Super Mario and Characters ©︎ Nintendo. Only the Original Characters are my own.

Chapter 2

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you… Lydia…"

Stated the figure floating in mid-air as they turned their whole body towards Lydia's direction. The woman put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, me? Hmhm~ No one special."

They say as they slowly decent closer to the ground.

"I guess I'll tell you anyways, I'm Dimentio, the Ruler of Dimensions!"

Lydia looked a bit annoyed.

"Ruler of Dimensions, Huh? Sounds like something a child would say..."

Lydia states with a glare.

"Hmhm... But I'm not. I'm nothing more than just a Jester!~ But enough with the introductions... Do you know why I came here?"

"No. How would I know? Just freaking tell me already, I'm not Matsuda you know."

"No, you're not, but that's beside point."

"Secondly: How do you know my name?"

Dimentio stood silent before continuing.

"... Truth is, Lydia... I've been watching you from afar... Not to just know your name, but to see if you were good enough..."

"Good enough for what?"

Lydia responded. Puzzled and disturbed. She was disgusted and creeped out that she was being stalked by someone.

"To me… It looks like the answer to my "Is she suitable for this?" is… a perfect 'Yes'."

Dimentio snaps his fingers as a type of bubble forms around them. Lydia is pushed back onto the couch and realizes she can't move.

"Gh...! Am... I... Paralyzed or something?"

"Hmhm~ It's just part of my powers. You won't be able to move for awhile."

The Jester then takes out a few pages that seemed to have been ripped out from a larger source. It's in an unreadable language, so Lydia couldn't understand anything on them.

"These pages were originally part of the Dark Prognosticus... However, after I was, quote-on-quote, taken down, the book itself seems to have been destroyed. All that I've currently found are these pages. Do you know about the process of transfusion?"

"... What are you getting at?"

"I can't find the rest of the pages by myself you know. I'll need a little help. What I'm going to do is embed some of the text from these pages into your body. Your body react if you feel anything that's related to the Light Prognosticus. If you do feel something like that, I'd like you to eradicate it."

"Tch. You're making it sound like I agreed to help you."

"Oh, you will help me. You have will no choice~"

Dimentio snaps his fingers once more with the pages and let's out a smile from under his mask as he gets closer to Lydia.

"Don't even dare…! You Bastar-!"

Back in the present, Mario, with Debrie in tow, leave Toad Town, the plumber with the bag of the parts his brother needed in his hand. The girl looked around before asking Mario a question.

"Hey, Mario, where are we going?"

"To Evershade Valley. It's not that-a far from here. We'll be using the Warp Pipe Services-a, that way it'll be easier. My brother, Luigi, moved to Evershade as he, quote-on-quote, "won" a mansion there. Since then, he's always lived there after he saved-a me and defeated King Boo. There's a reason why his room is empty, it's because he took all of his-a stuff with him."

"You? Getting saved? That sounds kinda weird don't you know? You don't seem like the kind of person to easily get captured..."

"Haha, that's-a what the Princess told-a me too. After that whole mansion incident, both Luigi and-a I were captured by Bowser and then were saved by the Princess herself-a who's the one that keeps getting kidnapped-a. If only I had a coin for every time she was, I'd had enough to pay my rent-a!"

The duo continue their way through Toad Town and then Toad's Turnpike. Once they reach Mushroom City, the plumber leads the way to the Warp Pipe Services building. As always, Debrie looking around. After entering the building, Mario sets some coins on the front desk for the Pianta to collect.

"My first Warp Pipe! This is gonna be so cool!"

Before she steps in, Mario holds her back and shakes his head.

"Let-a me go first."

"Huh? Why? What happened to "Ladies first?"..."

"You don't want me to look up your robe right-a?"

Debrie looks at her robe and blushes.

"O-Oh... Right..."

Mario smiles as he grabs the top of the entrance and swings his way inside. Debrie follows.

"Watch out-a! It's going to be a bumpy ride!"

He states as the female nods.

"Hey, it'll be like a Roller Coaster!"

"Eh, those aren't really bumpy. Besides-a, you mean to tell me you've been to one?"

"Well... Not really... I wish I could!"

The duo go through all the twists and turns before reaching the exit. Mario lands on his feet on the ground and smirks.

"Haha! Got It-!"

"Wahoo!"

Mario becomes shocked a bit as Debrie lands on him, as a result, the plumber gets trapped in the ground after she had landed on him accidentally.

"That was fun!... Huh? Mario? Hey, where are you? Did you leave me already?!"

After frantically looking around, she feels a bump under her as she stands up to check. In her sight is a red cap as Mario, with all his strength jumps out and shakes off all the dirt.

