Chapter VI

The first rays of dawn pierced the eastern sky and the sun began to show its face. But no-one deep in the basement levels of Bowser’s Castle was aware of it, save the occasional glance at a clock.

This was the seat of the KBT, where information was collated, agents were trained, missions were briefed, and prisoners were held. It was a hive that never stopped to rest, its honey collected and sorted through the night and the day, the agents the eyes to the brain.

That brain was thinking hard about the previous night’s events in Va’kotiku, with Koopas running up and down its corridors to other Koopas typing furiously at computers. The picture of it was slowly being pieced together – there was now enough to tell those of executive power.

Bits of information were joined together, and passed up through the ranks until it reached the office of the second in command – Ig’i Koopa. He was already awake, and was actively viewing all that the Committee had given him. Naturally, Va’kotiku was on top of the list, warranting his attention more than anything else. Ig’i studied the list of casualties and the causes of such: laserfire, clean-cut decapitation and explosion, with some other ones including a death by electrocution and another by a falling manhole cover. He read witness reports of the deaths. When he read that two Yoshies were the prime suspects, he cringed. The causes of death were familiar to him.

This was not just an attack. This was a family matter.

He picked up a telephone and pressed a few buttons, and waited for an answer. After five rings, the receiver was picked up at the other end and a gruff voice yelled down it, “What! It isn’t even six o’clock yet, so this had better be worth my time!”

“Last night there was some fighting in Va’kotiku,” Ig’i replied. “We lost thirty-four soldiers and two agents. I must add, though, that three of those soldiers were killed by a grenade they had set. Also, a civilian was executed.”

The voice seemed to think this over. “Yes, so?”

“It was all done, directly or indirectly, through the actions of two Yoshies.”

“Why do you tell me then? Surely the Committee can capture or kill two dinos without having to bring me into it.”

“Well, the victims have been killed or maimed by laserfire, electrocution, or have had their head cut off; cleanly, I might add. Also, witness accounts – a whole street - all seem to point towards some sort of sky blue or light blue or cyan flash of light being involved.”

The other voice was silent.

“What do you want the KBT to do?” Ig’i asked.

“Capture him and bring him here. What about this other Yoshi?”

“We don’t really know as yet.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” the voice berated. “You can report the movement of a tree’s leaves in the wind, yet you cannot report a Yoshi’s identity?”

“We are working as hard as we can,” Ig’i apologised. “We will know shortly.”

“Then what do you know?”

“This Yoshi seems reasonably powerful.”

“We have files on all of the powerful Yoshies! So why don’t we have this one?”

“We can assume that this Yoshi has been given a sudden grant of power, knowing what some of their ‘Gods’ get up to. Or, this Yoshi has only recently come to Yamauchi; probably grew up on one of the other worlds to migrant parents like the other one.”

“Find out who it is and bring them in. I want to know why the two of them are in the Realm. I’ll be down at seven.”

The phone was slammed down at the other end, followed by a series of beeps in Ig’i’s ear. He replaced the receiver and swore.

The Kingdom was traversed by roads, most of which were a single straight line from town to town. A former Bauzur had been clever with the laying out of these routes: the straight lines allowed the movement of troops quickly and efficiently throughout the realm. They also allowed KBT agents easy travel.

Lich knew this, which goes to explain why he and his brother were not on one of them. They had run from Va’kotiku into the desert, their direction only guided by a compass bathed in the Boomerang’s ethereal light. Fortunately, there were only low sand dunes in the dark, but now they had reached a change – here the desert was rocky and stony.

Ark had fallen asleep in the shadow of a large, jagged boulder, exhausted after getting no sleep in Va’kotiku. Lich was a respectful distance away, leaning against a smaller companion of the big rock, clutching a tin of his old friend in his hand: Kakkaran coffee, the most potent source of caffeine in the known universe. He had loosened the lid on one side, and was sniffing the contents periodically. Just a mere whiff of its fumes was enough to keep him awake, to let him continue to keep watch.

He didn’t want to do it; he didn’t want to rely on it. He hardly ever drank the stuff, and if he did, it was a mere shot-glass. But, out here in the desert, with the possibility of soldiers or the KBT finding them, and plenty of darkness for them to hide in, it was a means of comfort. He thought bitterly about how the situation had made him akin to a drug-addict, sitting and sniffing, just to survive and cope.

