Paper Mario - Folded Chaos

| Chapter 7 - The Way Back to Town |

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                "Gooooooood Morning, Mario!" Mario shot up from his sleeping bag and, upon seeing who it was, then sighed and plopped back down. In front of him stood a toad. The toad smiled brightly "Oh, I hope you had a nice stay in your cozy tent at our campground! Come again anytime you'd like!" The toad the cheerily clasped its hands together. "Oh and I'm pretty sure your little friend is out there waiting. You mustn't keep her waiting!" The toad waved and then exited out of the tent. Mario rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn. He did appreciate the campground caretaker toads letting the duo stay free of charge, but he wondered if the personal wake up call way really necessary. But he knew he didn't have the time to think on such things. Right now they had to focus on getting back to Toad Town and finding Luigi. It sounded simple, but Mario somehow knew it wouldn't be. When ever was his life simple?
                   After getting up and getting things together and ready, Mario hopped out of the tent. "Oh, good morning Mario!" Olivia smiled at him. "I've been waiting out here for you. Did you have a good rest?" Mario nodded before turning to face the path before them. "Guess we better get going to Toad Town! Oh, but before that, I guess we need to find the exit to this place." Mario agreed and then started back on the path through the campground.
Of course, it didn't take long till the duo was once again stopped. "Help!" A toad screamed from behind a tree. There, on a small wooded swing, sat a goomba folded soldier who was currently staring off into space, not paying any mind to its surroundings. Mario took this opportunity to blast the thing into confetti with one swift swing of his hammer. Colorful scraps of paper fell everywhere, which Mario gladly picked up. Then toad that was once in hiding came cheerily running out from behind the tree, "Thanks Mario! I was just waiting for the swing when that folded goomba cut in line. How unfair!" They then proceeded to hop happily onto the now open swing. "Weeeee!" They cheered as they lightly swung back and forth.
                 "Wow! That looks like fun, doesn't it Mario?" Olivia remarked, turning to face Mario. "Perhaps we could come back another time and take it for a 'swing'!" She chuckled slightly at her own words before continuing, "Ah, but we don't have time for distractions right now. We must get to Toad Town!" Mario nodded and they continued down the marked pathway, hoping that they wouldn't get stopped again. Unfortunately, they didn't get their wish. Down the path some more was a large house and a little wooden pavilion built next to it. All around, toads were being terrorized by folded soldiers. High pitched toad screams filled the morning air.
"Perhaps we should help them Mario! It's the right thing to do!" Mario rolled his eyes at Olivia's statement, but did decide that he was willing to help. After all, they did allow the two to stay the night at the campground. He could, to return the favor, help the campground toads out of their current predicament. So then, one by one, he smashed folded soldiers into bright pieces of confetti. The toads cheered him on as he went. Finally, after a few minutes of fighting, all were defeated. Paper scraps covered the ground. "Wow you're really strong, Mario!" Olivia exclaimed with bright eyes. Mario tipped his hat at Olivia's complement before turning and kneeling down to pick up all the confetti that coated the ground.

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"Thanks for all your help, Mario! You always do such a great job with these sort of things! Then again, I guess this is sort of your job, heh." The toad smiled brightly at the duo before continuing, "Just continue down this path and you should end up at Toad Town. It's pretty simple!" Mario nodded at the toad. "Alright, well off you go then! Good luck! Come back anytime!" The duo waved at the kind toad before starting down the path laid out ahead.
"Well, I sure feel awake and ready to face anything! How about you Mario?" Mario absentmindedly nodded at Olivia's question, which was apparently a good enough response for Olivia as she then kept talking to the half aware Mario. "Alrighty then!" she said with a spring in her step, "I'm so excited to actually travel and walk around outside for change! The real world is much different than how my brother described it..." She looked down at her feet. Mario glared at her the looked down at his feet. He'd been wondering why she was seemingly clueless when it came to the world around them. Had she'd been sheltered her whole life? She definitely wasn't a local and she wore a crown and a dainty but fancy dress as if she was of royal descent, albeit both articles of clothing were made of what appeared to be strong folded paper. She was supposedly the sister of the origami menace taking over the kingdom, but she's didn't seem to have any ill intentions. She was almost too pure and optimistic in Mario's opinion. She was unarmed and seemingly defenseless, but perhaps she had ulterior motives. Perhaps this was a trap set up by Olly and he had fallen for it. He decided that he'd just have to keep a keen eye on her to make sure she doesn't fall out of line.
"Uh Mario?" Mario glanced up from his feet and noticed Olivia's hand waving in front of his face. "Are you alright? You seemed kind of spaced out." Mario just nodded at her and hoped that that satisfied her. To his relief, it seemingly did, though the young folded girl now had a slight worried look on her face, which Mario tried to ignore. Both were suddenly snapped out of their thoughts when suddenly the duo heard something. "HELP US! SOMEONE! ANYONE!" The cries echoed from further down the path. Without any hesitation, the duo rushed down the path to find the source of the loud pleas.
Further down the path, the duo discovered the source of the screams. There stood a group of young goomba kids surrounding by their folded counterparts. Without thinking, Mario immediately jumped into action and smashed the folded goombas to smithereens, Olivia cheering him on from a safe distance. Bits of colorful paper flew everywhere, coating the surrounding bushes in a rainbow of color. It was almost like a party. A very gruesome party. Once all had been blasted to pieces, Mario tucked his trusty hammer away and kneeled down to catch his breath.
"Wow, getting saved by Mario. Guess we're taking the L on this one, ey guess?" The group of goombas all nodded in slight bitter agreement. "But I guess with this current predicament, we could team up. Watch each other's backs. What do ya say, ol' Mario?" Mario stood to his feet before turning to them and just giving the group a quick nod. The group cheered. "Oh yea! With Mario on our side, we're gonna live through this! Well, off we go! Bye!" And off the group of goombas rushed to...somewhere. No matter. The duo had to be close to Toad Town now. Mario glanced up at the sky. It was only sometime around noon and they had made it so far already. Perhaps this wouldn't be a difficult adventure after all.

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                      After around 15 minutes of more walking down the dirt path lined by pine trees, the duo came to the Toad Town gate. The sign that lined the top of the gate was bright and colorful, just like the rest of the town. The colorful town contrasted well with the white brick pathways that flowed and weaved through the small wooden homes owned by the residents that lead up to the castle. Amplifying the bright tone was many paper decorations that hung from homes and light posts, most likely for the origami festival. Despite the bright nature of the town still being there, however, it now carried a slight eerie feeling. Perhaps that was caused by the deafening silence that now filled the normally bustling town. This feeling was familiar to Mario. He had felt it when he had first arrived in Toad Town with Luigi a few days earlier. Luigi. Oh how Mario hoped that his younger brother was ok.
                    Without either saying a word, the duo stepped through the gate that lead into the small town, the sound of their footsteps echoed against the white brick bridge. Suddenly, they were stopped by a sudden loud crunch that echoed throughout the otherwise completely silent town. "Um, what was that Mario?" Olivia said in a whisper. Mario looked around to identify the source of the noise when he noticed something moving in the corner of his eye. He turn to face the thing. The thing was large and had the shape of the goomba. It appeared to be the source of the noise, which its seemed to be caused by it munching on something. Upon stepping closer, the thing turned to look at the duo, showing off a large hole in the side of a home.

"It's eating it?!"

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