A/N: I've had this idea for a while now, and I'm finally getting around to doing something with it. There are very few good Paper Mario fanfics out there, and I hope some day my own will join their ranks... And without further ado...
I give to you...
Paper Mario: The Prince of Colors.
Ahem! Today...
I am going to tell you the story of the Prince of Colors...
It is said that in a land far off from our own and a time far in the past, a magnificent kingdom ruled.
The kingdom was prosperous. The people were happy. No one wanted for anything.
But...
The surrounding kingdoms wanted it for their own.
Wars leveled the kingdoms, and the land was left desolate.
The people, deprived of hope, lost their color.
The land, feeding off the energy of the people, lost its color.
The king prayed to the stars for a solution, and the prayers were answered.
"Here are seven Essences of Color," said the eldest of the Star Spirits.
"Each Essence must be given to one of the Seven Hopeful, the only people who have not lost hope," said the second of the Star Spirits.
"Only when the Seven Hopeful are found can the Chromatic Oath be fulfilled," said the third.
"The Seven will be led by the Prince of Colors, the most vibrant soul of the seven," said the fourth.
"The Seven must each hold one Essence. The Prince of Colors will stand in the center of the lands, and the other six equidistant around him," said the fifth.
"They must raise the Essences high, and the combined power of Essence and Hope will restore color to the world," said the sixth.
"The kingdom will become vibrant once again," said the last of the Star Spirits.
And so the king became the one to seek the Seven Hopeful.
Seven years passed and the king had only found six of the Seven...
But the last could not be found.
It was not until his queen gave birth that the search came to an end.
The newly born prince was the Prince of Colors.
They waited until the Prince was old enough to hold the Essence on his own...
And partook in the Chromatic Oath.
Color returned to the kingdom! The people rejoiced!
"We must never forget the Oath!"
And so, every twenty-five years, the Festival of Color is held to remember the Chromatic Oath.
The Seven Hopeful are chosen, and the ceremony upheld.
The real Essences, deemed too valuable to use in the Festival of Color, were given to the original Seven Hopeful.
The Hopeful took them to the corners of the land, and the Essences fell victim to time.
The story of the Prince of Colors ends with a warning.
If the kingdom loses hope, and the color disappears, the Prince of Colors must lead the Seven Hopeful and renew the Chromatic Oath.
Never in a thousand years has the kingdom lost hope.
Until now...
"Gwahaha," said the voice of the eternal enemy of the Mushroom Kingdom. "I've finally arrived."
Bowser, King of the Koopas, romped through the plains, trampling flowers and scaring off the local folks. Kammy Koopa, his right-hand koopa, traveled with him, following on her broomstick.
"Princess Peach, your king has arrived!" Bowser shouted at the top of his lungs. He waited several minutes in silence, the crickets too afraid to even chirp.
"Peach! Where are you?" he yelled. He searched the area, finding nothing of interest.
"Oh, I get it. You're in awe of my awesomeness. Well, you can come out now. Jig's up, Princess," he said loudly. He waited for several seconds in impatience.
"Where are you?!" Bowser roared to the sky in frustration. "Gah! I get word that the princess is coming here on vacation, and she doesn't even have the decency to arrive on time!"
He closed his eyes and stomped his feet. "Where are they, Kammy? You said she'd be here."
"Your kingliness," said the magikoopa. "Maybe their flight was delayed..."
"DELAYED?! What could be more important than me, Kammy? I show up completely ready to kidnap the princess – on time, might I add – and she has the nerve to delay her arrival?!"
"Well, it's probably not her fault," reasoned Kammy.
"Silence!" Bowser roared, breathing a torrent of flames at Kammy. She fell to the ground, oofing loudly.
"Your grumpiness, what if it's Mario's fault?" rasped the crispy magikoopa.
"Mario this, Mario that... I'm so sick of Mario! I wish I could beat Mario once and for all! Maybe then, Princess Peach would like me..."
"That sounds lovely, your lovesickliness," Kammy said.
"Gah, I hate Mario! I hate him, I hate him, Ihatehim!" roared Bowser.
"Your grouchiness, be careful! Who knows what one of your tantrums could do to this peaceful prairie?"
"IhatehimIhatehimIhatehimIHATEHIM!" Bowser gave one final stomp, causing the earth to shake. "Kammy, what's going on?"
"That would be an earthquake, your ignorantness," his right-hand koopa said. "One you created, might I add."
"Gah, it's Mario's fault," Bowser said grumpily as the earth continued to quake. A fissure opened, and the ground stopped moving. "It's over?"
"It appears so, your gratefulness. Be more careful next time."
"I don't do careful," scoffed Bowser. He wandered over to the edge of the chasm and looked into it.
"Clearly not, your bulkiness," mumbled Kammy. "I do wish you'd be more cautious."
