XV

Terror in the Tunnels

The light of the holo flashed and went out, sending the observation deck back to black. At least the battery lasted long enough for us to get the message, thought Fox.

"Delta lab," said Fox aloud, recalling Peach's plea.

"Where the heck is that?" asked Falco.

"We need a map," suggested Mario. "Luigi."

He looked over at his brother and saw that he was not doing well. His farting and hyperventilating were getting worse. In one end, out the other. Every bit of the experience from the dark to the dead body turned his stomach. "I can't do this. I don't wanna do this. Too dark."

"Daisy, can you get a hold of him? I'm freezing my keister off," Toad complained.

"Shut up, Toad." She puffed out her cheeks, which grew hot and flushed. Her hatred of the scoundrel moved the air between them into a compression chamber that sat ready to explode.

"I like her," said Falco, a grin spreading across his yellow beak.

"Luigi, it's okay," she said, turning away from her former captain. "You can do this. Please, we need you to map the area." She directed him to follow her breathing. They breathed in and out, each of them in an attempt to bring their pulses down. It was working until…

"I should hope he can do this," Toad popped off sarcastically. "He's the navigator. Maps are literally his thing."

Finally, the air between them exploded in a white hot blaze. Daisy wheeled to face him and pushed him up against the wall, his mushroom head smacking off of it. She growled through gritted teeth. "Toad, if you don't shut your fucking mouth, I'm gonna blast a cryo round right up your asshole. That'll freeze your keister off."

"Permission granted, soldier," snorted Falco.

"Don't make it worse, Falco." Fox sighed and shook his head. This was not a professional company of soldiers. It was just a ragtag group of buffoons who were out of their depth and the supposed leader who had taken command of his ship had no command at all.

Daisy released Toad and turned back to her fiance. "Go on, Luigi," she said encouragingly. He moaned and then tapped his omnitool. The nav-cuff application activated and two probes shot out of the gauntlet. They were little silver balls with a rotating scanning beam that sent a two-dimensional grid of the area directly to his omnitool. Toad was right. A map was an easy matter but when he got into such a panic, his brain shut down. The sense of dread was so overwhelming that even the simplest tasks became insurmountable. But Daisy helped him return to center or, at least, somewhere close to it. She was and had been his grounding and his love deepened for her. He gave her a weak smile in the dark but she missed it. But it didn't matter. He knew that if she had seen it, the gesture would have been returned.

"It looks like there's a hatch down the service hall. From there, we'll be in the tunnels with a straight shot to Delta Lab," he said, inspecting his nav-cuff.

"Where's the service hall?" asked his brother.

"Out the door, to the left."

"Move out," said Mario. His tone was an attempt at firm and commanding but it was enough to spur them into action. They moved quickly and as a unit down the service hall, which was just as dark and dingy as the rest of the building. And no less scary. The hatch was in the center of the floor and was a rusted orange metal. On top, there was a crank wheel to open the three locks that looked like a tetanus-inducing nightmare. "Fox, help me with the hatch."

They each grabbed an end of the wheel and pushed until it gave. Finally, the locks released one after the other. Fox entered the hatch first, followed by Mario. Toad gave Daisy a salute, to which she rolled her eyes, before he entered. She looked over at Luigi, who was shaking again. Before he could put a foot on the descending ladder, she caught him on the arm by surprise.

"Daisy, what are you…"

She cut him off with a kiss. Her lips were a warm comfort from the icy chill, her breath sweet against the musk and mold. She pushed past him and gave him a wink before entering the hatch. He lowered his eyes and smiled and followed after.

He landed in a frigid splash, the black and brackish water coming up into his boots. The tunnels were black as pitch and smelled even worse than the death above. He took a small step forward and walked face-first into a sticky black webbing. It had the shape of a spider's web but was made of a viscous ink-like substance that was noxious to the nose and caused him to rear back and retch. Through his choking throat and bleary eyes, he didn't notice that the impact sent a vibrating wave along the tendrils of webbing into the recesses of the tunnel. Suddenly, a loud screech sounded from deeper inside followed by a clicking noise that tapered off.

"What the hell is that?" asked Toad through gritted teeth. The noise occurred again and it seemed to him to be from some bizarre vocal apparatus that was not human-like and certainly nothing he would want to meet intimately.

"Lights up. Weapons up."

"You sure you don't wanna go dark?" asked Falco even though he knew better than to question his commanding officer. He was a seasoned soldier, after all. But this CO was new and uncertain and had yet to earn his respect.

"If there's something in here, I want visibility," responded Mario. Falco acquiesced to the point and appreciated the logic.

"These tunnels are narrow. Not much room to create a formation," offered Fox.

"No, there isn't but we'll make do," said Mario. "Toad, take the rear flank. Falco, you're forward flank. Daisy, you're on glass. Fox, is it true you have a reflector shield?"

"Got it from a bounty hunter friend of the Shadow Broker. Falco had one but it broke on him."

"That's why you don't trust the shadow broker," said Falco with contempt.

Fox chuckled. "You shouldn't have been kicking it."

"Okay," said Mario, returning to the point. "Fox and I are on advance guard. Luigi, keep your pistol up and shoot anything that isn't us."

Daisy pulled out her sniper rifle with the barrel pointed forward over Mario's shoulder. They fell into formation. It was tight without room to breathe, but they made do. They moved as a unit with a deliberate pace. The screeching stopped and the tunnel grew quiet. Fox's grip tightened on his pistol. Suddenly, a black tar-like substance shot from the water in a stream of precise intent.

"Watch out," called Fox and he activated his reflector shield just as the thick ink was about to make contact. The shield reflected the spray, which hit the wall and exploded in an acid mist that sizzled and filled the air with a putrid smell that was akin to rotten eggs.

"Rachquids!" exclaimed Mario. "Don't let their ink touch you."

Just then, two rachquids burst from the water. They were a sickly white with black eyes and eight tentacles, their pink viscera somewhat visible beneath their translucent skin. They were an amphibious species and could use their tentacles to swim or crawl. Some approached upside down from the top of the tunnel wall like spiders.

Falco cocked his pistol and spat. "Here they come."