Ok, I've left you all hanging for a week now, and I don't think any of you care anymore... but here it is, the riveting, if not a bit awkward ending of The Third Attempt.
Chapter 7: Fall of an Empire
The Mario brothers knew exactly what to do with the lockpick. Their plan (Actually, it was Mario's plan... but it came quite obviously to both of them) was to wait for that guard to stroll by again, get him to stop for a split-second, and then ram the lockpick right through his face with the lockpick... kind of using it like a spear. Of course, they didn't think the guard would come for a while. In the meantime, Luigi tried to use the lockpick to... pick the lock. He gave up after working on the lock for about 30 minutes. (On the contrary, it took Marty less than a minute to pick his lock) They waited for the guard to come. He eventually did, and the princess called him over again.
The guard thought he knew what was coming. "Please, I've seen this enough. Stop trying to do---"
Luigi jammed the lockpick-spear right through the guard's face. He instantly fell dead to the ground. Mario grabbed the key ring and opened the gate to the cell. Everyone cheered.
"Come on, we have to get everyone out of here! Then, we'll finally give that tyrant what he deserves!" Mario was eager to go. "And oh yes, I do believe it was MY idea that worked." Mario showed arrogance that he rarely exhibited.
"Yes, I though EVERYONE had that idea..." Luigi thought. However, he merely said nothing and went with Princess Peach to escort her out of the castle. He didn't know anything that was going on in the outside world, and really couldn't make any guesses. They had been locked in a cell with no contact from the outside world for some two weeks, and for all they knew, Bowser could have very well taken over the entire world by now! Still, Luigi bashed his way through the guards to leave with the princess while Mario tried to figure out which key goes with which cell.
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While all this was going on, Marty went back to his castle to see if it was still occupied. He was very curious about the success of his revolts. He didn't know if the revolting had spread throughout the kingdom... if he had single-handedly sparked a worldwide revolution... if he had only caused the citizens of Al Akkad to revolt... while the other cities failed... he was really unsure.
All he saw when he got back was that his castle was still occupied after all that time.
"Arrgh! Why didn't that work? I've done EVERYTHING to get my place back! And nothing has worked!" Marty showed obvious despair over the lack of immediate success for his plan. He also noticed that the number of troops in his castle was still about 30-40, same as last time he passed by it days ago. He assumed correctly that Bowser's forces were not attempting any new conquests. He was still unsure of which places were still under Bowser's control, and which places had driven Bowser's troops out. He thought for a short amount of time and recalled one place that he knew would not be occupied. There was one place that he knew that he'd be welcome...
Marty made the long journey to Al Akkad with no problems. He saw that the town was prospering as it had done before Bowser's attack, and that it was slowly rebuilding. He was greeted at the town's outskirts immediately, for he was now a hero in the citizens' eyes.
"Marty! Nice to finally see you again! The town is now back to normal, and it's all your doing! We can't possibly thank you enough!"
"Well..." Marty was modest about the situation. "It was mostly you all that did the revolt. I wasn't even able to catch most of it. All I did was provide a spark."
"Yes, and it paid off brilliantly. You see, I doubt any of us would have had the courage to stand up to Bowser if not for you. You've become a legend almost! I mean, we've already begun sculpting a statue of you in our central plaza... it isn't really that complete yet... but I think it will turn out magnificently."
"A ... statue?" Marty was not used to this respect or fame. "I'm that important?" Marty hang his head. "And yet I still don't have a home..."
"No worries. You can stay in the Grand Palace. You deserve it!" Marty was lead to the Grand Palace, which, although a bit damaged, was quite an elegant place. It almost dwarfed Marty's castle. And yet, still, Marty longed to be home. This was the whole reason he had begun his campaign to stop Bowser. Alas, it had yet to yield his ideal result. He wondered how successful he really was.
"Say... has there been any revolts anywhere else? I mean, Bowser's forces aren't as unstoppable as they seem... we've proved that..."
"Well... there were a couple successful revolts in some towns near here... although nothing too expansive." Marty was somewhat discouraged as this news. "Although... there was also a miracle revolt on Yoshi's Island. No one ever expected that to work... I mean, it WAS the first place Bowser invaded, after all. That has the potential to be crippling. Bowser lost a good deal of his ports there..."
Marty was suddenly intrigued. His initial plan to free the island had worked. He began to think. Suddenly, something struck him. Not physically, like the object that hit him days ago, but with almost as much force.
"Is my friend ok?" Marty, in his excitement, didn't see the vagueness of his statement.
"Your ... friend? You'll have to be more specific... I mean, look at how many individuals there ARE in this world. Not nearly as many as before, I'm sure, but still..."
