I made a few minor revisions to Chapter 4. This chapter took two and a half hours to type. You'd better appreciate it. (Or at least read it... I don't care if you like it.... but if you don't, at least tell me what's wrong, ok?) Here goes:
Chapter 4: Siege!
While all this was going on, Mario, Luigi, and Peach were STILL trying to think of some way to escape from the cell. They'd been there for days, and none of them had yet to come up with any viable plans. Suddenly, Luigi came up with something.
"You know, Every so often I see this one guard that walks by here. He hasn't been here for a while, so I'm assuming that he'll be here shortly. I ALWAYS see that this guy carries a ring of keys on him. I also see that if one of us could distract him, I SHOULD be able to grab the keys. One of them would have to open the cell. Then we just run out here. I really hope nothing bad happened while we were in here..."
Mario commented. "Weege, that has got to be the DUMBEST idea I've heard in a long, long time. It won't work. I don't think Bowser's troops are as stupid as he is."
"Well, have you come up with anything better? Or, to put it another way, anything PERIOD?" Luigi shut his brother up. "Look! Here he comes now! ... Princess, will you do the honors of distracting him?"
The guard came. As Luigi predicted, the key ring was hanging on a hook on his armored jacket, and appeared easy to remove. The princess spoke up to stop him.
"Sir?"
The guard stopped.
"I just wanted to say that so far, even I must say, you guys have been doing quite well!"
The guard seemed confused and a bit suspicious that he and his troop would be congratulated by someone for capturing her.
The princess continued. "I've also noticed that the number of people in here has really increased the last couple days. I'm amazed. You guys truly---"
At this point, the guard noticed Luigi's hand reaching through the bars in an attempt to reach the key ring. He smacked Luigi's hand very hard.
"How dumb do you think I am? I mean, the way you were talking, it appears that even you three realize that we're smarter than you are. Just stop trying. Soon, Bowser will rule over everything and you will be GLAD you're in here and not forced into slavery." He then glanced at Peach. "And you deserve to be hit too, but I'd NEVER hit a lady..." He walked away laughing to himself.
"I TOLD YOU! It didn't work." Mario gave Luigi an "I-told-you-so" sort of look.
"Hey, I've come up with more ideas than you!" Luigi stated his point.
"Yes, and was it successful?"
"Shut up!"
And Mario and Luigi bickered on. The princess had no choice but to listen to the vehement shouting, for as difficult as it was to believe, not even she could outscream the brothers at this point.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marty woke up. He didn't know where we was or if he was seriously hurt. All he knew was that he was miraculously alive, he had a throbbing headache, and he was soaking wet. He also spit out a chunk of sand in his mouth. After lying there for a while to regain his composure and try to lessen the headache unsuccessfully, he stood up. He realized that he was on some beach; which one he honestly could not figure out with absolute certainty. He believed he had somehow reached the mainland, as there were, to his knowledge, no islands between Yoshi's Island and the mainland. After examining his surroundings, he determined that he was indeed on the southern mainland beach.
He walked for a bit along this beach. He saw something in the sand a while away. It was the Red Yoshi that accompanied him on his misguided journey back to the mainland. From what Marty could see, he could not tell whether it was dead, unconscious, or merely asleep. He went over to the Yoshi and smacked it in the head. The Yoshi merely groaned and rolled over.
"Hmmmmmm, so it appears we've both survived. I'm amazed," Marty thought.
After a lengthy pause, the Yoshi finally righted itself and got up.
"(Where am I?)" He asked.
"Well, for all I know, we've SOMEHOW reached the mainland. Also, from what I see, the town of Al Akkad should be only a few miles north of here. We could probably get there in less than an hour... anyways, we should really get going. My clothes are just COVERED in sand and I really have to change. That, and I really have to get back home...
"(Go... now?? I can't even walk straight! How do you expect me to go through a desert?)" The Yoshi pointed out Marty's obvious lack of caring for anyone else.
