Chapter 2-2: Bone mutation

Larry drove a long way before he could reach Sandland. However, right before he passed the border, he stopped by a gas station. Starlow, like before, took shelter in his sidepack. When the bike stopped, the star sprite woke up.

"Are we already there?" She asked, peaking outside the sidepack.

"No yet, I have to stop by to get some supplies. You wanna come?" the punk proposed.

The star sprite left the sidepack and followed the koopaling inside the gas station. Luckily, no one turned the place upside down yet so the store had plenty of food and, most importantly, water. Since they would go into a desert, Larry had to make sure the engine of his bike would not overheat before they could reach the capital of Sandland. He took a few bottles and ate through a few snacks as well as keeping some for the journey. He noticed a some combs and took one just in case.

"Why do you take a comb with you?" Starlow asked.

"I want to make sure that I can always be good looking. As I like to said, you never need to get ready when you're already ready." Larry joked.

He took a look in one of the freezer and saw popsicles. He took two of them and approached Starlow.

"Wanna try one of these?" Larry asked.

"Okay, if you insist." The star sprite hesitantly agreed.

They removed the paper wrapping off their popsicles. Starlow was surprised to see that Larry did not gobble through the entire Popsicle. In fact, he was eating it as slowly as he could.

"What's wrong with you? I've never seen you eating so slowly." She asked.

The koopaling did not answer. Nevertheless, the star sprite started eating hers. Larry could tell that it was the first time she ever had a Popsicle as she got hooked on the flavor and started devouring through it until she started screaming with the treat in her mouth. She spat it out.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!? WHY DOES MY HEAD HURT SO MUCH!?" She screamed.

"That's called a brain freeze. That's what happens when you eat it too fast." Larry jokingly answered.

"THEN HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO EAT IT SLOWLY!? THEY'RE TOO DELICOUS FOR THAT!"

"It teaches about patience and retention better than anything else."

They had a friendly dispute about it then looked around to see if there was anything else of interest. Larry spotted some binoculars and put them in his sidepack. They were now ready to leave the gas station. They went back to the bike and entered Sandland. The scorching desert showed no mercy to the unprepared ones as its heat would diminish their morale and make them unable to travel far into the region. The intense heat would also cause mirages that would fool anyone to believe certain things. For Larry and Starlow, however, they had everything to not get fooled by the mirages or be interrupted by the heat. Unlike the Mushroom Kingdom or Grassland, there did not seem to have any signs of dry creatures around. Most people would think that would be due to the lack of civilization in Sandland but, in reality, most of its inhabitants were all over the region but well-hidden from public eyes. The sun was setting and travelling at night was even worse than at day. The desert would turn from a region-sized oven into a giant freezer. The koopaling drove until he reached an oasis. He knew it was not a mirage because he was not having a heatstroke. The oasis had a small outpost next to it for travellers that passed by and a few palm trees surrounded the body of water. The outpost had glasses to allow travellers to drink from the oasis in case they forgot their bottles of water. Starlow peeked out to see the impressive view. She was impressed but that was not what she wanted to see.

"Why are we there? I thought we already had water." Starlow asked.

"This, my friend, is one of the purest forms of water you could ever find in the world, the other one being from glaciers of course." Larry answered.

"Are we really friends now? I don't recall that we have a good relationship between us two."

"Since we're travelling together, get used to it."

"I'm only here to retrieve the royal artifacts, not make friends."

"Are you sure about that? We'll be together for a while you know. You might want to make some friends to make the job faster."

"I'm fine. I only need you to complete my taks."

"So once that's done, you'll go back to your family."

"…"

Larry noticed that Starlow seemed distant when he mentioned about her family. If she did resent them, she would rather stay here. Heck, she would do all in her capabilities to stay here as long as she wanted to. Though, Larry did not think that she resented them. He had something else in mind, a good reason why Starlow seemed so evasive about the subject.

"Do you at least have a family?" He asked.

"Well yes! Like I said before, I have parents, a brother and a…"

She suddenly stopped speaking and sighed out of sadness. It seemed to have worked. Larry figured out that she was lying to him.

"No, I don't have anyone. As a star sprite, we're all created individually without any link to each other."

"Why would you lie to me?"

"The stars told me to pretend to have a family to better understand people here. We're not supposed to tell them that we don't have families."

"That's wrong, Starlow. If you can't answer a question, just tell it. Don't go all the way to lie in people's faces."

"I'm sorry. I was just doing what the stars told me."

"I see. And you would prefer to go back with them instead of staying here with us?"

"I have no choice. I'm not supposed to make friends here because, once we restore the world, I'll be forced to go back among the others."

