Chapter 6: Gwa-Ha-Ha!

"What do you MEAN somebody has entered the kingdom?!" A certain tyrannical turtle dragon shouted, slamming his fist onto the arm of his throne.

"Well, you see, king Bowser," Kammy Koopa whimpered, hiding her face. "One man and a cat showed up near the vim plant in Moo Moo Meadows. But just as soon as they showed up, they disappeared. Reports say that footsteps are appearing heading towards the vim plant."

"So a few invisible invaders think they can just show up in MY kingdom, huh?!" Bowser cackled. He took a moment to cough out some fire once he was done laughing. "Well they have another thing coming to them! Get my awesome Koopa Chase car, I'm going to claw their faces off clean!"

Meanwhile, Riba and Len were walking through the ruined farmland. On their way to the vim plant. They had tried entering the house that Len said the Memory Fragment was in... but the only way in was covered by some sort of fungus that even Len couldn't break through. They both figured that it must have been the vim being released into the air.

Vim is the life force of the Toads, and also their most basic building block. Therefore, the overabundance of vim must have been creating new Toads little by little. Toads start out as ordinary fungus. So that must be the stuff blocking their way. If they could kill it by shutting off power to the vim plant, they would have free access to the Memory Fragment.

Everything around them proceeded as if it was in slow motion. The Toad Brigade, the Koopatrol, all of them were too slow to do anything to the both of them. "You know..." Riba said, looking to Len. "This time slowing power of yours would have been really helpful before."

"I didn't want to waste it," Len replied. "I can only use my powers so much at any given time."

"Huh..." Riba replied, pushing away a Toad. He was just glad Len had the power at all. He didn't really want to hurt anyone to get his way. And with this power, just walking by them was a breeze. "Say... does this power have a time limit?" Riba asked.

"Hmm... yes. It should wear off... right about now," Len replied. Riba's eyes widened.

"What?!" Riba shouted. Len, in the blink of an eye and a flash of light, turned back into a girl, grabbed his hand and ran forward. Time returned back to normal around them. But luckily, most of the Toads and Koopas were already behind them.

"Get them!" A Toad who looked straight out of a boat from Rogueport cried, as they and the Koopas threw spears and fired arrows. Riba sidestepped out of the way, as did Len as a spear hit right where they were before. Riba covered his head from the storm of arrows. Just as he ducked, one flew right above his head and drove itself into the dirt.

After many close calls, they had reached the vim plant. Two elite Toad Brigade soldiers guarded the entrance, holding strange white and gray guns of some kind. Riba thought of what to do. He took into account their caps. They must have acted like that of a normal mushroom... protecting everything below it. So if he jumped on them, it would distract them but hopefully not hurt them too bad.

The Toads took notice of their presence, right when Riba jumped up into the air. Riba shot his fist towards the sky, and split his legs apart. His heart pounded through his chest. The Toads lifted their guns into the air, but before they could fire, Riba landed on them, bouncing off their spotted caps and... with Len shooting over like a bullet and breaking open the window, landed on the second floor of the plant, harshly.

Riba inhaled through his teeth, and groaned. He adjusted his glasses. "Ugh... well that's one way to make an entrance." Riba croaked raspily. Len floated down precisely, and landed in front of him.

"They'll be here any second," Len warned. "We should get this over with and get out of here quickly, lest they find and fry us before then."

"You're right," Riba sighed, getting to his feet. "Let's get moving."

Riba and Len dashed through the plant, searching for the control room. It was going smoothly, until they heard a conversation around a corner. It sounded like a Toad, and a cooky mad scientist-sounding voice they hadn't heard before. "Hide!" Len hissed under her breath. They sidestepped into a door, and closed it behind them. They heard footsteps outside.

"You can't be serious!" The same eccentric voice exclaimed. It sounded oddly happy and upbeat, giving conflicting signals going with the words it spoke. Riba and Len pressed their ears up to the door. "To release my collection upon the world just to find one man... you must have gone mad!"

"The only things the plumber could never kill are ghosts," the Toad stated. "I've seen him in action. The only way he could ever kill a ghost is with a Super Star! It's the only option. With the EXP he must have gathered if he indeed killed Peach... along with everyone else he's killed in his life... he may be unstoppable to any other living being!"

