Toadette's Story: Book 2

Chapter 108 - Slimy Binds and Shrinking Bods

“Help us!” Minh screamed. Her voice nearly broke.

Toadette remained suspended high in the air, relentlessly tickled by the Blooper. Minh couldn’t fathom why. Both of her previous encounters with plant-related tickling made sense: one set of plants wanted to eat her, while the other aimed to sap the moisture from her sweaty feet. But a Blooper?

Wait a minute! She recalled the incident with Toadette, Princess Daisy and an Electro Blooper. Toadette had to stop Daisy from being reeled in by the Blooper, as the squishy beast was trying to consume them both.

But this one already had Toadette suspended. Why continue?

It didn’t matter the reason. She had to save her! Stumbling, she set her flashlight into a corner and dashed for Toadette’s fallen hammer. A tentacle ripped upwards through the floorboards to halt her.

She slipped and felt a sharp pain in her heel as a piece of splintered wood entered her.

Stifling an expletive, she tried to move to the side, hopping on one foot. The tentacle smacked her down. She cringed while pulling the splinter out of her foot, brainstorming.

“Try me again!” she yelled. She then hopped back. The tentacle instinctively launched itself into the air, ready to send her to the floor once more. But Minh suddenly slid under it as it remained airborne.

She snatched the oversized hammer. Hearing the tentacle whip around behind her, she swung. A crater formed in the rubbery skin.

A growling shriek echoed through the room. The Blooper recoiled, its injured tentacle writhing. There was a split second of chaos as the others paused.

“How you like that?” Minh raised the hammer again, ready to deliver another blow. But even injured, the Blooper maintained control. A different tentacle shot from behind Minh with rapid speed, wrapping itself around her chest.

The hammer fell as she was yanked upwards. She had barely a second to gasp before she was high in the air, dangling next to a helpless and giggling Toadette. The Blooper’s body loomed above them, its googly eyes fixed on Minh. Another tentacle detached itself from the cluster around Toadette and began to probe at Minh’s side. She let out a snicker, now caught and trapped in the same ticklish vortex as Toadette.

“Memories, huh?” she laughed, flashing back to the Mushroom City events.

“Not funny!” Toadette laughed back.

The Blooper’s tentacle was gentle at first on Minh’s feet. She now bit her lip, determined not to give the creature the satisfaction of knowing she was defeated. Beside her, Toadette thrashed as a swarm of tentacles dashed across her torso and underneath her arms.

“It’s too much!” she shrieked, feeling warm water begin to trickle down her legs.

“Try to bite your lip!” Minh grunted, although her advice fell on deaf ears. The tentacle at her side found a sensitive spot just under her toes, and a snort escaped her lips. Her eyes widened.

She tried to scrunch her feet, but it was pointless. Another tentacle brushed over the bottom of her bare soles. Now she dug so hard into her lip that she began to bleed. The feeling was driving her insane. But she could manage it. She needed to.

And then the tip of the tentacle traced her arch.

A ticklish tingle surged up her leg. She gasped, quickly screeching. The tentacle, thrilled by her response, started to probe at her heel before wriggling between her toes.

“Get out of there!” she shrieked, kicking her legs in vain.

The Blooper intensified its assault. Another tentacle joined in the ones on her feet, tripling, no, quadrupling the torment. One went slow and deliberately while another focused its entire attention on her toes, pinching and poking them until tears streamed down Minh’s face. She glanced over at Toadette, unable to make her out in the greater darkness.

“We’re doomed if we can’t beat this thing’s grip, Toadette! Fight!” she gasped, her words interrupted by bouts of giggling.

The Blooper’s eyes stared down. It wasn’t trying to eat them, not in this moment. It planned to savour them for a later meal, and exhausting them was the perfect trap. The extra salt on the bottoms of their feet after so much sweating would make for a lovely bonus. And the more that the young women squirmed, the damper their bodies became.

