As a few might have known, the chapter had been finished since Tuesday, if I recall correctly. The reason that I post it now and not earlier, is because I wanted to either post another story or this chapter for my birthday. I failed to complete the other story, so here it is!
Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else from his series. Nintendo does. Though, I own Rich. Luna is questionable.
"Prepare for take off!" Luna commanded, sitting in front of a steering wheel, one that would not misfit in a museum as an ancient artifact. The explication of this was that Luna liked retro things, saying that they would be 'in' soon.
Mario and E. Gadd stood after Luna, who was surrounded by lots of lumas. All of them focused on one thing: to get the ship moving once again! The ship shocked a few times, causing E. Gadd to stumble, upon which Mario helped him up again. But, after a few minutes, the ship finally moved away from Stardock. Lumas that lived there all came to look to see the FM2 (Faceship Mario 2, the name came from Luna) leaving. Some waved with handkerchiefs, as the FM2 slowly hovered bit by bit away from the dock. Thank you's came from everywhere, leaving Mario questioning how many times he would hear it on this journey… And then finally, the FM 2 disappeared in the clouds that surrounded Stardock…
"…" Rich's tears fell on the ground as the ship moved into space. He was on a spot where no luma on Stardock could have seen him. He looked hateful at the small puddles that came into existence beneath him. Why was he crying? Rich had questioned his importance for quite a long time now. When Toadsworth said that the princess was more important, it was like putting coals on a fire that attempted to burn again. Again, because he had more times he was worried about this kind of thing. But, despite his crying at those times, he knew he shouldn't think that he was worthless. He had thought for a short moment that he had finally passed this stadium of questioning his worth, but apparently, he hadn't.
Maybe it was because he was stuck in a complete alternate dimension… That could explain his quick changing moods last time. He was not the person to become angry. Well, not to person to show to strangers he was. But now… He had a rage for three times, with only the first time being understandable in his own eyes. The other two though… He would have never reacted this way. And yet, here he was proving wrong to himself.
"Err…" A voice came from behind Rich. He looked around, spotting Toadsworth in the progress. Rich tried to not completely overreact again.
"You here to apologize? You already did, and it's not your fault. So, could you ignore me, please?" Rich asked, his voice sounding normal despite his emotions that were flying out of control in his mind. He was displeased as he saw Toadsworth coming to him anyway, cane in the hand.
Toadsworth considered to do what Rich asked, but reminded himself of the times Peach acted the same way as Rich did now. And when Peach acted like that, then he also didn't ignore her. So why should he do it now?
"Young man, despite the fact that I actually want to do what you asked, I cannot." Rich looked strange at Toadsworth, not really understanding it.
"Why not?"
"Because I got asked to help you out." Toadsworth replied seriously.
"Then you would do a perfect job…" Rich started, only to have Toadsworth interrupt him and finishing the sentence.
"By first asking you why there's something wrong."
"I'm not answering, because I get a whole pep talk if I say why." Rich replied, his emotions once again getting unstable. Toadsworth merely hold a grin, knowing exactly how to the information out him.
"What was the reason again that there's something wrong?"
"Because I feel worthless..." Rich answered, before realizing he never told the reason yet. His eyes became big in realization. "Hey!"
"People usually fall for that… Even though it's overused. But that's besides the point. Why do you think…" This time, Toadsworth got interrupted with Rich finishing off the sentence.
"I'm worthless? Because I can't do much. That's why."
"Well, in that case you can…" Toadsworth started, earning a straight stare from Rich. He was not going to join Mario, despite that feeling. "Err… what I mean to say, is that nobody is worthless. We all are important, on our own ways that is…"
"Sure…" Rich merely replied, before continuing. "I've heard that like a million times. And I know. It's just… I question what MY way is."
"I don't know that as well. I know that mine is to care for the princess. Some say though that I follow my way too good…" Rich got interested in that.
"What do you mean with that?"
"Well, some say I care, and more like worry, too much about the princess…"
"That explains why you're so wanting me to join Mario." Rich concluded, getting control over his emotions again now that they were not talking about it.