"Pffffft. Fine, we'll wait until you can 'walk straight'. I mean, I got this nasty headache and even I can at least walk straight..." Marty showed obvious discontent in this statement. Nonetheless, he decided to wait (Although he visibly showed his impatience) until the Yoshi could function normally for they went off to Al Akkad.
About 45 minutes later, the reached Al Akkad and saw something was immediately wrong. Bowser's troops were everywhere. They had pretty much overrun the hapless city. The two stopped before they reached Al Akkad so they wouldn't be seen.
"(Oh my.... this is even worse than Caj was! I mean, look at how brutally everyone is being treated here!") And indeed it was so. The town's residents were being chained to walls and beaten to death, and everyone that was not being brutally murdered in this way were forced into performing arduous physical tasks, such as mining the ores needed to build Bowser's newest war machines, or dragging supply carts to the new headquarters. And, of course, the were guards everywhere to ensure that everyone complied.
"Erm... I honestly don't think I should wash off this sand here... We need to make a hasty retreat and travel far, far away from here. Actually, we really need to get back to my house. The sand is really getting annoying."
Marty led the way as the two made the long trip back to Marty's castle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sir, we have an important decision to make!" The MagiKoopa showed Bowser that map of possible bases he had made up. "See, we have Bases 1 and 2 under our command. Now... seeing how these are both in the south of the kingdom, we should obviously progress north on our campaign. Now... there is an important decision to make. We need to figure out what bases we want to take over, and in what order they should be taken over. Now.... we have two options for bases a bit north of Al Akkad: one off to the west and one of to the east. Of course, since the west and east of the kingdom must be occupied as well, I'd say we better take over both. Since it would be rather pointless to take them over one at a time, I say we split our troops in half... one half goes to the west base, and one have goes to the east base." The MagiKoopa numbered the bases in question 3A and 3B.
"Ok.... then what? We expand north?" Bowser seemed a bit confused, but he kind of understood the plan.
"Of course!" The MagiKoopa labeled most of the bases on the map. See, from 3A and 3B we go to the four bases labeled 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D. From there: 5A, B, C, D, and E. And then 6A, B, C---"
Bowser interrupted. "Why are some of the bases not numbered? Take 5C. There are two bases by 5C, but only one is numbered. Why is that?"
"Well, it would be pointless to take over bases that are about 3-5 miles apart... a waste of resources, I'd say. So, we take over the base that is better inclined for our troops. See, in the case of 5C, one of the two bases happens to be Princess Peach's castle. However, as you may remember, you crashed through the ceiling when you captured the princess. Thus, as the building is considerably damaged, it would not make a good base for our troops."
"Why not?" Bowser missed the obvious.
"Let's just say that if it rained, your troops will be dripping wet. And seeing how the weather's been recently, rain seems rather likely. Quite fortunately for us, there happens to be another castle some 5 miles away in perfect condition. It would make a better base."
Bowser seemed interested by this concept. Conquer only the bases that are needed and use the other troops elsewhere. "Ok then, we shall attack these areas NOW."
"Yes, immediately!" The MagiKoopa sped off to give the orders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marty and the Yoshi were not at the castle until the middle of the night. Marty really didn't say much of anything during the trip, as he was a bit occupied with his sandy, wet clothing.
"(THIS is your house?!? A castle? With a moat AND a drawbridge? Isn't that a bit ... extravagant?)" The Yoshi was obviously quite surprised that Marty lived in a castle. He was expecting a normal sized house, maybe something a bit larger, but not a castle.
"Yes.... and what's wrong with it?" Marty opened the drawbridge and the double doors. "It's great to finally be home."
The next few days were rather uneventful. Well, from Marty's standpoint, anyways. Bowser was on the move, and rapidly gaining territory. The Yoshi showed an obvious worry about his friends he had left behind on the island.
"(What if they were found? I can't imagine what Bowser would do to them!)"
"Relax!" Marty showed a certain aplomb that was almost devastating to the Yoshi's feelings. "I mean, you're off that deathtrap (His wording of his statements weren't really helping much), you're free, you can do whatever you want, so why must you worry? You aren't in any danger right now."