"Starlow, could you simply tell them that you want to stay here? Professionally, it'll be much more efficient because you'll already be there if something else ever happens."

"I don't know. Maybe with what you told me about professionalism they'll let me stay here. Thank you for the idea, Larry, but may I ask you something?"

"Go on."

"Why do you want to help me?"

"I figured out that you were close to Princess Peach. Also, back at Mario's house, you shredded a subtle tear when we could not find the Mario brothers. I guessed that you're also close to those plumbers. Plus, with what you just told me about you and the other star sprite, your stars would be more efficient if they get to have their employees integrate themselves with a planet's inhabitants."

"I guess so. I never thought someone would see that Peach and the Mario brothers were like siblings to me, especially from someone like you. I thought your kind, not all the koopas in the world but the ones with spiky shells were selfish and arrogant."

"I presume you got that from my dad Bowser."

"HE'S YOUR DAD!?"

"Yes and no, he adopted me so I'm not one of his children by blood unlike Junior."

"I never thought he would be able to raise someone to be so kind and caring."

"Don't forget gluttonous and aggressive."

"Oh he's the spitting image!"

They laughed for a good while until the sun left and made place for the moon. They stayed inside the outpost and turned off the cooling unit to activate the heating unit. The outpost had beds prepared for travellers and Larry took one of the many beds in here. Starlow decided to sleep on a table as always. The punk went to the showers to wash himself and returned to his bed.

"Tell me, Starlow. How did you get to meet your dad?" Larry asked.

"I met him a long time ago. Your little brother was not even born." The star sprite answered.

"That's interesting. When exactly did you meet him?"

"I don't really remember. I just recall that someone tried to assassinate him but I could stop him. In fact, I didn't see your dad much. After that mission, I had to read the archives and I found out about your current family."

"Current family? You mean that your archives could have something about my true family?"

"Alas, I already checked that but I couldn't find anything. Speaking of family, Who are we looking for in Sandland?"

"Before I tell you, can you tell me who Geno is?"

"What are you talking about? I don't know anyone by that name."

"It sounds strange because you mentioned that name the other night while we were sleeping."

"You got me. He's the contact I'm looking for but I can't tell you what he looks like because I never saw his true form. He would always possess an object, preferably a doll, to meet others."

"So we could meet him without knowing?"

"He'd recognize me so not really. Now, about that person you're looking for."

"His name's Morton. You'll recognize him very easily because he's the only koopa with a dark skin tone."

"Did he spend too much time in the oven?" Starlow tried to joke.

Larry could tell that Starlow was not used to perform humor and wanted to tell her. The joke first started off as offensive but, while still thinking about the joke, he eventually realised how funny it was. He burst out in laugher.

"Why are you laughing? I thought I said something mean." The star sprite reminded him.

"I know but I pictured it the wrong way." Larry laughed.

Starlow laughed too. It took some time before they stopped laughing and took back their breath.

"What kind of person is he?" Starlow asked.

"Well… I remember that he wasn't always open as he is today." The punk started.

He looked outside at the oasis and started remembering about something that happened a long time ago, a time where Junior was not born yet.

On a special vacation trip, Bowser brought his seven children on a tour around Amarioca. This day, he stopped by the very same oasis that Larry and Starlow were staying for the night. The outpost, however, was not as big or as equipped as it was today. Larry was just playing with his goomba plush. He kept it as a souvenir to remember the owner of the orphanage he used to reside in before Bowser adopted him and his siblings. He saw one of his big brothers, Morton, sat down near the oasis. The latter was not doing anything in particular. Larry joined him and notice that his brother was sad.

"What's wrong, Morton?" Larry asked.

"MORTON HAS NO FRIENDS! MORTON LONELY!" his brother loudly replied.

Morton was known to be able to speak fluidly and normally in public but preferred to speak in a simplistic and crude manner with his family. All the koopalings already spent a whole year in a public school save for Larry who had to be babysat by Kamek. Morton was not lucky with making friends at kindergarten. His threatening appearance caused other children to run away in fear, mistaking him for a bully. Even though one of his other brothers, Roy, seemed threatening, at least Roy kept his mouth shut while Morton had it opened all the time adding to the scariness.

"Don't worry, Morton. I'll help you have friends the next time we go to school." Larry proposed.

"LARRY WILL HELP MORTON!? MORTON HAPPY!" His big brother screamed as he hugged his little brother.

"It didn't take a while to solve his problem. In the first week of school, I found a way and then he became the most popular koopa at school then in the kingdom and now in Amarioca." Larry concluded.