He was incredibly thankful to see the sun rise behind the rock. It had only just lifted above the horizon, and already he could feel the heat radiating from the sand. The big rock’s shadow stretched like a finger reaching out to touch him.

Ark lay at the other end of it, on his side, one knee bent and his arm outstretched. His other hand was drawn to his chest, clutching the Spear, trapping its shaft against his body. Ark’s head lay on the butt, while the bent knee rested on its head. Lich studied him, noting the slight smile on his face. He seemed so much at peace, unlike their turbulent history.

He looked up at the sky, clear and promising to be the bluest of blues, the colour of the summer sky back home. The day that changed everything forever was at the other end of the year, in the depths of winter: a summer day suddenly misplaced after a snowy evening. The heat of the day had melted the ice and the snow, and brought about a heavy thunderstorm. The two combined catastrophically.

Lich shut his eyes and rested his head back against the rock. The shadow was still as cool as the floodwater that had swept through their hometown of Kippo. He remembered the current’s pull and its drag along the swollen river, how fast it had been.

He had found salvation in the means of a fallen tree, which he ran into. He swept aside part of the cloak and studied his thighs: little puncture marks could still be seen from when his legs had been pushed up into the tree’s splinters. The scars ached. He’d managed to get up onto the log, and find Ark holding on to the end for dear life.

He outstretched his hand to him, lying in the shadow.

“Ton erolo reo lakè,” Lich muttered in Pandoran, his native tongue.

When Ark failed to give him his hand, he continued with Ark’s line:

“Gaa, Lich, re ioma ren chego…re tonon kikao gaparo…”

He couldn’t help himself. He needed Lich’s help. Brave to the end, he was swept away, disappearing under the water. The river fell into a hole, feeding itself to the underground caverns beneath their country of Pandora. And there he stayed.

Lich was absolutely devastated by his loss. Although Ark was with him now, he could still feel the sadness of that day. He could taste saltiness behind his bottom lip as he sat on the verge of tears.

But, soon before this adventure, things turned incredibly strange. He could not remember a period of about three months clearly – his memories were very uncertain. For what he managed to see in his mind’s eye, though, it was very strange…yet, what he saw seemed to have a grain of truth.

His memories grew certain again from the time he found himself lying on a beach near his home in his scuba-diving outfit a few weeks ago. And then, the evening he got home, a miracle occurred: Ark arrived on his doorstep.

Needless to say, both of them were incredibly happy to see each other once more. But over those few weeks, Lich began to notice some changes in his brother. In their childhood, Ark was usually cheerful and courageous, often taking a hit for the sake of his brother from the school bullies. Now, he seemed distant and cold; his eyes had a sense of vacancy, as if he were not entirely there, but withdrawn into a shell comprised of his thoughts.

With Ark’s arrival came another small, yet vital discovery: Telg’s letter and his medals, tucked away in Lich’s Mana Storage. He was certain that it had come from those troubling months - it was addressed to him, and most importantly, it spoke of a promise he had made.

To both the von Kippos, a promise was a very serious thing indeed. Tob’s Promise, the name of it and this adventure (which he coined around 3am), was one that was definitely turning out to be easier said than done. Still, a promise was a promise, and promises had to be kept.

He looked at Ark again, peaceful in the dawn light. He had told his younger brother about his need to go to the Koopa Kingdom to rescue one family, and kill another. He didn’t want to get Ark involved, especially with the KBT breathing down his neck. But, he could not abandon him just after reuniting with him. He saw the Spear he carried and felt its power. Ark could be useful.

He could be incompetent, also. The only words of the language he knew was what Lich had briefly taught him, whereas Lich had studied it at university and was extremely proficient. And then, in battle…

He seemed to know quite an amount. He seemed to have trained to a degree – he had that Spear, after all, which was quite a worthy weapon. Lich had battle experience, particularly due to his conscription and training into the Pandoran Army briefly. Ark, on the other hand, didn’t. Last night showed that Ark’s fear would tend to stop him, while Lich relied on it for the adrenaline.

He sighed. It was too late to turn back. Ark was now a criminal, just like him. The sooner they got to B’kirik and got the B’ralku out of the country, the better.

He crawled over the sand to Ark, still clutching the can of coffee in his hand and sat beside him, admiring his peacefulness again. He would have to wake him up and end it – staying in one place too long was deadly. Lich placed a hand on Ark’s ribcage and shook him gently.