***

At first Toad thought the ship was sinking further. But if that were the case, the water would have been stirred up more than it was. Looking through the windows, he saw that although the water was dark, it hadn’t become any more chaotic, apart from a few bubbles. Whatever was happening, it was happening inside the ship.

He pointed to Jasmin. “So you think ‘pearls’ is the passcode?”

She nodded.

“That’ll have to do! What the hell have these two gotten themselves into?” He stormed ahead of Jasmin and Penelope, retracing Toadette and Minh’s path as quickly as possible. When he reached the submerged hallway, he felt his breath hitch. “Jasmin, can you swim?”

“Only a little bit.”

“Come here.” He wrapped an arm around her. “Penelope, stay close.”

“Yes, sir.”

Navigating the cramped hallway with Jasmin gripping him tightly was a pain. Despite having done this many times in the past to rescue others, Toad had never needed to navigate such a tight space. This hall was particularly long, and when he noticed Jasmin thrashing around, he knew she was desperate for air. She eventually started digging her nails into him, threatening to open her mouth.

Suddenly she detached from him.

Toad spun around. But before he could reach her, Penelope had already caught her. She hesitated before pushing her face against Jasmin’s for the second time in her life, this time blowing air into her mouth, which Jasmin inhaled.

Penelope smiled upon feeling Jasmin’s calmer movements. But her smile faded when she realised how much she had screwed herself.

Toad couldn’t wait another second. He yanked both girls by the hand and pushed them towards the surface. By the time he emerged, he would’ve had at least thirty more seconds of air in his lungs. Jasmin and Penelope were both coughing violently; their lungs felt as though they had shrivelled.

“You mean you came out to sea when you can’t swim?” Toad screamed at Jasmin.

“Did any of us expect to be swimming today, honestly?

“I mean, considering the star is around the sea…” Penelope was shushed by Jasmin.

Suddenly Toad heard laughter. Two varieties of laughter.

“Toadette!” He stormed through the rest of the path to find the room with the passcode. He immediately rearranged the letters to form the word ‘pearls’, and the door opened. Seawater began to pool around their feet. As they entered, the door shut behind them.

Toad spotted the flashlight to the side and aimed it ahead. “Oh, you son of a bitch.”

Two slimy tentacles scribbled mercilessly over Toadette’s ribs and under her arms. The bottoms of her feet continued to receive the brunt of the assault, however, with tentacles daring to slither between her toes. Her own shrieks had dissolved into hiccupping giggles.

“Miss Toadette, we’re here!” Penelope yelled. “Don’t worry!”

“Minh-Minh!” Jasmin shrieked.

Minh was faring even worse. Her arms were now stretched out wide and held by various tentacles, while one in particular danced across the soles of her feet. Tears streamed down her face. Her laughter was laced with discomfort. “Leave me alone,” she screamed, her voice quickly cut off by a powerful wave of tickles.

While the Blooper seemed to delight in the torment of the two women, its other tentacles flexed. They turned their attention to the one still standing. Toad cracked his knuckles.

“You picked the wrong captain to mess with.”

A tentacle shot towards him. He kicked it with enough force to make it freeze in place for a moment. He delivered another blow to a suction cup, just quickly enough to where it wouldn’t latch onto him. The tentacle retreated while another came at Toad from behind.

Toad vaulted over it, landing in a crouched stance. He dug into his bag and grasped an item.

“Haven’t fried me some calamari in a long time.” He let out a high-pitched yell as his body temperature rose. His white cap turned red and his spots the inverse. “I’m coming, Toadette!”

“This isn’t our first time!” she managed to blurt out before a tentacle found a sensitive spot on her neck, sending her into another fit of squealing.

Toad burst into action, sprinting towards the monstrous Blooper. Weaving through the wreckage of the ship’s cargo hold, he slid under a sweeping tentacle and leapt over a pile of splintered crates. Another tentacle came down to intercept him mid-air. He used its rubbery skin as a springboard. Now fully in the air, his eyes locked onto the Blooper’s enormous eyes.

