Chapter 5-The Ghost of the Excess Express
Keenan has just defeated the champion Rawk Hawk at the Glitz Pit, got a letter of Goomberella going back home, and got onto the train with Wesley, the black Yoshi that was the ex-champ of the G.P. before Rawk Hawk defeated him. Now, their thinking of what to do next.
Keenan is resting on the top bunk of the beds in their cabin. Wesley is watching the scenery go zooming by outside the window. Keenan sighs from boredom. “What do you wanna do Wesley?”
The black Yoshi looks over to Keenan, then back out the window. “Eh, I don’t know. How about you?”
“Eh, not really sure. Honestly, I thought ghost hunting would be fun, but so far, nothing has popped up so far as emf readings, possession, or anything.” Keenan sighs again.
Wesley has a spark of remembrance. “Wait. A ghost on this train, I remember there was one, in one of the first three cabins, but I can’t remember which one yet.”
Keenan turns over and looks at him. “Wait, you know about the ghost here?”
Wesley nods. “Yeah, I saw and even talked to him when I was just a wee dino with Mario. I believe he only appears when no one is in the room with him. But if you hide, then you can meet him. We had to use Vivian to do this. Speaking of which, I wonder how she’s doing...”
Keenan gets up onto the side of the bed. “So, if we hide quiet and long enough, then we may see this ghost after all? Sweet!” Keenan jumps down off the bed and rushes out the door. Wesley gets up and follows him.
They run down past cabin 3 and right on into cabin 2. Surely enough, there’s no one there. Keenan hides on the top bunk watching the entire room. Wesley just sits next to the window and takes a snooze with his hands together across his stomach. He quickly starts to snore. Keenan just shakes his head and continues to wait patiently. Hours pass by and still nothing. Keenan soon gets drowsy. He soon enough passes on to sleepy town and dreams of his fun times with Goomberella. Then, an odd sound wakes him up. He sees someone walking around on the floor. He jumps down and screams “GOTCHA!” And to his surprise, it’s a toad. A toad with no legs and a genie-like tail in their place. “What do you want shorty?” it says to Keenan, who now is completely stiff with both excitement and fear. “Well? I asked you a question, and it’s quite rude to not answer you know.”
“His name is Keenan.”
Both Keenan and the ghost look over to the source of the noise. A sleeping Yoshi is there. “And who are you then?” the ghost asks. The sleeping Yoshi jumps up off the seat and shows himself to the ghost. “Wait a minute, I know you. You were with that Mario guy weren’t you?”
Wesley nods. “Yeah. I was a tyke back then. Nice to see you again Ghost T.”
Ghost T nods. “Ditto to you my old friend.”
“Hey! I’m not that old yet!”
They both laugh. They are obviously good friends.
Keenan shakes off his shock. “Wait wait wait. Hold on a second here. You know this ghost Wesley?”
“Wesley? I thought you changed it to The Great Gonzales II?”
Wesley shakes his head. “No, that was just my Glitz Pit name. Wesley is still my real name.”
“I see. Well how have ya been and why are you here again?”
Keenan tells the ghost about his entire adventure so far. Beginning from the shop in Petalburg, to that very moment. “I see. Well, now you know that the ghost reports of the Excess Express are true! Now that you know it is, what’ll you do now?”
Keenan goes to answer, but becomes stumped immediately. “Actually, I hadn’t planned on it ending so quickly. So, um, I don’t know!”
Ghost T nods and says “well, you could always live at the Glitz Pit and fight, go home to your family, or go visit Goomberella. I can’t pick for you.”
Keenan nods in agreement. “Yeah yeah. I know. I suppose I could-“
At that moment, his ESi goes off. Its default ringing is set to the Final Countdown song. He checks it. It says an E-mail from Goomberella has arrived. Not only that, but it’s a video message! A video was included!
Keenan opens the message, and the video starts immediately. Is shows Goomberella.
She starts talking. “Hey Keenan. How are ya?” She stays silent for a while. “Um, Keenan? Aren’t you going to answer?”
Keenan seems shocked. “Um… hi?”
“Well finally you responded! I see you’re on the train. I see also that Wesley and the ghost are there as well. So you did it! Way to go! But what are you going to do now?”
Keenan, still in awe at this “video messaging” system, explains his predicament. “I see. Well Keenan, I can only tell you to do what your heart tells you.” She hangs up.
Keenan, upset about everyone telling him only he can pick what to do next, sighs. He then heads out the cabin’s door and over to the dining car. He orders some grilled cheese extra cheese and a small packet of salt. Wesley comes in at this point and asks for a menu. He sits across from Keenan at the same table.
“So… what’s up on our agenda?”
Keenan sighs again. “I don’t know alright? I just don’t know!” He almost yells at him. He notices what he did, sees the surprised face on Wesley, and apologizes. “I’m sorry, I’m under so much pressure, and I don’t know what to do next.”
