Chapter 6 - Blast from the Past

The door at the bottom of the staircase was locked.

“Hey,” I cried to the top of the stairs where I was sure Waluigi was still, “Drop one of your bombs down here.” I paused for a second. That did not sound right.

But I looked down and saw a bomb explode at my feet.

“AUUGHH!!”

Flash.

BOOM!

But in the horrible, red and dusty light, I noticed that I was completely unharmed. I wasn’t on fire, scorched or in a thousand pieces… just no longer in my normal clothes.

I took the wristband off quickly and put it back on before Waluigi noticed anything. He came sliding down the handrail on the stairs.

“Pretty cool, huh? I can program it to do anything. Right now, they can’t harm humans.”

I nodded, mouth agape.

“Otherwise, you’d be in about a million pieces,” he laughed, passing me through the huge hole in the wall.

I swallowed, and then followed him. My mind started racing again. A horrible thought hit me… if those charged tentacles had done so much damage to me, in the time we were looking for Mario and Wario, would it have done something worse to them…?

Nah, I thought. The girl who wrote this story likes Mario too much to kill him off.

I heard some whining… whining that was strangely familiar… behind a curtain to the right of us. “What’s that?” I asked.

“What’s what,” Waluigi replied.

“That whining,” I said. “It’s coming from over there.”

I slowly approached it. There was definitely something behind this curtain. I lifted the sheet; there was a Chain Chomp behind it. It was a little smaller than the usual adult, signaling that it was still young. It had huge brown eyes that were horribly familiar. The chain’s links were green and slightly scratched. But I didn’t want to try and see where I had seen this Chain Chomp before. It stopped whining and growled at me, (which caused the wristband to react again,) all ten thousand of its razor teeth showing. It leaped from its sanctuary, knocking me off my feet. Waluigi let out a strange yell.

The Chomp, bubbly drool dropping onto my shirt, (Which was now my costume,) was now lying on my chest, the metal slab where its chain attached to its body pressing painfully into my left ankle. Chain included, this Chomp was a lot longer than I was, its gigantic body several times the size of mine. Its face was right in mine; I could feel its breath on my face. I thought I was about to be crushed.

But after a second of staring me in the eyes, it stopped growling, sniffed me, and licked my face.

“What the-“ I choked, freeing my left arm from under it and wiping my face. The Chain Chomp was barking excitedly. I gasped sharply; I finally remembered where I’d seen this particular one before.

“Chompy,” I whispered.

This Chain Chomp had been my pet when I was a baby! And when I first found the pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom, I had lost him. Chompy leaped off of my chest, (I was surprised by how much easier it was to breathe,) and was barking at my side. I stood up. He was only a little taller than I was, despite how wide he was.

I threw my arms around him as much as I could. “Chompy!” I said happily. He hadn’t changed at all… he was just many times larger.

Waluigi’s jaw was dropped. And a mouth as big as his looked quite funny with his lower lip at his feet. “You mean to tell me…” Waluigi panted, pointing at Chompy. “That you know this thing?”

“Yeah!” I said, voice an octave higher than usual, then remembering to morph to normal. “He’s my pet!”

“Your pet?”

I smiled and nodded.

Chompy was bouncing and twirling, signaling that he wanted us to follow him.

“He wants us to follow him,” I said, putting my foot on the head of his chain and hoisting myself to the top of his head. “Want to go for a ride?”

“What do you mean?” Waluigi asked. “You mean this thing will drive us where we want to go?”

“Sure,” I said. “He’s a good boy. He does anything I tell him to.” Chompy barked happily as I patted him again.

“Uh… okay,” Waluigi said, and pulled himself onto the back of Chompy.

As soon as Waluigi’s foot left the floor, Chompy raced off. He was zooming forward at probably no less than 65 miles per hour. But I didn’t worry about being scared that I would fall off the back. I was just happy to see Chompy again. It’s been eleven years since I’ve seen him last.

Chompy seemed to know exactly where he was going. He was racing down hallways and corridors, and finally skidded to a halt. I was thrown off of him and crashed into the floor in front of him.

My head was spinning wildly, and it took a second for me to make sure that it was on my shoulders correctly. I stood up, and Chompy was whacking himself against a wall.

