Fleet Forest Outskirts
7:00 pm
Mario glanced around once his vision had cleared. As usual, he and Goomblaine were standing in the exact same place, but now the scenery around them had changed. Rather than the pale light of dawn seeping through the treetops, it was now dusk in Fleet Forest. The sun had just vanished, and light was beginning to drain from the world… though as he well knew, it would never drain any further until they started moving.
"Well, we're here. Now what?" asked Goomblaine.
Mario quickly turned in the direction of the gate and ran back toward it. He arrived there momentarily, and let out a broad grin. Hanner was nowhere to be seen.
"You see?" he said triumphantly to Goomblaine. "We just have to think fourth-dimensionally."
"Terrific. Now let's go."
The duo had no problem sliding through the bars of the gate, and after that, they set off down the path through Fleet Forest. As they walked, it began to grow darker and darker and it grew harder for Mario to see. However, he was still able to make out the strange object sticking out of one of the trees.
He stopped dead. "Goomblaine, look up there!" He pointed.
Goomblaine looked up. "Huh?"
There was a hammer resting on one of the tree branches… the same standard-issue hammer that belonged to every Hammer Bro Mario had ever seen.
"That must be Hanner's!" he exclaimed. "Come on, let's get it down!"
Goomblaine scoffed. "Why? We don't need to deal with her anymore."
Mario looked at him impatiently. "Goomblaine, I'm sure you don't have much experience with this, but generally when you help someone out, they're inclined to help you in return. Maybe Hanner will do something useful for us. Besides, it's the right thing to do to give it back to her."
"Doing the right thing never gets you anywhere," Goomblaine muttered. Mario ignored him and walked under the tree where Hanner's hammer was resting. Cracking his knuckles, he reached for his own hammer and whacked the tree with all his might.
He did not get the result he expected.
"BRAAAAAAAWCK!" came a raucous cry from within the leaves of the tree. Then the branches all began to shake and tremble as something was moving inside of it.
Mario grew pale. "That… sounded like a bird, didn't it?"
"You moron," Goomblaine grumbled.
Suddenly, a brown form came bursting out of the tree, flapping along on a pair of overly large wings. It was quickly joined by one, two, three more of its kind, and within moments they were all swooping around Mario and Goomblaine, screaming at them.
"WHAAAAAAAT are you doing in this forest?!" one of them screeched. "We own this place, punks!"
"You'll be SOOOOOOORRY!" another one cawed.
Well, it didn't take a genius to know these were the birds that Sledge had warned them about. Looking at them as best he could in the dim light, Mario could see they were little more than round heads with stubby legs and oversized wings. They would have looked harmless, even comical, if it weren't for their curved, sharp beaks and the murderous glint in their eyes.
"We just wanted that hammer up there!" Mario insisted, though he got the feeling negotiating would be useless.
"It's OOOOOOOOOUR hammer now!" one of the circling birds spat at him. "Everything in this forest is ours – including YOOOOOOOU!!"
And without any further warning, the four birds swooped into battle.
"Yikes!" Mario cried, leaping backward. "Uh, Tattle time, Goomblaine?"
Goomblaine grudgingly pulled out his phone and punched in a few buttons. "All right. These things're called Pudgy Budgies. They look cute, but they're nasty. They travel in groups and prey on guys who get lost in the woods, and they're drawn to despair."
"'Drawn to despair'? What does that mean?"
"How should I know?! I'm just readin' this thing!"
"SHUT UUUUUUUUP ALREADY!!" one of the Pudgy Budgies shrieked at them.
Mario braced himself and entered the fight. His hammer was useless on flying enemies, meaning he had to Jump whenever he got the chance. Using the strategy that had won them the fight against the Darkstriders, he and Goomblaine picked on one bird at a time, but that didn't stop the other three from pecking and scratching at them whenever they tried to attack.
"You guys are just a bunch of – ACK!" Goomblaine yelped as a Pudgy Budgie gripped him in its sharp talons and hurled him against a tree.
"What are you all doing in this forest?" Mario shouted as he attempted to Guard against another Budgie's pecking at his head. "Why have you been attacking everyone?"
"We're protecting what's OOOOOOOOURS!" one of them snapped in reply. "Those fools have been coming after our treasure! We won't let them HAAAAAAAAAVE it!"
