digibutter.nerr

[LynxRunner]

A long time ago (last year, NBovember), I entered in NaNoWriMo. I made this thing callled Under Attack, a PM2 fanfic (you must remember, SPM was not out yet). The challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Possible? Yes! Here is the actually quite bad and uneditted result.

A frosty wind rips through the snow-covered land, leaving me with a chill dashing violently through my spine. Being a mage of Fire, I wasn’t exactly comfortable with these cool surroundings. Everything required a sacrifice…but at least I was safe from him.

I turn around, accidentally whipping a few people who were accumulating around me with my scarf, and try to see the Blue Bomb leading the horde. He was standing next to a pedestal with a miniature, non-working version of a cannon perched on it. The walking Bomb was explaining with a thick Russian Accent about who first made ‘the Great Fahr Ourpost Cannon’:

“…vas a very determined man. Worked very hard for days and nights to fulfill vat many called ze impossible dream. But at last, General Koniek made it! A huge cannon, it vas. Could launch people from one end of ze land to another. Very useful. He used it to defend us from ze attacks of ze X-Nauts! Zose aliens ver very tricky. Came from underground to attack us! Big booms scared people in ze night!” Some specially hired Clefts in the cloud of people started Oooooh-ing and Aaaah-ing. Most of the real tourists looked at the rock monsters skeptically, but they were persuaded to hum monosyllable sounds of suspense to help along the story.

Pleased at seeing the Bomb had the attention of everyone, he resumed. “So, General Koniek knew zat he could shoot the Lunar Base of the invaders, but he could also risk blowing up ze moon! If he did, zen it would not have been a good situation. Big chunks of moon fly towards us. Anozer peril was that the X-Nauts…take control of ze cannon! If zat happened, then all hope vould be lost! The X-Nauts did try to take control of ze cannons…”

The pause silenced the group. I tried to make sure I was protected by a shield of living beings, and was hard to spot, so that no certain person could find me. When my safety was assured, I started listening again.

“Before ze aliens attacked General Koniek, he gave the instructions for operating ze machine to his brother, General White. He also gave a good friend of his, Goldbob, the permit to legally use the machine. Without it, it vould be counted as…ze vandalism…or theft? Not specified. So, the X-Nauts killed General Koniek…” A large amount of gasps rippled through the crowd. “…But zey vere unable to operate the cannon! With Goldbob’s Permit and General White’s instructions, zey vere able to use ze Cannon to destroy ze Lunar Base! The X-Nauts were without a base, so zey had to leave.”

The Clefts started cheering, but no one joined in with them, so they silenced themselves. The tour guide nodded respectfully towards them, and started.

“Since that time, the Cannon was kept hidden from ze rest of the world, known only to Bob-Ombs and to zose vith too much free time and a lot of interest in zis place. It has been used once, however, as an Emergency Case, to save not just Fahr Outpost in this case, but ze world!” he exclaimed. This actually got a few people buzzing, some swallowed the whole bait, others were cynical of it. I believed it…I was one of the people who used the cannon to save the world, after all. I traveled with Mario, to the moon, to stop the X-Nauts.

“The famous Plumber, Mario, and his comrades were the ones who dared to embark on zis quest. Traveling through space, on to the moon vith no oxygen…living through that time, I zought that zey vould not live. But zey did.”

“And what is the proof?” barked a Bub-Ulb next to me. He seemed very annoyed to be here and was wearing various scarves around the stem that rose out of his head and into a flower, and actually looked paler than most of the plant-animal hybrids usually did.

“The proof,” I spat right back, “Is that we are alive right now. Do you remember the rise of the Shadow Queen?”

Silence settled on the audience. I probably attracted some stares and attention because I myself was a Shadow Siren, but this guy needed to learn to be a little more accepting.

“The leader of the X-Nauts at that time, Grodus, planned to kill Mario and his partners and take his Crystal Stars to revive the Queen. Had this trip not happened, or failed, Grodus probably would have gotten the Crystal Stars, awakened the Shadow Queen, and killed us all. The fact that Mario made it, and…destroyed the Spirit Form of the Shadow Queen.“

“O-o-or at least interrupted i-i-its powers,” spoke out a small Koopa. “The Spirit of something…c-can’t be killed. Its powers, however, can be stopped. The Sh-sh-shadow Queen is powerless right now. She isn’t exactly in a position to be k-k-ki-killing people and m-m-m-making a new shadow world.”