"Mama-Mia..."

Debrie bows as if she was asking for an apology.

"Ah! I'm sorry, Mario!"

She states as the plumber takes off his cap and throws out the dirt that remained.

"It's-a fine... Now I know how Luigi feels-a like..."

Mario approached the top of the hill, Debrie following behind him. The sight of Evershade Valley and it's many mansions come into sight. The female clasped her hands together with a worried expression on her face.

"This place gives me the creeps..."

"No need to be frightened-a!"

He walks down the path leading to the aforementioned valley.

"I mean, there are ghosts-a, but they're not your usual ones-a. As weird as it may sound-a, they're actually pretty nice ones! My brother even has a ghost dog as a pet-a!"

"Whaaaat?! A ghost dog?!"

"Mhm!"

"That's not changing my mind!", Debrie exclaimed.

Upon arriving at his brothers' mansion's doorstep, Mario knocks on the door.

"Luigi! I brought-a your parts!", he says before mumbling to himself.

"That I wasted 2000 coins on-a…"

Just then a person in green opens the door with a smile.

"Mario! Oh! Thanks-a!"

"I'm surprised you asked for them-a and not the Professor."

"Eheheh... E. Gadd has-a been pretty busy lately."

"Has he now?"

Luigi nods. Before he takes the bag from his brothers' hands, he sets his sights on the girl behind him. He scratches his head, normally, Mario wouldn't be traveling with someone who wasn't the Princess, Yellow Toad, Blue Toad or other partners from afar. The green plumber found it unusual, so he began to ask.

"Bro, who's-a this?"

"Oh, her? This is Debrie! I met her yesterday when I found-a her lying in the middle of the plaza back at-a Toad Town. Don't question it-a."

"O...Kay?"

"Pleased to meet you, Luigi!"

"Right! It's-a nice to meet you as well, Debrie! Where are you going-a now, Mario?"

"Well-a, Debrie and I will be heading over to talk with Merlon-a back at Flipside. It's rather important-a, especially for Debrie."

"Merlon eh? It has been awhile since we've seen-a him!"

"Mhm! Well, we need to get-a going, tell the Professor I said hi!"

Luigi gives a thumbs-up.

"No problem-a, Bro!"

Mario and Debrie wave at Luigi as they continue their way to their next destination, Flipside. Hours later, they finally make it to the entrance of Merlon's dwelling, Debrie on the ground as she was tired of walking and really needed something to eat or drink. The plumber knocks as a person in blue opens the door and welcomes them in.

"Ho ho! It's been awhile hasn't it, Mr. Mario?"

"Mhm! It-a has!"

"Well, come on in, I shall make some Tea for-"

Debrie quickly got up and grabbed Merlon's shoulders, shocking him.

"Yes, Please! I'm dying here!"

Awhile later, Merlon sat down after he set the tea in front of his guests. The girl taking the cup and drinking it in one shot.

"Ahh! That hit the spot!"

Mario and Merlon stare in surprise, the former looked at the man across the table in blue and shrugged.

"What brings you to my establishment, Mario? You may need to introduce me to this young one."

"Well-a, this is Debrie. She's-a told me that the text of the Light Prognosticus was embedded into her by her father, Hagustus-a."

"Hagustus? You mean the last true member of the Tribe of Ancients?"

The plumber nods in response to the statement said by Merlon.

"After the transfusion, if I recall what Debrie said, he told her to run as far from their village, but also not to Flipside.", Mario continued. Debrie followed with her own statement.

"Yeah, after I got at a safe distance, there was fire and smoke everywhere. Even a few explosions."

Merlon closed his eyes and then opened them.

"Hm... So... He finally managed to do it..."

The duo look at each other and then back at Merlon.

"What do you mean-a?"

"You see... The transfusion... It takes a lot of research to know how to do it perfectly. However, even one wrong move Hagustus would've died right then and there. It's an extremely dangerous process that not even his kind were brave enough to do it. So what happened to him, Debrie?"

Debrie looks down and back up.

"Mario and I are planning to head back there to see! I want to know if my father survived! Maybe even look for others while doing so!", she said confidently.

"That's your plan eh? From what I've heard... The person who invaded your town had immense power. Power that was similar to the Dark Prognosticus."

Mario stood up and slammed his hands on the table.

"What-a?! You can't be serious, Merlon! We destroyed that-a thing years ago! How did someone manage to use it-a?!"

"What if... Someone embedded some of the text into someone else?"

Mario looked terrified. He never thought of that idea. Who can blame him?

"Question is... Who would it be?", the figure in blue continued.