Mario suddenly found himself surrounded by a mass of flapping wings and flying feathers. All four Pudgy Budgies were ganging up on him at once. He cried out and waved his arms around, trying to scatter them, but it was no use. Their forms were even blotting out the sky.
"Yeah, that's their special move, the Gang Attack," came Goomblaine's nonchalant voice from several feet away.
"DO SOMETHING, GOOMBLAINE!!"
"Whatever, Fat Man!" the Goomba scoffed, throwing himself at the group of birds and causing them to disperse.
"You are STROOOOOOONGER than the rest!" sneered a Budgie. "But we'll still never let you leave!"
The fight wore on like that, with Mario and Goomblaine fighting off a constant barrage of claws and wings as they Jumped and Headbonked their attackers. Mario was getting very weak, but couldn't help but notice that as he did, the Budgies' aim seemed to be worsening. Whenever one attempted to dive-bomb him, it would often miss.
With a smirk, he realized the Close Call Badge was working.
"That's it! I'm sick of you!" Goomblaine shouted, throwing all his energy behind one very lethal Headbonk. It seemed to do the trick, as the unfortunate Pudgy Budgie let out one more strangled squawk before plummeting from the sky, landing with a thud. The other Budgies shrieked in fury, and Mario and Goomblaine took advantage of their distraction and, one by one, finished them off as well.
"Graaaaaawk… this isn't over!" one of them groaned weakly.
"Yeah, yeah, they all say that," Goomblaine sneered.
"You'll never make it through this whole forest alive!" a second one growled at them. "If you're smart, you'll turn back NOOOOOOOW!"
And with that, they all picked themselves up and staggered off into the bushes.
Mario and Goomblaine stood panting heavily in silence for a moment. Finally, Mario turned to Goomblaine.
"'Fat Man'?!"
"I ain't calling you Mario! That name's ridiculous."
Shaking his head, Mario pulled out one of the Mushrooms he had bought and split it with Goomblaine. Within seconds they were re-energized, and then Mario turned his attention back to the matter at hand.
"All that fuss over a hammer," he sighed, walking back up to the tree. "This better be hers."
He gave the tree one more good whack, and this time it did the job.
"Uh oh – look out, Goomblaine."
"What?"
Goomblaine was promptly hit on the head by the hammer that had just fallen out of the tree.
"SON OF A – " He started swearing loudly for quite a while before finally calming down slightly.
"Are you quite done?" Mario asked irritably, picking up the hammer. "Now let's give it back to her."
"Uh, just one problem. We don't know where this Hanner is."
Mario froze, wincing. Goomblaine was right. It was so hard to get used to thinking of there being two versions of everyone except themselves.
"Do you think it would make a difference if I gave this one to the Dayside Hanner?"
"Man, this is your idea. I don't care what you do."
––
Fleet Forest Outskirts
7:00 am
Hanner had fallen back against the gate again and was starting to doze off. She wondered where Mario and that Goomba kid were now. She really felt bad about having to turn them away, but she had to do her job. She was already in trouble for losing her hammer, and…
"HANNER! HEY, HANNER!" came a familiar voice right by her ear, followed by a violent pounding against the gate. Hanner cried out, so shocked that she jerked away from the gate and fell forward to the ground in the process.
"What the – " she twisted around to see Mario standing on the other side of the gate, clutching her hammer and laughing.
"I'm sorry," he quickly snickered. "I just couldn't resist. Here, I got this for you." He held the hammer out.
Hanner was dumbfounded. "Wha – how the heck did you guys get over there?! I've been standing here this whole time! Oh man, I'm gonna get in trouble for – hey! My hammer!!"
"I bet you were the top of your class," Goomblaine grumbled at her.
Hanner leapt to her feet, slipped through the gate after them and grabbed her hammer. "Oh, thank you, Mario!" she cried, hugging it tightly to herself. "I was so upset when I lost it! Where'd you find it?"
"Uh… in the trees," said Mario, which really was true.
"Really? How'd it get up there? Man, that's weird… well, anyway, I gotta repay you somehow, Mario. I'd be dead meat without this."
"Well, we'll hold you to that. In the meantime, we gotta go."
"Hey, wait a minute!" said Hanner before he and Goomblaine could be off. "I'm still not supposed to let you go into Fleet Forest, y'know. But, why do you need to get there so bad anyway?"
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you. Trust me."
Hanner put her hands on her hips. "Try me."