“Stand aside,” Waluigi said to him. Chompy growled in his face and continued attempting to demolish the wall.

“Waluigi has a plan,” I said to him. “You can move back.”

Immediately Chompy receded and stood behind me. Waluigi shot me a funny glare and dropped an explosive at the wall.

When the dust cleared, there was a hidden room. It was completely dark. But it didn’t take long to find Mario and Wario. Actually, they found us. Mario tapped me on the shoulder from behind, surprising me so bad that my wristband reacted.

“It’s just me,” he said, once I caught my breath enough to morph to normal.

“Mario,” I exhaled. “There you guys are. What happened to you?”

“Well, those vines crashed us through the floor, and then went back up for you guys. But we tried to stop them.” Wario said. It hit me, that’s why the tentacles had just hung in the air for a little while.

Mario wasn’t paying attention to Wario anymore. He was staring, wide-eyed, at Chompy, who was barking frantically.

“Luigi, this can’t be… Chompy?” he asked, breathless. I smiled.

He exhaled quickly, smiling with his mouth open. He turned around and faced Chompy, and slung his arms (as much as he could, at least,) around him.

“I can’t believe you found Chompy!” he said, almost a squeal. “It’s been so long!”

Chompy whined happily.

“Well, okay,” Wario said, “Now that we’ve got another party member, now what do we do?”

“Well, we can go see if there’s any light in here-“ Mario began, but I cleared my throat and slung a lightning bolt out of my index finger, illuminating the room.

“Right,” Mario said.

I walked in front of the group, my index finger outstretched. We were using it as some kind of torch. I stared at the ceiling as we made our way out of the room and down the pitch-black hallways. The ceiling had a lot of art on it. It was nice to just look at the pleasant landscapes.

I tried taking another step, but a pair of arms grabbed me around the stomach and ripped me backwards.

“Woah!” I screamed, as my wristband became hot and lit up, and changed me again. I fell to the tile floor somewhere in front of Mario. The light at the tip of my index finger went out; I took the wristband off, then put it back on, and re-illuminated the room.

“What was that about?” I panted. Wario was leaning over me.

“Sorry if that hurt,” he said, as I stood up. “But you were about to-“ he held his open palm to a giant hole in the floor.

I exhaled in shock, and leaned over it. That hole didn’t seem to end.

I swallowed hard, and turned my gaze away from the hole. My stomach churned. “T-thanks,” I told Wario. He and Waluigi seemed to be dropping their grudges on Mario and I. I was astonished at how well they were working with us.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Just watch where you’re going next time.” I swallowed again and spied another hallway.

“I see a light from down there,” I said, pointing at a small yellow orb. My voice was a little shaky.

“Fine,” Mario said shortly. Chompy barked.

Waluigi ran ahead. The light from my hand was large enough to spread far in front of us. He was heading for the yellow orb. It was only the size of his fist.

“What’s this?” He asked nobody in particular.

“I don’t know,” Mario said. “I’ve never seen it.”

I didn’t look at the orb. For some reason, I didn’t want to. Something in my head was telling me “Don’t look at it… “Don’t look at it…” But I didn’t know why, because everyone else was and they weren’t bursting into flame.

“What do you think it does?” Wario asked.

“Who knows,” Waluigi said in a sort of awed voice. “Let’s bring it!”

“Uh… I don’t think we should,” I said.

“Why not?” Mario asked. “It’s not like anyone owns it or anything.” Waluigi cupped his hand over the orb and trapped it. With a brilliant flash of light, he was gone.

Wario screamed in horror. But Mario was smiling.

“I know what this is!” he said. “It’s nothing but a transporter. Come on, let’s see where it leads to.” Mario made the same gesture that Waluigi did, and with a flash, he was gone.

I was nervous, but trusted Mario enough that the wristband didn’t do anything. I grabbed Chompy’s chain and transported alongside Wario.

A second later, I felt my feet hit the ground with a strong impact. My knees buckled and I fell to a crawling position. Mario and Waluigi were standing there, waiting.

I stood up quickly and grabbed Chompy’s chain. He seemed to have been knocked insane.

“Where are we?” Mario asked. I sighed. I knew this place all too well. It was dry and barren, with stone statues everywhere.

“The Ruins,” I said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “Gruffawha Ruins.”

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