Mario and Merlon look at each other. They only know of one person who can use the Dark Prognosticus properly.

"...", the two stayed in silence before the plumber spoke.

"That's right..."

"Are we sure he didn't-a die? Think back, Mario. Did you actually see him die?", Merlon asked him.

"!", Mario got lost in thought. They took him down, but… did they really?

Debrie looked intently at the two before breaking the silence.

"You guys keep talking about this guy yet you haven't even told me about him!"

Mario sits back down and cross his arms while closing his eyes as he speaks.

"The one we're referring-a to is... Dimentio... King of Dimensions. My brother, the Princess and Bowser defeated-a him years back. He was the true cause behind the incident back-a then, he betrayed Count Bleck-a and his other minions, only using them as puppets-a. After his defeat, we all just... forgot about-a him, since we thought he was done for good. So we thought-a... But now that there's a possibility that he's still out-a there... and the fact that he's possibly already inputted the book's text into someone... That doesn't-a sound like a very good combination..."

"But if that is true... Why would he send someone to my home?", Debrie asked with a worried looked.

Mario then opens his eyes.

"Possibly to find anything relating to the Light Prognosticus and either obliterate it or use it for himself. In other words-a, you would be a target."

The plumber says as he looked at the female.

"... So... Would my father be under that category? He's related to the Light Prognosticus in a way isn't he?"

"Probably-a... For right now, let's go check your village. For all we know, they might go back and double check the grounds-a."

The plumber hops off the chair and heads straight for the door.

"We'll be back if we find any new information-a, Merlon."

Debrie follows the plumber as she closes the door to the building.

"... Just be safe you two...", Merlon says before turning his head to the drawer where he originally had put the Light Prognosticus.

Upon leaving the establishment, Mario asks Debrie to now lead the way to her original home, She obliges. The plumber in red takes out his metal hammer and rests it on his shoulder just in case something comes up while being there. Once they reached their destination, all that was seen were the obliterated buildings. Everything in ruins as the plumber looked around in shock, Debrie started tearing up a bit. Mario patted her head.

"Come on-a, no time for-a crying. We came here to find survivors you know?"

"... What if there aren't none? What if we came here for no reason?"

Mario sighed.

"Giving up isn't an option. That was-a really cliché, I'm sorry haha. Come on."

The girl wiped off her tears and followed the red plumber around to find survivors. Even if there aren't any, at least to Mario, they tried. The area was so ruined that anyone would think it'd be like looking at a place after an apocalyptic disaster. After much investigation, Mario turns at the corner, at the corner of his eye however, he sees a figure, a woman looking like she's trying to find something of importance. Mario gulps and reluctantly steps closer with his hammer at the ready.

"Hey! What are you doing-a here?"

His voice reaches the figure as they slowly turn their head around.

"Hm? Oh… *Sigh* I could ask you the same thing.", they said.

The plumber stared at the woman. Who exactly is this female? and more importantly why is someone like her here of all places? Mario wonders if she has something to do with the events that resided here.

"I'm going to ask again-a! What are you doing here?"

The woman moves her light brown/chestnut colored hair to the side before jumping down to Mario's level which causes a small shockwave that also brings out black and purple effects.

"... Man, he said I wouldn't run into anyone here... But... Guess he was wrong."

"Avoiding-a the question eh?"

"To answer that, I'm here on just a small mission. Or rather... Just here to double check. You know, obliterating the town was kind of tiresome…"

Once Mario heard this, he turned to Debrie who was in shock. She had placed her hands on her mouth and had an expression of that of someone who just lost someone dear. Debrie slowly stepped back.

"Y-You... What...?", Debrie said. Completely devastated.

"I destroyed this town. Only because he told me to..."

"...", Debrie stood still.

"Wait a minute! Exactly who told-a you to?!"

The woman dusts off the dirt from her hands.

"From a guy that had some sort of white and black mask. Forgot his name... Dementia? Something like that..."

"... So... He is back... From what we saw earlier I assume-"

"What? That black and purple stuff? Yeah, that brat embedded some text of the Dark Prognosticus or whatever into me."

"!... Debrie? I'd like for you to stay back and hide..."

Debrie, still in shock, looks at the hero.

"What, but-!"

"Now! You have-"

"She has the Light Prognosticus embedded into her doesn't she?"

"!... How'd you-?"

"It's not that hard to figure out, I know what things are related to that Light Prognosticus. All because of my own ability telling me about it. I'm just here to find pages of the Dark book for him. However, with you in the way... Trying to protect this girl who has the Light book in her... I'd like for you both to leave now. I don't want to hurt you two... I didn't want to be part of this in the first place... I was just invited to this party all because of that damn bastard who forced me into his plans. The fact that I receive a migraine every time I'm close to something relating to the Dark or Light Prognosticus has already gotten me to hate him more."