He pulled back his arm, a fireball forming in his hand.

But another tentacle hit his side with the force of a battering ram, slamming him into the deck. He rolled out the way as another crashed down. Scrambling to his feet, he unleashed a torrent of flames at the two limbs, scorching them bright red.

The Blooper let out a deafening, gurgling roar. Its entire body spasmed. The ship shook, leading to a section of the floorboards giving way. Penelope screamed as the deck disappeared from under her feet. She fell into the newly formed pit, just managing to catch the jagged edge of the broken wood.

“Hey!” Jasmin stuck her hands under Penelope’s armpits, straining to pull her up. The weight was too much. Her muscles burned, a frustrating reminder that Toads lacked the upper strength of humans.

Toad glanced back. “Hold on, girls! This damn ship…”

He fired a large stream of flames at the tentacle holding Toadette. She hit the ceiling face-first before falling to the ground, limp. He ran to her side, but a thick tentacle coiled around his waist and hoisted him into the air. It tightened, and he heard a sickening pop in his ribs as they were squeezed beyond their limit. The Fire Flower’s power flickered.

The other tentacles descended upon him. For a few seconds, he held firm. He didn’t dare to move as the slimy tips probed him.

Then one slipped under his beige shirt. It slid across his ribs, tracing the very bones it had just nearly broken. A shiver shot through him. Then another tentacle joined in, planting its suction cups on his stomach and wriggling.

Laughter burst from Toad. Two more tentacles slid into his boots and found the arches of his feet, digging in with a relentless rhythm. He squirmed and flailed helplessly.

“Welcome to the party, hero,” Minh moaned from slightly below, breathless.

“Somebody help me already!” Jasmin yelled.

Penelope struggled to pull herself up. “Miss Toadette!”

“Minh-Minh! I can’t hold—” Jasmin’s words were cut off by a shriek.

Just as Toadette snapped her head in their direction, the only thing she saw was Jasmin’s legs falling into the pit. All that remained were her sandals.

“No!” Toadette rushed over, finding nothing but blackness. No bodies, no ripples, nothing. Just inky, black water lapping against the rusted metal pipes.

Taking a deep breath, she reached into her pocket. “Stuffwell. Fire Flower. Now.”

“As you request, Madam Toadette.” The suitcase unfolded himself and spat a glowing plant into her hand before hopping back into her pocket.

“Good.” She crushed the flower, and the flames exploded around her. The air crackled with heat as she changed colours, and the foul water around her feet boiled into steam. The Blooper, still sadistically focused on Toad, recoiled as a streak of red rage dashed before it.

Toadette dodged a whipping tentacle. She launched herself upwards, her fiery hands sparking as they hit a crumbling section of the ceiling. From this vantage point, she met the enraged gaze of the Blooper from below.

“Time to light this bitch up,” she growled.

Anticipating the next attack, she unleashed a blast of flames between the two incoming tentacles. FWOOSH! The surprise move left the tentacles trashing about, seared to a crisp. Toadette then launched herself directly at the tentacle clutching Minh. He tore through the Blooper’s flesh like a hot knife through butter. Minh yelped as her skin burnt, but Toadette swiftly brought her to the floor.

“What about Toad?” Minh gasped.

“He’s next. The only one who has permission to tickle him senselessly is me.” She looked to the Blooper. “You hear me, squid?”

The Blooper roared, sending a barrage of tentacles her way. Every limb not ensnaring Toad homed in on Toadette. With a grunt, she shoved Minh deeper into the room’s shadows. She then slammed her foot down, igniting the wooden floor beneath her. The tentacles, too fast to halt, continued onward.

Rather than jumping over them, she vaulted onto the first incoming tentacle. Her feet left a sizzling mark. She leapt from one burning limb to the next. Faster and faster she climbed.

