Chapter Purple 2: Bowser City
The group was beamed down back to where it was originally abducted. Before they went to Bowser City, they discussed of a way to avoid as many monsters as they could once inside.
"So, what's the plan?" Daisy asked.
"One of my sources told me of a secret passage that directly leads in a secret laboratory under the city. I suggest we take that passage." Rio brought up.
Everyone nodded at him. The paper plane led the way. He went behind a rock and searched in a nearby bush to pull a lever thus revealing an entrance inside the rock. The group entered the rock and were now in a dark passage. Luigi thankfully had a flashlight and he was now leading the way inside the tunnel.
"Mister Tatanga, do you know anything about Bowser?" Maggie asked.
"You mean that big fat clumsy turtle guy? He's a nice guy." The alien answered.
"Do you say this because you two are villains?" Rio accused.
"Of course not! He's a really nice guy albeit obsessed with Peach so much he takes little to no time to plan anything. Also, how can you be sure he's the one who kidnapped her this time?"
Maggie showed the bat boy the letter.
"Hmmm, I don't imagine Bowser writing that clumsily. Plus, he'd write a letter more like an invitation than a ransom. It looks like someone's trying to impersonate him but knows nothing about him." Tatanga concluded.
"I just presented you the proof of his undoing! Are you really gonna deny it!?" Maggie said, annoyed.
"What's with that hostility toward me? You're hiding something from us?"
"Are you implying I'm the one who wrote this!?"
"Not necessarily but you seem to be holding a grudge against him. I'm just saying someone else might have kidnapped Peach this time. Do you know if she has other enemies besides Bowser?"
"Oh… I'm terribly sorry. I didn't think about that. So, Bowser is not some terrible tyrant you say?"
"Have you ever seen the man in person?"
Maggie looked away, a little embarrassed. She looked back at the alien and shook her head. The group continued into the tunnel until they reached a dead end. Rio pressed on the wall and it opened. Behind it was a complex of futuristic-looking rooms. Everyone entered the new area and took a look around. They could tell they were in a laboratory with the many notes scattered around in the rooms and the computers.
"Where are we?" Daisy asked.
"This must be one of the two secret laboratories in Bowser City. Let's take a look at the notes to see which one we're in." Rio said.
The group looked around in the rooms. They stumbled across an old television with a video cassette player plugged on it. All was standing on a desk with one of its drawer locked with a padlock.
"I'm not good at guessing locker's combination. Is anyone here good at that?" Rio asked.
Tatanga did not let anyone answer as he pulled out a silly-looking firearm and blew up the padlock with it. The drawer opened and many video cassettes were inside.
"Well, that works too." Maggie said.
The group was now curious of the video cassettes. Those all had labels on them depicting a day, a month and a year. They browsed them and took the one they deemed to be the first one. The cassette player already had one inside so they ejected it. This one must have been the last cassette recorded. They played the first cassette that was labelled October 1st 2013. The television turned on and a female koopa wearing a lab coat appeared on the screen:
"This is Klaira Koopa, senior biologist and researcher for the new FEMS made by Arch Magister Kamek. Day 1: I've just moved in this laboratory and I am very anxious of beginning tests with the serum. Though we only prepared the place today for our experiment. Sometimes I wish I was in the FDRS group as reviving the dead seems more interesting than mutating the plants. Having known I'd end up working in a secret lab years ago I would've studied for a major in koopa anatomy instead of biology. That's all for today. Klaira out."
The screen went black. The group searched in the cassettes and pulled out one that said October 16th 2013. They ejected the first one and put the second one. The same koopa appeared on the screen:
"Day 16: Tests of the FEMS have proven to be working. Here are some of the results we obtained in the previous weeks."
Klaira grabbed the screen and placed it in front of a glass panel with many piranha plants behind it. Most of them were biting in the air with no reason or motive behind it.
"We gave them the codename P1R4NH4 but most of us call them piranha plants. Arch Magister Kamek was satisfied of the results and gave us a new type of plant that seems to be of the same family as the test subjects. We're currently calculating its rate of mutation for the future. Klaira out."
