10: Stupidos, Caves and Reunions

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In the Inquisitor's group...
"Great. Of all the things, us people had to be separated from all those good people," the Inquisitor said. King Boo's Boos were throwing the Toad around and playing catch with him. "WE LOST THE CRYSTAL!" King Boo shrieked and ran around, flailing his Boo arms. "All we can do is wait," the Inquisitor said. "Why?" asked King Boo. "For help, stupido," The Inquisitor replied.
In Kanan's group...
"OH NO!" yelled Kanan and banged on the wall of rocks sealing them off. "I LOST HERA! AND I TOLD HER I WOULDN'T LOSE HER!" At the same time Mario came up and banged, too. "Peach, can you hear-a me?" he yelled. But sound did not penetrate the rock. Kanan turned around and looked at his group. Sadly, he had ended up with most of the Toads. They were now climbing the walls and then jumping off. "I broke my bubble bone!" yelled a Toad happily. "No you didn't!" cried another Toad. Kanan and the rest ignored them and walked down the eerie pathway that was in front of them. "Turns out this isn't just a cave," Zeb said. "It's a bunch of caves all together."
"I would call it a network," Kanan said. Mario was staring at them like they were professors. He did have a professor, who was E.Gadd, but they had been separated. "Great, I left my comlink in the ship," Kanan mumbled. "How will we ever get in contact with the others?"
Chopper pulled out his antenna and tried searching for an exit, but he didn't seem to be having any luck. Kanan sat down and started to meditate. Everyone else stood and waited in silence for him to say something.
At last he stood up. "I think there's a long way around the cave-in, but it'll take a long time. I mean, we may be spending a night down here."
The Toads were divided in their reaction; some screamed and hugged Mario and Luigi's legs, and the rest started ya-hooing off the walls. Kanan put a hand over his eyes, then pointed down one of the passageways. "Let's go."