"Hey, Kammy. Get your butt over here," Bowser commanded, completely disregarding her last remark.
"What is it, your impatientness?" she asked.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at a shiny black stone.
"Could be onyx."
"Onyx? I like the sound of that! Let me at it," he roared before lunging into the fissure.
Bowser landed loudly at the bottom of the pit. Looking up, he spotted the stone stuck in the wall. He jumped towards it pathetically, failing miserably in his endeavor.
"How does Mario do this? Kammy, give me a boost!"
"Yes, your pitifulness," she said, firing a golden beam of light at him. His legs glowed, and he tried jumping again, only to fly out of the pit.
"Whoa! Too much, Kammy, too much!"
"Sorry, your flightiness!" she yelled up to him.
Bowser flailed about as he reached the apex of the jump. "Hey, I can see a plane on the horizon. Maybe Peach is finally coming! Wait, aren't I..."
"Kammy, help!"
The magikoopa flew over to him on a newly-summoned broomstick, trying frantically to slow his fall. "I'm sorry, your heaviness. Brace yourself for impact."
A cloud of dust rose up out of the crevice. Bowser stood, miraculously unharmed.
"Hey, Kammy. Kammy?"
"Under you, your brawniness," she struggled to say.
"Well, peel yourself up off the ground. I think the onyx is loose-oof!" Bowser paused in his speech and fell to the ground.
"Your quietness? What is it?" asked the flattened magikoopa.
"Ooh, my head..."
Kammy peeled herself up and rushed over to Bowser's side. "Your kingliness, are you alright?"
"Stupid rock hit me on the head!" he roared, breathing fire about the crevice. "I hate everything! But it is rather shiny. Kammy, what do you think this is worth?"
She plucked the stone from his grasp and looked it over. "Probably a fortune, even if it is a little dusty."
"Gwahaha, that's easily fixed. Gimme that," Bowser commanded, grabbing the onyx from the magikoopa. He rubbed the stone against her robe, causing it to emit an ethereal light.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know, your fearfulness. Something bad," said Kammy.
"Something bad is most correct, my pitiable fellow magician! Thou deserveth a prize, methinks," said a voice.
"'Methinks'?" scoffed Bowser. "Who does this guy think he is?"
A deep chortling sounded from the stone before the light solidified into a monochromatic figure cloaked in black.
"I am the glorious Count Chrome. Who art thou, turtle, to be rescuing a magician of my caliber?" asked the figure.
"I am Bowser, businessman of legend! Fear my accounting!" roared Bowser.
"Your confusingness, I think that stone messed up your head," Kammy said, stifling a laugh.
"Well, Bowser, businessman of legend, what dost thou desire most?" Count Chrome asked with a chortle.
"Oh, you're one of those wish-granting magicians! I wanna trounce Mario! I want Princess Peach to like me!" Bowser yelled.
"I knoweth not these people of whom thou speaketh. Instead of those pathetic desires, I shall granteth thee a most wonderful reward." The figure spread his arms, darkness filling the crevice.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Thou lacketh beauty, businessman of legend; thus, I hath deemed it most applicable to granteth thee some of my beauty," Count Chrome said.
Light returned to the chasm slowly, and Bowser found his color gone awry.
"What did you do to me?!" he demanded of the magician.
"I gaveth thee some of mine own beauty. Thou shouldst be thanking me for thy gift," said Count Chrome.
"Do you know how long I spend waxing my shell to a glossy green perfection?"
"Methinks thou dost protesteth too much."
"Give me back my color!" Bowser yelled.
"Nay, methinks thou shalt forevermore be deprived of the lackluster experience that is color. I am the epitome of beauty, mortal, and I felt it applicable to granteth thee some of my beauty. Dost thou spurn mine offering?"
"Spurn this, weakling!" Bowser yelled before spewing a massive fireball at the magician, who simply flicked it into nothingness.
"Your bleakfulness! This magician is powerful," said Kammy.
"Oh, what's this? I had almost forgotten about thee, fellow magician," Count Chrome said.
"Oh dear."
"Thou calleth that beast thy master? He is not worthy of the praise of a magician. Come and join me, magikoopa. I command it!"
The figure gestured toward the magikoopa. She soon found her color drained and her allegiance shifted.
"Count Chrome, I follow you."
"Kammy! You fiend! She's the only one of my troop I almost don't hate!" claimed Bowser. "Give her back!"
"Thou wanteth thy minion returned to thee? Very well, I shalt return her to thee. 'Kammy', I command thee to 'return' to thy previous master." The figure chortled loudly, watching as the magikoopa smote her previous king.
"Kammy, why?"
"I follow the strongest, Bowser."
"And I am the strongest, fool. Come, Kammy. We shalt spread my beauty across the land and bringeth forth a new age of gray..."
Paper Mario: The Prince of Colors
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