"... Why don't you just quit-a then?", The plumber asked.

"I wish it was that easy... Says that if I don't follow his stupid rules, he'll just find a way to get me to follow them."

"You haven't reacted one bit-a though…"

"Hm?"

"I'm actually one of the Heroes of Light that's mentioned-a in the Light Prognosticus..."

"What?! Why I haven't reacted is a good question... Maybe it's because I'm holding back. Trying to make the powers not react. It's more difficult than it sounds. They take awhile to check my surroundings for anything related to them or their Light counterpart."

"But-a-"

"... Thanks for the concern, but I don't think you have enough power to defeat-"

"I defeated him years ago... If I can do that, I surely can do it again-a."

"..."

Before she was even able to respond, her eyes widen as she places one of her hands on one side of her face as she gets surrounded by a black aura.

"Ngh... Gh..."

"!"

Mario tries to get closer, but is greeted by the palm of the Lydia's hand which forces him to stop.

"D-Don't get... In the way... Leave... Both of you... I don't want to hurt you both. I don't want you to get involved with his plans..."

"... That's the thing… we've already entered them a long time ago...", Mario replied as the woman continued.

"I... Told you..."

She states as she covers her face with both hands before leaning back at the same time.

"LEEEEAAVE!"

Just then, strong gusts of wind engulfed the whole area, Debrie ran behind a building to hide and protect herself. Mario dug his hammer into the ground to stop him from getting blown away. The same auras from before surround her before she stands on the ground again. Markings appearing on her arms.

"AAAAGGH!"

The gusts of wind dissipate as the plumber takes his weapon out from the ground and then looks at the female.

"Hah... Hah... It finally detected you... I warned you about this... Please… Forgive me..."

Her eyes widen and close before opening again and speaking in some similar way as Debrie did with Mario when he touched the markings on her hand.

"No pages found. Location of two separate entities within a few miles. Mario: Hero of Light confirmed to be the being in front of me. The so called girl, Debrie contains text of the rival to this Prognosticus therefore all humans related to the Light side must perish."

The woman, now taken over by the Dark Prognosticus, then swings her right hand to the side as black and purple auras get drawn toward it in order to create a sword-like weapon as they get in a fighting stance. The plumber also readies his hammer as Debrie just watches.

"Mario!", Debrie yelled the plumber's name, worried about his safety as she doesn't want to lose someone close to her again. Mario was too lost in thought and too focused on his situation.

"She's in there somewhere... I just need-a to take her current state down."

Mario and the possessed Lydia trade glares as he smirks.

"I hope you're ready, because I'm bringing her back-a!"

"..."

The plumber and the female then charge toward each other as they both swing their weapons. The hammer and the sword clash as sparks flew from the blade of the latter weapon. They both try their best to push the other back before they retract their weapons and then continue the battle with multiple swings to the other end. The clangs of the hammer and sword ring throughout the area, the plumber finally landing the first hit which sends Lydia a few feet back. Lydia creates a fireball type of projectile and throws them towards the plumber at fast speeds.

"Woh- OOF!"

The attack would throw Mario towards a wall of one of the buildings as he falls back down to the ground and rolls to the side before another projectile impacts the ground he originally was on. After getting back up he cleans the sweat off his forehead.

"Two can play in that-a game!"

Just like Lydia, Mario engulfs his hands in fire before sending about three to four fireballs at his opponent... Which are quickly blown into pieces by Lydia's own. This causes a large area of smoke to appear as the hero in red twirls his hammer and enters the smoky area in order to give a surprise attack. Unfortunately, his opponent makes her abilities move the smoke out of the way which reveals his position.

"... Man! I saw this in the movies-a! Why didn't it wo- Oof-a!"

Before he finished his sentence, he is grabbed and thrown to the ground.

"Ok, that was sort of a dumb decision-a… Mama-Mia... I knew it was going to be a tough fight-a, but..."

He says as he stands back up to his feet while trying to come up with a different plan.

"If I use my fireballs, she'll just hit them-a which will cause more smoke to appear... Hm... What if-a...instead of going through the smoke, I go around it... That-a way, even when she moves it out of the way, she won't have anyone to attack-a. I'll be able to land a hit."

He states as he looks at his hammer before dropping it.

"Alright-a, I won't be needing this... Let's-a go."

Mario once again engulfs his hands with fire as he shoots approximately the same amount as he did last time. The woman then uses her own projectiles to stop them in their tracks which, according to plan, causes more smoke. The plumber smirks as he runs around the exterior of the smoke cloud to where Lydia is. As the smoke clears, the female is confused until she heard footsteps to her left.

