! You chumps, that won't work on m…" begins Morton Jr., just when out of nowhere, Stuffwell 2.0 falls on his head, knocking him out. It falls into the hole.
"Stuffwell went down the hooooooole," babbles Yoshi, as the Fuzzy gas has taken effect.
Warden Leroy walks closer to the four banditos, Daisy walking by his side as she grabs his arm. He grins, revealing his pearly yellow canines, and then licks his lips before closing his mouth.
"What an angry and desperate gaze you have!" begins the doogan warden, looking down at Geno, "The better to chew on you then. Ahem, milady." He turns to Daisy. "I'll have you escorted back to safety; I can't have your innocent eyes see what will befall these criminals."
"Will Geno be alright?"
"I'll just use him as my chew toy. Nothing out of… How do you know his name?"
Before he can continue his inquiry, the rumbling that was heard before is considerably louder, and right after, the ground begins to shake for a few seconds. The rate that this repeated gets shorter each time. Warden Leroy eyes widen, suddenly remembering something about the cavern.
"Soldiers, we must retreat before they show up. Once they appear, it may be too late."
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" someone shrieks.
Suddenly, about 4 tox boxes, roam the place, weakening the cavern floor and jail ceiling from above. The many explosions and screams had woken them up. These tox boxes moves much faster than they normally would, and all five of their faces looked upset. Some flattened some of the soldiers, while the remaining soldiers and the Fire Bro. pair dodged the incoming assaults. Hitatsu shot a fire ball at one, but nothing happened.
"Everyone! Escape from this place!" yells Warden Leroy, grabbing Daisy by the hand. "Anyone who can still move, get your tail to safety! And all able bodied men, carry the injured. No one gets left behind except these criminals!"
Just as he is about to leave, Yoshi hugs his leg, still high from the fuzzy gas. Warden Leroy kicks him away, sending him crashing into Geno and the shark pirate, all three dropping inside the hole Yoshi dug up and landing with a muted thud.
"Geno fell down the hoooooooole," Yoshi babbles.
Before he walks away, a new tox box shows up, sending some sand into the air and its open end is right in front of the hole where our protagonists except Morton Jr. are. It threatens to split the star-faced Koopaling in two with its sharp open end edge. Daisy tries to pull away, making the doogan warden try and stop Sarasaland's princess.
"Morty!" she yells, successfully pulling away from the warden's tight grip. Daisy runs to the place where the hole is just as the tox box begins to flip on top of Morton Jr., jumping at the Koopaling.
The warden doesn't know what to think anymore, as he watches in horror the tox box almost slices the princess. Daisy narrowly manages to push Morton into the hole with her, but doesn't notice the floor is cracking. The tox box tries to flip again, but it is stuck above the hole.
The warden snaps from his trance and decides to remove the tox box himself, but the ceiling from the jail above is beginning to collapse. A giant slab of ceiling falls on top of the tox box, and with the cave floor already very weak, it falls through, making a hole leading to an underground torrent. He looks up, then at the river below, and decides to leave with his soldiers.
'If the chancellor of Sarasaland finds out, we may have serious problems,' the doogan warden ponders. 'Oh well, I must find Tanuki and report to the king at once.'
Hitatsu saw everything from a distance; he didn't want to lose the money he could have earned from capturing Johnny, and is ready to jump in after them. However, Draco, also a witness and having followed his partner, grabs Hitatsu's left arm, earning Hitatsu's fire fist to the face. Right before going in, a large chunk of ceiling falls and blocks the hole, more debris falling in as well.
Draco spits out a little blood. "Come on! We gotta go now! We'll catch 'em later." Hitatsu reluctantly agrees, going back to his normal non-fiery look, escaping with the last soldier of the desert legion.
-o-
Finally, an update! After months of planning, writing and fighting with the plot, I have something I feel okay with uploading, but I digress.
The jail is no more, and our heroes have gone in the deep end. Where will this river lead them? Why did Ludwig leave so suddenly? Will our five protagonists get out alive (or at least get out), or will they meet a tragic end? The arc will culminate on the next chapter.
PS: A "tox box" is the box enemy from Super Mario 64, from Shifting Sand Land. It's located in the maze from the first part of the level to the oasis.