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Description
MARIO AND LUIGI: THE MASK

Fan fiction version

By TimeLordParadox

(Aka Ross Pickering)

Prologue

A sea of thousands and thousands of Koopa's moved through the valley, tall turtle like creatures who marched perfectly in time with each other, stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp. It was music to his ears. King Daker Koopa was proud of his Koopa's, they were the ultimate fighting force ever created they efficiently battled the residence of their rivals, the Mushroom Kingdom almost into submission.

Darker Koopa was a larger looking version of the turtle like Koopa's only with spikes sticking out of his shell and burnt, yellow hair sticking up from his scalp and down the back of his head. He also possessed two mighty looking horns that made him look the part of a ruler of the Koopa's.

The empire of the Koopas and the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom had always been at war with each other, the turtle like Koopa's and the Mushroom like Toads, they couldn't remember what had started this rivalry all those years ago and they no longer cared, all they knew was that they were supposed to hate each other and fight each other. So it was unexpected when the leaders of these two mighty factions came together to forge a temporary alliance. An alliance born out of necessity because there was something far more dangerous than the Toads and Koopa's combined lurking these lands. A monster who has been terrorizing both empires for weeks and they were currently hunting it with the intent to end its evil once and for all.

The creature was impenetrable to their attacks and much more deadly than anything they could throw at it but they had noticed one weakness with this creature. It hated the daylight, whenever they battled this creature it always retreated with the rising sun and today they had used this weakness to their advantage. They had caught the creature in a pincer movement that would effectively surround and trap it. All they had to do was wait for dawn, which wouldn't be long, they could already see the sky on the distance horizon becoming lighter and lighter. They mustn't allow this creature to escape again, they mustn't.

"Find it!" Daker roared "Find it! It must not be allowed to escape again!" he was getting edgy, he'd seen the terrible power this creature had, it could massacre thousands of their kind and not suffer a single scratch or break a sweat. Their last battle was a truly terrible sight to witness, almost half his entire army had been wiped out by this one single creature. It must be destroyed once and for all or it would be the end of all of them.

"You're Koopa's are frightfully incapable of defeating this thing, Daker" said a well spoken voice next to him.

The massive lizard form of Daker turned to look down at the little man next to him. Compared to Daker the old man was short, he only came up to his knee but he was a similar height to most Toads in the Mushroom Kingdom. This was King Andran, the leader of the Mushroom Kingdom, a great leader that represented everything Daker despised. Decency, charity, generosity all of it he despised with every fibre of his being but he put those prejudices aside for the moment but he wouldn't have this old fool criticise the efficiency of his Koopa's.

"Mind your tongue King Andran" Daker barked at his temporary alley "this alliance is only in place as long as the monsters heart still beats blood!"

"But can we find it if it changes its form again?" Andran asked, he was always a cautious old bird. When Daker caught that monster he'd make it pay for what it's done to them, he'll have it executed and the magic object which granted this thing its power will be destroyed once and for all.

"It can't run forever, its dawn it'll be weakening and we have it trapped" Darker stated

"We should never have interfered with forces we don't understand" King Andran said

"King Daker, King Andran!"shouted a Koopa who was running towards them as fast as his short legs could carry him. It was one of Darkers informant runners, the Koopa king had ordered immediate information updates when the foul creature was discovered. "I think we've found it" the Koopa said as he panted from his run and tried to catch his breath. "We've tracked it to a warp pipe in the middle of the valley."

"Then it's got away?" King Andran said almost at the point of fuming. A warp pipe was a special kind of portal which transported whoever jumped into it to a completely different part of the world. If that monster had escaped into a warp pipe then it could come out anywhere.

"I don't think so, sir" the Koopa added quickly "During our last battle with the Toads, when we were still enemies, we had the pipe filled in and it hasn't been cleared since, so it's trapped itself, there's no way out."

"Are you sure?" Daker asked in a hurry his massive form casting a shadow over the shorter Koopa Troopa, if the thing was trapped then they had it at last.