"!"

"Gotcha!"

Mario's arm is engulfed by fire once again as he changes his hand into a fist and punches his opponent on her side which sends her flying towards a building, said building receives cracks on it's surface as she falls to the ground. However, on Mario's side, when he hit Lydia, since she had an aura around her, it also damaged the plumber as it also sent him a few feet back, him scraping the ground. Debrie then takes a look around the corner of the building, small amounts of smoke still surrounding the area in which she saw the battle occur. On one side, she saw Mario's opponent, on the other, it was him. The girl quickly ran towards the plumber and tried to help him up.

"Mario! Hey! Come on! Stand up!"

After saying those words, Mario, with the strength he currently had, stood up, his clothes dirty from sliding on the ground after the impact.

"... Man... What a battle... So that's what the Dark Prognosticus does-a..."

The plumber states while putting his right arm on his left shoulder. From afar, he saw that the aura that surrounded Lydia had disappeared.

"She went down easily… Probably because she doesn't-a have the whole manuscript in her-a…", Mario says as he started to slowly walk towards her.

"You don't mean to tell me you're actually going to help her?!", Debrie exclaims, s bit infuriated.

"Of course I am-a, Debrie."

"But she destroyed my town! Why would you-"

"She's-a not an enemy... I'm sure she'll apologize. After all-a... She was truly concerned for our safety and-a also... She was brought into this mess by Dimentio... We're going to help her-a. She didn't mean to do harm to anyone, it's not really her fault…"

He continues talking as he looks down at the injured Lydia.

"... In the end… she was just-a scared..."

"...", Debrie stood silently.

"She's just gonna have to do something so that way you can trust-a her. We can make her our ally... That's what you want too, don't-a lie."

"..."

Debrie continued staying silent, a bit of hatred went away, but she still disliked her very much. Mario slowly picked her up as he puts her left arm around him to help the woman up, she could still stand as he starts walking slowly with Debrie following. Lydia opens her eyes slowly, also not fully, and looks at him who was still focused on carrying her and walking.

"...W-why?", the woman questioned the plumber's decisions.

"Why not-a? I'd rather make friends than enemies-a... I assume you'll be able to control your abilities-a? It'd be interesting to have someone with Dark Prognosticus powers on our side haha!"

He chuckles once more as Lydia looks down.

"But I... I destroyed her town... She probably hates me because of it..."

"You just-a need to redeem yourself-a!... You know, come to think about it-a, I… We, never got your name."

"... Lydia... It's... Lydia..."

"Pleasure to meet you and have you by our side, Lydia! Name's Mario!"

Both Mario and Lydia smile.

"You... You really are something… Mario."

The plumber smiles as he closes his eyes before opening them. He continues helping her across the way.

"We're gonna stop Dimentio. My brother, other friends and I did it once. We will do it-a again."

Lydia had already closed her eyes as she needed some rest. Mario looks at Debrie and smiles, the three of them head their way back to Flipside. The girl still saddened that she didn't find anyone, not even her father. However, she's sure that he would've liked Mario and his crew just for taking care of his daughter.

The trio continue along the path back. That's one more ally added to their group. Mario's proud of this accomplishment, he already knows that Debrie and Lydia will become friends soon enough, even if it takes awhile, as long as they get along.

Concurrently, back at Midnight City, a male with black hair, a brown jacket and a black shirt underneath it, walks across the sidewalk with an angry expression and a devilish grin across his face, people murmur while also keeping their distance from him.

"It's him..."

"Aichi Nakajima is it?"

"Yeah.. Keep your distance from him, you don't want to anger someone like him."

"His ability is Deep Space right? That alone has me frightened..."

The voices continue as the male who's identified as Aichi Nakajima stops in his tracks upon seeing the person he was looking for.

"KURUSHIMA KANZAAAAKIIII!"

Far from him, stood someone with silver hair. They wore a white, zipped up jacket with a hoodie, gray outlines at the sleeve ends and around the zipper, a white shirt underneath it. They also had on gray pants and shoes. The figure turned around with their hands still in their pockets and with a sort of laid back expression.

"I have a bone to pick with you!"

He states as a portal opens up next to him which sends out a bicycle at fast speeds towards the one named Kurushima Kanzaki who just swiftly dodges, still in his relaxed mood.

"What do you want this time… Nakajima...?"

Kurushima asks as he and Aichi glare at each other, people around them scattering in order to avoid getting wrapped up in the mess. A Rank 7 Inducer… with another Rank 7 Inducer.