Role Play Pool Party!

"What do you mean? You can sense other people's pain?" Elaine asked.

With the help from Clive, he finally elbowed the Yoshi off him and knocked him to the ground. Standing over the yoshi, he pointed the magic wand right into its mouth and shot off a fireball, engulfing the yoshi from the inside out. "Thanks Clive", he said as he handed his magic wand to Clive. "Just point and shoot fireballs at the rest of the Yoshi." He pointed to the ten yoshi that were coming up in front of them. "I'm going to help Xiuhcoatl, I have a feeling he's in worse shape than both of us."

Running over to Xiuhcoatl, he leaned down and looked at the mess that had been left of his tail. The sword was stuck right in the middle of his tail and looked to have gone all the way through and pinned his tail to to the ground with it. Moving in front of Xiuhcoatl, he leaned down and looked him in the eyes. "Shit", he said, catching his breath. "He really got you good.. keep using your wand if you can and help Clive from here, I'll see how I can get that sword out of there."

The black yoshi continued to roll around and struggle as his face melted away from the acid. He was tied up and there was no way to free himself.

~~~

He sighed and gave Crystal a quick hug. "I hope it isn't too serious, we'd be too late if we tried to travel there now.", he said softly.

Walking back to the staircase, he began to start scrubbing again. He was halfways up the stairs now, alone in his thoughts hoping that Clive and Xiuhcoatl were doing okay.

Clive took the wand from Skittles and replied with glee, "It will be my pleasure." Clive then began zapping at the remainder of the yoshi with the wand until there was none left. Once all the yoshi had been finished, he walked over to the black yoshi and pointed the wand at him.

"Skittles, what shall I do with this one? I am not the kind of koopa to kill a tied up prisoner. But from that acid on its face, I'd say he is already dead," Clive said as he noticed its face melting away.

Crystal finished up the last of the lobby floor and put the rag to the side as she got up. "I'm a healer", she softly said to Elaine. "I can heal with my touch and feel when someone I've healed before is in pain."

She got another lemon peel from the bucket and squeezed lemon juice from it onto the rag. Walking over to where Orinda was, she helped him finish off the steps. "Xiuhcoatl, our crocodile/koopa friend is in trouble.. deep trouble.", she said aloud.

"A healer, huh?" Elaine asked. "Interesting. Who's Xiuchoatl?" she then asked having not met Xiuchoatl before.

Xiuhcoatl looked on as Clive fought off the rest of the yoshi with the wand. He seemed quite handy with it, he thought to himself. The blood loss from his tail had been too much, he dropped his wand and fell to one knee.

"Get that sword out of there cleanly, Skitz.", he said as he gritted his teeth.

Skittles looked up at Clive for a second. "Kill him, he's useless now,", he said in anger. "I have a feeling you and I are going to be taking down that shack alone, Clive."

Getting a good grip on the handle, he saw a lucky break. The sword had been plunged straight through, it would come out straight forward. He gently pulled up on the sword, closing his eyes at the sight of the gorey mess that was now Xiuhcoatl's tail. Finally pulling it out of the ground and cleanly out of the flesh, he chucked the sword to the hard ground beside him.

"Xiuhcoatl, you are in no shape to help us with the dismemberment of the shack.", Skittles said as he moved back in front of Xiuhcoatl. "Give me your hand, I'll help get you back to the vehicle."

~~~

"But they're just yoshi", Orinda said as he finished the stairs with Crystal's help. "How bad could they be?"

He looked at the floor and admired it as it shined brightly. They had gotten the lobby cleaned, finally.

Chugami pondered this interesting revelation of Crystal's. Well she's certainly got the personality for a healer. Given how many creatures around here has some form of supernatural ability, I suppose that would make sense. Sense I've seen a thousand times, but sense nonetheless. Though I don't think she's had to heal very many other people before, or else she'd probably be in fairly consistent pain, especially if she was healing ground troops at some point. Maybe she's managed to hide the pain of older heals, learn to live with it? Very many questions, leading to what I suspect are very deep answers... Something to consider.

Of course, now that Crystal had Orinda's attention, finding firewood would have to wait a little longer.

Clive was surprised at Skittles anger but nodded and then turned back towards the yoshi. In normal circumstances, he would never kill an unarmed and tied up prisoner but he agreed that he was useless and dying anyway. Without hesitation and word, Clive zapped the yoshi once who then lay still. He untied the whip from his corpse and handed it back to Skittles before walking away.

"Excuse me a second," he said as he walked a few yards away to get his breath and composure back. Clive had only ever killed in self-defence and was quite shocked at what he just did. After a little while, he walked back over to Skittles and Xiuchoatl.

"Lets get out of here and quick. Orinda needs that timber as soon as possible," Clive said.

He reached up and grabbed Skittles' hand. Raising himself up weakly, he leaned on Skittles shoulder as a crutch as he moved his other arm around the back of his neck to keep from falling. "Thanks buddy", he said to him. His tail was bleeding from everywhere possible with a huge gash in the middle of his tail from where the sword had been jammed.

Looking to Clive, he smiled weakly. "You did good Clive, lets get that building torn down and put on the vehicle."

"Thank you," Clive said to Xiuchoatl. Clive walked over to where he had executed the black yoshi and took the cloth off its mouth. He was sickened by the sight and couldn't wait to get away from it. He returned back to Xiuchoatl and wrapped it round his tail.

"That should act as a bandage," Clive said. "You're gonna be okay."

Crystal smiled as she rememberd him back where they had met. "He's a koopa hybrid that came from Soda Lake", she responded to Elaine. "Him and Clive came through the Vanilla Dome on a mission and I found them both there."

