"You mean you haven't met the great mario and Luigi? Not even in battle? That's weird...", said Stewart as he and Zeke left the hospital quickly.

"We need to hurry; we need to get as far away from Toad Town as possible."

Zeke was suprised at how quickly he had healed. He was having no trouble keeping up with Stewart. I'm glad I turned traitor to that horrid beast Bowser. I hope Mario shoves a plundger down his throat. Zeke then began to think of which of the Fanged Four would show up. Hmm... I'm guessing Blork or Sleech... but any of the four is enough to kill us. We have to focus on teamwork, because alone, we won't be able to win.

Soon enough, they had arrived at Mario and Luigi's house. Instead of knocking though, Stewart quickly turned the knob and slammed the door open.

"Hurry, we need to go...Bowser sent in someone to kill Zeke here, and we need to leave town NOW!", Stewart quickly explained.

((This is my last post of the day, I gotta go, see ya tomorrow!))

Petey was stunned. Such a completelt off-hand remark, out of the blue, carrying so much weight. Unfortunately, Petey could tell that Bowser was deadly serious. "But I won't stop there..." muttered Bowser, crazily, "after I kill you I'll kill all your little friends as well... heh heh... they won't even know what hit them!!!" And suddenly Bowser broke into peals of maniacal laughter. The aucoustics in the huge cavern made it seem as if 1000 Bowsers were all laughing at once. Luckily, this provided Petey with a good distraction. "Echo!" shouted Bowser suddenly, and he clapped delightedly to hear his own voice coming back at him, "echo location!" he shouted again, happily. All this time Petey was backing slowly out of Bowser's royal chambers, and the insane royal took no notice. After several agonising seconds, Petey was out, on the run, smack-bang in the middle of Bowser's Impenetrable Fortress

Zeke immediately saw Mario and Luigi. Wow, they don't look half as disgusting as they do on that wanted poster in Bowser's Castle. I guess it was just artistic license? Zeke stood there, silent, afraid to speak to these new people.

His breathing fast and frantic, Petey tried desperately to calm down. If he didn't, he would surely be caught and taken back to Bowser, who would be most displeased. After a few seconds, Petey breathing slowed, and he began to calm down. Finally he slipped off down a shadowy corridor, knowing the wway to go, as he had been here before. Suddenly another shadow loomed out of the darkness. Petey wasn't looking though, and suddenly he ran straight into a young looking goomba. "Wash where your gong!" shouted the Goomba, harassed. There was the smell of drink on his breath, water was a very strong drink for Goombas. The squinty eyes popped open, unfortunately, and the Goomba shouted, quite unexpectedly, "IT'S THE ESCAPED KOOPA PARATROOPER! BACK-UP!" Petey tried to run, but he was too late. Before he knew it he was surrounded by all sorts of Bowsers minions. Once again, he was captured.

((Me is back.))

Before Mario and Luigi even thought of starting to attack the Hammer Bro, Stewart explained, "This is Zeke, he's on our sides, no time to explain now, we need to go! And....where's Rick?"

----

Rick easily snuck into Bowser's Castle, surprized at the lack of guards there were. "This is too easy...", he whispered, as he tried to find Petey.

Zeke decided to tell Stewart now, instead of waiting. "In case we run into trouble and we don't stand a chance..." Zeke pulled a dormant Bob-omb out of his shell. "...I can use this to buy us time. Just letting you know so that we don't have to battle to the death."

((Where's Undead??))

"I doubt we'll need that, but it's nice to know you're prepared for the worst. After all, it's all of us versus one of them.", spoke Stewart as he and the rest of the ran as fast as they could out of Toad Town.

"I don't understand, why is Rick risking his life to rescue Petey, someone he had barely even met?"

(( The Undeadest of all Cutlets here. Sorry I haven't been 'roung for the past who knows how long. I've just been moving back into my old house and it was hard to get internet access. ))

Petey crounched down into a defensive position, he wasn't going to give that easily. He flew up into the air quickly, spun around once and delivered a shuddering blow to the goomba's head - body - whatever. The goomba's let off a faint sigh and fell, in slow motion, to the ground. Petey sped off, over the heads of the guards, kicking them as he went. Petey was almost away when suddenly something grabbed him by the ankle. Something slimy, wet, and smeeling vaguely of watermelon. Petey turned his head slowly, afraid of what he would find. He had every right to be afraid, the slimy thing attached to his ankle was a tongue, and that tongue was attached to a coal-black, totally evil-looking Yoshi.

((Wee!))

Rick walked around the castle, looking for any sign of life. Then, he turned in a hallway, and found many knocked out Goombas.

"Wonder what went on in here.", he questioned himself, in a mumble. He contiuned until he had to make a turn again, and froze right there. He saw Petey being grabbed by a really long tongue. Rick looked over a bit, and shuddered to find out that said tongue belonged to a black Yoshi.

