Chapter 7: Facade of Trust
Written By: The Mystery Squeezit
Author's Note: First off, my sincerest apologizes to all who have been reading thus far. I am fully aware that my updates over the past year have been very, very sparse. I will, however, finish this story even if it kills me. Another goal of mine is to update more often over the next year or so. Early New Year's Resolutions! What are the odds of that? So look forward to 2005, it will be the year of frequent updates from me.
Jenni and I sat in our makeshift shelter waiting for Mario T. to arrive with another batch of food. It was silent until Jenni spoke up."Jeez, what's taking that brat so long?" She glanced at her watch impatiently. "It's been an hour all ready. If this keeps up, I'm going to get food myself."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I waned. "People around here aren't exactly.." I paused for a moment, thinking of how to tell Jenni about the common attitude of the fungi people toward Bowser's minions. "Friendly towards shy guys and whatnot."
"Is that so?" She smirked. "Well then, we ought to show them different when we help Mario against Bowser."
I nodded in response, and then noticed Mario T. running toward us carrying his usual array of food from Tayce T's bakery.
"Thanks." I told him, taking an armful of food so he wouldn't fall over.
He smiled in his usual cheeky way. "No problem! What are we going to have for lunch today?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. What kind of stuff did you get?" This soon proved to be a mistake, Mario T. started on a huge listing of the food he had purchased.
"Well, I got: sandwiches, salad, cakes, cookies, soda, turkey, pizza.."
I cut him off before he could finish his massive list. "Mario T, we only need enough for today. It's not like we're going on a year-long trip."
"But still..." Mario T. began.
I sighed, seeing no point in arguing with him. I couldn't imagine that Tayce T. would be too happy if Mario T. was to return all the food he bought. She'd probably break down thinking her goods had contained salmonella or something.
Jenni finally broke the silence. "What are we doing just sitting around talking? Let's eat. Mario T. didn't get all that food for the heck of it."
After that, all of us had sat down to enjoy a late lunch. Mario T. stuffed his face with random sweets per usual, then complained when we ran short on cookies. Jenni and I, on the other hand, discussed how to we would meet up with Mario and confront him about out defection from Bower's alliance.
"Do have any idea where this guy is anyway?" Jenni question, taking a sip of soda.
"Well, he was in the toy box a couple of days ago. I've heard that he hasn't met up with the Lantern Ghost yet so we can probably still catch him there if we're lucky." I answered, recalling the events of days past.
"We should get going then." Jenni said abruptly, standing up, crushing Mario T's cookie in the process, which resulted in a whine from the small Fungi child.
I stood up too. "Are you coming, Mario T."
The young boy had recovered from his 'tragedy' with the cookie and nodded his head. "I'm with you all the way."
"Okay, we'll get going." The three of us then headed off toward the toy box.
"Come on people! Let's step our defenses up a notch!" General Guy screamed to his army.
"We're t-t-trying, sir." A shy guy in a blue cloak stuttered, readjusting the grip on his plundered dictionary.
"Well, you're obviously not trying hard enough!" The general growled.
"Genral Guy! Look!" A Spy Guy shouted pointing towards a train tunnel.
General Guy turned around. "What? What is it?" He then looked at where the Spy Guy was pointing. "Oh, great job, genius. A train tunnel. What else did you learn today?" He remarked sarcastically.
"There were intruders there, boss!" The Spy Guy protested.
"Shut up and get back to work! I swear, you're worse than Anti-Guy and his lemon candy obsession!" He screamed at the unfortunate Spy Guy. "Why must Bowser insist on sending me all the crappy soldiers?"
Within the tunnel, Anti Guy let out the breath he had been holding as quietly as he could. "Hmph, it seems that ol' General Guy actually has been training those idiots to be proper soldiers." I whispered to Jenni.
She shrugged nonchalantly. "They don't seem that much different to me."
Once she mentioned it, I felt the same. "True, but you have to admit: the Spy Guy's are getting a lot better with their spying ability."