"I'm sure, I saw it jump into the pipe myself" the Koopa said. Daker turned to Andren who had also turned to look at him, this was perfect.

"Take us to it!" Daker then insisted.

It didn't take long for the Koopa to lead King Daker and Andren, accompanied by thousands of Koopas to the small warp pipe, which looked like just a large green pipe sticking up out of the ground and large enough to swallow a man whole. The Koopa's surrounded the pipe and pointed their spear's and other assorted weapons at it in case the monster were to raise itself up. Not that it would, not now, it was daylight so the powers of this creature would be gone. As the large King of Koopas and the small King of the Toads approached the warp pipe they could hear a low growl coming from the pipe and from inside its dark interior they could make out a faint green glow.

This was their chance to kill it once and for all, it was at their mercy. They could transport and pour a large amount of lava into the pipe, but that didn't work the last time. They could try acid or drop large boulders down to stone him to death, but it had stood up to much worse so there was no guarantee that could stop it either. They also didn't have any allowances that the thing, the magic object that caused all of this would die with the creature. There was one thing they hadn't tried yet though and it might just work. Both Daker and Andren turned to a group of Koopas.

"Burry it alive!" they ordered. At first the Koopa's and Toads just stared at them hardly able to believe their rulers had given such a callous order as calmly as they did. But it was for the best, they couldn't risk that thing down there surviving nor could they risk the object, the artefact falling into the wrong hands again, it was far too dangerous for either the Koopa's or the Toads to have and this was the only way to get rid of it once and for all. The Koopa's and Toads did as instructed, a group of half a dozen had picked up spades and shovels and were digging up and dropping hard clay and soil on top of the creature inside the pipe.

They had one extra bit of insurance to make sure the creature remained where it was and didn't try to climb back up again, a powerful spell that would effectively trap it inside the warp pipe forever until the end of time, or until someone found it and broke the seal on the spell.

King Andren held up his magic sceptre, the red jewel in its tip beginning to glow a bright white colour as he cast the spell.

"Ooooh, Loki!" he said in the voice of a magician casting a spell "The evil lord of mischief, we seal your power forever inside this pipe of pure iron and forever banish you from the mortal world with this seal of earth. You will remain entombed and your power will remain sealed away from us mere mortals..."

The other Koopa's and Toads helped bring more and more earth from the surrounding plains to help fill the deep pipe and as they buried it and Andren continued to cast his spell the place started to get darker and darker. Mysteriously, storm clouds were ominously creeping out from nowhere. The rumble of thunder echoed from high above as Andren came to the end of the incantation and the last spots of earth fell into place, burying the thing alive.

"...Now sleep demon sleep!" he commanded of it pointing the sceptre at the pipe "and may the gods have mercy on the fool who finds you!" at these words a loud crack of thunder echoed around the valley making all the Koopa's and Toads jump in fright, the heavens opened up and within seconds it began to rain heavily.

With the job finished and the creature finally sealed away forever the two halves decided to go their separate ways. They both agreed that the name and location of that warp pipe must remain a secret and that everything about the creature and the artefact should be erased from the history books so no one ever went looking for the thing and its terrible power.

Kind Andren left the valley back to the Mushroom Kingdom as King Daker and his Koopa's finished with the task of removing the rest of the pipe from the ground. They'd used saws and hammers and bashed at the pipe until it gave way and they peeled it off before burying what remained of it. If you didn't know there was once a pipe there you'd never have suspected there ever was one.

Daker then made a questionable order, one which most of his Koopa's didn't expect. He ordered the remaining pipe taken back to the castle and for all his forces from every corner of this land to withdraw back to Koopa Castle.

"But sir?" one of his Koopa's had asked "Isn't this land ours?"

