Chapter 10 Darkness is Growing
"Uggh…" Waking up after having experienced such an odd and concerning occurrence felt wrong. Pom Pom felt as though she was plummeting down to the ground at top speed, like she was flailing about and was in danger of being tased. Her whole body refused to cooperate her, almost like it was trying to reject her soul like it would reject a virus. When she finally managed to get her eyes open, she didn't feel better. The light shining down on her from the sun overhead, the biting chill that didn't mesh well with her cold-blooded physiology… everything around her and in her felt wrong.
What had just happened? Seriously, what had just happened? Pom Pom could remember those strange women so vividly, could hear their voices ringing in her ears. They… they looked like Viv, which meant… that couldn't have really happened, could it? It had already been confirmed years ago that Viv wasn't real, so there was no way that the… "vision" (if she could call it that) of those strange creatures could be real.
And if they weren't… oh God, what did that mean? Were Pom Pom's delusions getting worse? Was her mind deciding that it had been restrained for too long and needed to act up or something? Just thinking about those possibilities made Pom Pom feel queasy. That queasiness, combined with the anxiety that was determined to stay with her for the rest of her mortal life, provided her with an experience that would be sure to scar her. Nothing, not even the hurt she felt when her parents initially told her that she imagined Viv, could compare to this feeling.
Fighting tears, Pom Pom tried to get off the floor of the airship. She was gonna have to face Wendy about this new development, wasn't she? She was going to have to tell her what happened, and when she did… what would that mean? Would her time in the Koopa Troop already be over? Oh… ohh…. The tears growing in Pom Pom's eyes grew stronger. All her life, she was told that her struggles didn't have to define her, and yet those same struggles were snuffing out her dream and making it slip through her fingers right in front of her very eyes.
Deciding it would be best to just rip the band-aid off, Pom Pom rose to a sitting position. She ran through what she could say, the various possible explanations she could give to the princess when she noticed something. Wendy was lying on the ground too. In fact, all the Koopa Troop soldiers that had accompanied her and Pom Pom onto the airship were lying on the ground. They all groaned, and those who did manage to wake up within a decent time looked frightened and scared.
"What just happened?" She heard one say.
"I saw these strange women… what could that possibly mean?" asked another.
Pom Pom's heart stopped. Could… could it be? Could everyone else on the ship have experienced the exact same thing she experienced? How… how was that even possible? It shouldn't be! Psychotic breaks weren't contagious! Delusions weren't contagious either! If everyone had seen what she saw… did that mean that…?
"Wendy?" Pom Pom got up and went over to Wendy. "Wendy, wake up!" She shook the princess, not even worrying if that was or wasn't proper protocol. The Koopa princess groaned, sounding like she had just gone through the worst of wringers. When she eventually managed to gather her bearings, she looked confused and taken aback to insane degrees.
"What… what just…?" Wendy made eye contact with Pom Pom. "Pom Pom… did you see those two purple shadow women too, or was it just me?"
Pom Pom felt as though her world was spinning. "I… I saw them too…" Everyone on the ship had actually seen the same things that she saw. It had actually happened, it really and truly actually happened. Pom Pom wasn't crazy, she hadn't had some sort of hallucination. This… this…
She didn't even know what this was. She didn't know what it was, and she didn't know how she felt about it either. All she knew now was that she was panicking. It felt like her world was collapsing in on itself, like everything that she had been told and taught during her life was a lie.
"You did?" Wendy struggled to rise to her feet. "But… how could that be?"
"I don't know," Pom Pom admitted. Her heart pounded like never before. It was like it wanted to jump out of her chest and abandon her body.
"Pom Pom, these women looked exactly like how you described Viv."
Pom Pom nodded. "They did…" The cadet ran through every possibility, everything that she could do to explain this situation to herself and Wendy. "So… if everyone saw it… if they look just like Viv…"
"Then maybe it's possible you had actually seen Viv. Maybe she's real too."
Pom Pom cringed. "I…" she started hyperventilating. "No, Wendy, Viv wasn't real. She couldn't be real! What happened to us just now was some kind of hoax! Viv isn't real! She can't be real, she… she…" Pom Pom put her hand to her chest. She wanted to black out; that was the only way she would get any relief in this situation.
At least, that's what she thought until Wendy placed her hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Pom Pom. Please don't panic; I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation for this." Pom Pom shifted her gaze onto Wendy's face. She looked so compassionate, so empathetic. Not even Pom Pom's own parents have given her looks like that before.
"Clearly, something strange is going on here, and we need to figure out what it is." Wendy put her hand to her chin before her face lit up. "And I think I know where we need to go to figure out what's going on." She stepped away from Pom Pom for a few minutes and went up to one of the koopa troopa soldiers. "Stark, set a course for the city of Frostwall!"