"(Yes, I may not be in danger, but what about my friends? I mean, you've had friends before, right? You have to know how it feels to know your friends may be in danger, right?)"
Marty thought for a while. "Nope, can't really say I've had a friend for a while... not like it matters to me, though. I'm perfectly content with myself."
"(How can you be happy? Aren't you.... lonely?)"
"I don't mind it at all. I'd rather be alone than with someone else."
"(... That would explain your self-centered attitude...)"
Despite these obvious contrasts in personality, Marty and the Yoshi took somewhat of a liking to each other. Marty explained how he could be happy with himself while not really being in contact with anyone. The Yoshi really didn't understand it, as he had always depended on his friends for things.
One day, Marty went out to go and get supplies in town. He didn't get very far. When he looked out the window of his castle, he saw literally thousands of Bowser's forces surrounding the castle. He went up to the top of his castle to investigate further.
"Why are you here? Can't you see I'm doing something?" Actually, Marty wasn't doing anything; but to Marty, doing nothing was doing something.
"We are here because our King has decided that your castle would make a nice base of operations for this region," Bowser's general explained. "If you surrender now and abdicate your castle to us, there will be no conflict and you will be free to go off wherever you please. If you resist, we will have no choice but to invade by force. I assume you will make the best decision for yourself. I mean, you are outnumbered ... 1,000 to 1, at least."
Marty thought for a while. He was at first very shocked that his castle was being invaded like this. Then after some thought, he noticed that Bowser's general was standing rather close to the moat. He pushed the button that lowered the drawbridge. The drawbridge landed on the general and a few other unfortunate troops, crushing them to death.
"Why don't you all come on in? We can sit down. Maybe have a drink or something." Marty spoke with a mocking tone. He seemed rather pleased with his stroke of genius.
The troops rushed across the drawbridge in an attempt to force open the double doors leading to inside Marty's castle. Just before they got to the doors, Marty pushed the button and raised the drawbridge again, crushing several more troops between the drawbridge and the doors. A few troops drowned in the surrounding moat.
"Oh man, these guys are SO DUMB!" Marty thought confidently to himself. Of course, he had, in those two moves, killed at least 100 troops... although that was maybe 5% of the large force that awaited him.
Marty went down into his castle to explain to the Yoshi what exactly was going on. The Yoshi was quite a bit unnerved by the event.
"(What if they get in? They'll see me here and discover I fled the island. Then what? I can't imagine what they'd do to me.)"
"Well... they AREN'T getting in here. I'll see to it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The MagiKoopa had some bad news for Bowser. "Sir, it appears we've run into some unexpected difficulties regarding Base 5C... you see, several of our troops, including a commanding officer, have been killed in the takeover.... which, to be honest.... we haven't taken it over yet. Bases 5A, 5B, 5D and 5E all fell without a hitch... But the person defending Base 5C seems to be putting up a miracle defense..."
"Wait, hold on. THE person? No 's'? YOU MEAN ONE PERSON HAS DEFENDED A CASTLE FOR SO LONG AND KILLED SO MANY OF MY TROOPS???? WHAT AN OUTRAGE!" Bowser was more upset than he had been before when he couldn't think of a plan to take over the world. "And what are these morons waiting for?"
"Well.... the base itself is rather unattackable... which will make it that much more useful when we take it over. So---"
"Then we just smash a hole in the side it, run through the hole, kill everyone inside, and be done with it! What's so hard about that?"
"That is why we didn't just take over Princess Peach's castle instead. See... the princess's castle is a wreck. If you smash a hole in it, it becomes useless. Remember: we want the structure itself, not the things inside. It can't be ruined."
"So how do we get in? The troops obviously can't..." Bowser showed a deal of frustration. He didn't see how such a large, powerful force could be stopped with so little effort.
"Well... I got an idea. I saw it somewhere. It's called a 'siege'. What we do is we simply wait outside for the residents to surrender."
"And how is THAT going to work?" Bowser couldn't see the point of this "siege". It seemed useless to win a castle by waiting.