“Smart-ass,” coughed the same Bub-Ulb, and I jabbed him with my elbow. He gave me an icy stare before asking me another question: “Alright, I don’t believe much in this Shadow Queen crap. You’re a Shadow Siren, so maybe they force you to believe this like they force Star Kids to accept that there are ‘Seven Star Spirits’-“ he snorted at this part “-but I don’t buy that. Your story that this trip happened is that Mario made it, beat this guy, and then went and beat the Shadow Queen. How do we know there IS a Shadow Queen?”

“If I may,” the tour guide interrupted. “I vas obviously alive during ze time, and I
can recall vat happened. An unnatural shadow was cast over ze land. It vas unnatural in zat it filled you vith panic, fear, irrationality, dark zoughts. There vas also little light. No flashlights vorked. Only the little light the Sun gave could save us. Please note zis vas in plain day, it vas not night, and not an eclipse. It vent on for hours upon ze hours…I assume zat beating a Sovereign of ze dark does not take ten minutes. Anyvays, zat Shadow is something only a very powerful and experienced Shadow Mage could do. Ve are talking about zis immense power, rivaling zat of ze Star Spirits.”

“And if that is not enough proof for you,” I said while facing the flower thing. “There were three and maybe a few more, but there are three confirmed witnesses. Admittedly, two of them were Shadow Sirens, but the third…” I gulped with a sense of fear as I said this. “He… was not. Well, technically, he was… part of the group, but they kind of fell…apart before seeing the Shadow Queen.” I did not feel comfortable using him as the basis for my argument. However, on the bright side, the Bub-Ulb fell quiet, forced to eat his own words.

“Vell,” the blue Bob-Omb interrupted, if I may, I vould like to say zat up to now, other zan zose two cases, zere has been no need for ze cannon. Nowadays, ve still do not allow people near it, but ve are more villing to tell people about it, ja. So, zank you for coming on zis tour viz us! Ve even got to see an interesting debate! Ze shop is over zere,” the Bomb used his fur cap to point towards a large house with a sign hanging from it with a picture of a red flower painted on it, “And over zere is ze Inn.” Next to the Shop was an even larger house with a sign hanging from it that read “Far Out Inn: Totally Far Out, dude!” against a background of a Toad Head.

“Zo, zank you vonce more for joining us on zis trip!” With that, the Blue Bob-Omb sighed and walked away. The horde I was in slowly began to disband, leaving me alone. Visible. To that guy.

Careful observation revealed most people were going towards the inn, so I decided to go with the flow and follow suit. I opened the wooden door and felt the cool air from behind rush into the room. People were barking things like “Close the door!” at me, and I did my best to shut it. However, I felt eyes burning into the back of my head, and in reality, I couldn’t blame them, with my vibrant pink hair, long, shadowy tail replacing my legs, and overall odd appearance. I could see out of the corner of my eye that the Bub-Ulb from before sat angrily on a couch, absorbing the warmth of this place.

I floated up to the counter, behind a green-shelled Koopa. He nodded quickly and left for his room. I moved forward and was greeted by the smile of the Toad Woman. She, too, spoke with a Russian Accent, although admittedly, slightly less.

“Hello, and welcome to Far Out Inn! Vould you like to use our new package of three nights and-“

“Just one night, please,” I asked as nicely as possible. I could see the Toad was eyeing my hair; well, she’s a brunette and her hair is cut to shreds, but mine is long and …well, pink.

“Would you like full service or just a Quick Stay?”
I laid five coins on the table. “Quick Stay, if you may.” She arched an eyebrow, and accepted the money. “Very well; your room is 3.C1. Enjoy your stay!” She handed me a card with a black strip on the side, and I took it, nodded, and went into the hall. Normally, she would have told me room 3.C1 meant Room number 3, Section C, Floor 1, but I guess she knew I had gone to many Toad Houses and Inns before and was familiar with their promotions and such.

Passing the A Section Rooms, I soon noticed that there was one door short. Between rooms 12.C1 and 14.C1 was a very large gap that looked as if though there could have fit another door that led to a room. I looked around the area. Indeed, it looked as if though there COULD have been a room 13.A1 there. There were no signs of there ever being a room there, however. Perhaps the people who built this place were superstitious?

I found the same thing as I passed the B section: No number 13.B1. Kind of scary to think about it; it could have been a room, but something happened, and then it was locked away from the eyes of the innocent…OK, I’m reading into this too much.
“H-hi, there,” spoke a voice from behind. It gave me a shock, but as I turned, I was relieved to see it was the Koopa who had defended me before. “Y-y-you were that person from before, right?”

“Um, yes. I’m Vivian,” I revealed. He gasped with awe. “And…who are you?”

“M-m-me? I’m Kibrato… I came from Koopa Village to here so that I could, a-a-as they told me back home, get out more.” He stopped introducing himself and stared at me with large, sparkly eyes. “I know who you are…you were one of Mario’s pa-par-partners.”