“Well, you could-“
Suddenly the train stops abruptly. The lights go out, all the passengers exclaim, and Keenan quickly and instinctively pulls out a flash light from his back pack. He turns it on. He grabs a nearby clear bowl and places the flash light inside it, lit end first. This makes a dim light cover the entire car. “Well at least we can see.”
Soon, all the passengers gather around the little lamp and once everyone has arrived, Keenan starts talking.
“Anyone know what happened?”
The chef, a toad of black top with blue spots, speaks up.
“Well, perhaps monsieur, it was the engineer of le train perhaps?”
Wesley points something out. “Could be, but, isn’t this guy here the engineer?” he says pointing to a nearby toad dressed in all black and yellow buttons on his suit and a black hat.
“Yeah I’m the driver, and I know I didn’t do anything.”
A rich Koopa of a green colored shell walks forward. “I doubt it, but, perhaps, the train was somehow sabotaged?”
Everyone gasps. Dramatic music plays from somewhere in the room. “Cut that out!” Wesley says to a nearby kid toad with a stereo. “Sorry!” is all he can say.
“Alright. Let’s assume it was sabotage. Oui oui. But mon ami’s, wouldn’t someone here be ‘aving something that le saboteur would be wanting?”
“That’s true, that’s true. So anyone here have anything of great value?” Keenan asks.
No body moves.
“No body? Well so much for that idea.”
“Actually, that idea would be correct.”
Everyone looks around for the voice from the darkness. “Who’s there?” Keenan says. “SHOW YOURSELF!”
“Ah, but I am showing myself. I am right here” the voice says.
Everyone continues to look around. Keenan continues. “But, we can’t see you.”
Suddenly, a quiet whooshing noise can be heard from the center of their little group. The lamp is toppled over, but doesn’t break, and soon, a figure begins to take shape. It’s like a little man, but with distinguishing features. Bigger eyes that a normal toad, green skin, a red coat-like article of clothing, and a bald head. “Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! I have shown myself to you mere finkrats! Are you satisfied now?”
Keenan is the first to react. “Who, the heck, are you? Or better yet, WHAT are you?”
“I am a being that lives to serve a mistress. A wicked and vicious mistress that would toss you into a pit of boiling lava without a second thought or hesitation. A dark, evil, and powerful mistress. I am her number one pupil and I am here for you young Koopa!” he says while pointing to Keenan.
“Me? Why the heck would you want me?”
“Your pendant. Give it to me now.”
Keenan pulls out the pendant his father gave to him. Keenan looks over to this odd creature, and shakes his head. “No. I won’t give it to you. I don’t know what you need it for, nor do I want to know, but you aren’t getting it as long as I am alive. You got that shrimpy?”
The odd creature actually turns red with anger, yells “DIE FINKRAT” and tosses a ball of green colored energy at Keenan! Luckily Keenan’s reflexes with his power are getting better, and he manages to stop the ball of energy literally micrometers from his head! He tosses back and it hits a surprised creature. “How did you manage to stop that attack, and more, how did you manage to throw it back?!” It says while rubbing it’s currently burning head.
“I have some kind of a power that I have recently unlocked from the dark and damp depths of my mind; I have focused it, trained with it, and now able to use it at will. Any other dumb questions, shorty? By the way, your head’s on fire.”
The creature looks upward without turning its head, and screams. It tries to put it out, and starts running around the dining car that he seemed to be a constipated wiener dog. Eventually he puts it out by jumping out the window into a lake.
The fire fizzles out and the creature rises to the surface of the lake. “That’s better.” He turns around towards the train. “I’ll get you for this finkrat! I’ll get you if it’s the last thing I do this week!”
Keenan tosses another energy ball, this time one he made, at him. He swims away as fast as possible from the sphere of energy. He seems to be running, or swimming, away.
“Well, THAT was unexpected” Wesley says as Keenan returns to the center of the car and fixes the home made lamp. “Tell me about it.”
“Say, mon ami, what medallion was zee little pipsqueak blabbering on about?” the chef asks.
“I have no idea.”
Wesley nudges Keenan. “What about your pendant?”
Keenan takes out his pendant his dad gave him. The one with the Golden Fuzzy sleeping in a jungle. Once it comes out into view, everyone looks closer to it.
“What is so important about zis pendant?” the chef asks.
Another passenger looks closer to it. She’s wearing all purple with black overalls, a purple hat with a backwards yellow R on it, and is about 15-years old. “Well, it looks like whoever that thing was, this little pendant is important to it. I say we keep it.”
Keenan looks at her. “And you are?”
The girl salutes at him, and introduces herself. “I am Waria, at your service!”
“Waria huh? Any relation to Wario by any chance?” asks Wesley.
