Joao Franco: Yeah I needed time to simplify so I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far. The battle sequences will get a lot better then that. As for the original characters, a lot have been introduced so far I know, I'd say we have come across a good amount of them, but they will be much better spread throughout the story rather then a large amount coming at once.
A/N: I know it's in theory possible for King K to have met Vivian before now, but I am writing this assuming Mario doesn't come back to the Glitz Pit. The story in the game does so, the emails from King K (chapter 6) and Rawk Hawk (chapter 7) suggest that Mario does not return, even if he does.
Goombella was waiting for Kolorado in Twilight Town. He was supposed to show up about 20 minutes ago. However suddenly she heard the familiar sound of incoming mail on her SP.
Goombella,
Change of plans. I have a new task for you so come in say 15 or so minutes, give me a reply if you will be any later.
Professor Frankly
Goombella rolled her eyes as she closed her Mailbox SP, she was in Rougeport this morning.
"What's wrong" Vivian approached Goombella noticing her irritated expression
"I have to return to Rougeport and I have a new assignment with Professor Frankly"
"I am ready to leave though… so can I just tag along for a bit"
"Sure, but it may be a little boring"
Vivian nodded and followed Goombella to the pipe, however somebody was already coming out.
"Hey, looks like it worked dog"
Goombella knew that voice from somewhere, then out of the pipe popped a yellow shelled Koopa and a lighter red shelled one.
"King K? That you?"
"Goombella! Good to see you again" King K jumped from the top of the pipe and landed next to Goombella
"Wow, I like, never thought I'd see you. Especially in a place like this"
"Yeah, kinda cool to meet up. Oh hey AJ this is Goombella and Goombella that AJ" King K introduced the two to one another
"I've heard a lot about you, nice to meet you" AJ jumped down next to King K, they would have shook hands except a Goomba didn't have any
"Yeah nice to meet you too. What's the AJ stand for anyway?"
"Whatever you want" AJ replied in a bored fashion.
Goombella looked puzzled at this response. 'What an odd thing to say'"Oh and this is Vivian, she helped us in the shadow queen ordeal" Goombella quickly introduced Vivian to break the slight silence
"Hello" Vivian spoke quietly feeling slightly left out of this reunion
"Hey, so you guys hang out now?"
"It's more of a coincidence that we are together, but I must ask, why are you here and not in Glitzville?" Goombella's curiosity got the better of her but she knew King K wouldn't mind telling her
"Retired again, it was just too depressin' especially after my peeps left. Then…" King K stopped mid sentence an idea had just occurred to him "Hey maybe you could help, you know with your archaeological knowledge and stuff"
Goombella was caught by surprise "Err… okay"
"You think we could get somewhere quieter, we already attracted some unwanted attention" AJ looked into the air as if he was looking for something.
"Down the pipe, it's a quiet room" Vivian suggested
AJ nodded in agreement "Cool"
Unwanted attention? What did he mean by that? And why is King K suddenly interested in archaeology for, it's not his style at all.
All 4 went into the pipe one after the other
"Alright, this is better. Now what do you make of this?" King K then drew out a light blue orb from his bag
Goombella gasped in shock "Wow… but wait, I'm having major déjà vu here. We found something like this only its green, my Professor has it and is studying it right now"
AJ brought his hand to his chin in thought "So what do you know about them?"
Goombella shrugged "Not much, they are pretty, they are round, oh and they glow but that's about it. We have so got to see Frankly, come on"
Vivian got that feeling again that she had seen a similar object somewhere else before.
Frankly's study
Goombella and the other three entered
"Bring along a friend or two why don't you Goombella" Frankly shook his head in disapproval "Well, I know of Vivian of course, but who are the other two?" Frankly looked to the two Koopas
"He's King K I met him at the Glitz Pit, and this guy is AJ. But anyway, they have one of those round things that's why I brought them here"
"WHAATTTT? They have another? Extraordinary! Please let me see!" Frankly was almost shouting unable to contain his excitement
King K pulled the orb from his bag yet again and handed it to Professor Frankly. He quickly inspected it.
Frankly's eyes glowed as he looked at it "This is definitely another one, but how did you get it?"
"It got passed down to us from two people who we knew but neither of us were related, we were just friends" King K figured it was too much of a story to tell the entire thing, it was a simple question, it only needed a simple answer.
"I see. Do you know what this is?"
"Yeah, it's an orb of the old Leincart Kingdom, one of 9" AJ answered
"Correct, there are a also few items connected to their existence but of course these have gone missing over the course of time"
"Well, we also got these" AJ then went for his bag as King K already had the box out.