Reaching the apex, directly above the Blooper’s eyes, Toadette let out a powerful scream. Two concentrated streams of heat, flashing yellow for a split second, erupted from her hands, converging into a single beam that penetrated the Blooper’s head. Its gigantic eyes exploded, and the creature shrieked in agony as it began to sink into the waters below, spewing blackened ink and steam. Each tentacle slumped alongside it, and Toad was left heavily breathing on the ground.

“Since when were you so good at using that, Toadette?” he struggled to ask.

“Fire Flower?” she asked, the glow fading from her body. “It’s only hard the first few—”

“Where are the girls?” Minh asked. She desperately looked around. “Jazz? Penelope?”

Toadette pointed to the pit. “They fell in there.”

Toad looked down into the dark water before giving a dismissive glance to Minh. “Didn’t cross your mind to tell us Jasmin couldn’t swim, genius?”

“She can’t?”

“You don’t know this?” he scoffed. “Aren’t you related or something?”

“Boy, you think I would’ve brought her if she couldn’t swim? She told me she learnt to, just that she doesn’t like doing it.” Minh scratched her head. “They have a pool at that mansion and everything. Why would I assume she’s lying?”

Toad ran a hand over his face. “Maybe because she’s a liar by default. Could’ve learnt it from you, Miss I’ve-Never-Had-Sex-in-My-Life.”

“So now what?” Toadette asked.

“We keep going down,” Toad said. “We hope they’re alive, and we demand those shark pirates bring them to us.”

“And if they’re not alive?” It hurt Minh to even say those words. Toad simply ignored her, picking up Jasmin’s sandals and dropping them into Minh’s trembling hands.

***

The world was a suffocating void that spun Penelope around like a torpedo. Her eardrums throbbed against the roar of rushing water. This wasn’t a warp pipe with its mandates and smooth travel. This was a raw ship pipe. She felt the oily interior slicking her cheek and the unyielding walls pressing in around her. She wanted to cry. Worst of all, she couldn’t breathe. The pipe was a waterlogged tunnel, and she had been holding her breath for what felt like an eternity.

She came to a slow stop. Feeling as if her lungs were going to explode, she tried to climb out the pipe. But she could barely spread her arms. The ship’s vibrations continued, threatening to break her sanity. Then suddenly the pressure on her face eased just enough for her to gasp. The air that entered her was a cocktail of rust, ocean and grease.

Looking down, she saw the water gurgling into a narrower channel—a bottleneck too tight for her to fit through. This was it. A choked sound escaped her lips. “No…”

Then something slammed into her skull. Two objects, damp and smelling like a week-old sandwich, wiped across her hair before a whole figure collapsed beside her. Jasmin gasped, her chest heaving and pinning Penelope further against the wall of the pipe.

“You okay, Jazz?” Penelope wheezed.

“No! No, no, no! It’s too tight!” Jasmin’s breathing ramped up as the reality of their confinement hit her. The pipe extended upwards, well over a metre above them. Escape seemed like a literal pipe dream. “I don’t wanna die!”

“Calm down!” Penelope pleaded, trying to twist. “You’re not gonna die!”

“We’re literally stuck!”

“And how’s yelling at me gonna fix this?” Penelope looked Jasmin in her eyes. “If you stopped panicking, maybe I could think of a way out of here.”

“I know you like Toadette and think she’s some master planner, but she’s way too incompetent to wanna model yourself after.”

“How is she incompetent?”

Jasmin rolled her eyes. “Sofi’s told me a hundred stories about what she’s…”

“Sofia? The one who lied about you and her being fine when you’re poorer than poor-people dirt?”

“Hey!”

“You guys have a serious lying problem in the family, okay? Sorry.”

“She’s not a great sister, but consider this: Minh-Minh is more competent than Toadette in every single way. She passed school with top grades, and she had to help Toadette avoid failing. She’s made her own money since she was a teen, while this castle gig seems to be Toadette’s first serious job.”