In Hera's group...
"Is everyone okay?" Hera said, turning to the coughing people behind her.
"Yeah, I think so," Sabine said, standing up and brushing herself off. "But...where's Kanan?"
"Mario!" Peach cried behind her. She felt the rock wall for some gap, some hole, but they were sealed off. Hera looked around and saw that Luigi, Zeb and Chopper were also missing, along with a majority of the Toads. Ezra was in the corner, trying to shove a big rock off his lap. When he finally succeeded, he walked over to Hera. "They must've been on the other side," he said, examining the shambles, but it was useless.
Hera collected her thoughts. "What about the entrance? Is that blocked off as well?"
E. Gadd, who had been a ways away, came over to her. "I'm afraid so," he said. "Your big guns and laser swords are going to be useless against that."
"But...you've got the crystal?" Hera asked hopefully, suddenly remembering their mission. E. Gadd reached into his pocket and produced the shining orange rock, glowing from within with some energy. The Toads oooed at it.
"There's only one way we can go," Ezra said. They looked up and saw that he had found a narrow passageway on the far wall. "If we can find the others, we might be able to clear the entrance. But I can't do it on my own."
Hera nodded. The mission, after all, had already been accomplished; it was most important that they find the rest of the crew.
In the Inquisitor's group...
The Inquisitor sat against a cave wall, dozing. King Boo was beside him, squashed onto the ground, flicking his stubby tail, pouting. They had been sitting there for what seemed like hours already.
The Boos were pretty bored too, most of them sitting around. One of them stayed guard over the Toad, who sat there petrified. Messing with him had gotten old ages ago.
The Inquisitor's communications were down, but he knew it was only a matter of time before someone came looking for them.
In Kanan's group...
Kanan had been right about the overnight thing. He walked in front and led the way, letting the Force guide him, but it nevertheless got too dark to keep moving. Zeb, Mario, Luigi and Chopper had been following in silence, but the Toads were constantly chattering. It soon became clear that they were stuck in a dark cave with drunk Toads, courtesy of Ezra.
"Mr. Kanan, I think you need a pizza with extra baseballs."
"I see frosted rainbow burgers..."
"Toadette, you're looking good tonight."
"Oh, I feel like a magic chipmunk!"
"Don't you think Mario's a lovely dancer?"
"Princess, just tell Mario how you feel..."
"I like chocolate moo cows."
"I'm walkin' on helium!"
"My bathtub is spewing root beer!"
"Oh Luigi, your hair is lookin' really hot..."
And so it went on and on forever. The crew just ignored it, although it was kind of entertaining to listen to. Mario and Luigi kept walking, although it was awkward because they never knew what the Toads might spill next. Eventually, though, Toads started dropping, and Kanan called it a night. They slept strewn all over the cave floor. Mario sat against a wall and Luigi joined him. "Oh, Weegee," Mario murmured forlornly. Then he laid down and went to sleep. Luigi huddled close.
Kanan reserved a spot for himself, and tried to calm his worries about Hera and the rest. Just as he was going to sleep, he thought he could feel Ezra's presence nearby.
In Hera's group...
The walking lasted for ages. Hera led, with Ezra following close behind. The Toads with them had all passed out, and they were all helping to carry them. They had been moving in silence for a long time until Ezra froze. "Hera," he said. "I just remembered something! I can contact Kanan!"
Hera turned to him, surprised. "Really? How?"
In Kanan's group...
Kanan had not been asleep for five minutes when he suddenly heard a beep. He sat up and realized it was coming from his pocket. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his telecron. "OMG! My telecron! It never even occurred to me! Ezra must be calling." His shouting roused everyone in the group. Kanan pressed a triangle-etched-button and said, "Hello?"
"Kanan!" Ezra said. "Where are you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Ezra. I've got Zeb, Chop, Mario, Luigi, and fourteen Toads with me. And, um, we're on our way to the exit."
"Oh, really? We were right by the exit...but it's blocked, Kanan. We need your help to open it. How am I supposed to find you?"
"Just head back to the entrance. I'm on the way. Help me out and guide me with your Force signature, okay?"
"Umm...okay..." Ezra said. "Hera wants to talk to you." Then Hera's voice came out of the telecron. "Kanan! We're going to the exit now, but don't worry, I'm sure wherever you are leads to it as well! At least, I hope it does... By the way, what should we have for dinner? Maybe meilooran pie?"
"I don't know, I thought we didn't have any meiloorans," Kanan replied. "Perhaps," Hera said. Pretty soon Kanan and Hera just started talking about everyday life, and as Kanan's group walked everyone got sick of listening to it. But the bright side was that they could hear both sides of the coversation.
Eventually, the passageway narrowed so much that everybody had towalk single-file. They had the Toads lead, so in case anything dangerous was ahead, they would be the first to find out. Kanan directed them, following his sense of where Ezra was. They walked that way for what seemed like centuries, until finally, a Toad yelled, "Ooooh!" The passageway widened in about two seconds of walking. Ahead was the exit, completely covered in a shower of rocks. And standing there they saw Hera, Sabine, Ezra, Peach, E.Gadd and the Toads standing there. Kanan rushed to them and gave Hera a hug. "That was sooooooooooooooo dangerous!" he said. "I don't think so," Hera said, bright red spots on her cheeks. "I think you're hot," Kanan said. "Maybe I am," Hera replied, fanning her face. "After all, we are on Mustafar!"
"Mario!" Peach cried happily. Mario ran up to Peach and hugged her, obviously copying Kanan. "I missed you too?" Peach said, guessing that's what Mario was trying to say. Toads swarmed around them. E.Gadd was holding the crystal and looking at it and polishing it. "All right, Romeo," Luigi said, nudging his brother's arm,"let's a-go back to the ship."
Kanan walked up to Ezra. They stood side by side, then, closing their eyes, concentrated on the rocks. They began to tremble and crumble. Everyone else stood back, watching with wide eyes as the large ones began rolling down, and a crack of light broke through.
It took several minutes for the entrance to clear. When they broke the surface, Toads rushed out and kissed the ground. "Let's get to the Ghost," said Kanan, tired of all this nonsense.
Once they had finally gotten there, billions of Toads poured out. They all started asking the Toads with the group questions. Once everyToad was up to date, everybody went inside. Hera took off before anything bad could happen. The rest of the people inspected the ship to make sure the Toads hadn't wrecked anything. Surprisingly, the Toads had kept the place in pretty good order. E.Gadd was skipping around, showing off his crystal. Then he pulled out his ultimate gadget and started installing the crystal. "This might take a while," E.Gadd said after he had tried a hundred times to tighten a screw but had failed.

It had only taken 2 days and a half, but stormtroopers finally came stampeding into the cave and rescued the Inquisitor and King Boo. They took the Toad captive, and held him in a cell on board a Star Destroyer.
The Inquisitor walked into the Toad's cell. The Toad, who had been sitting on the little bench built into the wall, got onto his feet and faced the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor looked down at him, a dumb look on his face. "Whatever you want, you won't get it." The Toad said firmly. "I sure have heard that before," the Inquisitor replied. "But it doesn't matter, because I don't want anything. You are going to be bait, obviously." The Toad stared. "You're drowning me? You're going fishing? Fishes eat toad?" The Inquisitor blinked and walked out of the cell, his eyes dumbly slitted.

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