"Probably. I can't just stand that something happens to her… It doesn't make my life easier that something happens at least every month." Toadsworth chuckled a bit.
"No, that doesn't really help. But have you never thought about a way to prevent it from happening?" Rich's pessimistic side came out a bit.
"We had security systems once… But Bowser got through them anyway, making them only expensive. So, princess Peach decided to remove them. We only have a small amount of guards now. And the masters, of course." Toadsworth explained.
"Ah… In that way… Though, didn't you suspect that Evil King attacking during the Star Festival? You could have prevented a lot…"
"I actually did, but Peach decided to ignore my warnings anyway."
"They should have listened… Always think of the worst thing that could happen, unless it's too absurd for words. That's what I always say…" Rich said, having calmed down now. He looked at the sky, which was now filled with stars as if it was night. Maybe it was, maybe not. There was no sun or moon that could give a hint… It was quite a long time ago Rich saw stars in real life and not on pictures… And now he saw them in a completely different universe. Weird and odd, but also quite… fantastic to see them again.
"Well, maybe it's better to not always do that, but on a few times, it would certainly help. Though, about the princess…" Toadsworth attempted again, but Rich saw through it immediately.
"No, sir. I'm not going to join. I have to thank you for cheering me up, but that… No." Rich said, preparing to go them somewhere else on the ship. "But I'm going now. It's getting late, and I want to sleep…"
"Ok, young sir. Good night." Toadsworth replied, thinking about going to sleep as well.
"Good night…" And so Rich left, taking his rucksack with him. Rich didn't know where to sleep though, but one of the lumas told him of the quarters beneath the soil of the ship and where he could find the entrance to it. It was located in the 'nose' of the ship. A little disgusted of that, Rich went to it. After a few moments, Rich was sleeping in one of the rooms below, and after a few moments more, everyone was sleeping in the rooms. The FM2 continued to fly (despite nobody driving it) to somewhere, and one very small ship, that looked like a mushroom, followed it…
The next morning, the ship had come far by now. Space is empty is something you hear often, but not in this universe. The next galaxy already came into sight, but it was covered by lots of clouds. Those clouds were not normal though… They looked like… pants? No wait, they looked like some wool, weaved together. As time progressed, the lumas, humans and toad awoke, Luna being the first one mentioning the galaxy.
"Nice! We are nearing Seat Galaxy!" Luna shouted in happiness, as more and more lumas came out of the nose and went back to work. Mario came out as well, just in time to hear Luna saying the sentence.
"Seat Galaxy?" Mario repeated, having never heard of that galaxy before.
"Seat Galaxy is the galaxy where seats are made for… I dunno. But they are made there. The planets itself are made of all things that seats are made of as well, making them very soft… and sometimes bouncy. In short: it's one of the best places to relax, and would have been the best if one could get a pedicure there…" Luna said, drifting off to some daydreams of undergoing a pedicure… Before Mario interrupted the dreams.
"So basically, a galaxy made of seats. Got it." Luna was not exactly happy being interrupted, but decided to shake it off. The FM2 in the meantime neared the clouds made of wool, E. Gadd and Toadsworth arriving on the scene in the meantime.
"That's the galaxy princess Peach is in?" Was, of course, Toadsworth's first question when he saw Seat Galaxy.
"Possibly, but unlikely." Mario answered honestly. Sure, if Bowser was hiding there, then Peach could be find there as well. But, Bowser had an odd addiction to always hide in big castles, often being very hard to navigate. How one could live when he/she had to jump over lava more than ten times and face other deadly traps every day, was a question with an answer. Bowser had several backdoors in order to get out of the castles quickly and an actual living place as well. He wasn't just always there.
"What's up with those clouds?" E. Gadd wondered, before getting explained that everything in the galaxy is made of materials used for seats, including the clouds. E. Gadd got interested in that, going away in order to get some things, needed to capture the clouds for further investigating… He returned just in time to experience the FM2 moving through the wool clouds. Everyone that was not a luma was amazed at this, before FM2 finally got through it.