Penelope shook her head. “Miss Minh T. being better means nothing, especially when she wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for Miss Toadette. So quit disrespecting her, got it?” When she got no response, she raised her voice. “You heard me?”

Jasmin groaned, slumping back as much as the pipe allowed. “Okay! Just use her so-called genius to get us out of here before I spontaneously combust from anxiety.”

Penelope ignored the dramatics, turning her back to Jasmin. “Pull out that blue mushroom you ‘borrowed’ from Miss Minh T.’s bag.”

“What?” Jasmin stammered. “How did you…?”

“I have eyes. Filling my bag with a bunch of stuff you don’t even know about.”

“I can’t even reach. It’s so cramped.” Jasmin struggled to lift her arm.

“Jazz…”

“I can’t move them!”

“You have to fucking move them!” Penelope shrieked, her patience snapping. “You’re not dumb; you’re not useless. So please quit acting like you are.”

Jasmin froze, shocked. She honestly expected something worse as an insult. She was more surprised by Penelope’s sudden swearing. Fighting the pain and stiffness, she opened Penelope’s small backpack and pulled out the blue mushroom.

Penelope sighed in relief. “That right there is a Mini Mushroom.”

“It shrinks us?” Jasmin asked.

“Yep. We’ll split it in half, and then we’ll be able to escape through this small section under our feet.”

“What if we drown? Or if we splat against the ground?”

“You ever see a little insect die from a fall? As for the drowning…” Penelope shrugged. “No better time to learn to swim, right?”

Jasmin broke the Mini Mushroom in half, increasingly trembling from the prospect of disappearing forever. She and Penelope bit into it. Slowly the world warped and stretched around Jasmin, the pipe walls turning into a vast tunnel as she shrank. Penelope joined her, letting out a cheer.

“Alright, this is how I swim,” she explained, bobbing in the remaining puddles. She demonstrated a doggy paddle. “If we don’t hurry, you won’t have the water as a cushion for the fall.”

“Okay…”

Penelope readied herself to jump. Just before she did, she gave Jasmin a firm shove. Jasmin let out a startled shriek, plunging headfirst into the rapidly draining water. Penelope giggled.

“Someone’s gotta push you forward if you get stuck.” And with that, she dove in.

The one bright spot for Penelope was that she got to occasionally feel Jasmin’s flailing feet kick her in the face. This took a little extra air out of her, but she would take what little gross pleasure she could get in this murky place.

Navigating was impossible; everywhere was black. Fortunately Jasmin didn’t need a reminder to keep pushing forward. The scariest prospect for her was that she would keep going only to hit a dead end. Then it would be impossible for them to turn around, which would result in them both… She blocked the thought out her mind, simply going as far as her breath would carry her. But her lungs were already giving out and burning. In desperation, she lifted a hand above the water to see if there was a dry area.

An air pocket! She rose to the surface, sucking in air. Penelope met her soon after, both their tiny faces close to the edge of the pipe.

“Why is this tube so small?” Penelope wondered aloud, her voice echoing.

“I imagine it’s some kind of filtering device,” Jasmin answered. “Like maybe the original crew was filtering certain germs from getting into their water supply.”

“I hope we’re not labelled germs.” Penelope took a long breath before submerging.

“With my ugly face, yeah, we definitely are.” Jasmin continued to lead. She cringed as she could feel Penelope’s nose brush against her toes. Minutes of arduous swimming and panicked stopping later, a warm light appeared. The pipe opened back up to normal size, creating an even longer swimming distance, but the suction carried them at a greater rate. It spat them out into a moderately sized pool.

Jasmin’s nose twitched; she immediately smelt spices like pepper and ginger.

“Freedom!” Penelope cried out, standing in the shallow water and stretching her neck. “Told you everything was gonna be okay, Jazz.”

“How do we get back to normal size?”