She shrugged again. "They're called Spy Guys for a reason."
I sighed seeing no point in making a rebuttal. "Whatever, let's just try to find Mario."
"Finally, you get to the point. I thought we'd spend the whole time here arguing about General Guy's army's abilities." Jenni said.
Jenni, Mario T., and I ran through the toy box as quickly as we could. We had had little to no problems avoiding General Guy's minions, mainly because whenever they saw us, they went racing into a corner, crying.
We finally reached the dark entrance to the Lantern Ghost's cavern.
"Mario has to be here!" I whispered. "He's got to!"
"Why are we standing here then?" Jenni hissed impatiently. "Let's get in there." She shoved me so I was now standing inside the cavern.
The three of us tiptoed through the vast area. Finally, we came across the plumber. He had just defeated the ghost and had freed the tiny spark, Watt.
It's now or never! I thought to myself, determinedly. I then slowly walked up to Mario. I cleared my throat and said in the nicest tone of voice I could muster. "Mario." He turned around faced me with a look of surprise on his face. "We'd like to help you defeat Bowser along with General Guy."
Mario stood there, gaping at me as if he was trying to process my words. "That's a good one, Anti Guy!" He laughed, crossing his arms over his pudgy chest. "Any other sort of alliance you've been forming with heroes?"
"This isn't a joke!" I said, getting frustrated. "We really want to help you!"
"You kidnapped that little Fungi boy, didn't you?" Mario inquired. "Then you probably brainwashed him to believe every thing you said."
The young fungi child ran up to the plumber. "They did not! Anti Guy's really nice." Mario said, stomping his foot on the ground. "And Jenni too!"
The plumber's features softened a little as he looked down at Mario T. "Mario T?" He questioned, instantly recognizing the young fungi boy. "Is all of this true?"
Mario T. nodded, a huge grin plastered across his face. "Yup! Every word of it."
Mario looked at each of the three claiming to be joining forces with him and sighed. "All right then. You can come to my house and we'll talk this over."
All three of us were the happiest we'd been in days. Finally, this quest is getting somewhere. I thought in relief.
Minutes later we were all gathered in Mario's small house sitting around a table.
"You three wait here." Mario said to us. "I'll go order some pizza and we can discuss our plan." He then walked to the kitchen and picked up the phone.
I turned my attention to my two comrades proudly. "Good work. We're going to prove to everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom that Shy Guys aren't all bad."
That moment, Mario stepped back in the room. "The pizza will be here any minute!" He announced taking a seat beside me.
"Great, I'm starving!" I said. "Anyways, what kind of things do you think we should do with our new alliance? I'd really like to start out by meeting some of your comrades." I rambled on excitedly.
"Very well." Mario nodded.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
"The pizza's here all ready?" I remarked, surprised.
"There are special privileges when you've saved a Kingdom countless times." Mario said, getting up and answering the door.
Just then, tons of Mushroom Police flooded the small house.
"Hand over the kidnapped child, you monster!" One growled, pointing a gun in my direction.
"Mario! What's happening?" I screamed over all the commotion.
The plumber grinned. "You really didn't think I'd trust you, right?"
"You lied to us?" I shouted. "Some hero you are!" I ran over in his direction wanting nothing more than to beat the crap out of him, when a bulky officer who placed handcuffs on me, stopped me right in my tracks.
Jenni and I were thrown in the back of a police vehicle while Mario T. was taken away by some officers.
The red suited plumber waved to us. "Good bye Shy Guys! Tell the Koopa Brothers that Mario sent ya." He then laughed and went into his home.
"You liar, you nothing more than a.." I started but was cut of when an officer knocked me upside the head with the butt of his gun.
"Shut up, you!" He snarled. "That's no way to speak to a hero!"
I leaned back in my seat next to Jenni. Both of us didn't say a word as we were forced to ride all the way to the Mushroom Kingdom prison.