"Frostwall?" Stark asked, mirroring Pom Pom's own confusion. "But Your Highness, what about the kidnapping mission?"
"Forget about the kidnapping mission, Stark. There are more important things than the kidnapping mission." Wendy looked as serious as a global pandemic. "We need to figure out what just happened to everyone on the ship, and I believe the Great Library of All Mushroom World Knowledge in Frostwall is the perfect place to find the answers."
Stark's jaw dropped before he closed it and nodded. "Of course, Princess Wendy. We'll redirect the ship."
"Thank you." Wendy did a little curtsey and went to join Pom Pom once again. "Don't worry, Pom Pom. Whatever is going on here, we'll figure out what it is soon enough."
Pom Pom sighed. "I certainly hope so, Wendy."
With that, the ship started changing course. They flew away from the sparkling Frosted Glacier, heading toward the southeast. As the airship glided through the air, Pom Pom decided that the best thing to do was a deep breathing exercise. She did those all the time as a kid, and they always helped her whenever she was going through a particularly rough time.
"Don't worry, Pom Pom." She took a deep breath in. "Everything is fine." Deep breath out. "We'll find out what everyone saw." Deep breath in again. "We'll set everything straight." Another deep breath was released. "Everything will be fine."
She continued to do this deep breathing exercise. The practice grew even more pleasant when they left Frosted Glacier and passed over the Soda Jungle. The air was so much crisper, and it was far less chilly than before. Pom Pom like this; getting a chance to bask in the sun and feel a pleasant semi-tropical warmth helped her feel a lot better. Sure, she still felt confused and frightened, but the change in climate was doing her all sorts of favors. The warmth made her think of the Koopa Kingdom, after all. And considering everything that she was going through, a cozy warmth that made her think of her beloved home was the exact thing that she…
"Princess Wendy, look!"
Pom Pom did a double-take, coming out of her own head. She saw a hammer bro, standing on the edge of the airship's deck and pointing toward the ground below. Pom Pom exchanged a look with Wendy, hoping that whatever the soldier saw wasn't… too horrible.
Unfortunately, those hopes appeared to be for naught. Wendy and Pom Pom went over to the edge with the soldier, and when they saw what he was pointing at… well, Pom Pom couldn't speak for Wendy, she could say that she felt chills running up and down her spine. They were passing over the haunted section of Soda Jungle, an area that could make most people a little scared normally. And at this particular time, those feelings were even worse, because…
"WHAT IS THAT?" Pom Pom stared, wide-eyed, at the strange occurrence in the forest. A dark cloud, one that was on the border between purple and black, rose out of the forest. It appeared to be growing, rising above the trees like an all-consuming, hungry, monstrous mass. That alone made Pom Pom want to enter her fight-or-flight mode, but what she saw as the airship got closer only served to increase her paranoia. Arms made of shadow reached out through the edge of the cloud. They grappled and groped as if trying to grab hold of something and drag it screaming into an infinite abyss. The closer they got to the cloud, it also sounded like… like there were screams coming from it. Horrible screams, screams that sounded like the last sound a person would make before being claimed by death.
Pom Pom actually collapsed to the ground. Holding herself up with her right hand, she tried to grapple with the overwhelming fear. She didn't know what was happening, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. A vision that was sent out to everyone that was within her line of sight, visual confirmation that Viv may actually exist, as well as the growing, consuming cloud that grew in the haunted area of Soda Jungle… what could all this mean? What was happening in the Mushroom World? It seemed that nothing was making sense anymore. Everything was being thrown into question, down to the very ground that Pom Pom currently stood upon. This was… this was just…
"Stark, steer the ship towards Meringue Clouds; something tells me we should avoid that smog." Pom Pom barely heard Wendy calling to her over her own heartbeat. As such, when Wendy actually addressed her, she couldn't properly respond. "Pom Pom, it's going to be okay." Wendy got down on her knees and took Pom Pom's hand in hers. "I know it's confusing, I know it's scary, but it's all going to be okay. We're gonna figure out what's going on, and when we do, we can start working to fix things."
Pom Pom looked down at Wendy's hands, so warm and still as it held onto her own. She looked into the princess's face, noticing that she looked so calm. Not unbothered or unaffected by the strange happenings; there was very definitely fear in her eyes. But even still, she had a poise to her, a strength that made Pom Pom hope. Maybe they would find out what was going on. Maybe they would be able to fix things. Maybe, when they fixed things, everything would go back to some version of normal. Maybe everything would turn out alright in the end.
"Thank you, Wendy." With Wendy's help, Pom Pom eventually found the strength to stand. "Thank you so much."
"Of course. I don't know what's going on, but… we Koopas are gonna stick together."
Pom Pom nodded.