The ship flew to the first planet that it came across. This was a rather large planet, but not as big as Stardock was. One could get easy lost here though, with all the stockpiles of seats everywhere. An odd, mechanic thing moved towards the faceship. This thing looked a bit like a human, but yet not. It had a big vertical placed gear on what seemed to be its head, the gear moving straight through the head. Eyes were replaced by what seemed fuel gauges, and the hands by grabs. It had no legs, but instead wheels on its sides. The main 'body' was further metallic green.
"Do ya want some seats?" The thing asked in a metallic voice and with a slight accent, the thing being recognized by Mario as Gearmos.
"No thanks. I already bought one last week." Luna friendly answered.
"Need reparations then?" The gearmo continued.
"No, but…" Luna started, before getting interrupted by the gearmo.
"Here to deliver materials?"
"No, I'm not here for that as well." Luna replied, getting a little irritated.
"Need a job?" The gearmo asked this time.
"Err. Sorta… You see…" Luna got interrupted again, but not by the gearmo, but rather by a broom thrown by the gearmo. It landed straight on Luna's face.
"Excellent. Ya can start by cleaning this whole planet." The gearmo said, not mentioning the pain Luna was in.
"No, I didn't mean that work!" Luna shouted angry, the gearmo becoming a little surprised by this tone. "I wanted to ask if some kind of airship passed through here. A big wooden one?"
"Oh yes, I remember that one. One of the best customers I have ever had." Toadsworth, E. Gadd, Mario, Luna and actually just everyone with the exception of the gearmo seemed to be surprised.
"Best customer? You mean that whoever was on that ship, didn't attempt to conquer this galaxy?" Was Luna's reaction upon the answer.
"No, they didn't. The airship arrived, a turtle thing of my size came out of it, and said something along the lines of 'All your seats belong to us!', upon which I took out the seats and brought them to him. He seemed to be surprised about this, and suddenly didn't want the seats anymore. But I have dealt with this kind of situation before, and a few moments later, all seats were sold." As the gearmo said that, the little pointer in the gauge eyes of the gearmo seemed to move to a dollar symbol.
"Bowser Jr! What's the meaning of all those seats!" Kamek shouted, facing Bowser Jr. and pointing to a large stockpile of seats. Very different ones were present, varying from what could be easily thrones to small girly seats. Originally, this complaining was something Bowser would do himself, but due his largeness, it was probably better to just let Kamek do it, or so Bowser thought.
Bowser Jr. looked up, both a little nervous and ashamed, from whatever he was doing. "Err… That's a long story, Kamek…"
"Anyway…" The gearmo was not finished yet. "He took the seats with him, after paying all the money…"
"HOW MUCH?" Kamek shouted in panic. The King would not like that… Even if it was Bowser Jr., Bowser wouldn't like it…
"And was friendly enough to even put an extra donation to the galaxy by placing that robot thing on that planet." The Gearmo finished, one of his arms pointing to a cotton planetoid that looked a disc. Mario thought for a second, before asking something on a friendly way.
"Has somebody neared the robot?"
"Nope, we're all too busy with our work to care about donations. Some others say though that they have heard someone screaming for seats… Or help, one of the two." Mario's and Toadsworth's eyes got big upon hearing that.
"The princesses!" Toadsworth shouted.
"Or Luigi!" Was what Mario shouted in happiness. Wanting to get the job done as quickly as possible, Mario started walking on the green cotton floor, before being stopped by the Gearmo.
"Wait a moment, sir! Where're ya thinking ya are going? Ya can only enter this galaxy with my permission!" Mario then went on explaining the whole situation, from the star festival to this very point. "So… what ya are saying is that the donation is evil… That explains the appearance of those odd robots everywhere that tend to attack us… Well, in that case, ya can go to destruct that thing. All others from your ship may walk around here as well." With that, Mario went into the deeper parts this planet, moving out of the sight due the stockpiles.
"Hey, wait a moment. Where is Rich?" Toadsworth suddenly questioned.