Penelope stared blankly.

“Lemme guess: we need another mushroom I didn’t steal.”

Penelope nodded with a weak smile.

“I hate myself,” Jasmin groaned.

“Once we find Miss Toadette and the others, they’ll fix this.” Penelope jumped out the wooden barrel, looking around to only find a few pirate guards loitering near a pot.

Just as Jasmin came out, Penelope shoved her against the shadows of the barrel. She pressed herself flat against Jasmin. A soft, startled gasp escaped Jasmin’s lips. Penelope raised an eyebrow until realising where her hand had landed. She sheepishly moved it from Jasmin’s chest.

Jasmin ran a hand through her hair, wincing. “Ugh, I’m so wet!”

“So am I,” Penelope mumbled.

“We’re gonna end this trip with pneumonia.” Jasmin spun on her heels. “Now, how exactly are we supposed to find everyone else in this—?”

The door exploded inward. Before the sharks could even turn, two figures had already left them on the floor. A third figure strolled in after them, surveying the scene. Jasmin’s eyes went wide.

“Minh-Minh! Minh-Minh!” she shrieked.

“I don’t think she can hear us,” Penelope said. Minh was on the complete opposite side of the room, a towering giant from their perspective. “Miss Minh T.! Over here!”

They bounced up and down like frantic insects. Their desperate cries were completely lost in the creaking and groaning of the ship. Minh, meanwhile, peered into the pot the guards had been tending. It was bubbling with fish.

“Huh. Didn’t think their culinary standards extended beyond eating things raw,” she remarked.

“If they end up cooking you, those standards are gonna skyrocket,” quipped Toad.

“Please. From head to toe, I’d taste ten times better than you.”

“You might’ve had an argument if you excluded the word ‘toe’.”

“Who tastes better, Toadette?” Minh asked.

Toadette opened the adjoining door. “Minh is sweet. Toady is more vinegary.”

“That’s not an answer!” Toad said.

“Being sweet like candy is always better than being sour like old vinegar,” Minh chuckled, bumping her hip into Toad’s before striding towards the door.

“Yeah, because your dirt-covered toes taste exactly like candy.”

“Next time you’re sucking them,” Minh retorted, “I’ll be sure to sprinkle some extra sugar on top of them just for you.”

Jasmin scratched her head. “Next time?”

Penelope stiffened. Oh no! Don’t worry, Miss Minh T.! I’ve got you!

“It was for a thing at the Star Festival!” she blurted out, latching onto the closest memory she could: Toad, Toadette and Minh on that milking machine. “Yeah, a super weird game where the loser had to suck the winner’s toes. Miss Minh T. won, and Captain Toad… Well, he doesn’t like her feet very much.”

Jasmin’s expression remained suspicious. “Why would she ever agree to—?”

“They’re leaving! Miss Toadette! Captain Toad!” But the adults were already gone. “Darn it!” Penelope stomped.

“This way.” Jasmin pointed to a thick rope dangling from the edge of a nearby table. Penelope reached it first. Without a second thought, she began to slide, the rough descent scraping her palms. Jasmin leapt on just behind her. They landed with a grunt on the galley floor half a minute later.

“Moving this slow ain’t gonna cut it,” Jasmin huffed, unable to distinguish between her sweat and the ocean water.

Penelope checked out the enormous space. Her eyes landed on something near the wall: a crafted ship in a bottle with wheels on the base. She pointed to it.

Jasmin gawked. “You want us to ride that thing?”

“The floor’s smooth, and it looks like the ship only goes down from here,” Penelope insisted, already jogging towards it. “Look, you can sit on top while I push from behind. We’ll take turns. Beats running, right?”

Jasmin sighed. It was an insane plan. But as she looked at Penelope’s hopeful face, she knew it was the only one they had.

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Author’s Note:
This one had a late upload in the day due to me hosting an event earlier. That and troubleshooting a lot of problems with my Internet.