Daker had replied. "Not anymore this land is cursed, let King Andren and the Mushroom Kingdom have it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the centuries past the two empires rose, fell and rose again and fell again, their boarders shifted and their alliance's with each other fell apart almost immediately allowing everything to fall back into war. As the face of the landscape changed the dead and buried creature and the artefact remained mostly undisturbed, mostly in that people had walked over it, maybe felt a cold shiver but otherwise forgot all about it. A town was built over its remains and as time progressed still an entire Kingdom was raised on top of it, Toad Town and the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Today many things have changed throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, the Toads and the Koopa's still have a rivalry of sorts but it's not as serious or as bloody as it once was. The Koopa's now have a new leader, King Bowser Koopa and the Mushroom Kingdom is now under the rule of Princess Peach Toadstool and the defence of the whole kingdom often rested on the shoulders of two moustached plumbers. Things have changed but the tomb of the creature remained completely undisturbed, until today.

Deep beneath the Mushroom Kingdom lay a very complex sewer system which runs from every house in Toad town to a river on the other side of the valley. However something odd has been found as David and Robert Packer, a couple of Koopa plumbers inspected the sewer system. They were there because the Toads had planned to extend Toad town into another region and the two plumbers were called in to assess and build the drainage system to channel the waste into the sewer, however on digging through the soft rock they'd found something. It looked like the end of a long forgotten warp pipe in the middle of the sewer, one which wasn't even on the map. Either way, they now had to unblock it to see where it came out however the going had been tough because it was full of soil and stones.

"This pipe's been blocked for who knows how long!" Robert complained in a slightly whiny voice "Why do they want it clearing now?" It didn't make sense to have this pipe here at all in the middle of the sewer, where could it go that would be useful? But still the Mushroom Kingdom planning office demanded they dig into it and find out where it lead before they would allow them to continue with the work.

"Who knows and who cares?" said David, his older brother. Yeah a couple of Koopa brother plumbers like the Mario's, Robert had thought when David had suggested the idea. No one will think we stole that idea from somewhere. They were both highly trained plumbers but they often had a problem getting work because of another pair of brother plumbers who already existed and were regarded as the best. Mario and Luigi, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, the best of the best, not content with just making sure the Mushroom Kingdom's drains were clog free they went as far as to protect the Mushroom Kingdom from the sinister King Bowser Koopa.

"Either way it's paying work" David said concluding his last sentence and he entered the pipe a little and started digging more and more of the soil out of the pipe using a pick axe.

"Come on!" he yelled at Robert "Don't just stand, help me!"

"But wait, Dave!" Robert called to his brother "Health and safety says..."

"...Stuff health and safety" Dave shouted back as he found what looked like some tree roots in the soil, he took them in his hands and began to pull on them as hard as he could. "Now come over here and help me, help me give this a tug" he said as he pulled hard on the tree root, but nothing budged.

Robert didn't want to argue with his older brother, he was insufferable enough when they were at home so he went ahead and grabbed another root and pulled as hard as he could. Robert was sure the soil plug was starting to move now as they both pulled. Why did his shoes suddenly feel wet?

Robert looked down at his black work shoes and found that they were wet because there was water running over them. Where the heck had that come from? Wait, the water over his shoes was running and moving out of the pipe into the sewer yet it was replaced by more water all the time. The further this solid soil plug seemed to slip towards them the more and more water appeared to seep out. Robert suddenly knew where this was probably going. The soil and the roots which were twisted into it began to slide out like a cork from a bottle and as it moved closer and closer towards the exit Robert had a bad feeling it 'was' going to come out like a cork in a bottle.

"Umm" Robert muttered "I don't think this was such a good ide..." the solid wall suddenly came out and rammed into them, firing them both out of the pipe like a bullet and the soil 'plug' as it seemed to be was followed by a torrent of water which sprayed out above them. The water torrent carried them along the track they had come from. They were both forced out into the sewer reservoir and landed in the large body of stinking, putrefying sewer water.

Robert held his breath as he tried to swim madly towards the surface again and didn't want to think about what he was actually swimming through. He surfaced and took a great gulp of air, it tasted as bad as it smelled but it was air at least. Dave had surfaced just ahead of them. The soil plug had broken up as it impacted the water and debits littered the water everywhere and began to be carried by the flow of the sewer canals.

