Paper Mario - Folded Chaos

| Chapter 12 - A New Mission |

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                  "Mario..."

Mario came to a halt. "I'm here bro... please help me..." Mario hastily turned around to try to find the source of the voice that clearly belonged to his brother. His fervent reaction startled Olivia. "What is it, Mario? Did you find somethi-" Mario quickly quieted her.

"Come on bro..." the voice pleaded, "You're so close bro..."

Olivia was now also looking around for the source of the voice. "Is that your brother's voice? If so, it seems as if your brother is trapped in the same predicament I was in early..." She paused to think, "...So maybe he's in a similar situation." Mario shrugged, but kept that thought in mind as he continued to look.
After quite a bit of looking, they'd found no traces of Luigi. At first, they were hoping to go off of the location of where they had heard his voice. Sadly, they soon discovered that the voice wasn't coming from just one direction, but was just coming from around them. It was as if he was speaking to them directly rather than shouting for them from far away, so it didn't matter where they stood. The voice always had the same volume, making it useless in finding his location.
              Distraught and tired, Olivia plopped onto the ground while Mario paced around. During his frustrated pacing, Mario accidentally knocked over some bland clay pots that somehow stayed intact through everything that were sitting next to the only remaining wallpaper from the castle. Hitting the ground with a large bang, the pots shattered to a million pieces. Most of the pots just sprayed dust  and cobwebs everywhere, but one dropped a familiar shiny shard that formed into a magic circle as soon as it made contact with the ground. Mario looked confused at it for a moment until Olivia chimed in with an idea.
"What if Luigi's in that wall and that's why there's a magic circle there?" Upon hearing this idea, Mario, without skipping a beat, quickly activated the magic circle and started frantically searching for a weak spot in the wallpaper. Once he found a semi-weak spot in the corner, he quickly torn off the wallpaper. Out of the wall fell a disheveled Luigi, who groaned as he face planted into the floor. Mario quickly ran over to help him up. Upon regaining his senses, Luigi looked up at his brother. As soon as he noticed Mario, he quickly gave him a hug, a hug which Mario returned.
"Oh bro! I missed you so much!" He spoke in a gleeful tone. "I was afraid I'd be trapped in there forever and ever!" After a few more seconds of brotherly affection, Luigi let Mario go and turned to face the remains of the castle. "Woah woah woah...what happened to the castle!?" He stammered as he stared in disbelief at the ravaged castle grounds.
"Oh my brother stole Princess Peach and her castle, wrapped it in streamers, and moved it to a volcano." Olivia replied. Luigi turned to face her and then shot a confused glance at Mario. Luigi then looked back over at her for a bit before speaking.
"And who might you be?" He questioned. "Oh, my names Olivia! Nice to finally meet you, Luigi! Mario has told me so much about you!" She replied cheerfully. "Oh," replied Luigi, "well it's nice to meet you too." Luigi then turned to face his brother.
"So you're probably wondering how I ended up in that little mess, right? Well, to be honest, I'm not completely sure. I just got shoved in that wall by a weird edgy shy guy while I was searching for the key to the castle door. He told me that he'd be back for me, but he never returned. Guess I just got lucky." Luigi paused and thought for a bit before seemingly having a suddenly realization. "The key! I still need to find that key to Peach's castle!" Mario gave him a confused look that said 'Well how will that help us now?'. Olivia quickly chimed in.
                "Well if we ever reach that castle, we'll probably need the key, right?" Mario thought for a bit before nodding. She was right. He doubted that the door would have just simply been unlocked after it was taken. So they would indeed need the key. What they would do if the key was still inside the castle was a mystery to him. But he guessed it wouldn't hurt if Luigi went and searched for it. What's the worst that could happen?
                 "Oh yeah!" Luigi cheered, "I finally get to help my bro!" He then turned to face Mario. "I won't let you down bro, I promise!" And off he ran. And then came back a few seconds later. "Uh do you happen to have my hat by any chance?" Mario nodded and pulled his green cap out of his overalls. After putting the hat on, Luigi waved to the duo before running to find his kart. Olivia then turned to face Mario.
"Huh, your brother seems fun, Mario." She paused, quieting her voice and turning her eyes to the ground , "I'm kinda jealous." After an awkward pause between the two, she ended up breaking the silence. "There's no other clues here it seems. So I guess we should be getting out of here." She thought for a bit before adding, "Do you know any other way out that doesn't involve the sewers?" Mario rolled his eyes before nodding and, without a word, started towards one of the castle wall towers, Olivia quickly floating behind.