Riba's heart sunk... they were talking about Mario. But... Mario was already dead. He had nothing to worry about. Right? Still, it made him furious that they were planning to kill the man he loved, whilst also backhandedly calling him a cold blooded murderer. It was probably irrational, but Riba felt his blood boiling. He couldn't take it. He felt like his chest was bleeding.

He slammed the door open with a war cry, much to Len's surprise, and grabbed what he saw in that instant as a short man in a lab coat, with funny glasses and hair resembling a lit candle. Two Toads... one blue and the other yellow, screamed and jumped into the air.

"What do you want with Mario, huh?!" Riba shouted, holding up the man by his coat collar. The man kept his plastered-on smile, revealing a singular tooth on the side of his mouth.

"I want nothing to do with Mario," the man stated, with the blue and yellow Toads just flailing their arms around in fear. "Just between you and me... I'd say forgive and forget at this point. But the people here are obsessed with bringing Mario to 'justice'! Whatever that means anymore."

"Riba," Len said, walking out from the room.

"Wait, Len," Riba replied. "I need answers from this guy." Riba pulled out his machete, grimacing.

"Think about what you're doing," Len reminded him. Riba looked to her confusedly. "I don't know why, but you've seemed pretty pacifistic this whole time, aside from a few isolated instances. Not killing those Toads and Koopas even when they were out to get you... not mindlessly slaying the beasts in Honyrup Jungle... you clearly have values against violence for whatever reason... I wouldn't want to see you regret this later on. So it would be in your best interest to put that man back where he was before."

"Precisely," the man seconded.

Riba looked up at the man, with this regretful expression on his face. What was he doing? He put away his machete, and placed the man back on his feet. "I'm sorry," Riba whispered. He wasn't sure if he was saying it to himself, Len, the man, or Mario. He had made a promise to Mario, and he planned on keeping it.

"'Tis quite okay, my good man," the man accepted the apology, rather quickly at that. Why was this man being so nice? The man reached out his hand, presumably for a handshake. "I am Elvin Gadd---"

"My name is Riba, mister---" Riba started, thinking Elvin was done with his sentence.

"Ah ah, Riba. That's Professor E. Gadd to you," E. Gadd corrected. "What brings you to my fine establishment today?" Riba choked. He didn't know how to respond to this question. What was he supposed to say? Oh, thank you for asking, professor. I was just trying to kill all the power to your vim plant. No. That wouldn't do.

"Thank you for asking, professor. We were just trying to kill all power to your vim plant to proceed with our journey," Len stated. Riba gawked at her. "You see, my associate here has lost his memory. And we're trying to find his Memory Fragments so that we can restore it and save his existence from absolute destruction."

Riba looked back at E. Gadd, smiling and sweating. "Oh, my friend here is such a kidder! We'll just be on our way..." He laughed.

"Friends?!" Len snapped. "We aren't friends!" There she goes, showing actual emotion again in the worst possible way. Why was it that she could only express anger and indifference?

"Well, thank goodness you approached me about it!" E. Gadd said. "I hate this place, and I needed help shutting it down."

"You... do?" Riba asked. The Toads looked at E. Gadd dumbfoundedly.

"Yeah, it stinks up the place," E. Gadd stated. "And I keep finding mushrooms growing in the worst of places. Yikes!" E. Gadd paused. "However... the control room is guarded by a platoon of Koopa Troopas under strict orders not to let production of the vim to halt. If I ever tried to kill the power, my word, I'd be finished! I need someone powerful and strong to do it. My fists don't work like they used to." E. Gadd pointed at Riba. "YOU'VE gotta help me!"

"Hmm... I accept. Now, where's the control room?" Riba asked.

"Ah, of course, of course!" E. Gadd exclaimed. "Here... I don't have a map... but I DO have a very elaborate device to act in one's place!" E. Gadd rummaged through his pocket, and pulled out a device of some kind. It looked like a handheld game console. "It's a Switch FRIGHT! It is portable, 1080p... but can't be docked into a television."

"Thank you!" Riba exclaimed. He was glad it wasn't a standard map. He still couldn't make sense of those things.

"There's no time for gratitude..." E. Gadd stated. "Get to that control room, quick! My assistants, Bucken-Berry and Ala-Gold and I will meet you outside. We would love to help on your quest!" Bucken-Berry and Ala-Gold nodded, looking at each other unsurely.

"Alright," Riba said. "Meet you there." He ran off with Len, following the directions displayed on the Switch Fright's screen.