"That's immoral!" Maggie let out.
"This must've been from where the incident began but I see no sign of grey substance anywhere." Rio said.
"Let's keep watching those. Maybe the answer will come later." Tatanga proposed.
The group ejected the second tape and put in the third one. It was labelled October 31st 2013. Klaira reappeared on the screen:
"Day 31: Test subject P3T3Y mutated much faster than we predicted which made Kamek jump out in joy. I've never seen him that happy before and he's usually grumpy. As for the test subject, it's impossible to predict the next pattern and…"
"Who are you talking to, mommy?" A new voice spoke.
This caught Klaira's attention who looked away from the camera. The group was intrigued.
"I'm talking to the camera and it's recording me. Say hello to it, Petey." Klaira said as she moved the screen.
The group was now seeing an incredibly huge plant with yellow petals on its big round red polka-dot head. It had green lips with pointy teeth in its mouth. It was wearing a swimsuit of the same color as its head and was standing on two small pointy legs. Maggie got startled and hid behind Mario.
"Hello!" The plant said as it waved one of its big leaves at the screen.
"Alright. I still need to record. I'll come back to you once I'm done." Klaira's voice spoke.
"Alright, bye!"
The plant left the room and the screen went back on Klaira.
"As you may notice, I named it Petey since its codename is a mouthful and it acts like a person unlike the other test subjects. No one seems to follow me with my idea but it must be because Petey is only friendly with me. It began calling me mommy as if I'm raising him. Things might get more and more awkward in the following days if it keeps calling me so. Klaira out."
The group ejected the tape and put the next one labelled January 1st 2014. Klaira appeared on screen once again but seemed exasperated and was holding a bottle of something:
"Day 93: New year, new me I guess. I don't know. I'm not in the mood to record this but I have to anyway. So, I've recently introduced Petey to the holidays since it seems to be sentient. It was funny to see him wear all those Christmas decorations on him as he pretended to be a Christmas tree. Then January 31st came and Kamek made a surprise visit at the lab and saw everything. He scolded me for not turning Petey into what he wanted and even threatened me to ban me from the region if I didn't comply. Now, Petey has to stay in his room for the rest of the days. Is it that surprising this magikoopa guy doesn't have any friends besides the king? I'm pretty sure even the koopalings hate his face and those guys have to be with him much more often than I do. And I'll say it to you, Kamek: Petey is a living being, not a tool! So I'd rather be turned into a dry bone than having to turn Petey into a slave or a weapon. Klaira out!"
As the video played, Klaira often took a sip from her bottle and became more and more exasperated. Her speech also became more and more incomprehensible despite her talking normally. The group took the last video tape from the desk that was labelled April 18th 2014 and replace the one inside the player with it. The screen went on and Klaira appeared again but was now depressed:
"Day 198: Someone breached into the secret lab last night and took away Petey. I found it strange because that someone did not even bother to take any of the piranha plants in here. Though some people accuse a group of environmentalists for the crime, I'm guessing a corporate hired a spy to take Petey considering how advanced it was compared to the others. Kamek is at his angriest but now he won't be able to blame me for putting sticks in the wheels of his evil schemes anymore."
Klaira first sighed then put her face on the desk. She hid her face with her arms and sobbed. She slowly looked back at the screen with her eyes now red and the tears longing her face from them.
"Petey, if you ever come across these, I still love you, my baby. Wherever you are, as soon as I leave this place, I'll find you and we'll be a happy little family once we'll be back together again."
She then sobered up but became enraged.
"And for you, Kamek, if you're the one watching this, I hope you and all the other monstrous freaks that agree with you will rot in the underwhere! And once you and I are done with this world, I'll be seeing you there. Klaira… Out!"