"Still sleeping." Luna explained. "He had a bad day and is in puberty anyway. He's probably not going to awake…" Just as Luna said, the sound of a door being closed could be heard, Rich walking up to them. "until now."
"Err…" Rich started, finally in new clothes. He still wore jeans, but instead of the yellow sweater, he wore now a blue one. His rucksack was missing, probably left in the quarters. He apparently was in a normal mood now, as he lacked the courage to continue with his sentence. Lucky, Luna knew what he wanted to ask.
"Are you hungry?" Luna asked not unfriendly.
"Yes…" Rich answered.
"Ok. There's some bread left in quarter twenty-one. We lumas eat star bits, but I think that you don't want that stuff…" Luna said, guiding Rich back to the door in the nose.
"Not really." Rich replied, saying no words more than needed.
"By the way, how was your night?" Luna and Rich were now standing directly beside the door.
"Other than the fact I'm a bit disgusted that somebody went into my room to place these clothes and take my old ones while I was sleeping, I'm fine." It was then that E. Gadd suddenly remembered something, something very important.
"Hey, Rich! After you're done, can you go to me? I'm in need of some help…" E. Gadd said, leaving behind what kind of help exactly.
"Okay, I think…" Rich responded, before the door got closed. Toadsworth looked suspicious at E. Gadd.
"For what kind of help do you need him?"
"I need to do some testing with my latest project, and he's perfect to try it out on." Toadsworth looked shocked at the revealing of these plans.
"What! You're using him as a laboratory rabbit?" All lumas that were near the two looked shocked at the old professor as well.
"And what if I tell you it might give Rich the courage to join Mario? Even though it's not what I aim for, it has the possibility." E. Gadd attempted in order to convince Toadsworth to not tell it already.
"I keep silent." Was Toadsworth's short response. All lumas around them still looked shocked, but decided to simply continue. Maybe the experiment wouldn't be that bad… That, and Rich's outrages the previous day did not make them really like him.
"Is that a smaller robot?" Mario questioned as he saw an odd looking robot. It looked a bit as Bowser, only much smaller and mechanic. It was due the fact that it looked like Bowser that Mario thought that it could be such robot, which was actually called a mecha-koopa.
Mario had by now managed to get already to the second planet (with a simple jump from one to another). It was completely flat, and looked like some workshop. Gearmos were easefully working on new seats on assembly lines on the sides of the planet, backs turned to the mecha-koopas and Mario. Mecha-koopas, because there were more than just one. When one spotted Mario, it immediately started breathing fire, while walking slowly towards our hero. The robot looked really confident as far as it could, thinking about the praise it would get for destroying the foe of Bowser… Such good dreams…
Poorly enough for it, these dreams were literally shattered as Mario ground-pounded into it, resulting with parts of the robot flying to everywhere. Now all mecha-koopas mentioned Mario, and started attacking him… With the gearmos still working.
"It's always so boring here…" Said one in a mechanic voice. Mario managed to destroy another robot as the gearmo said that.
"Did ya expect it not to be?" Replied another. The mecha-koopas teamed up to take down Mario.
"A cool fight would be nice for once…" The first one wished. Mario mentioned the plan of the mecha-koopas, but there were far too many to just rush into them, and so, Mario instead started running around.
"Between who?" A third one questioned. The mecha-koopas looked dazed as Mario ran around them, but still attempted to follow him, remaining in the circle Mario was walking.
"Between good and evil, of course." The first one answered. The mecha-koopas fell straight into Mario's plan as they, while fire breathing, burned each other, exploding in the progress.
"Forget it. We will never see such fight, and never feel the results of it." A fourth one stated, just as a part of a mecha-koopa fell on its head. It ignored it though.
"You're right, like always…" The first one muttered as all mecha-koopas were destroyed. Parts of them were everywhere. Mario had trouble to navigate through them, but in the end, jumped towards the next planet.
"Finally ready?" E. Gadd asked not unfriendly as Rich came back to the deck, closing the door behind him.
