Paper Mario - Folded Chaos

| Chapter 8 - Toad Town |

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                   The thing stared them down and once realizing the lack of a threat posed by the two, turned back around to continue tearing apart a poor toad's home piece by piece. "That definitely doesn't look like it taste good. So then why is it doing it? And what exactly is it?" Olivia questioned, still talking in a whisper. Mario decided to get a closer look. Stepping even closer, practically right behind the thing, he observed it closely. It appeared to made out of multiple pieces of colored paper bound together with some kind of glue and right of the middle of its back, a bright purple and gold seal with the origami menace's face plastered on it was stuck on. That must of been what was powering the paper mache beast. So Mario pulled out the solution to all his problems: his trusty hammer. He lined up his swing with the seal and gave it a good smack. Immediately the seal shattered into pieces. This seemed to anger it as it immediately turned to face Mario and charged for an attack, which Mario swiftly dodged. Then, once he was given another opportunity to strike he did. A few close dodges and swift hammer swings later and the paper mache goomba was nothing but loose brown confetti all over the ground.
"Wow!" Olivia cheered, running out of her hiding spot she had hidden herself in during the whole ordeal, "You made quick work of whatever that's thing was. That seal though, I wonder..." Olivia stared down at the ground and thought for a moment before speaking up again. "What if my brother is somehow powering that thing through that seal? My brother is quite good at magic, so he could of easily created some magical seals that contained energy to power those monsters. But what would be the point in creating holes everywhere?" Mario shrugged at her question. To him, as long as they knew what it's weak spot was, he could care less about what was controlling them. He had to focus on the task at hand. "Heh, I guess it does sound kind of crazy when you think about it. My brother probably just put that seal on there just to make sure everyone knew who did all of this. Yeah, let's just stick with that explanation and hurry to where Peach's Castle once was and look for clues! Oh and look for you green family!" Mario nodded and started towards the direction to Peach's Castle grounds, Olivia quickly following behind.

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Where there once was a drawbridge that lead from town to the castle grounds was now just rubble. The only sign of the once sturdy drawbridge's existence was the multiple large broken pieces of wood that stuck out of the moat below. Mario stared at the broken bridge and let out a tired sigh. Of course it couldn't be simple. When was his life ever simple? Olivia, upon noticing Mario's tired expression, decided to try lift his spirits.
"Well, there has to be another way to the castle! It would be kind of ridiculous of the Princess to only have one way into the castle, wouldn't you say Mario?" Mario nodded mindlessly, not really hearing her, which made her slightly huffy. He was just staring at the ground lost in thought. He had overheard a rumor before that there was a pipe in the towns sewer that lead to the castle, but he had never seen it for himself as roaming around in the underground tunnels was against the town rules. Despite that rule, however, it was still a very popular hangout spot for the citizens of the town. They referred to it as 'Graffiti Underground'. 'Perhaps we should start there.' Mario mumbled quietly to himself. Somehow, Olivia still heard his mumbles which prompted her to ask "Hm? Start where?". Mario motioned towards a large building with a red roof, similar to the rest of the building in the town. It was the sewer maintenance building.
              Walking towards the building, Mario noticed a figure being crushed between the doors. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a red shy guy, who currently was trying hard to wiggle out from between the heavy with no luck. Mario decided that perhaps he'd have important information on the sewers. It was known throughout town that shy guys were the main sewer guys, so maybe he could give the duo some sewer assistance. Grabbing the shy guy by his feet, Mario started to pull as hard as he could. Pop! The shy guy went flying through the air before landing flat on his face.
                "Owww..." The shy guy murmured, still laying there with his face flat on the cold ground. "Um, are you alright?" Olivia questioned, concerned. This prompted the shy guy to slowly push himself to his feet before dusting off his red cloak. "Ughhhh..." the shy guy quietly muttered before noticing Mario. "Oh Mario! Um, thanks for getting me out of that uh...situation back there!" Olivia, upon realizing that Mario wasn't going to speak up started talking for him. "Hey do you know anything about how to get to the sewers?"
               "Hm? The sewers?" The shy guy inquired. "Yeah, you just need to open that cover over there." He motioned towards a large manhole cover. "You need to use a specialized hook to get in there though and currently, my friend is borrowing it. But where my he is currently is a mystery to me. Just know he's another red cloaked shy guy like me except not as handsome." Mario nodded at the shy guy before walking away to go search for his friend, though he didn't have much info to go off of when it came to finding him, but they'd make do. Olivia yelled a quick 'Thanks!' to the shy guy before running to catch up to Mario.

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<Authors Note - Sorry for the short chapter! The next one will be a long one, I promise!>