“Yeah, he’s my uncle. Waluigi is my father. Why?”
Wesley shrugs. “Meh. Just curious, that’s all.”
Waria shrugs back. “Well, I’ve done some researching on all kinds of things, so, do you think that, maybe, I could join up with you?”
Keenan and Wesley look at each other. They both walk over to a corner. Wesley asks “you sure this could be a good idea, even after that Goomberella break-up thing?”
“Well, she is obviously very intelligent, seems strong, and if she really is the offspring of the Wario brother Waluigi, then she’ll be both smart and strong. I say we test her, and if she really is, then I say we let her join. Agreed?”
Wesley nods. “Agreed.”
Keenan and Wesley return to the lamp and ask Waria a few questions. “First, if you really are Waluigi’s daughter, then let me ask you this. What did Waluigi capture so that the Mario gang couldn’t become the Superstar?”
“That’s an easy one! The Mischief star stamp!”
Keenan nods. “Correct. Now…”
Several questions later…
“Correct.” Keenan turns around to face Wesley, who by this time decided to fix himself a sandwich. “Well?”
Wesley just looks at him. “Well what?”
“You alright with her being with us or not?”
Wesley reluctantly nods. “Yeah. Yeah I guess so.”
Waria jumps up and down excited. “Yes! I won’t let you guys down! I promise!”
Keenan puts a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure you won’t. Now, can you help us out by telling us just what the HELL that thing was?”
Waria puts a hand to her chin. “Hang on a minute. I’m trying to remember.” She holds her thinking position for a few minutes, Wesley yawns, and just as he finishes the yawn, Waria screams “AH-HA!” This sudden outburst surprises all of the passengers, but mostly Wesley, who tried to yell while yawning, thus making a loud gagging noise. Keenan tried to silence his laughter. He then turns to Waria. “So… whatcha got on it?”
Waria begins to explain. She says that the thing that had attacked them is a clone of a bean-being called Fawful. Fawful was the best pupil of his mistress, the evil witch, Cackletta. She also explains that Fawful had died several years ago, and that Fawful had already began to clone himself beforehand, that way, if he was ever to die, then he could live on as the clone with all of his memories. He had a mental link established between him and his clone, that way, whatever happened to Fawful, the clone would remember it all perfectly. To add on, Fawful actually turned sides from bad to good in
the end, so she doesn’t know why the clone was trying to steal anything from anyone. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever. But, that being beside the point, the reason why he wanted Keenan’s pendant, even she didn’t know.
“So, to know more, I would need to see your pendant and examine it. May I?” She says to Keenan, who slowly pulls out his pendant, which makes Waria shudder slightly with anticipation. Wesley notices this, and whispers to Keenan so Waria cannot hear, “Dude, I don’t think we should give it to her to look over. I don’t trust her THAT much.”
Keenan just looks at him and shakes his head. “There is nothing to worry about! Just watch.” He gives the pendant to Waria, who begins to rub it over like an archeologist who has just found his first T-Rex fossil, and she notices a small bit of text on the back. “Keenan, what’s this?” She shows him the tiny text, and he shrugs. “I don’t know. My father gave it to me before I started this little adventure. He said that it gave him good luck and even a little courage. Thanks to that thing, he was able to propose to my mother. If that helps any.”
Waria shrugs. “Maybe. Let me see. Does anyone have something to magnify this text? Magnifying glass, a small ring of glass, anything?”
The chef steps up and hands her his glasses. “Would bifocals work mon ami?”
She takes his glasses quickly but carefully and nods. “Yeah these will work.”
She holds the bifocals of the glasses up to the text, which magnifies slightly, but do to the prescription glasses, she can’t read them. She motions to the chef who comes over, and writes down what he sees. It’s in some sort of ancient writing, by the looks of it. Waria looks closely to the napkin the chef wrote the letters on. She studies it for several minutes, and as Wesley begins to ask “Well? What does it say?” she yells “GOT IT!” This outburst startles Wesley so badly, he flinches and retreats back a few steps. Keenan restrains his laughter but a few chuckles escape his grasp. Wesley glares at him. “Not funny man. Not funny.”
Keenan scoffs. “Anyway, Waria, what’d you get?”
Waria looks at him, her expression being that of worry and a little fear. “I don’t know how to explain this, but…”
Keenan motions for her to continue. “Well… how do I explain this… you see, this pendant, is-“
She is interrupted by a sudden loud bang outside the train. Wesley looks outside the window. He looks all around, sees nothing, and says “I’m going outside to look around. Ya’ll stay here.” Everyone except Waria and Keenan nod. They say that they’re going with him. He nods in agreement.