Mario glanced at Goomblaine. Should they tell her the truth? There wasn't any harm in it, really, although if the Solunians had been any proof, she probably wouldn't even understand what they were trying to tell her.
"Well," Mario began, "Maybe you don't know this, Hanner, but up until yesterday, time didn't used to depend on location like this. It used to pass no matter where you were, even if you stayed in one place. And not only that, there was a second half to the day. It's called night."
Hanner looked dumbly at him. "Of course I know that, you weirdo."
"Goomblaine and I – wait. What? You know that?"
"Why wouldn't I know that?" Hanner giggled. "Oh boy, what a relief! I was starting to think I was the only one who noticed something weird was going on with the sun! It hasn't moved all day! Mario, do you know why that's happening?"
Mario and Goomblaine gawked at each other.
"So you remember the night?" Goomblaine asked.
"Uh huh. Wait, are you telling me it's never going to be night again?"
"Well – oh boy, where to start…"
Finally, Mario resigned to telling her the whole story: their visit to the Temple of the Sun, the murder of the Guardians of Day, and what happened as a result. Hanner listened to them, and her eyes grew wider and wider.
"You really mean it? They all died?" she gasped. "That's terrible! I mean – I didn't think that was possible! So now there are two Chronosides?"
"Yeah. You know, maybe that's what happened to your hammer. Somehow you ended up in different halves when the split happened."
"But that can't be. Shouldn't this hammer belong to the other me, then?"
"Oh, well…" Mario paused. "Actually, we didn't see the other you."
Hanner looked perplexed. "Is there another me?"
"Of course there is," Mario said automatically, but the instant he did, he didn't feel so sure. They hadn't seen any other Hanner… and this Hanner, the one they were looking at…
It was hard to describe… but she felt different, somehow. Now that he was used to seeing multiple versions of people, Mario was sort of able to tell that all the halves he was seeing weren't who those people truly were. Thinking back to Rodolfo, he realized that being around his halves had somehow felt different from being around his whole self.
He didn't get that feeling with Hanner. She felt more like Goomblaine, and like him.
"Well, anyway, that's why we have to go," he quickly said, snapping out of his thoughts and looking embarrassed. "We think there might be a Sun Soul in the forest."
"Wow," Hanner marveled, taking it all in. "And here I wasn't even gonna let you go…"
Suddenly she straightened up. "Mario! You gotta let me come with you! I wanna help you!"
Mario was stunned. "What?"
"Well, you got my hammer back for me, didn't you? And besides, helping you guys out has gotta be way more exciting than standing at this stupid gate!"
"Uh, Hanner… you shouldn't take this lightly. This is a really important mission we're on."
"I know!" Hanner insisted. "Trust me, I'll be good! I'll help you however I can! I wanna get those Guardians of Day back too, so the world can go back to normal! Please, Mario?"
Goomblaine looked doubtfully at Mario. "Are you really gonna let her?"
Mario looked back and forth between the Goomba and Koopa standing on either side of him, and unsurprisingly, felt a very strong wave of déjà vu.
"Goomblaine, of course I'm gonna let her," he quickly decided. "We're going to need all the help we can get." Secretly, though, he was also grateful that he would now have someone other than the spiteful Goomba to talk to.
Hanner looked thrilled. "Oh, really, Mario?" she cried, throwing her arms around him. "Thank you! Thank you so much! You won't regret it, I swear!"
"I'm regretting it already," Goomblaine muttered.
Hanner Joined Mario's Party!
Hanner is a young, friendly "Hammer Sis" who is very dedicated to her job and fiercely loyal to her friends. She's a bit of a jokester with a good sense of humor. She can throw out her hammer to hit switches that are too far away for Mario to reach, or to get the first strike on enemies. In battle, she can use her Hammer Throw to attack one enemy, or use Multi-Throw to throw many hammers and attack all enemies at once.
"Okay, then! Let's go!" Hanner said enthusiastically.
With nothing else holding them back, the trio immediately set off down the Fleet Forest path.
––
Fleet Forest
7:14 pm
They didn't stay in Dayside for long. Hanner had a plethora of questions to ask Mario now that she knew about their mission, and one of the very first things she asked was if she could see the magic hourglass he had mentioned. Not seeing the harm, he had obligingly pulled it out and warped the three of them to Nightside.
"That is so cool!" she cheered once they had arrived, clapping and jumping up and down. "Look! Look! It's nighttime out! That is just so awesome!!"