I nodded. “Yep, I sure was.”

With a shaking finger, he pointed towards me and said, “You h-helped beat the Shadow Queen…y-y-you have to tell me: Did it take long? W-was it kinda very hard?”

“Err,” I started. “Yes, it took hours to defeat her, and it was very hard. I laid the finishing blow on her, however.”

Kibrato jumped with joy. “The s-s-subject is really inter-e-es-esting to me…how many witnesses were there?”

“There are three confirmed ones…” I decided to skip around those three confirmed ones. “There are also some unconfirmed witnesses who went down for the sake of seeing the fight. Most died, however, from trying to get back up, or by the Shadow Queen herself.”

“Is-is-is it true that most of the witnesses were killed by the three confirmed witnesses just as the Shadow Queen was getting defeated?” he pressed. I paused. Beldam DID mention something along the lines of ‘taking care of those nosy ones who might have interfered with us’…she also said that during the fight, she and Marilyn gave some of her strength to the Shadow Queen, which was why she was able to have the same amount of strength after Peach taking her energy and giving it to Mario.

“Yes…yes, I think it is true. I think they could have helped beat the Shadow Queen, which is why perhaps some of the confirmed witnesses might have killed them…I certainly did not do it, however.”

Kibrato seemed surprised to learn this. “Wow…I…didn’t believe at first, but…well, um, yeah…about those three confirmed witnesses…was it true that one of them, d-d-despite not being an actual Shadow Siren, joined the group anyways?”

Talking about this subject always made me uncomfortable…actually, almost anything that had to do with him.

“Well, yes, it’s true, he DID join the group…but it sort of fell apart after he…they lost a fight with us in the Palace of Shadow Garden.”

The green-shelled Reptile was at the edge of his metaphorical seat now. “That guy stole Mario’s body and then tried to kill him in Twi-Twilight Town, right? And then he stalked you all the way to the Excess Express under th-th-the disguise of Zip Toad, am I right so far?”

I disliked where this topic was going, so I decided to try and end it. “Yes, all you said was true. I would prefer to talk about something else, however, because that guy scares me, even more due to recent events.”

Unfortunately, I only helped fuel the fire. Kibrato heard that last part. “Recent Events? What happened?”

“Nothing,” I lied. “I shouldn’t have even said that. Just ignore that.” Disappointed, the Koopa started fidgeting with some keys.

“S-say, Vivian…can you help me find my room? I’ve been going in circles for a while,” he explained.

I nodded, then looked at him. “What’s your room number”

“13.C1.”

I remembered the other room Thirteens and could realize why he couldn’t find his own: perhaps it didn’t exist and he got an outdated key. However, I decided to just see if maybe there was some sort of hint as to why there no room thirteens.

“Alright, let’s go,” I said, floating towards where I expected the C section to be. He tagged behind me, with the key in his hand making a metallic noise.

To my surprise, there WAS a room 13.C1. However, it was somewhat hard to find, and when we passed it, Kibrato told me there was supposed to be a door there and started feeling the grayish blue walls for the door. He found it, however, The door had been hidden cleverly by being painted the same color as the walls. The doorknob had been painted the same color, but was found by the fact that it had a keyhole-but wasn’t supposed to. All the doors used the new electronic card system, but seeing as how Kibrato had a key…

“Well, unlock it.” I nudged him, and he inserted the key, rattled the knob, and opened the door.

The room looked as if though it hadn’t been used in a long time, or rather, updated
in a long time, either. A record player was stuffed in a corner of the room, and an old-timey Television in another. The bed looked rather small, as if though it could barely fit the already miniscule Koopa, and the faded pink wallpaper did not match the green furniture at all.

“Um, thank you Vivian…I g-g-guess,” Kibrato muttered as he stepped awkwardly into his room and examined everything, which seemed to have a thin layer of dust settled on it. Nodding, I went back to the door of room 3.C1, slid my card through the small identification machine, and watched the red bulb on the machine change to a green one, and I was able to open the door.

The difference between Kibrato’s room and mine were very obvious: mine was cleaner, had a new TV Model, and the walls matched the furniture very nicely, plus there was a small window next to the large bed. Why was there such a difference? The thought haunted me as I sat down on my bed and stared out the window just in time to see the Stars fade into appearance. The thought that I was at last, safe from him was all I needed to sleep…

When a loud thump echoed through the walls.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

The scream jolted me out of my dreamlike trance, and I was alert. I heard another one:

“Who ARE you? W-w-what are you? I-I-...“

!~~~~~~
I'll post more if desired. The whole thing is finished, fyi. DOn't criticize too brutally.