Mushroom Kingdom Anew - Book 1

Chapter Eighteen

"Mommy!!" A small Toad child screamed as a cannonball came careening his way. The mother rushed over as fast as she could, but she wasn't fast enough, and her child was crushed by the cannonball. She fell to the dirt, slamming her fists and clawing away at her son's arm, which stuck out from under the iron ball. A second ball came flying her way, close to taking her head clean off. Had it not been for Ace, who grabbed her waist and rolled out of the range of the cannonball, her head wouldn't be attached to her shoulders.

"My baby..." She cried weakly, a shaky hand still reaching for the remains of her little boy. "Get to the castle, now." Ace replied dismissively, rushing off to help other's at need.

A green Toad was stuck on the balcony of his house, flames surrounding him and broken pieces of his house scattered about. The wooden beams to his house had been torn apart, and made a spike-like trap below him. There was no way he could jump over it with his stubby legs. A cannonball came careening towards the balcony, taking it out from under the Toad's feet. He screamed as he falls towards his spiky doom, but he was saved by Ace, throwing his body forward and tackling the Toad. They both tumbled to safety, Ace quickly telling him to get to the castle. He ran off, leaving the Toad to nod and run off towards the castle at top speed.

One Toad was running towards the large castle ahead, but a cannonball that struck nearby knocked him and some debris into the moat. He tried to call for help, to swim back up, to do anything, but his small foot was caught between a couple of cinderblocks and broken beams of wood. A Yoshi suddenly dove in, swimming quickly and attempting to remove the blocks. The Toad tried his best to help with his freedom, but he was running out of time. Eventually, his body went limp in the water, his eyelids half-closed and his features unmoving. Cursing between bubbles, Ace swam back to the surface and crawled out onto the dirt, taking a second to catch his breath. "I can't... this is... this is too much..."

Suddenly, another loud and familiar cannon fire noise sounded from one of the many airships overhead. Ace saw two little Toads hugging each other tightly and cowering in fear as a cannonball came flying. Based on its trajectory, it was certain those kids would be hit. Grunting and getting back to his feet, Ace did his best to run over to the poor, helpless kids. But he was tired, worn out, bruised, scratched and completely drained, and as a result, he collapsed. He stuck a hand out to the kids, silently urging them to run away. His throat was dry, his voice was gone, but nonetheless he called out to them with all his might. "NOOOOOOO!!!"

Just before the iron ball hit the kids, it was suddenly stopped by something. The ball had been caught in the hook of somebody's shin and foot, stopping only mere inches from the kid's scared faces. Xavier stood there, the glare in his eyes trained on the ship that had fired the cannonball. With a mighty swing of his right leg, he hurled the cannonball back at the ship, a hefty grunt to accompany it. The iron ball struck dead center, traveling down the bow all the way to the other side of the ship. The loud crunching sounds of wood against iron rung through the air as flames erupted onto the now collapsing ship. It plummeted to the ground in a loud explosive churn, causing everyone and everything to freeze in time a moment to figure out what the hell just happened.

The brunet made his way over to Ace, sticking out a hand and helping the Yoshi back onto his feet. "Hey..."

"Hey..." He responded, eyes widened with surprise. "You said you left..."

"I say a lot of things. A lot of stupid things," Xavier informed, hands on his hips as he looked at the armada approaching. "But at the end of the day, I can't abandon these people... or you."

"Xavier..." Ace's eyes were watery, but he shook his head. This was no time to get emotional. "Right. That bag with the Power-Ups is over there. If you focus on taking the ships down, I'll focus on hoarding everybody to the castle. There's a secret exit that leads outside the borders, so the King's hauling everybody there."