"It is kind of cool, but it's a very bad thing," Mario reminded her. "We only want one Chronoside here."
"Yeah, I know," she sighed.
Unfortunately, they were still attacked by random Pudgy Budgies every so often, but never so badly as the first time. Besides, now they had Hanner to help them. She was a perfect aim with her Hammer Throw, often downing weaker Budgies with a single blow.
"These things really aren't so bad when you're in a group," she noted after a while. "I don't know why everybody was making such a fuss over them."
"Hey, Hanner," Mario recalled, "Goomblaine was telling me that Pudgy Budgies are 'drawn to despair'. You don't know what that means, do you?"
Hanner looked at him and shook her head. "Sorry, Mario. I don't really know anything about these guys."
"It's fine. But do you know, are we going to run into any other enemies in here?"
"Gee, I don't think so. Up until recently, Fleet Forest was always a really nice and peaceful place. I think we'll – "
Hanner didn't get to finish before the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake and tremble.
The Hammer Sis looked alarmed. "What's going on?"
"You jinxed it, that's what," Goomblaine snapped at her.
"Wait a minute – I've felt this before," said Mario, filling with dread.
The trembling reached a violent peak, and all of a sudden, three monstrous forms came bursting out of the ground, throwing up a shower of dirt and towering over the three travelers.
"Piranha Plants?!" Hanner gawked. But Mario knew better. Unlike regular Piranhas, these three were colored yellow, and their spots were dark red. They drooled a viscous, vile-looking fluid as they peered down and grinned at Mario and the others.
"Putrid Piranhas!" Mario growled.
"HYUCK YUCK YUCK… YOU ARE MARIO, YES?" said the first one in a very loud voice.
"If I say no, will you leave me alone?" the plumber sighed.
"WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BEAT YOU NOW!" said the second one. "PREPARE TO GET BEATEN, MARIO!"
"But – this makes no sense at all!" Hanner cried as the three of them faced their newest challengers. "There are no Piranhas living anywhere near Fleet Forest! Much less Putrid Piranhas!"
"Hanner, don't question it and just fight!" Mario shouted at her.
Goomblaine quickly Tattled on them, but didn't reveal anything Mario didn't already know. Not only was their bite poisonous, but they could spew toxic goo at their enemies.
"And they're plants, so I'm pretty sure they're weak against fire!" he added.
"Is that so?" Mario said with a grin. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the Fire Flower he had bought from the Fleetmont Shop and brandished it in front of him. It immediately began spitting out fireballs, singing all three Putrid Piranhas and causing them to cry in pain.
"I'll take care of these guys!" Hanner announced, stepping forward. Mario watched as she suddenly began hurling an entire barrage of hammers at the Piranhas, striking all of them at once.
"Nice! Multi-Throw!" Mario said approvingly.
Goomblaine didn't look so happy. "You mean we went through all that trouble to get your one hammer and you had all of those?!" he bellowed at the Hammer Sis. "And where the heck do you keep all of 'em, anyway?!"
"Goomblaine, one thing you never ask a Hammer Bro is where they keep all their hammers," Mario replied.
"Yeah, Goomblaine! It's called hammerspace for a reason!" Hanner laughed.
"HEY! YOU GUYS! STOP TALKING WHILE WE FIGHT YOU!" shouted the center Piranha.
All three of them dived into the ground and resurfaced directly in front of Mario and the others, picking them off individually. Mario swung his hammer defensively at the Piranha attacking him, keeping it successfully at bay, and he saw Goomblaine jumping and dodging out of the second one's reach. Hanner wasn't so lucky.
"AAAARGH!!" she cried in pain as the Piranha bit down on her arm and started thrashing violently around. She tried to pull herself free, but it was no use.
"Hey! Let go of her!" Mario shouted, trying to rush over to her, when suddenly the Piranha in front of him spat a glob of disgusting purple sludge right in his face.
"Yuck," he groaned, quickly wiping it off before it could take its poisonous effect. "Hang on, Hanner – "
"HIYA!!" came a shout, and Mario looked up in time to see Goomblaine deliver a Headbonk directly to the head of the Piranha biting down on Hanner. It winced and released its hold, and Hanner quickly finished it off with a Hammer Throw. Mario took care of the second one with a Power Smash from his own hammer, and the third was already lying stunned on the ground. Goomblaine had beaten it already.
"OW… YOU GUYS ARE MEAN GUYS!" complained the center one, trying to lift its head back up.