From the pipe a great deal of dark brown coloured water was flowing out, most of it appeared to be full of old leaves, stones and twigs thankfully because Rob didn't want to think what that brown liquid might otherwise have been. They were in a sewer after all.

"I got it unblocked at least" David said. Robert turned to him and incredulously said "Yeah, but now we're all wet, I'll have to take a shower when we get back and have you seen all that water! We've probably drained the castle moat!"

David ignored him as they both made slow progress through the deep water towards a nearby platform and climbed back out, trailing water as they walked.

"I wonder what caused that blockage anyway" Robert wondered, why did they –whoever they were- pile so much soil and stones into the pipe? What were they trying to do?

"I don't know but it's gone now" David said as he clapped his hands together for a job wall done "That's the main thing. Come on, let's go for a coffee break while the water drains."

True, Robert supposed, they weren't going to find out where the pipe went until that water stopped flowing and by the look of it that might be some time which probably meant it was going to flood the entire sewer for a couple of hours before it finally drained out. So might as well go for a coffee break as David had suggested and wait for the water to drain, and so they left the pipe unattended.

Which means no one was looking when something flowed out of the pipe with the rest of the soil and muck. Unlike its brown, water logged surroundings this object was much more solid. It bobbed up and down in the water as it dropped from the pipe into the sewer system and began flowing with the rest of the waste water. It had been waiting for so long, trapped at the bottom of that pipe for centuries, now it was free again.

The object that centuries ago had been called 'the artefact' was in fact an old green, wooden mask. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, just a piece of mouldy wood with a solid metal bar running halfway down the front of it riveted into place. It looked like something which would belong in a museum or, to some a piece of junk, but maybe those people would reconsider if they noticed it start to glow a slight shade of green as it floated away deeper into the sewer system. But it didn't matter where the sewer took it, it was free at long last, free to do what it's been doing for centuries, terrible things because the wearer of this mask is cursed with a power no one can ever hope to tame or control, and it unleashes something equally untameable on the wearer... themselves.

The Mask had returned.

--------------
To Be continued...

-------------

Description
MARIO AND LUIGI: THE MASK

Fan fiction version

By TimeLordParadox

(Aka Ross Pickering)

Prologue

A sea of thousands and thousands of Koopa's moved through the valley, tall turtle like creatures who marched perfectly in time with each other, stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp. It was music to his ears. King Daker Koopa was proud of his Koopa's, they were the ultimate fighting force ever created they efficiently battled the residence of their rivals, the Mushroom Kingdom almost into submission.

Darker Koopa was a larger looking version of the turtle like Koopa's only with spikes sticking out of his shell and burnt, yellow hair sticking up from his scalp and down the back of his head. He also possessed two mighty looking horns that made him look the part of a ruler of the Koopa's.

The empire of the Koopas and the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom had always been at war with each other, the turtle like Koopa's and the Mushroom like Toads, they couldn't remember what had started this rivalry all those years ago and they no longer cared, all they knew was that they were supposed to hate each other and fight each other. So it was unexpected when the leaders of these two mighty factions came together to forge a temporary alliance. An alliance born out of necessity because there was something far more dangerous than the Toads and Koopa's combined lurking these lands. A monster who has been terrorizing both empires for weeks and they were currently hunting it with the intent to end its evil once and for all.

The creature was impenetrable to their attacks and much more deadly than anything they could throw at it but they had noticed one weakness with this creature. It hated the daylight, whenever they battled this creature it always retreated with the rising sun and today they had used this weakness to their advantage. They had caught the creature in a pincer movement that would effectively surround and trap it. All they had to do was wait for dawn, which wouldn't be long, they could already see the sky on the distance horizon becoming lighter and lighter. They mustn't allow this creature to escape again, they mustn't.

"Find it!" Daker roared "Find it! It must not be allowed to escape again!" he was getting edgy, he'd seen the terrible power this creature had, it could massacre thousands of their kind and not suffer a single scratch or break a sweat. Their last battle was a truly terrible sight to witness, almost half his entire army had been wiped out by this one single creature. It must be destroyed once and for all or it would be the end of all of them.