Starlow was fascinated that Larry was the kind of person who would be the first to help anyone. She did make the right choice of a partner for her journey. They both went to sleep. The next day, Larry combed his hairs and tried the binoculars and spotted a small group of dry creature in the horizon. What he saw then was worrying: The monsters started dismembering themselves and gathered into a pile of bone to turn into an abomination.

"What are you looking at?" Starlow asked as she just woke up.

"That's not good." Larry whispered.

"What's happening?"

The abomination was moving quickly toward the outpost.

"We need to leave now! We've got company!" Larry pressured.

The koopaling grabbed his sidepack and rushed outside. Starlow followed him and they both got on the bike. At the same time, the abomination reached the outpost. They could see it perfectly: the abomination took the form of a sandworm. They screamed in unison as Larry violently twisted the gas lever to move out of the way. The worm chased them through the desert.

"Larry, we need to find a way to get rid of it!" Starlow screamed.

However, they started smelling something burning. The engine was overheating.

"I can't right now! I need to cool down the bike or we'll be doomed! Grab the wheel and don't let go! Don't worry about speed, I'll hold the accelerator!" Larry ordered.

The star sprite grabbed after the handlebar with her mouth. The koopaling searched in his sidepack and pulled out a water bottle. He opened the bottle with his mouth and kept the cork between his teeth. He put the bottle between his legs and opened the water tank of his bike. The engine was starting to smoke. He emptied the whole bottle into the tank and closed it back. He put the bottle and its back in his sidepack and took back control of his bike. The smoke vanished and the smell of burning was gone. Starlow returned in the sidepack. As for the worm chasing them, he summoned the orange wand and started waving around, hoping something would happen. The worm was getting closed until all the sand around started turning into rocks preventing the worm of catching up with them. The worm slid on the rock formation but lost all its speed.

"Yes! That'll…"

"Larry, look out ahead!" Starlow interrupted.

Larry looked back ahead and saw a carcass of an old war machine. This carcass dated from a very long time ago, even before the drakoopas went almost extinct. At the speed he went, he could not slow down or avoid it in time so he performed a power slide to slow down in an attempt to minimize the damage. Despite his best effort, he still went into the carcass. They collided into the rusted tank. Fortunately, Larry was not severely wounded. The punk stood up as fast as he could. Meanwhile, the worm just left the rocky zone and caught up on them. The bike broke down and Larry and Starlow had nowhere to run against the worm.

"What are we gonna do?" The star sprite panicked.

"We'll have to fight it!" Larry replied.

"But how are we gonna…"

Larry already had something in mind. He turned his wand into a gauntlet like he did when he just became the Grassland king and prepared himself against the worm. Worm tried to slam him with its entire body. The koopaling readied his gauntlet to stop the worm.

"It won't work, Larry! You're crazy!" Starlow kept saying.

The worm hurled his entire body toward them but was soon stopped as the koopaling was able to stop him with the gauntlet.

"Woah! That's incredible! I didn't know the wands could give so much strength!" the starlow cheered.

With the worm in his gauntlet, Larry grabbed it firmly and swung it into the defunct machine. The impact was so strong that the worm broke into multiple pieces that flew everywhere. Only its makeshift head remained and Larry threw it in the distance and turned the gauntlet back into his silver ring. As the head landed, it grew limbs and struggled to ramp back toward the duo. Both Larry and Starlow heard a whistling sound in the distance as a trail of black smoke travelled toward the bone head and blew it into much smaller pieces. The duo followed the smoke trail with their eyes and saw some tanks heading toward them. Each tank had a shyguy on top of them but they were wearing gas masks instead of regular ones. The tanks stopped near the duo and one of the shyguys jumped off.

"My goodness! We saw the whole thing from afar: the chase, the crash and the fight. I'm surprised that you two could defend yourselves against something that big." The shyguy complimented.

"Give credits to him. I didn't do anything." Starlow told him.

The shyguy looked at the machine's carcass where he saw the broken down bike.

"We're currently in a dire situation and we can't let anyone in Sandland City but, since your ride broke down, we'll escort you there and get your bike fixed. We'll also patch you up. You don't seem too wounded but we don't want to take any risks. You'll however have to leave as soon as your bike will be ready."

Some shyguys grabbed the bike and attached it after a tank. Everyone moved out toward Sandland City.

"Once we get here, we'll have to inspect your belongings to make sure you're not carrying anything suspicious." The shyguy told the duo.

"What's happening there? It's quite unusual for Sandland to do such thing." Larry asked.

"There are rumors about a possible conspiracy theory in town that is endangering the king."