"I guess… But what do you need me for? I might be smart, but you're the professor." Rich questioned, not really knowing if he should trust this actually.
"Don't worry. I've already tested it a few times." E. Gadd assured. Nobody noticed the fact that the door to the quarters was opened and closed again with a slam.
"Okay…" Rich said, before realizing the oddness of the sentence. "Wait a moment! 'Already tested?' You're going to use me as a laboratory rabbit?" E. Gadd didn't answer and simply pulled out one hair of Rich. "Ow!"
"Kind of." E. Gadd chuckled. "But all experiments were successful, including the ones on myself. It's hundred percent safe. I only need to see how it works on a humanoid teenager. Just remain here, and you will see." E. Gadd said while walking away from Rich.
"But why do you need my hair and why do I need to stay here?" Rich said, despite his unwillingness remaining on the same spot. One could hear now that something fell on the floor in the quarters…
"Like I said, don't worry." E. Gadd picked up a small device out of his research coat.
"When they say don't worry, that's when I worry the most." Rich mumbled. E. Gadd placed the device on the ground, where it quickly developed into a huge machine, green numbers on a few screens. E. Gadd putted Rich's hair somewhere in the machine, and E. Gadd pushed a green button. A few seconds later, Rich vanished suddenly, only to reappear near E. Gadd and the machine. He looked around, a bit dizzy…
"I don't feel good… What happened…" Rich said weakly, having trouble to remain on his feet.
"You've just been teleported! And as far as I can see, nothing is wrong with you!" E. Gadd exclaimed enthusiastic, while Rich stumbled to the ground. "Except that you're dizzy… But that's something that always happens the first time if one gets teleported."
"How do you know that, except that it sounds kind of cliché…" Rich said, trying to get back up.
"Everything that I teleported were dizzy afterwards, including myself…" E. Gadd chuckled. Rich finally managed to get back up, but was still weak in the legs.
"But how does that thing work…?"
"Simple. This Tropelet 2 can teleport anything to near itself, as long as it has data on it. In order to give that data, I used your hair which was full of DNA to give it the right data about you. Afterwards, it's just a simple press on the button. How it does that is way too complicated to explain."E. Gadd explained.
"But how come my clothes, not having my DNA, get teleported as well?" Rich questioned, now fully restored again.
"That one took me a long time… Lucky, I was alone in my lab… But again, too complicated to explain." E. Gadd said with a small frown on his face.
"I don't wanna know…" Rich answered. He looked for no reason to the door to the quarters, when it suddenly got opened, revealing something what seemed to be a beanish. It was wearing brown trousers, a purple shirt with white stripes horizontally, a hat that you would see on a French painter, and a purple mask. It had further… Rich's rucksack!
"Hey! What're you planning to do with that?" Rich shouted, standing ready to attack, but also to run away. He was not going to give that rucksack away that easily, but on the other hand… How strong could this thief (what Rich assumed him to be) be?
"Boo! The Shadow Thief caught in full sight! But I'm not going to fight, see?" The Shadow Thief said, making a run for it.
"Hey! Get back here! Stop the thief!" Rich shouted while running after the thief. The thief jumped on the planet with the seat stockpiles, before running away. Rich did so as well, just as Toadsworth appeared. He looked in amazement at Rich and then at E. Gadd.
"When you said that the experiment would encourage Rich to help Mario, I didn't think it would be this successful! My compliments, professor." Toadsworth said amused towards a dazed E. Gadd. This event kind of happened too fast for him…
In the meantime, Mario had finally arrived on the last planet. Mario looked around, but didn't see the robot that had somebody captured. He saw an odd looking mushroom though… It seemed to be made of metal, and it's hat had several spirals. Mario picked it up. Completely out of nowhere, a spring appeared around Mario.
Mario transformed into spring Mario!
Mario knew this thing from his previous adventures, and didn't really like it. It was kind of hard to navigate the planets with this thing… Mario jumped around, before making one big jump. When he landed back, he felt for a moment a huge earthquake on the planet, before the sound of landing came into his ears.