"You're Koopa's are frightfully incapable of defeating this thing, Daker" said a well spoken voice next to him.

The massive lizard form of Daker turned to look down at the little man next to him. Compared to Daker the old man was short, he only came up to his knee but he was a similar height to most Toads in the Mushroom Kingdom. This was King Andran, the leader of the Mushroom Kingdom, a great leader that represented everything Daker despised. Decency, charity, generosity all of it he despised with every fibre of his being but he put those prejudices aside for the moment but he wouldn't have this old fool criticise the efficiency of his Koopa's.

"Mind your tongue King Andran" Daker barked at his temporary alley "this alliance is only in place as long as the monsters heart still beats blood!"

"But can we find it if it changes its form again?" Andran asked, he was always a cautious old bird. When Daker caught that monster he'd make it pay for what it's done to them, he'll have it executed and the magic object which granted this thing its power will be destroyed once and for all.

"It can't run forever, its dawn it'll be weakening and we have it trapped" Darker stated

"We should never have interfered with forces we don't understand" King Andran said

"King Daker, King Andran!"shouted a Koopa who was running towards them as fast as his short legs could carry him. It was one of Darkers informant runners, the Koopa king had ordered immediate information updates when the foul creature was discovered. "I think we've found it" the Koopa said as he panted from his run and tried to catch his breath. "We've tracked it to a warp pipe in the middle of the valley."

"Then it's got away?" King Andran said almost at the point of fuming. A warp pipe was a special kind of portal which transported whoever jumped into it to a completely different part of the world. If that monster had escaped into a warp pipe then it could come out anywhere.

"I don't think so, sir" the Koopa added quickly "During our last battle with the Toads, when we were still enemies, we had the pipe filled in and it hasn't been cleared since, so it's trapped itself, there's no way out."

"Are you sure?" Daker asked in a hurry his massive form casting a shadow over the shorter Koopa Troopa, if the thing was trapped then they had it at last.

"I'm sure, I saw it jump into the pipe myself" the Koopa said. Daker turned to Andren who had also turned to look at him, this was perfect.

"Take us to it!" Daker then insisted.

It didn't take long for the Koopa to lead King Daker and Andren, accompanied by thousands of Koopas to the small warp pipe, which looked like just a large green pipe sticking up out of the ground and large enough to swallow a man whole. The Koopa's surrounded the pipe and pointed their spear's and other assorted weapons at it in case the monster were to raise itself up. Not that it would, not now, it was daylight so the powers of this creature would be gone. As the large King of Koopas and the small King of the Toads approached the warp pipe they could hear a low growl coming from the pipe and from inside its dark interior they could make out a faint green glow.

This was their chance to kill it once and for all, it was at their mercy. They could transport and pour a large amount of lava into the pipe, but that didn't work the last time. They could try acid or drop large boulders down to stone him to death, but it had stood up to much worse so there was no guarantee that could stop it either. They also didn't have any allowances that the thing, the magic object that caused all of this would die with the creature. There was one thing they hadn't tried yet though and it might just work. Both Daker and Andren turned to a group of Koopas.

"Burry it alive!" they ordered. At first the Koopa's and Toads just stared at them hardly able to believe their rulers had given such a callous order as calmly as they did. But it was for the best, they couldn't risk that thing down there surviving nor could they risk the object, the artefact falling into the wrong hands again, it was far too dangerous for either the Koopa's or the Toads to have and this was the only way to get rid of it once and for all. The Koopa's and Toads did as instructed, a group of half a dozen had picked up spades and shovels and were digging up and dropping hard clay and soil on top of the creature inside the pipe.

They had one extra bit of insurance to make sure the creature remained where it was and didn't try to climb back up again, a powerful spell that would effectively trap it inside the warp pipe forever until the end of time, or until someone found it and broke the seal on the spell.

King Andren held up his magic sceptre, the red jewel in its tip beginning to glow a bright white colour as he cast the spell.