Ark stirred with a groan, stretched his legs out and opened an eye. The smile receded, transforming into a frown.

“Mm?”

“Morning, Ark, rise and shine,” Lich greeted him.

“Mmf.”

Ark yawned and folded himself up again, shutting his eye again. This was another thing that had changed: Ark slept a lot more, as if he was trying to stay out of the world as much as he could.

Lich frowned. “You’re in the middle of the Koopahari with the Koopan Secret Service and probably the army too coming after you. I suggest you get up before they find you.”

“…No,” he grumbled. “I’m tired. And hungry.”

Lich waved the tin of coffee in front of Ark’s nose.

Ark’s eyes shot open as the caffeine began to kick in. “That’s not fair.”

“I’ve been very fair so far. I let you sleep while I kept watch. In the dark.”

“Fine.”

Ark let go of the Spear and stretched. He then took hold of it again, pushed the butt into the sand and propped himself up with it.

“How far have we got to go?” he asked.

“Depends where we are,” Lich shrugged.

Ark did a double-take. “You mean, we’re lost, and you don’t care?”

“We’re not lost yet,” Lich said, withdrawing the compass from his Storage, as well as a map and a GPS receiver. “We’ll know in a few minutes.”

He pressed a few buttons, then put it on the map, and put them on the sand. He dropped the compass down beside it.

“Right,” said Ark.

He looked down for a moment in thought, and then brought his head back up again.

“You know how last night you said something about killing only if necessary?” Ark asked.

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about it as I went to sleep and thought, ‘Why?’”

“Well–”

“It’s not as if a soldier’s going to stop himself shooting us now, right?”

“Perhaps not, but–”

“Why? I reckon if we see one, we kill him.”

Lich moved like lightning and grabbed Ark’s cloak. He pushed him backwards into the rock.

“Whoa! I–”

“How many Koopas did we kill last night? Thirty?”

“About that, yeah.”

Lich moved his head closer and snarled, “How many Koopas have we deprived of a brother, or a son, or a father?”

Ark looked down.

Lich let go and straightened his own cloak. “You see why I mean, ‘if necessary.’ Like I said yesterday, it’s not the Koopas who are evil; it’s who commands them.”

“But you killed six coming around th–”

Lich’s hand was back on Ark’s cloak again. “Don’t remind me.”

The receiver beeped behind him. Lich let go and straightened his cloak once more, looked Ark in the eye, then walked over, picked it up and read it.

“Okay…so…4809…” He knelt down and consulted the map, drawing his finger down the grid lines, “…1298.”

He brought his finger across the map. Seeing where it was, he did a double take, re-checked the co-ordinates, found himself in the same location and winced.

“Ahhh, gulto,” he swore.

“What?”

Ark came over and looked over his brother’s shoulder.

“That’s Va’kotiku there,” Lich said, pointing at a dot with Koopan writing. “We’re here.”

His other finger rested some distance inside a red-lined polygonal dog-shape, north-west of Va’kotiku.

“Ak’gorak Army Base,” Lich announced. “We’re right in the middle of it.”

Not too far away, KBT Agent 62509 was sitting behind a computer in the Ak’gorak military compound, sipping on a cup of coffee, when there was a beep and the appearance of a red box on the screen. He sat to attention, clicked a button on the box with his mouse and saw a pulsating red dot within the base.

He brought up his correspondence messenger program, and filed through various Code entries, then clicked on Code 289c: “GPS Request Within Realm, Using Non-Koopan Receiver (Yoshi)”, and Code 215: “Unauthorised Entry Into Military Facility”. With the click of a few more buttons, the message was sent.

“Thank you for using your receiver, Yoshi,” 62509 smirked. “You’re history.”

The message reached the headquarters, and was passed through the ranks to a senior official, who then messaged another official at Ak’gorak: “Code 289c; Code 215. Intruders at 4809-1298. Permission granted for arrest and retrieval. Two Yoshi suspects believed: consider armed and extremely dangerous. Highly possible link to Va’kotiku street battle.”

Only five minutes after the original message was sent, an alarm bell rang in the compound. A copy of the message appeared on 62509’s computer. He leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes and smiled. If these were the two from Va’kotiku, and they were caught, he’d be getting his pay raise for sure.