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                 After climbing up the tower staircase and making it to the top of the wall, the two stopped for a bit, staring off toward the distant volcano that now housed the white castle. Most of the castle's white exterior was not visible at the moment, however, due to the colorful streamers that now encased it. Mario watched the streamers sway in the evening breeze, silently cursing them for all the trouble they'd already caused. The streamers spread out in all directions from the castle, most likely attached to some distance endpoint. He looked up to the closest streamer. It gleamed a bright red hue high in the sky and seemingly trailed out of town to Picnic Road. Even from the distant tower, Mario could tell that they weren't going to be able to just break the streamer with any of their normal tools. It clearly wasn't any normal party streamer. It was clearly made out of some special materials and was most likely infused with some sort of magic. Whatever it was made out of, it was clearly heavy duty.
As if she was reading his thoughts, Olivia spoke up. "Perhaps if we travel to the ends of the streamers, we might find something to break them." Mario nodded in agreement. What else could they possibly start with? Finding the ends of the streamers was currently their best lead. "Well then, maybe we should start with the red one. It is the closest one after all." Mario once again agreed and, once again, off they went on a next chapter of their adventure.

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"Help me, please!" On their way to follow the streamer through Picnic Road, they heard a small raspy voice begging for help. The voice echoed out from a small white tower. On top of the mini tower was a folded goomba barely balancing on top. Smacking the tower with his hammer, Mario watched the goomba fall to the ground and burst into a bunch of confetti and a magic circle shard. Using the newly formed magic circle, Mario broke off the top of the tower and out popped a toad. Mario quickly recognized the blue toad as Nolen, one of the only shopkeepers in Toad Town. They were always wearing fancy blue clothing, making them easily recognizable. They were also well known amongst the town's people and were one of the only toads Mario knew by name. They quickly spoke upon seeing Mario.
                       "Mario! Oh it's terrible! Folded monsters started attacking—" They paused once they noticed Olivia standing behind Mario. Quickly, they ducked behind Mario. "T-there! That's one of them!" They pointed at her. This reaction startled both Mario and Olivia. The toads back in the camp hadn't acted like this towards Olivia. Mario quickly reasoned to himself that the town must have been hit harder by the folded soldiers than the camp had been. After all, this town was the starting place of the menace's reign of terror. Mario turned around to face the toad before turning back to face Olivia, who currently had a look of fear and confusion plastered on her face. Mario walked towards her and stood by her side, placing his hand of her shoulder. After a few seconds of processing, the toad seemingly got the message.
                       "Oh... they're not one of those folded guys?" Nolen breathed a sigh of relief before turning to look at her. "Well if Mario trust you, then I guess I will too. I'm Nolen by the way. I'm a shopkeeper in town." He paused before adding with a slight chuckle, "Kind of the only shopkeeper in town, heh. So, what's your name, kid?" They extended a hand to Olivia, which she hesitantly took.
                        "M-my name's Olivia..." she quietly muttered, hiding behind Mario's leg. The toad didn't seem to notice the discomfort they'd caused the origami kid as they turned to face the town.
                        "Well I better get back to my shop in town. You two should come check it out sometime." He paused "Maybe wait till I have more stock. Guy who normally supplies my goods went on that fancy cruise ship for a vacation and hasn't returned yet. So maybe come back when they get back, alright?" And, not even waiting for a response, off they went into the quiet town, presumably to their shop.
The two adventurers exchanged confused glances before continuing on the trail to Picnic Road as orange hues started to paint the sky.

This was the true beginning of their adventure and, unbeknownst to either of them, it was going to be an exciting one.

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