"Oh yes, the Yoshi. Right. He went over to the island to stir a revolt. It obviously worked..."
"Wait, your friend's a Yoshi? And he was part of the revolt? Erm... I can't really guarantee anything there. There was a tremendous loss of life, from what I hear. If the rumors I heard are true, almost as many were killed in the revolt as in the initial invasion two weeks ago... And I still can't tell anything. Although I DO know that the Yoshies have decided not to have any visitors for a while. At least until they can get back to the way things were. Who knows how long that will take? You still need more detail. I mean, I'm not really the one to ask... although I have a friend who knows A LOT more about this than I do."
"Well..." Marty strained to picture what the Yoshi looked like. "Ummm... he was red... And... Hmmmm... That's all I can remember. I think being knocked out ruined my memory a bit."
"Yes, and we still wound have several thousand individuals you could be talking about. Do you remember his NAME? I mean, that would narrow it down greatly."
"...Name?" Marty thought. "I don't remember a name...--"
And then it hit him. In the many days Marty was with the Yoshi, he had not once asked for his name. Just about every other person in the world would have immediately asked it. But not Marty. Oh no, that -obvious- question managed to slip by his unsociable mind for all that time. And now, he could not identify his friend.
"No... I never asked. I can't tell you his name." It truly pained Marty to say this.
"Well... if you don't know his name, I really can't help much. You must not have been THAT friendly if you didn't know his name..."
Marty realized he might never see his friend again. He also knew that he would never know what happened. Then, he had an even stranger feeling. He now saw that he felt compassion for others. This had never happened to him before. Normally, he would have just passed it off in about 1 minute, and gone on with his boring life, but now, he was a changed person.
"Well, good night." Marty was shown to his bedroom. Of course, he didn't sleep a wink throughout the night.
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The MagiKoopa paced nervously back and forth outside the great hall of Bowser's castle. He was afraid to tell Bowser anything. He didn't want to speak about any of the revolts especially the one in Caj. This was devastating. He knew it was all over. He knew that the plan had collapsed on itself. Still, it was his duty to inform the king that all was lost. He took a deep breath and entered.
"I'm not going to lie to you, sir... But everything's gone bad. There have been more and more revolts by the second... we've lost the bases in Caj and Al Akkad, among others, and what's worse, the Mario brothers have escaped, and none of the guards we've sent into the dungeons have come back alive. Worse, as we speak, Mario himself is freeing all the other prisoners. We're ruined. There is seriously nothing more we can do." The MagiKoopa waited for Bowser's inevitable reaction.
"And this is what I get for listening to you! I knew, right from the start, that this wouldn't work!" Bowser was understandably furious. "Now look at our empire! Gone! And it's all YOUR fault! You're the one who decided to try and salvage what we had. And now look. It's disappearing by the second! And it's all due to your poor planning!"
"Sir, from what I can tell, the initial revolt in Al Akkad was started by a single person. I think his name was Marty or something along those lines. Anyways, one of our guards captured him, but he escaped from the prison. Worse, it is rumored that he gave Mario the weapon that he used to get out of the cell. This time, Mario wasn't the cause of our undoing. This Marty character was. Not even I could anticipate how one insignificant person could ruin it all..."
Bowser looked like his head was about to explode. "That is it! Enough of you! You've done nothing to help this situation. I'm now the mockery of the whole world because of you!" Bowser grabbed the MagiKoopa and was about to smash him into the wall when he had a sudden thought.
"Hmmmmph. Wait..." Bowser dropped the MagiKoopa, although he was clearly knocked out and possibly dead due to the mere force of Bowser's grip. "Was it really his fault? It was going so well... then... disaster. It was one of those so-called 'unseen forces'. I must not have been as well prepared as I thought... one individual. That's all it took." Bowser shook his head. However, his newfound feelings of revelation soon turned back to raw anger.
"WHY? Why is it that every time something goes right, it all turns terribly, terribly wrong! Everything was perfect. Then this one person, just one person, someone who I could probably crush like a tiny bug, destroys EVERYTHING! I can't take it anymore! I swear that someday I will have my revenge!" Bowser punched the wall. The hole, which STILL had yet to be repaired, got bigger. "I will destroy this Mark... or Marson... or whatever his name was, I will! He will rue the day he ever decided to oppose me!" Bowser hit the wall again with the force of his first blows combined. The hole got larger. "I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!" He punched the wall a third time. Then again. The hole got larger and larger. One of Bowser's troops entered the hall after hearing the loud hits against the wall and immediately saw the destruction that was occurring.
"Bowser, sir, stop this! You're only ruining your castle. We can get it all back, you watch! I will see to it! Just stop hitting the wall! You don't know what kind of damage you're doing to the structure of the building!"
"AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW??!?!?!?" Bowser was more furious than ever. Ignoring his soldier, he continued hitting the hall. Ten times. Fifteen. Twenty. There was now more hole than wall. Suddenly, Bowser heard a rumbling.
"What the---?" The hall, due to the lack of support caused by all the damage Bowser did by hitting the wall, began to collapse. Suddenly, the ceiling just fell in. Bowser was soon trapped under several tons of rock from the collapsed ceiling. Everyone else in the room was thoroughly crushed. Soon, the entire castle began to crumble. This one wall, this seemingly insignificant wall, was soon to destroy Bowser's entire castle, just as one individual destroyed his empire.
Mario had just freed the last cell's captives when he heard the crashing.
"Run! The castle is about to collapse!" Mario had to hurry everyone out of the castle. Just when Mario left the front gate, the entire ceiling fell, and the castle just crumbled. Bowser's castle was now in ruins. Somewhere among this wreckage was the King himself, crushed but not killed. All of the other occupants were instantly killed by all the weight.
Mario evaluated the situation. "Well... looks like I won't have to take care of Bowser after all... It looks like he took care of himself!"
Unfortunately, not all of the captives were able to escape the castle before it collapsed. A few of the slower prisoners were crushed to death, but overall, most of them managed to escape the wreckage. They were all partially ecstatic that they were finally free after all those long days cooped up in an overly crowded cell, and partially in awe over the destruction of the castle. They couldn't believe the wreck they had just seen. The once proud castle was now reduced to a heap of stone.
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News of Bowser's destruction spread throughout the Mushroom Kingdom like wildfire. Bowser's troops were in a panic over what had transpired. Was their leader ok? The residents of the invaded towns saw this as a perfect opportunity to reclaim the streets. Bowser's troops, disorganized, panicky, and exhausted from all those days of invading cities, were forced out of the cities of the Mushroom Kingdom. They all went back to Bowser's castle, well, what remained of it, anyways. Not even they could believe the wreck when they saw it.
The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom realized they had finally driven the tyrant out. After two harrowing weeks of torture and destruction, it was finally over. The princess was ok, and the world was somewhat close to normal.
Back in Al Akkad, Marty was still staying in the palace. Suddenly, a citizen rushed into the room.
"Marty, you won't believe what happened. Bowser's castle just collapsed upon itself for no apparent reason just a couple hours ago. Bowser's troops no longer occupy anything in the kingdom. The world is safe. We have won... for now."
"So my castle is ok?" Marty was excited. "Thanks for everything!" He left the palace, and literally ran back to his castle. There was no one inside. No troops, no guards, no one. His castle was finally his.
"Finally! After I had just about given up hope, I have finally gotten it back." Marty was pleased, although somewhere inside, he was still empty.
"But... is my friend ok? I doubt I'd be able to pick him out even if I COULD go back to Caj... And I may never see him again. He could be dead for all I know. And all to satisfy MY desires..." Marty went from pleased to disgusted. He almost didn't want the castle anymore. Still, he needed a place to live, so he hesitantly went back inside. Instead of joyous images, like he thought finally seeing the castle again would bring... he felt nothing but emptiness inside. He also realized that he would be going back to the way things were. Back to his isolation. Back to the days of solitude. He almost cried. Things would never be the same for him.
The residents of the Mushroom Kingdom tried to figure out who was most responsible for the victory. After straining about the issue for a while, the people of Al Akkad spoke up. They acknowledged Marty's role in the first revolt, and how it had sparked all of the events leading to Bowser's downfall. The citizens all agreed: Marty was the hero. He single-handedly saved the world. The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom celebrated in the only way they could think of: They threw a massive party, and Marty was the guest of honor.
But Marty was not in the mood for a party. In fact, he only appeared at his party for a few minutes, and after hearing the cheering of the crowd, merely let out a depressing sigh and left, more dejected than the walked in. He went back to the castle and shut the drawbridge so that no one could see him.
Of course, things would never be the same for Marty. Even after he had finally gotten over the potential loss of his first true friend, things had changed. Marty would never be the isolated nutcase he was before. He was a hero now. Travelers from long and far came to Marty's castle to see and graciously thank their liberator. Some brought expensive gifts to Marty. Others couldn't even express their gratitude for his actions.
However, Marty just could not gain true happiness from his newfound popularity. He didn't know if he'd ever see his friend again.
Marty would just never be the same.
THE END
Ok, let out ALL your comments about the story as a whole. ALL commnets, positive and negative, are appreciated.
And thank you to all who have read my story, even parts of it, thus making the time I spent on it worthwhile.
Congratulations! You have just been blessed by the wisdom of Steve.
