The Forgotten Chronicles of Dysfunctional X-Nauts - A Paper Mario Story

Into the Depths

"CRUUUUUUUUUMP!!"

"GRODUS! ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!?"

"GGGGGGHHHAAAAAAAAH!!"

Letting out a cry, Grodus felt himself enter freefall. The darkness swallowed him - the light shining in from above was quickly getting further and further away. Falling on its own would have been bad enough. Falling while being unable to see anything around him proved far more horrifying.

Thinking fast, Grodus pointed his scepter beneath him and began casting. Four small, green X-shaped creatures emerged as a translucent barrier shimmered into place around him.

Then came the impact.

Cracks spread through the barrier as it strained to bear the brunt of the collision. Grodus's power wasn't quite enough to stand up to the sheer force - almost as quickly as they had appeared, the creatures he had summoned collapsed and faded out of existence.

With that, the barrier shattered and Grodus was left to fall the last smidge of distance unprotected. Thunk! His body smacked roughly against the ground.

Though he thought he could maybe hear a voice from above, it was all he could do to lay there and stare in disbelief up at the distant hole that he had fallen through. His head was spinning.

Did I honestly just let that happen? ...What am I even doing? How shameful! I am better than this! I MUST be better than this!

Irritation with his own inadequacy filled his thoughts as he struggled to rise to his feet. It seemed that he'd at least avoided any major injury, though his back certainly didn't feel great. He'd have to examine himself once he got to a safer situation - he suspected there'd be some bruising. Unfortunately, he didn't have any of his medical supplies with him. He'd left one of his underlings - specifically, Peanut - to carry them so that he could instead put his full attention towards leading his crew and warding off enemies. This setback certainly had not been part of the plan.

This is not enough to stop me! Though the current situation was far from ideal, Grodus repeated these words within his mind like a mantra. Having reaffirmed his determination, he began to dig around in his pockets for the flashlight he had previously prepared.

Something moved within the darkness. Many somethings.

Grodus froze. He wasn't alone.

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"Crud, crud, crud... uh... hey, Grooooooduuuuuuuus? You alive down there!?"

Crump listened as he hoped with all his heart for a response. Holy crap, he had NOT gotten ANY sort of training on what to do in this situation. Grodus was the head of this whole shindig. What the heck was he supposed to do with the unit leader gone and/or dead?

Wait, Xaido! Xaido's smart and responsible! ...Probably!

Crump looked back towards the other X-Nauts, zeroing on the scientist. "Xaido! Grodus is totally MIA! What do we do!?"

Xaido jumped at hearing his name. "I... uh...! ...B-backup! We should call for backup! Report to base that there's been a major setback and we're in trouble! T-though they'll probably tell us to go search for him ourselves... yes, right, that's what we'll do! Let's call in and then go look for him! We can start plotting out a map!"

The nearby Kip pulled out his communicator and began to fiddle around with shaky hands. "Dude, it's no good! There's no signal out here!"

"What!? But we should be getting one, that's not right... Um! Okay, how about this? Can you head back to town and see if you can get a signal there?"