"Nobody jumps higher than Jumpa-leg! Not allowed! Error! Error! Must be Mario!" A robotic voice came from the other side of the planet. Mario jumped around on the disk planet, only being able to move left and right for some odd reason, when he saw a huge robot… It had very long legs, seven times as big as Mario, and a dome as head. This dome was made of glass on the upper part, revealing a power star in it. The robot was perfectly symmetric, with the head in the middle. The one that was supposed to be captured by this thing was nowhere…
"Exterminate foe immediately! Process, start!" The voice continued.
Boss Battle: Jumpa-Leg: Best (and only) jumper on the planet.
Mario: 3/3
Jumpa-Leg: 3/3
As the boss battle started on that planet, on another one, Rich finally managed to corner the Shadow Thief, so that he had no escape.
"Boo! The great Shadow thief captured? No, this is all my master plan to get rid of the one that follows me, see?" Rich stopped in his tracks, realizing what the Shadow thief planned… Attacking him!
"Err… Can't we debate about this by some cup of tea?" Rich questioned, not wanting to fight. Oh, how did he get himself stuck into this… He really should have thought this over before acting… But then again, video games are expensive these days, and in that rucksack were his video games. And without them, he would have nothing to do while Mario saves everyone. He couldn't afford to lose them.
"No, we cannot, see?" The shadow thief responded, placing Rich's rucksack in a corner and getting out of nowhere a big sack, threateningly swinging it.
"I don't see it!" Rich responded in fear.
"… Then I make you see it, see?" The shadow thief responded.
Mini Boss: Popple; the so-called Master Shadow thief.
Rich: 4/4
Popple: 3/3
(Music: Digga-leg, SMG 2)
Jumpa-leg jumped into the air, leaving Mario behind who was now just bouncing around. Mario wondered when it would come back down, but it somehow managed to levitate in the air. Suddenly, a red flash-light on the robot started glowing, the light falling on the planet. The robot then hovered around above the planet, searching for where Mario was.
Mario was not the dumbest one and attempted to remain out of the flash-light, in which he succeeded. However, the robot never came down, and even with the spring power-up he could not reach the robot. There was probably only one way to him down again… Mario bounced over to the light, after which alarms went off. Jumpa-leg fell back in an attempt to crush Mario, but he quickly moved out of the way. Mario then jumped on the robot itself, bouncing slowly towards the glass dome… and ground-pounded on it.
Mario: 3/3
Jumpa-leg: 2/3
Some glass shattered, but nothing more than that. Jumpa-leg jumped again into the air, doing the same stuff again. Mario moved again to the flash-light, the robot fell back, Mario moved away again and… a shockwave was made as the robot landed on the planet! Mario was caught off-guard, and the huge blue shockwave hit him, sending Mario flying a bit.
Mario: 2/3
Jumpa-leg: 2/3
The power-up disappeared while Mario landed on the ground, and Mario had to find another spring mushroom. Otherwise, he couldn't climb Jumpa-leg… Jumpa-leg jumped up again, and did the same stuff. However, Mario attempted to stay out of the light while running around the planet, searching for a new spring mushroom. It had to be somewhere… Poorly enough, the flash-light managed to caught him before Mario could find a new mushroom. Mario managed to dodge the crush, but the shock wave was too big for Mario to jump over it. Mario got hit again.
Mario: 1/3
Jumpa-leg: 2/3
Mario fell back on the ground. One more time, and it would be game… No, fanfiction-over. Jumpa-leg jumped again, but now Mario found a new mushroom. It was randomly placed, but it was still there. Mario picked it up and again transformed into Spring-Mario, just in time as the flash-light discovered him. Mario mentioned this, and dodged the crushing Jumpa-leg. Now with the spring, Mario could jump over the shock-wave and climb on the robot. The glass shattered more as Mario ground-pounded again on it.