The Koopas pulled out a book and a box from their bags. Frankly looked at the book and pulled the clock out of the box. It was obvious that Frankly was very excited by the new development. You could see the amount of thoughts and possibilities that were flowing through his mind
Frankly figured there was no real rush and had to contain himself "Okay, well first let's go a little slower. I imagine you met in Twilight town after placing your orb into the clock while in the box"
King K nodded and replied "Yeah, and Goombella suggested we come along to show you"
The professor continued after his guess was proven correct "Right, the orb you have here is the first orb of healing, it heals of minor illnesses and injures. However the orb Kolorado and Goombella recovered is the orb of the past. It has two abilities, one it can slow down time for the user for a short time but it also allows those of the shadow species to travel backwards in time to the ancient town of Shalenza"
Vivian had been day dreaming, she didn't get anything that was going on yet that name got her attention instantly
Goombella jumped with surprise "Vivian, now that's why you had that dream"
Frankly however continued onto what the possibilities could be. "Of course, they aren't an unlimited power source, however over time they will regain their powers. Anyway, what I was going to have you do Goombella is work on finding a few more of these however what is better is Vivian picks up any useful information while in the past I will want you to be with her so you can both go after them in the present. Oh that is alright with you Vivian isn't it?" Frankly had just realised Vivian had been out of this conversation since the start
"No, I don't mind, it'd be good if I could make some sense out of all this"
"Okay so, let's see if this works. Put your hands on the orb and imagine you are travelling back in time to where you thought you saw" Frankly told her
Vivian did so… she then fell to the ground it was as if she had fainted
When Vivian opened her eyes, she saw her sister with her group of friends floating away laughing.
"Wow that was harsh, somebody needs to do something about them" A male shadow appeared next to her, it was like that Ben she had seen in her dream, now that she remembered it was like she had never left.
"Benjamin, the Emperor wishes to see you in an hour, in response to something, he did not say what but..." A shadow also with head feathers approached them
"Yes, yes I know" Ben raised his hand cutting him off before he said anything else, the other shadow only nodded and departed
So his name IS Ben, why is he here, why is it as if I feel awful that the younger Beldam has left me in such a way… it's like I'm… continuing my dream? Vivian tried to piece this together, Ben fortunately was just staring in the direction the younger Beldam had headed so didn't notice that she was spacing out.
"As much as I'd like to get even with Beldam, well we just can't beat on them for no reason. The Emperor would have me arrested for abusing my powers, although I don't think he is a big fan of their antics either"
Vivian decided to start paying attention to what was going on "Oh… And your powers?"
"Ah, I'm part of the Emperor's personal guard. We keep justice and stuff in the city, only 1 in 3 of us actually get the chance, and only 1 in 10 from those succeed in the training. While it seems there are a lot of us about it's only because our numbers are greater around here especially…" Ben stopped when he saw what Beldam was doing next
Beldam and her friends were now occupying themselves by stopping the kids playing their games and hurting those who tried to stand up to them.
"Right THAT is it…" Ben went over to Beldam
Vivian followed him.
"Beldam, you have gone too far now. I'm arresting you and your buddies"
Beldam laughed off Ben's threat "Don't be such a pathetic do gooder… you always do things without knowing all the facts. Like helping clueless over there, I would say it's merely because you are jealous of my popularity"
"You tell him Beldam, I hear that all the other guards call you wimpy"
"I am really sick of this guy, let's beat him and get clueless as well for earlier" Beldam pushed an icy wind at the pair of them both of them defended from it, Ben looked less then pleased.
"Vivian stand back, I'll deal with them" Ben stood in front of Vivian glaring at Beldam
Beldam laughed wickedly "Mwehehehehe Five against one? You must be joking"
"I can fight" Vivian stood behind Ben and prepared for battle
"Oh how romantic, looks like you've finally got a girlfriend wimpy" Beldam remarked sarcastically
Vivian if she was going to get anywhere, she would need an ally here. By now she knew the past Beldam certainly wouldn't lift a finger to help her, which left her no choice but to try and gain Ben's trust by fighting against her sister instead. Beldam and her friends lined up while Ben went for his first attack. He focused and a glowing light appeared over all 5 of them.
"We can see how much each one can take before they should fall" Ben said as the HP for each of their opponents was revealed, the first had only 5 HP, while Beldam had 15, and the others had 8. Ben himself had 20HP, and Vivian had 30HP. Vivian charged her fire attack and released it, hitting all 5 of her opponents, this alone was enough to cause the first one to fall.
"Wow… Fiery Jinx, perhaps I underestimated you" Ben was genuinely impressed by Vivian's abilities
Vivian wouldn't get to gloat for long as one of Beldam's friends appeared in front of her and gave her a fist, catching her by surprise dealing her 3 damage, another one held up their hand and a waterfall fell on top of Ben and Vivian which dealt them 3 damage each, the third one raised her hands and Beldam grew larger, Beldam went under the ground and appeared in front of Ben hitting him with a shade fist which took 6HP from him.
Vivian repeated her fiery jinx causing the other three to fall; only Beldam remained standing with 4HP left and a burn.