As soon as they all are outside and on top of the train, they look around for the source of the noise. Wesley, with his sensitive hearing, notices something near the train’s engine. He tells the other two to follow his lead. They agree and start to head towards the engine. But as soon as they’re half-way there, Wesley tells them to stop. When they ask him why, he only says “something isn’t right here… it seems to be too quiet… you two stay here. I’ll go check it out.”
About ten minutes later, a scared half to death Wesley runs back to the two, screaming. “QUICKLY! GET BACK TO THE DINING CAR!”
The two don’t hesitate and sprint to the dining car. Once they get about half-way back, they hear a loud explosion. It came from the dining car’s direction! They run faster, but when they reach the place where they left the dining car, it’s completely gone! The explosion had released the dining car from the rest of the train! They quickly go down into the car they’re standing on, which happens to be the baggage car that had been added to the Excess Express a few years back. After the explosion, everything had gone quiet.
Several long hours later…
“Well, what do we do now?” asks Waria. They are now trying to stay warm in the freezing cold breeze of the northern wind. The three are trying to huddle to share their body heat. Keenan whispers, shivering, “I d-d-don’t know… Wesley, any id-d-d-deas?”
Wesley has been their “lookout” ever since they got stuck on the baggage car. “Sorry bud, but I’ve got nothing.”
Waria springs up suddenly, goes over to the edge of the car where the dining car used to be, and leans down. A few seconds later, she comes back. “I just had an idea, and surely enough, this was no accident. I know, duh, but the main thing is that the explosion wasn’t fire. Otherwise, the metal would have been destroyed at least a little. Instead, it looks like the train connectors were cut in half instead. This was a precise job. I don’t know what could have possibly caused it however.”
Keenan gets up and goes to look. Surely enough, Waria was right. The links weren’t destroyed, but more like cut or sliced. It doesn’t seem to be possible. Then he hears something. He quickly stiffens straight, looks around, and sees something very dark by the manual brake underneath the car. Something dark yet unseeable is snapping the brake in two! “Hold on to something!” He yells to them. At that very instant, the brake snaps in two, and the car begins to accelerate in the reverse direction of the track! Keenan gets a little bumped around by the tracks, but he quickly goes to the other end of the car to get a grip on the door. Then another explosion is heard. Keenan feels something hit the door. He opens it slightly and sees what the explosion did. It flambéed the engine itself! The train engine is currently speeding up, way past its limit, and they are heading for a bridge ahead. It’s the riverside station. “Uh, guys, good news and bad news. The good news, we are moving towards Riverside Station. The bad news, we’re gonna fly right off of it! We need to get off here and now! Get ready to jump!” He runs back to the other two, grabs Wesley who is holding onto Waria, comforting her, and they go over to the other side of the baggage car. Keenan opens the door, and suddenly, another explosion occurs. This time right in front of them! It knocks Keenan back into the wall knocking him out. Wesley takes over and runs back to grab Keenan. He picks him up; runs back to the other edge of the car, and prepare to jump off. Then, the car hits a bump on the track, which turns it around. The edge is now facing the edge of a cliff! Wesley gulps and sees that he can’t go that way anymore. He sees that the other door on the side of the car is an exit opportunity, but it’s blocked by a steel door! Wesley puts the two down next to two crates, uses them to support Keenan and to shelter them from harm, and goes to the steel door. He tries to open it, but it won’t budge, not even a little. He tries to bust it down. Nothing. He continues to try, and while he does, Keenan awakes. He sees what’s going on, runs over to Wesley, and says how he can help. Wesley is speechless for a little bit seeing that Keenan is alright. After the touching moment, he tells him to look for anything to break open the steel door with. Keenan begins to look around. He finds a crowbar and hands it over to Wesley, who begins trying to open the door with it. Waria is watching this, and the car hits another bump, which this time knocks Keenan into a crate. He falls in back first so he can’t get out without help. Waria notices that the bridge is about a minute away at their current velocity, and looks around quickly for anything to open the door fast with. She sees the label on one of the crates that were sheltering them, and opens it, grabs something, and whistles. Wesley turns around, Waria tosses something at him, and it’s lit like a candle. He grabs it, sees its dynamite, quickly places it near the door, and runs over to behind the large crate Keenan fell into. Waria jumps back behind it just as it explodes. They see the steel door break into bits. They quickly grab Keenan, jump out the door, and notice that they were literally only about ten yards away from the bridge! The engine had already started falling when they jumped out! They watch the cars go off the edge, see a huge explosion go up past the bridge up into the sky, and Keenan asks “will you guys promise me something?” The two look at each other then nod to Keenan. “Remind me, never, to get on a train again.” They all begin to chuckle, giggle, and then laugh at their victory. They survived! They all had survived with no injuries of any sort! After a short celebration, they head inside the Station to rest for the night.
END OF CHAPTER
since this one is so short in comparison, I'll also post up what I have on the next one so far.