"Ooooh, Loki!" he said in the voice of a magician casting a spell "The evil lord of mischief, we seal your power forever inside this pipe of pure iron and forever banish you from the mortal world with this seal of earth. You will remain entombed and your power will remain sealed away from us mere mortals..."

The other Koopa's and Toads helped bring more and more earth from the surrounding plains to help fill the deep pipe and as they buried it and Andren continued to cast his spell the place started to get darker and darker. Mysteriously, storm clouds were ominously creeping out from nowhere. The rumble of thunder echoed from high above as Andren came to the end of the incantation and the last spots of earth fell into place, burying the thing alive.

"...Now sleep demon sleep!" he commanded of it pointing the sceptre at the pipe "and may the gods have mercy on the fool who finds you!" at these words a loud crack of thunder echoed around the valley making all the Koopa's and Toads jump in fright, the heavens opened up and within seconds it began to rain heavily.

With the job finished and the creature finally sealed away forever the two halves decided to go their separate ways. They both agreed that the name and location of that warp pipe must remain a secret and that everything about the creature and the artefact should be erased from the history books so no one ever went looking for the thing and its terrible power.

Kind Andren left the valley back to the Mushroom Kingdom as King Daker and his Koopa's finished with the task of removing the rest of the pipe from the ground. They'd used saws and hammers and bashed at the pipe until it gave way and they peeled it off before burying what remained of it. If you didn't know there was once a pipe there you'd never have suspected there ever was one.

Daker then made a questionable order, one which most of his Koopa's didn't expect. He ordered the remaining pipe taken back to the castle and for all his forces from every corner of this land to withdraw back to Koopa Castle.

"But sir?" one of his Koopa's had asked "Isn't this land ours?"

Daker had replied. "Not anymore this land is cursed, let King Andren and the Mushroom Kingdom have it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the centuries past the two empires rose, fell and rose again and fell again, their boarders shifted and their alliance's with each other fell apart almost immediately allowing everything to fall back into war. As the face of the landscape changed the dead and buried creature and the artefact remained mostly undisturbed, mostly in that people had walked over it, maybe felt a cold shiver but otherwise forgot all about it. A town was built over its remains and as time progressed still an entire Kingdom was raised on top of it, Toad Town and the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Today many things have changed throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, the Toads and the Koopa's still have a rivalry of sorts but it's not as serious or as bloody as it once was. The Koopa's now have a new leader, King Bowser Koopa and the Mushroom Kingdom is now under the rule of Princess Peach Toadstool and the defence of the whole kingdom often rested on the shoulders of two moustached plumbers. Things have changed but the tomb of the creature remained completely undisturbed, until today.

Deep beneath the Mushroom Kingdom lay a very complex sewer system which runs from every house in Toad town to a river on the other side of the valley. However something odd has been found as David and Robert Packer, a couple of Koopa plumbers inspected the sewer system. They were there because the Toads had planned to extend Toad town into another region and the two plumbers were called in to assess and build the drainage system to channel the waste into the sewer, however on digging through the soft rock they'd found something. It looked like the end of a long forgotten warp pipe in the middle of the sewer, one which wasn't even on the map. Either way, they now had to unblock it to see where it came out however the going had been tough because it was full of soil and stones.

"This pipe's been blocked for who knows how long!" Robert complained in a slightly whiny voice "Why do they want it clearing now?" It didn't make sense to have this pipe here at all in the middle of the sewer, where could it go that would be useful? But still the Mushroom Kingdom planning office demanded they dig into it and find out where it lead before they would allow them to continue with the work.

"Who knows and who cares?" said David, his older brother. Yeah a couple of Koopa brother plumbers like the Mario's, Robert had thought when David had suggested the idea. No one will think we stole that idea from somewhere. They were both highly trained plumbers but they often had a problem getting work because of another pair of brother plumbers who already existed and were regarded as the best. Mario and Luigi, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, the best of the best, not content with just making sure the Mushroom Kingdom's drains were clog free they went as far as to protect the Mushroom Kingdom from the sinister King Bowser Koopa.

