PART 20
"First...answer me some question." Said Ballyhoo, conducting business as usual. Everyone else was annoyed.
"First...tell me why you’re the first Outsiders to roam this land in 6 years?"
"Outsiders...?" Muttered Mario.
"Yes...those who are alone, with no safe political place...I see you’re not up to date."
"Maybe you should be answering the questions." Growled Mario.
"Mario...let ME handle him." Giggled Peach. Peach was one of the group that actually liked the party. She also seemed to have a secret crush on Ballyhoo. Mario was disgusted, but sat down anyway. Then Peach got worse, revealing everything.
"We were...time warped...from the past...maybe 10 years?" Mario scowled. Seigal was annoyed that he wasn't getting a word, especially since he WAS royalty. Sort of.
"Time...warped?" Joked Ballyhoo, and he burst out laughing. Everybody except Peach scowled.
"She's crazy." Said Penter. "The...er...Delta's attacked her. Made her...insane."
"The Wes Delta's attacked her, and she survived? What a wondrous girl." Ballyhoo, at least what seemed to be Ballyhoo knew that they really had time warped. But he loved their lies, syrupy decievance.
"Wes...Delta's?" Muttered Penter.
"Now I AM concerned." Said Peach, getting interested, instead of bored. "What do you mean...Wes...Delta's?"
"The one...and only." Laughed Ballyhoo. "Well...not one. More like millions. And only a fraction of Wes's total Army. Most are robots. All of the soldiers with those weird names are robots."
Mario sprang up, ignoring Ballyhoo's constant laughs. "You mean...Wes built an army?"
"Right on the spot!" More laughs. "Wes pretty much built the entire army, all by hand...or whatever he does. He makes them in ranks...Alpha, Omega, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Zeta..."
"An entire army..." Sighed Peach, losing her spunk. Taking back her position would be truly impossible.
"He used to attack the towns and cities of the world, now everyone’s in ruins. The Koopa's of the east ended up joining the Sarasa Factor. The Toads came here. Some Koopas. The others scattered into other factors, war armies, all planning to take down Emperor Wes. Nobody seems to notice, though, is that they don't attack anymore, except the Delta's at night. Mostly, they protect Wes's Castle. He's doing something...some think he's building an ultimate robot...something called a 'Kappa' but I don't think so. The entire universe is pulsating...something beyond time and space is happening there...something unnatural...unholy..." Mario was too tired to notice that Ballyhoo was just feeding them information. He was too tired to notice that Ballyhoo had replaced his voice with a serious one. Nor did he notice that Big Top was silently saying everything he did. It was right to be tired, as the long night passed over head.
What now? I thought they would let us back in for sure, with the inclusion of the Outsiders." Complained Dirgivous, the situation bleak, huddling in the cold, small, cave. Although warm at day, night in the land was freezing and dangerous, combined with the nasty Delta's, waiting to eat flesh, even though they were robots with no minds.
"Me too..." Muttered Grific, directly under the edge/roof of the cave, waving around a spear their only protection against the robotic Army.
"Look out!" Gasped Dirgivous, looking at the overhang, a robotic claw grabbing at Grific. He leapt up and stabbed his spear at it, watching with satisfaction as steam and electricity blew out of it, a sign the hand would blow up. Grific leapt back into the cave, and the hand blew up, the body who owned it as well. Looking out carefully, Grific sighed with relief.
"It's okay...it was only a Tau." Dirgivous came a little closer. It made sense. Most of the robots would not blow up from a simple electrical discharge. Only the weak ones could be affected by a spear, like Phi, Chi, and Rho. It seemed Wes chose ranks by the interest of names.
"Come on...let's get out of here. Thier could be others...like Delta's." Whispered Grific. They quickly ran out of the cave, deeper into the woods. Because of the warped condition of Space Time, they could see Wes's Castle from here, an ominous hint at horrible magic and science. To further prove this, a horrible scream echoed from the Castle. Just 10 years ago, the place was happy and joyful. The Yoshi's hadn't been alive long, for they would've known that the place was full of secret misery as well, 10 years ago. The death of Mitch. And for the special Toad's, those like Penter, and Orbix, it was misery serving the government.
It was true, that a great robot named Kappa had been built in the domain of Wes, but it was not as powerful as the rumors told. He was more of a close servant to King Wes, the great king of all. He was the smartest of the robot, closely built by Wes. Wes and his mysterious partner had built it, as great as it could be. It represented Wes himself, with great limbs. Wes was mysteriously happy about it, approved, and emotionless. That had been a year ago. Now, Wes was annoyed with the robot, at least the seeable emotions were.
"Great King Wes of all...I bring news of travelers!"
"Do...not...bring...news...Kappa...bring...THEM!" An invisible force hit Kappa.
"I'm sorry sir...only a worthless Tau reported it...2 Yoshi's. They came in contact with the Ballyhoo Dome, with...a quintet. The quintet was let in, but the Yoshi's were objected. Do you think they have a problem with Yoshi's sir...?"
"No...because...of...the...Factors...Ballyhoo...would...never...let...anyone...get...away...unless...he's...truly...a...fool. Leave...me...I...must...think...about...this."
Kappa left, an intelligent robot confronting the world. Same with the mindless Wes, watching the robot leave, and planning for the quintet, that would be coming, eventually.
Sezin 10
Over time, the bitter cold broke her down, even with her powers of the mind. The snow was massive here, biting into her flesh. And then another appeared. He was up ahead, cloaked and hooded. In his arms, he held a book without a face.
"Ironel." He murmured, cold winds swirling around them. Even the book had it's own winds.
"What...do...you want?"..."...Where are we, Phantom?"
"Ironel...this...is...you’re...You’re...des..." He struggled to speak without waiting. He tried to say the words without pausing. He was unsuccessful.
"Destiny...it's...your...destiny...This...is...the...land...we...shall...create."
Some thousand miles off, the sound of screeching metal echoed, beyond the mountains in the snow distance.
"With...my...friends. My...wonderful...friends!" His scratchy attempt at laughing was disturbing.
More metal screeching. A roar accompanied it.
"Friends...friends...friends......... You...and me. We can win. Because...you hold...tremendous power. And with me, you shall kill your...enemies."
The screeching metal bit into her ears.
"We only have one thing in common Phantom. We are both insane. Are powers...are tremendous...and from our minds. But you...naturally want destruction. This land of the future..."
"Ironel...it will only take 40 Sezin's..." He muttered, taking out a strange watch. Over 100 symbols lay on it. In the center, was a book with eyes. The 100 images seemed to be divided into 8 sections, each section with an image. One was a Koopa. Three were Toads. One was some kind of huge machine, with an evil face. One appeared to be Wes himself, with blank eyes. And two humans, one was split between evil and good, with a twisted face, he was half.
"In...40...Sezin's...the...world...shall...become...chaos...our...land."
A scream erupted from the mountains.
"We...shall...repeat...the...great...cycle...of...time...by the Spirits..."
And then she was forced to walk towards the mountains, where the clanking of metal sounded. Looking over the side, thousands upon thousands of creatures of all kinds were in a giant whirlwind of chaos. It represented all the elements, in a single combination of terror and torture. In the center, the evil metal machine was laughing, spearing everyone who went by, and injecting flames.
"Come to my...castle....I...will...be...waiting." And the flames enveloped Wes, and Ironel fell into the scene, the pain immense.
The prisoner woke up, startling the Guard, who wasn't supposed to be there at all.