"Now if you surrender quietly, this won't hurt a bit" Ben summoned vines that came from underneath the ground grabbing Beldam's arms which also reversed her giant effect.
"Ack! Clueless can actually fight… this was unexpected" Beldam realised that these vines would suck her energy and with the burn she had already it would not be long before she would fall.
However the vines broke and another shadow joined the scene
"Oh is there a problem here Beldam?"
"Just these whelps wanting to pick on me, he just wants to see me charged for no reason at all as usual"
"Ah… well you know I can prevent that, so do not worry" The voice had a sense of authority and control to it, but it also seemed… dark. To Vivian this shadow sounded very familiar.
"Yes my queen" Beldam bowed
Ben was furious his plans had been derailed once again "It's really pathetic you call her Queen just because she leads your stupid Shadow sirens party"
"Give me time weakling and I will be Queen. But you know the rules, if you hurt Beldam, I hurt you worse, both physically and politically, so stand down. Why don't you do something useful, like finding some lost property" The shadow left and Beldam and her friends followed with laughs
"That woman just ticks me off. She allows Beldam to get away with murder, she'll never be Queen of this place"
"That voice sounded so familiar. It's a little creepy" Vivian was thinking aloud a little
"Probably does, she's one of the Emperor's main advisors and has a lot of political pull. She's the main reason why we really can't do anything about Beldam, and Beldam knows it. I wanted to arrest Beldam before she showed up and then quickly tell the Emperor before she poisoned him with her lies"
Vivian worked out where she had heard that voice… The Shadow Queen, it wasn't quite the same but there was no doubt about it. Just then she felt weak, and before she knew it she found herself back in Professor Frankly's office. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, Goombella was still with Frankly but the two Koopas had gone, .
"Whoa, that's creepy" Vivian blinked a few times as the room refocused
"What is creepy?" Frankly sounded hopeful that Vivian had uncovered something useful
"Uh… just things. I think I saw the Shadow queen… in the past, with Beldam, and…" Vivian stopped, there were too many thoughts were swirling in her head
Frankly smiled at her reassuringly "Just relax, it is not a great surprise you saw the Shadow Queen, remember this is a fallen city of the shadows. When you are ready you can tell me what you saw"
Vivian pulled herself together sitting up "No, I'm alright… just its like when I got there, it was as if it continued from my dream. Even the people were the same, I don't understand it"
"Hmm… That is most certainly odd" Frankly looked up to the ceiling in thought
Vivian then proceeded to tell Frankly about everything that had happened, including her meeting with Ben, her encounter with Beldam and the Shadow Queen.
"So you didn't find out anything about the orbs? This is unfortunate" Frankly sighed
Vivian has just remembered she didn't find out anything "I'm sorry, I totally forgot about it"
"No, it's quite alright, you are still new in town, so it may be best not to ask such questions at this stage. This shadow named Benjamin appears a few times in this book the Koopas left. I also learned that when this orb is first used it will warp back to the time it was first created and if my number reading is correct then this is also the one that was created last, so the other 8 exist in the time period you are in"
This was a little too confusing for Vivian, she tried to get Frankly to simplify "So you want me to ask about them and find them and bring them back here?"
"No, I don't think you can move objects through time like that. All you need to do is gain information and basic whereabouts of where the orbs could possibly be, who had them, what they represented, anything you can find out that may be of use. But that is for another time, the orb will need to recharge before you can go back again"
"In the meantime?" Goombella looked to Frankly, it seemed he too didn't quite get a lot of this
Frankly thought for a moment, a good 20 seconds had passed until he came up with a plan "In the meantime, you go to site of Shalenza and explore with Kolorado, the orb will take time to work again, however you can use its ability to slow time down more frequently without it affecting the other ability and it works for anybody not just a shadow"
"And how do we know when it is back to power?"
"You will be able to sense it"
"Sense it?" Goombella gave Frankly a puzzled look
"Don't ask me, I didn't write this book… now go, Kolorado will be waiting for you both" Frankly said impatiently trying to get some time to read the book so he work out more of what was going on, even he didn't understand how they would be sense it.
"Uh but how do we get there?" Vivian stood up, still feeling slightly weak.
"Oh? Simply catch a ship out to the Leincart region and work your way into Jamilan town, it shouldn't be too difficult to get yourself a ticket there"
Vivian and Goombella then left the office.
"Where is the Leincart region? I've never heard of it"
"To be honest I've never been there or heard much about it until now. Apparently it's the place where all these things originated, but due to them being passed down, hidden, stolen, lost or whatever they have been spread everywhere" Goombella at least gathered that's what had happened, it was probably the simplest assumption but who really knows.
The two headed for the docks and were able to get a ship into Leincart fairly quickly.
A/N: Most of the city names sound REALLY stupid I know, giving names to things is NOT my strong point, but each and every one has a hidden meaning which may be revealed in time.