"It's weird, isn't it? How friends are always willing to support each other."
Mario walked up to the front desk, and stood there as the lady flipped the page the page of her small paperbook novel with a flourish. Mario cleared his throat, and the lady looked up and noticed him. She smiled as she put the book face down on the desk, and turned to face him properly.
"Hello there. What can I do for you?" She asked.
Although Mario felt strangely odd about having a discussion with a complete stranger that was not begging for an autograph, he took it in stride, and plowed ahead. "Is there a Miss Pauline still living here? I'm an old friend."
The lady looked at Mario closely. "Hm. Let me see." She turned towards the small cabinet behind her and pulled out a small key adorned with a Keychain shaped like a turtle. Mario could not contain his breif flash of amusement at this, and chuckled. The Lady did not notice, however, and jammed the key into the lock and twisted, bringing forth a drawer filled with all sorts of papers.
"Hmm... Pauline... Pauline..." The lady murmured as she flipped through folders. "Ah. Here we go. Only Pauline we have in here. Is this her?" She held up a photograph of a smiling woman in her mid twenties.
"Yes. Does she still live here?"
"Ah, no. Sorry about that. Seems she moved away a few years ago. In '99. She didn't leave any sort of hint as to where she was going. No forwarding address or anything."
Mario thanked the woman, and left the building.
As he walked the streets of New York, Mario could not for the life of him help but wonder where Pauline had gone. If her own building didn't know where she went, Mario had no idea where else he could go to ask.
Mario honestly did not feel comfortable in seeking out any of his old friends. He had lost contact with many of them after High School, and by the time he was forced to venture to the Mushroom Kingdom, Luigi was pretty much the only constant person in his life.
Well, that wasn't exactly true. He had gotten to know Pauline a little while before that, but they didn't really become close until they had both left the city.
Mario did not have any place to sleep, and that was an issue. The Mushroom Kingdom had absolutely no contact with the people of this country, so Mushroom Kingdom coins were completely worthless. He was probably going to have to sleep under a bridge or something when the exhaustion hit. He had slept in weirder places before.
His feet led him down streets, past cars and hundreds of other people. It was difficult to not stop and stare at all the people. They inhabited many ethniticities, but as a whole, they were all certainly human.
"Daddy, daddy, I wanna see the bout!" A small child, probably no more then four or five years old, was walking towards Mario, hand in hand with an older man. His other hand contained a small red balloon, which was constantly being jerked this way and that. "Why can't I come too?"
"I really am sorry. But they were only giving away two tickets at work, and your mom really wants to go." The man said soothingly, stroking the child's fingers. "maybe next time."
"But I wanna auto-graph!" The child wailed. Mario turned his head slightly as the duo passed him, but made no comment.
"I'll get you his autograph." The father promised. "In the meantime, do you want to see Jumpman? We still have time enough to make a quick stop."
"Yeah! Jumpman!" The child squeled, bouncing up and down.
On impulse, Mario changed his direction to follow the two down two more blocks. There, in i all it's finished glory, was the building where it had all started twenty years ago.
Mario stood there for a few moments, standing in awe. If he had not been specifically looking for it, he would have missed the building altogether. As he stared at the building for a period of time, he could not help but notice a small gathering of people at the base of the building. He waited for the signal for him to cross the street and went to go investigate.
Six or seven people were standing in front of a small statue. As Mario came closer, he noticed that the image was his own, twenty years ago. Somebody must have decided to place it here as some kind of tourist attraction. There were words scrawled in the plague at the Statue's feet:
On July Ninth, 1981, a beast appeared in this very city. The Monster Ape grabbed a woman, and made off with her to the top of this very same building, while it was under construction. One man took it upon himself to rescue her, and he braved the many dangers of the site, coupled with the prescence of the monster ape, to successfully rescue the woman in question. The Newspapers proceeded to go ahead and refer to the man as 'Jumpman' before his actual identity was revealed, but the man was never found after the incident in question. This statue stands to remind us all to stand and do the right thing.
"He was really brave, wasn't he?" The kid said, lowering his head. "I can't wait until I get big, then I can be just like the Jumpman!"
The father chuckled, and the two moved away. Mario stood there for a while, looking over at the statue, when suddenly, a hand touched on his shoulder.
"Hey."
Mario turned and found himself facing a younger man, maybe in his twenties. "What is it?" He asked briefly.
"That's a nice costume." The man commented. "That's Jumpman's clothes, am I right?"
"I guess you could say that." Mario said cautiously.
"So you're a Jumper, too?" The man pressed.
"Excuse me?"
"Like, follower of Jumpman. Disciple of Jumpman. The kind of guy who knows everything about Jumpman."
"I guess you could say that." Mario repeated.
"Excellent. Hey, can we go for a drink? It's on me."
Mario had nowhere else to go, and the guy seemed nice enough. So he allowed himself to be steered into the nearest restaurant in town.
"It's not often that I meet another Jumper." The guy said as they sat down at a table. "So forgive me, I'm rather excited."
"For what, now, exactly?"
The TV behind the guys ahead was playing a boxing match. Mario had barely enough time to marvel at the diminuitive size of one of the fighters before the guy answered his question.
"Well, to be honest, I'm a huge fan of Jumpman." He confessed. "I saw the whole thing Twenty years ago, it was really something, let me tell you. Ever since then, I've I've collected Jumpman merchandise, I have the entire TV series on DVD, I bought the limited edition platinum Director's cut of the movie (Which, by the way, I rather liked, even if it wasn't very accurate) and recently I've taken to sculpting pieces of wood into faces, you know, because Jumpman was apparently a carpenter?"