"See... what happens is that the resident won't be able to leave the castle until he gives up. He'll run out of resources, and be forced to give up or starve to death. Either way, we win."
"I just don't see it... but whatever." Bowser was a bit skeptical of this idea, but he went along with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a couple hours of the troops just standing there, Marty knew what was going on.
"See, they're trying to keep us in here, and starve us out. It won't work. See, I've once stayed in here without going out for over two months. Honestly, it will be much more convenient for them to just invade somewhere else..." Marty explained the purpose of the siege to the Yoshi. He scoffed at the idea that he could be flushed out in such a pathetic manner.
Two days later, Marty soon realized that feeding a Yoshi required a lot more resources than he ever imagined. The castle was practically devoid of food, and Bowser's troops weren't letting up.
"Hmmmmm... I'm hungry... and there's nothing in here to eat.... I guess I'll have to show you the secret passage."
"(Secret passage? Huh?)"
"See, in my castle, in case for some reason someone was trying to get in, or I couldn't be seen leaving (Like this), I had a secret passage built in here. I'll show you!"
Marty led the Yoshi to the passage. See, going in here and traveling down the corridor will lead you to a trap door hidden in a back woods. From what I can tell, Bowser's troops aren't waiting there. Then, go to town, buy some food for us, and run back in here through the passage."
"(Yes... one problem. Where is 'town'? I've never been off the island before now. I need more information. What's it called?)"
Marty froze. "Ermmmm... I go there all the time.... and yet I don't know! Ah well... it's about 3 or 4 miles directly north of the door. Is that enough to know?"
"(I guess.)" Marty gave the Yoshi some coins to buy food with and sent him on his way. Hours later, the Yoshi return with a bag of food, although he had eaten about half of it on the walk back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple days passed like this. Bowser grew more and more irritable at the lack of immediate success that was shown.
"This isn't working! Look, we've taken as long to take this place over than we spent taking over all of what is under our control right now! We're wasting time! Can't we just use the princess's castle?"
"Have patience, sir! Seriously, I really didn't expect this guy to hold out for so long, and the benefits the castle provides will far outweigh the time spent taking it over! Plus, in this time, we've gained more troops, more resources, and more money. They will all be needed in the near future. This time was not wasted."
"For your sake, you'd better be right..." Bowser was still quite dubious of the idea's success rate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, the Yoshi was about to embark on another food run to town. This event usually happened at least twice every day since the first run, as the Yoshi usually ate over half the food he bought on the walk back, and the remaining food didn't last long at all.
But this time, things were different. The Yoshi popped out he trap door, made his check for Bowser's troops to make sure no one was watching him exit, and left for town. However, this time, the Yoshi didn't check well enough. One member of Bowser's army that had strayed from the siege site in a fit of boredom had seen the Yoshi exit. He didn't believe what he had seen, so he hid behind a tree and waited until the Yoshi returned to verify his sighting. The Yoshi returned with his half-empty sack of food, and indeed he went back through the trap door.
"How odd..." The soldier, who was rather low ranking in the army, wondered if this would be the day he'd get his big break. He wandered through the trap door, through the corridor, and wound up...
Inside Marty's castle. The Yoshi and Marty were confirming what was in the bag of food in a faraway room, so the pair didn't see the soldier walk to the doors, lower the drawbridge from the inside, and let the entire army into the castle. By the time they were finished, they went into the main room of the castle, but it was too late. The pair saw the charging army coming right for them.
"Run!" Marty and the Yoshi had no choice but to go through the secret corridor that led out of the castle, and evacuate before they were captured and subjected to horrors like nothing that could ever be imagined. The exited out the trap door and ran as far as they could away from the castle. None of the troops even bothered to chase them out, as they were relieved to finally accomplish their task. The siege had finally been successful.
When the pair stopped to catch their breath, the harsh reality of the situation finally sunk in for Marty. His castle had been taken over.
Congratulations! You have just been blessed by the wisdom of Steve.