"WE'LL BE BACK! WE'LL BEAT YOU GUYS NEXT TIME!" shouted the second one.
"Why does everybody always say that?!" Goomblaine growled as the Piranhas all ducked back underground and disappeared. Mario was about to make a similar remark when he noticed Hanner was panting heavily and groaning. She clutched at her arm where the Piranha had bitten it, and her face was starting to turn green.
"Hanner! You're poisoned!" Mario cried in alarm, running up to her. His mind began to race until he remembered another handy item he just so happened to have.
"Guess we needed this after all," he remarked, taking out the Tasty Tonic and giving it to her. "Here, drink this."
Hanner nodded weakly, grabbing the Tonic and downing it in a single gulp. After a moment, the color returned to her face and she sighed in relief, letting go of her arm.
"Thanks, Mario," she said. Suddenly, she started giggling and twirled her hammer around. "Ha ha! I knew it! Already this is more exciting than anything I've done in a long time!"
"Hey, if you two losers would shut up for a sec, look over here," came Goomblaine's voice.
Mario turned to see what he was gesturing at. He immediately recognized it as a Badge lying on the forest floor, and he quickly walked up to it.
"Woah – it's a Power Bounce!" he marveled, snatching it up instantly. "This is going to come in handy, big time! But where'd it come from?"
Goomblaine just shrugged. "Those Piranha guys dropped it when they left."
"Really?" Mario was surprised. "I know some enemies leave Badges behind, but they're never as rare as this one."
"Look, I saw what I saw," Goomblaine said impatiently. "Now can we just get going already? This is takin' way too long."
Hanner looked at Mario in surprise. Mario just shook his head, telling her it was best not to say anything. Obediently, Hanner silently walked off after Goomblaine, and Mario took up the rear.
As the sky continued to slowly darken, Mario started absentmindedly thinking about his new partner.
She sure is nice, he thought. And she's strong. She'll be good to have around.
He smiled a little.
"What do you guys think of her?" he said.
I like her! came an immediate reply. She's cool, and she's awesome at fighting. Oh, and she's pretty too! Think she'd like me?
Oh, that would be the first thing you think about, sighed a second voice.
Oh sorry, mister already-has-a-girlfriend, the first voice scoffed.
"Guys, stop fighting," Mario sighed. The two boys were similar in age and appearance, and it took someone as well acquainted with them as Mario to know how different they actually were.
Sorry Mario, said the second voice. But, I think she'll be great for you. I sure know a loyal and brave person when I see one.
Yeah, and she looks good in that helmet. D'you think I should be a Hammer Bro, Mario?
"Okay, that's enough," Mario muttered, plowing through the forest.
––
Deeper in the forest, the three Putrid Piranhas popped out of the ground and regrouped, looking beaten and humiliated.
"So? Did you beat him?" came an impatient voice from in front of them.
"HYUCK YUCK YUCK… WE'RE SORRY, MAMA," groaned the first one. "HE WAS TOO STRONG FOR US."
"MARIO IS TOUGH GUY. HIS FRIENDS ARE TOUGH GUYS," agreed the second one.
The shadowy figure in front of them sighed and shook its head. "You can't do a simple thing like take down a ridiculous plumber and his friends? I expected better from you. And you even lost that Badge you were supposed to be guarding…"
"WE'LL DO BETTER NEXT TIME, MAMA," promised the first one.
"You'd better hope you get a next time," the figure said sternly. "Now go. It's too late to stop him here."
The Putrid Piranhas guiltily bowed their heads and retreated back in the ground, leaving the shadowy figure by itself.
Cloaked in the perpetual darkness of the trees, it took off through the forest as silently and stealthily as though it were a shadow itself. After several minutes, it heard the sound of voices coming from the forest path. Skillfully leaping up a tree, it parked itself on a branch and gazed down.
Mario, Goomblaine and Hanner were walking down the path. The shadow watched them closely, unseen by any of them.
"So, you won, Mario," it said, growing a satisfied smirk. "Just as I thought you would. I certainly hope I can meet you in person soon enough."
––––
A/N: Just a heads up, but I probably won't be able to update for a while after this, seeing how ridiculously bogged down with schoolwork I am right now. Once Thanksgiving break rolls around, you'll get more, I PROMISE!
Oh, and you win a free Internet if you know where the phrase "thinking fourth-dimensionally" comes from. ;)