His smile was trying for too hard to come off as 'winning.' And as a result, Mario was a tad bit creeped out by it.
"Well, I've been trying to recreate Jumpman's face from memory, but it hasn't gone so well. I mean, I was five, come on."
Mario was under the impression that he had never met a fan more fervent.
"Well, anyway, I just wanted to ask you: What's your idea on the Quest?"
"The... what?" Mario asked, blankly.
"The quest!" The guy said impatiently. "You know, the search for the identity of Jumpman!"
Mario could not repress the thought that, given the circumstances, if this lunatic were to figure out that the man sitting across from him at this very moment was in the fact the very same person he had been obsessing over for twenty years, he would probably explode from happiness.
"I'm sure he's long gone by now." Mario said dismissively. "He's probably fighting turtles that breathe fire somewhere."
"Yes, yes, yes, that's always a possiblilty." The guy said, his voice quickening. He was getting worked up in his excitement. "Look, I've talked to everyone that was there that day, except for Jumpman himself. The thing is: Nobody knew who he was. He was just some guy, standing in the crowd somewhere, doing his work, when suddenly... bam!" He slammed his hand against the table. "Becomes a hero, and an inspiration for us all."
"You talked to everyone?" Mario asked, his gaze narrowing. Something wasn't right here.
"Everyone who saw the whole thing, anyway. People who were standing right next to me, really."
"What about the girl? Pauline?" Mario asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
The guy stared at Mario for a few seconds. "Yeah." He said. "I spoke to Pauline. How'd you know her name?"
"I'm a Jumper, same as you. Tell me, please."
"It's not really important." He said casually. "I just noticed a small piece in the newspaper saying that woman named Pauline was found alive after being missing for five years, and then I just invited myself over to her place and chatted with her for a while."
"What'd she say to you?" Mario asked.
"It was my only good lead for years." The fanboy went on, ignoring Mario's question. "Actually, I think she was rather fond of me for a while. But then the Krew showed up while we were talking one day, she asked me to leave and I complied. When I came back, she had moved out."
"The Krew?" Mario asked.
"They're a sort of...group, around here." The kid stared at Mario intently. You're not from around here, are you?"
"I was, a long time ago. I've only come for a short visit. What is it that you want?" Mario was anxious to continue the conversation, if only to find out more about Pauline.
"Well, I'm looking into finding Jumpman. You see, my associates would like to meet the guy, but I have no idea where to start looking. Right now, I'm getting all of my information off the streets."
"To meet... Jumpman?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure why." The kid said carelessly. "I'd imagine it's to get an interview or get some more details to make a movie or something. I don't really mind. I'm getting paid to look for my hero, what else could I want?"
"I don't know anything." Mario said, tapping the table with his finger. "I'm sorry. Really, I am."
"You sure?" The guy pressed. "Come on! You're walking around dressed like the guy, surely you must know something!"
This guy was clearly grabbing for straws. What a lousy reporter, Mario thought.
"Well, maybe I could come up with something." Mario said, his eyes drifting upwards towards the giant television mounted into the wall. Round two had ended, and neither side seemed to be the worse for wear. "That is, if you tell me more about Pauline."
"Why are you interested so much in her, anyway?" The guy sighed, clearly not expecting an answer. Mario did not offer one. "Fine. I really wanted to meet Jumpman, so I tracked Pauline down at her apartment and asked. She refused to say anything on the matter, but she did agree to talk to me about her personal experiences with that overgrown monkey."
"And...?"
"Well, after that, I always came by to see her every once in a while." the guy confessed. "Then, one day, the Krew showed up..."
"Okay, hold it." Mario held up a hand. "This is what I really want to know. "What is this 'Krew?'
"It's like a group of people who do... stuff... look, I don't really know, okay? I don't look into this stuff. All I know is that they have some sort of rivalry with my employers."
"Hmm... Interesting." Mario muttered. A sudden thought crossed his mind. "You know..." He said slowly. "I think I might know how to find Jumpman."
Eyes brimming with fire, the guy learned forward.
"I'm not sure if it'll work though." Mario went on. "If you can give me an address on where your employers workplace is, I'll see if I can send him over."
"Yes, Yes, yes, but how?" He said impatiently.
"Faster you hand it over, the faster I'll get it done."
...
Mario left the restaurant with a piece of napkin with the infomation required scribbled on. He knew this would most likely not lead to Bowser Jr, but it wouldn't hurt to ask Pauline, who, having known Bowser, might have a clue herself on his whereabouts.
Many flashing lights and booming noises were ahead. Mario had never been a naturally curious person (Luigi had always been more inquistive) But it seemed like a crowd, and Bowser Jr, being the gigantic, fire breathing, spiky shelled youngster that he was, was sure to draw some kind of crowd where ever he went.
As Mario sauntered over, the booming noises increased in volume, and the screams increased in volume. Mario had been the victim of those sorts of screams before: They were th sort coming from die hard fans, that literelly worshipped the ground you walked on.
"Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac! Mac!" The crowd chanted.
"What's going on?"
Mario pushed his way through the crowd, trying to find the object of everyone's affection.
"No way... I know this guy."
Standing next to the young man Mario had just seen on Television, a black man waved cheerfully at the fans, while whispering words into the grinning boy's ear.
"No way..."