Elaine stopped at the mention of the name Clive.

"You know Clive? Now that's a koopa I haven't seen in over two years," she replied.

Getting the wand back, he looked at Xiuhcoatl's tail and shook his head. "He won't make it here with us, Clive", Skittles said as he got his wand back. "I'll have to open up a warp tunnel and make sure he gets back to Koopa Castle, he needs immediate attention."

He pointed his wand at the ground just in front of them and shot off a white light. The light hit the ground and caused a green warp tunnel to appear. Helping Xiuhcoatl up to the tunnel, he looked down it and then back to Clive. "This goes to Koopa Castle.. Clive and I can handle it from here buddy."

~~~

Orinda walked out onto the lobby floor and twirled around for a moment. At last, one room was done.. keyword, one. Picking up the bucket of lemon peels and the rags, he walked over to Crystal and Elaine. "Throne room should be next, unless you two think something else?", he asked thoughtfully as he approached the hallway.

"Good luck Xiuchoatl," Clive said. "So what do we do now?" Clive asked Skittles.

He put the magic wand back into his shell as he nodded at Skittles' request. Carefully lifting himself over the lip of the tunnel, he fell inside of it. This wasn't like a regular tunnel, he noticed. A bright white light appeared in front of him for a moment and then he saw the wall of Koopa Castle facing him. Falling out of the tunnel onto his stomach, he looked around and noticed he was right before the lobby.

Struggling to sit up, with his bloodied tail in a coil on the ground he turned his back and noticed the tunnel was already gone.

As she approached the hallway with Orinda, she noticed Xiuhcoatl on the floor in front of them. She noticed his tail was covered in blood and that he was shaking.

"Xiuhcoatl!", she screamed as she ran up to him. Sitting down next to him, she held his head in her hands and looked over his tail. It was covered in layers of cuts with what appeared to be a sword wound going through the middle of it. "How did you get here and what happened to you?", she asked softly, looking into his eyes.

Quickly turning her attention to Orinda and Elaine, there was a look of fear in her eyes. "You two, there should be a bucket with clean rags in the kitchen of the McDonalds.. grab them, we've got a serious problem on our hands."

"I'll do it," Elaine said as she rushed to McDonalds. She went into the kitchen and found the bucket full of rags, she quickly picked it up and ran back to the hallway where the others were and put it down beside Xiuchoatl.

"I went as quick as I could," Elaine said. She turned towards Xiuchoatl. "So this must be Xiuchoatl, I am Elaine."

Seeing the tunnel disappear as soon as Xiuhcoatl entered it, he put his wand back into his shell and looked to the shack and then back to Clive. "We'll untie the strings holding the middle of the shack together and take all the logs off of there and load it up onto the vehicle."

Walking over to the vehicle, he got behind it and made sure the steering wheel was still in working order. "You start untying, I'll move this over by the shack so it's easier getting it loaded up."

~~~

Orinda looked at Xiuhcoatl in shock and then to the empty wall next to him. "Geezus man, what happened to you?", he asked, looking at his tail. It looked like someone shoved it through a meat grinder.

"Yes Skittles, right away," Clive replied as he got straight to untying the strings.

He looked up and noticed Elaine, he tried to smile in response but was too weak to even form one. "Yes, Elaine.. though not under the best of circumstances."

Looking to Crystal and Orinda, he ignored the pain shooting throughout out his body. "Those Yoshi are nasty there, no lies about it.. but Clive and I discovered a lost koopaling named Skittles there, he's helping him get the wood up to the Plains so the rebuild can begin."

He closed his eyes and began to rest.

"Another koopaling, huh?" Elaine said to herself. "Hmmm.. I wonder."

She was going to ask about Clive but Xiuchoatl was resting so she held the thought till later.

She began to place the wet rags onto Xiuhcoatl's tail, cleaning the blood away from all the wounds. Placing a palm on his forehead, she looked him in the eyes calmly. "Stay still and rest, my friend.", she said gently as she got more wet rags and got to work on the giant sword wound on the middle of his tail. She noticed it went through his tail, she just about got sick but managed to hold in as she placed the rags around it gently.

Looking to Elaine and Orinda, she spoke to them. "I can usually heal minor wounds by touch, but a couple of the cuts here are very serious and the sword wound I cannot do by hand."

From his position, Chugami once again played the silent observer, watching the events unfold. The Yoshis turning nasty seemed almost too out there to believe, but given Xiuchoatl's stance on lying to other Koopas, it was most likely true. Given Yoshis existed independently of the empire, more allied to the Mushroom Kingdom if to any other faction at all, something extreme likely happened. Perhaps whatever, in his theory at least, also led Bowser away...?

He shook his head a little. Now did not seem like the best of times for wild speculation, not with the darkness still consuming the halls.

Turning the ignition with the key, he grabbed the steering wheel and slowly pushed the vehicle towards the shack. Stopping it just before the shack, he turned the engine off and walked up to the front of the vehicle and took the front barrier off.

"We'll both lift the logs and drop them into the vehicle", Skittles said to Clive. "There's about thirty logs to put away, we best get started."

Helping Clive finish untying the shack, he took one end of a log after they all fell to the ground.

~~~

Looking to Elaine, he went and got the bucket of peels from the lobby. Walking back to the hallway where everyone was, he gave Xiuhcoatl a pat on the shell. "Get better soon.", he said in a quiet voice. Then turning to Elaine, he pointed up towards the direction of the throne room. "We should probably get started on the throne room floor", he said quietly, then looked to Crystal and Xiuhcoatl. "Crystal and the big guy may be here awhile, he got banged up quite badly."