"Either way it's paying work" David said concluding his last sentence and he entered the pipe a little and started digging more and more of the soil out of the pipe using a pick axe.

"Come on!" he yelled at Robert "Don't just stand, help me!"

"But wait, Dave!" Robert called to his brother "Health and safety says..."

"...Stuff health and safety" Dave shouted back as he found what looked like some tree roots in the soil, he took them in his hands and began to pull on them as hard as he could. "Now come over here and help me, help me give this a tug" he said as he pulled hard on the tree root, but nothing budged.

Robert didn't want to argue with his older brother, he was insufferable enough when they were at home so he went ahead and grabbed another root and pulled as hard as he could. Robert was sure the soil plug was starting to move now as they both pulled. Why did his shoes suddenly feel wet?

Robert looked down at his black work shoes and found that they were wet because there was water running over them. Where the heck had that come from? Wait, the water over his shoes was running and moving out of the pipe into the sewer yet it was replaced by more water all the time. The further this solid soil plug seemed to slip towards them the more and more water appeared to seep out. Robert suddenly knew where this was probably going. The soil and the roots which were twisted into it began to slide out like a cork from a bottle and as it moved closer and closer towards the exit Robert had a bad feeling it 'was' going to come out like a cork in a bottle.

"Umm" Robert muttered "I don't think this was such a good ide..." the solid wall suddenly came out and rammed into them, firing them both out of the pipe like a bullet and the soil 'plug' as it seemed to be was followed by a torrent of water which sprayed out above them. The water torrent carried them along the track they had come from. They were both forced out into the sewer reservoir and landed in the large body of stinking, putrefying sewer water.

Robert held his breath as he tried to swim madly towards the surface again and didn't want to think about what he was actually swimming through. He surfaced and took a great gulp of air, it tasted as bad as it smelled but it was air at least. Dave had surfaced just ahead of them. The soil plug had broken up as it impacted the water and debits littered the water everywhere and began to be carried by the flow of the sewer canals.

From the pipe a great deal of dark brown coloured water was flowing out, most of it appeared to be full of old leaves, stones and twigs thankfully because Rob didn't want to think what that brown liquid might otherwise have been. They were in a sewer after all.

"I got it unblocked at least" David said. Robert turned to him and incredulously said "Yeah, but now we're all wet, I'll have to take a shower when we get back and have you seen all that water! We've probably drained the castle moat!"

David ignored him as they both made slow progress through the deep water towards a nearby platform and climbed back out, trailing water as they walked.

"I wonder what caused that blockage anyway" Robert wondered, why did they –whoever they were- pile so much soil and stones into the pipe? What were they trying to do?

"I don't know but it's gone now" David said as he clapped his hands together for a job wall done "That's the main thing. Come on, let's go for a coffee break while the water drains."

True, Robert supposed, they weren't going to find out where the pipe went until that water stopped flowing and by the look of it that might be some time which probably meant it was going to flood the entire sewer for a couple of hours before it finally drained out. So might as well go for a coffee break as David had suggested and wait for the water to drain, and so they left the pipe unattended.

Which means no one was looking when something flowed out of the pipe with the rest of the soil and muck. Unlike its brown, water logged surroundings this object was much more solid. It bobbed up and down in the water as it dropped from the pipe into the sewer system and began flowing with the rest of the waste water. It had been waiting for so long, trapped at the bottom of that pipe for centuries, now it was free again.

The object that centuries ago had been called 'the artefact' was in fact an old green, wooden mask. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, just a piece of mouldy wood with a solid metal bar running halfway down the front of it riveted into place. It looked like something which would belong in a museum or, to some a piece of junk, but maybe those people would reconsider if they noticed it start to glow a slight shade of green as it floated away deeper into the sewer system. But it didn't matter where the sewer took it, it was free at long last, free to do what it's been doing for centuries, terrible things because the wearer of this mask is cursed with a power no one can ever hope to tame or control, and it unleashes something equally untameable on the wearer... themselves.

The Mask had returned.

--------------
To Be continued...

-------------