Rick had no choice, he had to spring into action. "Hi-yah!" he screamed as he entered the sight of both Petey, and the coal-black Yoshi.

((Hooray, Undead's back! ))

Claude (the black Yoshi) saw the other one coming at him, so he let go of the escapee koopa and dove into the shadows. (Kinda melted into the floor and disappeared.) They'll just stand there for a few seconds, wondering where I went, and then I'll open a hole and let them live down here...forever!

Petey was incredibly relieve, first at the sound of "hi-yah!", as it had broken the long silence, and secondly for having one less tongue wrapped around his leg. Petey gave a quich glance over to the source of the shout, as he kicked a koopa trooper in the face. "Hey, thanks for coming... uh... you!" Petey shouted to the helper who he didn't know, "I suppose you're here to get me out of this mess?" Petey slapped another Goomba across the face casually as it come towards him, screaming "resistance is useless" in a high pitched voice.

"Pretty much yeah. I'm a friend of Stewart. You know, the dark blue Yoshi? Anyway, what's the deal on Mr. Melt-intothe-floor? He too scrared to fight?"

Claude then reached his hands into the regular world and grabbed the other Yohis's legs. He then pulled the Yoshi under into the Shadow Realm. Claude gave him a stern look. "I'll have mercy on you because you're a Yoshi. I'll give you one chance to escape, by yourself. Refuse, and you shall be eliminated." said Claude. "Remember; I hold your life in my hands now."

Petye just stared at the spot where the Yoshi had disappeared. He let off a low whistle, and flew over to the spot, knocking Bowser's minions out of the way. "Hey!" he shouted, "where'd y'blah off to, Stewarts friend?"

A shadow loomed over Petey. In an instant, Sleech, the Evolved Pirahna Plant, lunged at Petey, with more than 62 razor sharp fangs pointed at him. "You're messing with people out of your league now, koopa!" said Sleech with a crazed voice.

Petey didn't move, he just watched the shadow of the Pirhana plant loom over him. Then, as soon as the shadow crossed his head, he leapt up into the air as hard as he could, trying to ram his shell straight into the plants head.

Sleech's teeth bit Petey's shell. One of his teeth cracked. "You...you moronic cad! You broke my tooth!" Sleech squirmed on the ground in pain. "Don't just stand there you grunts... get that moron!" screeched Sleech at the Goombas and Koopa Troopas. Sleech was rubbing his tooth with his leafy hands. "Don't think you've seen the last of me." said Sleech as he ran away down the hall.

Petey span around one to face his enemies, but, upon seeing their sheer strength of numbers, he shot up into the air, flipped upside-down, and shot towards the point in the floor where the Yoshi had disappeared. The result was one that Petey had not expected. Petey crashed into the floor with a bone-shuddering "SMACK!" One of the Goombas ******, another giggled, and suddenly the whole hallway was roaring with laughter. But Petey's suicidal dive had more than just one purpose. As the Goombas and Koopas laughed at him, they failed to notice the cracks spreading across the floor. One Koopa fell to the floor, banging his hands against the ground, tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks. This was all it needed. Suddenly the floor caved in. Petey, who had been hovering indignantly, did not fall. However, everyone else did. With another "SMACK!" the soldiers fell into a heap on the floor below. Petey sped off, looking for the Yoshi.

Rick looked around, but saw nothing but darkness, and the black Yoshi who sent him to said darkness. "What the heck is going on? And who are you? And...how did you do that?", he questioned. He knew he wasn't on the good side, so he tensed up and quickly shot a fire ball at the black Yoshi.

"Take that!"

"Fool! I gave you the chance to live and you just threw it in my face!" exploded Claude. He swirled a black aura around himself, which absorbed the fireball. "Down here, I'm in control." smiled Claude (the evil smile ).

Rick was shocked, but shortly started to smirk. "So, the rumors are true; a 'Yoshi of the Shadows'. I'll have a fun time burning you.", he said with surprizing confidence, even though Claude had the home-field advantage. "But if you plan on defending and dodging all day, it won't be a very fun fight."

"You're right; it wouldn't be very fun to dodge all night." smiled Claude. He swirled the black aura around him. He then threw a punch in the direction of the other Yoshi. The black aura left him, but it lunged at the other Yoshi and swirled around his neck. Claude then clenched his fist. He began to choke his enemy with the dark aura. "This more fun to you? 'Cuz it is to me."

"Ha...Ha..You should...be a....comedian," said Rick, gasping for breath, the shadow fist clutching his throat, making it almost impossible to breathe. He struggled more and more, but it just kept getting tighter.

"This hand feels just like a real hand. That's it!" He pushed his arm, with much difficulty, out between the clenched "fingers" of the giant dark fist, and shot several fireballs at Claude.