Mario: 1/3
Jumpa-leg: 1/3
"Error! Destruction near! Last_ start!" The robotic voice stated, while Jumpa-leg jumped again into the air. Mario moved to the flash-light, Jumpa-leg fell back, Mario dodged, shockwave appeared… All the same things all over again, but Jumpa-leg jumped immediately back into the air, before Mario had the chance to jump on it. The flash-light shined again, and Mario attempted to bring Jumpa-leg back by moving into it, not knowing what else he could do. Mario narrowly dodged the attack and the shockwave that came after it.
Apparently, Jumpa-leg's program thought that a second jump would be enough to use as a 'last defense', as it didn't jump up again. Mario quickly used this to his advantage, and a few moments later…
Mario: 1/3
Jumpa-leg: 0/3
(Stop the music)
It exploded into a million pieces. Mario could swear he heard someone screaming, but didn't give it a second thought as he picked up the power star, which, despite the explosion, was completely unscratched. Like Luigi, who was a prisoner in Jumpa-leg and was flung into the sky when the robot exploded. Gravity in this universe was very weak, but it was strong enough to pull Luigi back, on a certain someone's head…
"Finally!" Luigi said, having already recovered from the explosion. "I thought for a moment I would never get out… of whatever I was in…" Luigi looked around, searching for the one that had freed him. "That's odd… I thought I would see Mario…"
"Down here!" Mario's muffled voice said. Luigi looked down, mentioning his brother… on who he was currently standing on.
"Err, sorry bro." Luigi apologized as he moved off Mario. Mario stood up, but only fell back again as Luigi hugged him tightly, tears raining on the ground. "Mario!" Luigi shouted out of happiness and relieve. Mario returned the hug, finally having been returned with his long lost brother… Ok, not that long, but still. After what seemed hours, both let go off, while they walked back to the FM2, talking about what happened the past days…
(Music: Rookie and Popple; Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga)
"I see what you mean! I see!" Rich shouted in panic as he ran around in circles (the ironic…), Popple following close on Rich's non-existent tail, trying to ram into him.
"Only me could be so lucky to have such easy opponent, see?" Popple chuckled evilly. As they ran a few more circles, Rich got pretty tired. If he did not do anything fast, then he was at the mercy of a thief… That stole his video games, that cost a fortune these days! Realizing this, Rich continued his route. Did you really expect him to do something else?
"Huff… Puff…" Rich huffed and puffed, giving away he was tired. As one might know, signaling you became tired was the last thing you wanted in a fight. Popple mentioned it, and saw Rich slowing down. Now he was running faster than Rich, which resulted as him finally ramming into Rich.
Rich: 3/4
Popple: 3/3
"Ow!" Rich said as he wiggled a bit, attempting to not fall down. Popple used this to get another hit on Rich, something he easily succeeded in.
Rich: 2/4
Popple: 3/3
Rich fell over to the ground, crashing hard into it. He groaned because of his pain, upon which Popple laughed again.
"Now you know why you shouldn't mess with the great shadow thief!" He continued with laughing, not mentioning that Rich climbed back up, the words of his dad echoing through his head like light in a diamond.
"You cannot always run, you have to fight sometimes!"
"But they always result with me getting hurt… With running, I can hopefully get away fast." Was Rich's response always…
But right now, he couldn't run away. He wanted to, but he didn't also want to lose his video games… So he had to use it, despite not liking to fight in reality. It was his last chance. Rich concentrated on his right arm, focusing energy into it.
"I'm going to let you taste the ground, see?" Popple said to Rich, while attempting to ram into him again. Rich dodged narrowly, while still storing energy. He had to make Popple throw something at him, otherwise, this fight would get bad results.
Popple in the meantime decided he should change his tactics. Rich seemed to figure out how he could dodge Popple's rams perfectly, and that was no good for the shadow thief. Instead, he picked up his sack (something he had been carrying on his back the whole time… He's got a better stamina than you would think) and opened it. Knowing the sack like his pockets, he started to get random things out of it and then threw them at Rich. Most of the time, it was a coin, but on a few times he got a nearly exploding bomb-omb or poison mushroom.
Rich dodged all what Popple threw at him, glad to see that his tactic would work this way. He felt that his arm was ready for it, and continued to dodge (getting hit by a few coins, that oddly enough did not hurt him) until a bomb-omb was thrown. Rich simply waited for it till it got close enough. When that happened, Rich swung his right arm, which was suddenly glowing yellow, into it. The direction of the bomb-omb got turned around, flying straight backwards to the sender. Popple had not expected this, and the bomb-omb exploded in his face! Rich's arm stopped with glowing though.
Rich: 2/4 (Coins also didn't heal him, before you say anything)
Popple: 2/3
Popple, now really the 'shadow' thief due the black soot, got immediately angry. "I'm not liking that, see?" Rich was not intimidated by Popple, and prepared another reflect punch. Maybe he had a small chance of winning… And the worst thing that could happen is that Popple got away, something that could only be prevented by beating this thief.
Popple did not realize what Rich was doing, but figured out that another throw attempt would likely result the same way. As such, he closed his sack and swung it around himself, and again, and again… until he rotated very fast. He moved towards Rich, who could do nothing else than running away from this spin attack, the attack done the same way as a silent hero in green would do. Rich ran towards one of the stockpiles inadvertently, with Popple following him close, not getting dizzy at all. Rich dodged out of the way, Popple crashing into the stockpile. A seat fell down on the ground, were it broke.
"Maybe…" Rich thought as his arm was again ready for action. Rich moved towards another stockpile (the stockpiles surrounded the area, with the exception of one exit) and dodged Popple's spin attack again. Popple again crashed into the stockpile, and a seat fell down. Rich had counted on that and his arm glowed again, hitting the seat in the progress which flew towards Popple. The sudden damage caused him to stop spinning.
Rich: 2/4
Popple: 1/3
This went no good for the master thief. If it continued this way, that teenager boy would actually defeat him! That is worse than Mr. Red and Mr. Green beating him again! While Popple thought of another attack, Rich prepared his arm again.
"I'm going to defeat you, see?" Popple shouted, only getting a taunt back.
"No, I'm going to defeat you, see?" Rich reused Popple's words. This only made Popple mad, who now decided that throwing his sack would do the job. He did so, but only got his sack reflected straight into his face, knocking the thief out.
Rich: 2/4
Popple: 0/3
Rich looked down at the unconscious body of the thief, picking up his rucksack in the meantime.
"And that's why you should never steal…" Rich said, panting due exhaustion. "Now, let's see… Maybe I should give you to the police…" Rich thought, not mentioning Popple regaining conscious. "I should." Rich decided, only to see Popple escaping by thrilling through the ground like a ground drill. His sack was taken along with him. Rich looked dazed for a moment.
"… … Beep." Rich muttered, before realizing what he had actually done. He had knocked-out a thief! A thief, a person that didn't follow the rules! Something Rich really hated… He always followed the rules, yet, others didn't seem to care about them… But he defeated a thief! And if he hadn't run at the start, he maybe had gotten away without any damage! And yet, thieves were usually strong!
Rich prepared to leave, before feeling… something. Something in him resonating to something else. And this something else felt… evil. Dark. Hateful. And this presence… it felt like it was behind Rich. Rich turned around in order to see this presence, muttering in surprise.
"Huh?"
Cliffhanger! Mwoehaha! I should mention that the cliffhanger was the most important thing that happened in the chapter, but you won't figure out what happened in this chapter till the next one... (Odd way to say it, not?)
And so ended this major Rich chapter... Next chapter is more Mario focused again, despite the 'Huh?'. Found the Tropelet 2 (Wonder where I got the name from?) unnecessary? I say to you, the reason why it's here is to help you out... What I mean with that, is something you will not know until the next chapter...
And whoot! Luigi is rescued! ... Will take some time though before I've a star mission for him... I think the first one is in world 2... But don't worry: we have only two more galaxies for this world, namely a planet that we have seen before somewhere (which is the galaxy for the next chapter) and a Bowser Jr. fortress.
For those wondering about the other story I mentioned in the author notes before the chapter, if you really want to see it, then go to my profile and answer the poll. For others (and the previous ones as well), review.