Everyone in the group flinched a little bit. They ejected the tape and put the one that was already in the player before they arrived. This one had no label on it. When the screen went back on, Klaira was holding the screen constantly. She was afraid and crying and the place where she was barely had light:
"Day 396: Stupid scientists at the FDRS divisions that wanted to spice up their Halloween party. Now, everyone's paying for their stupid mistake. Petey, I don't know how long I still have before they find me but remember I'll always love you, my baby, and that if I ever get out of this alive I'll… Wait. What was that?"
Sounds of a banging door could be heard in the video. The group then heard the same door being breached. Klaira gasped and dropped the screen which was conveniently placed to see the doorframe flooding with dry bones.
"Oh no! They're here! Someone, help me!"
The screen went instantly black before anything else could happen. They group looked down to take a moment of silence of the poor victim of the incident that happened years ago. Their moment was however interrupted when they heard footsteps coming from a nearby hallway. They slowly approached the door to it. A dry bone showed itself in front of them.
"Ah! We're gonna meet the same fate as her!" Maggie screamed as she hid behind Mario.
"What are you kids doing in here?" The dry bone asked.
"What do you mean? You're not one of those monsters that invaded the city long ago?" Rio asked back.
"Well, a few weeks after the invasion, the dry bones became tame and decided to inhabit the city with the piranha plants due to the absence of anyone else."
"So, everything is fine around here?" Tatanga asked.
"That's right! Well, except for our mayor who's going berserk in the streets right now." The dry bone brought up.
"What happened to the mayor?" Daisy asked.
"We don't know. Out of nowhere, he began terrorising all the dry bones and piranha plants in the streets. Would you help us with this?"
"I guess we could." Rio answered.
"Thank goodness! Let me take you back to the surface." The dry bone proposed.
The group followed the dry bone through many corridors and stairs. They came out into a florist run by a few piranha plants and were led outside. They were now in Bowser City. The ground was shaking.
"Alright. Our mayor should be here anytime soon." The dry bone commented.
The group looked around and they saw, turning a corner and heading toward them, a giant purple origami of a bizarre creature. It had three heads, a lion, a goat and a dragon one, as well as another one on its tail. The last one was a snake head. It had huge imposing bat wings he flapped.
"This can't be your mayor. The Purple Guardian, of all the things in here, is your mayor!?" Rio said.
"Well, that's when he's currently not himself." The dry bone said.
"Hold up. Let me try something." Tatanga brought up.
The alien slowly approached the giant monster. He pulled out a snack bar from his uniform and showed it to the monster.
"Hey, big scary monster. You're not yourself when you're hungry. Here, have this snack bar." He proposed as he waved the treat around.
The chimera opened one of its mouths, the lion one, and Tatanga threw the snack bar in it.
"There, do you feel better?" The alien asked.
The monster roared at him. The bat boy quickly backed off as the chimera tried to attack him with the snake head. He joined back his friends.
"What was the point of that!?" Maggie yelled.
"I don't know. I just wanted to try something." Tatanga replied.
"I hope you can defend yourself because we'll have to fight it. I hope you have cards on you."
"Cards? Oh wait. I actually have cards."
The group prepared themselves to fight the Purple Guardian. Since Tatanga was smaller than everyone, he could start first. He browsed his cards in a very distinctive manner. He had a gadget that displayed holographic images of his cards in his hand. He tapped a card that had a silly-looking firearm on it and he was now equipped with it. He aimed at the Purple Guardian but…
"Wait! I think I have a plan. Let's feed all its mouths with snack." Daisy proposed.
"We already tried on one mouth, Daisy! How do you expect to work on the others? Besides, Tatanga already used an Equip Card which means he can't use an Item Card on the same turn." Maggie pointed out.
"Actually…" Tatanga began.
The alien took another snack bar from his pocket and showed it to the chimera. This time, the goat head opened and the bat boy threw the treat into the mouth. The beast seemed to be calming down.
"Oh! Of course you can do that! You have such ability." Maggie let out.
"Maggie, it's working. Let's stop complaining for once." Rio said.
The swan stopped talking. It was Mario's turn who took a snack bar and fed it to the dragon mouth. Daisy, on the other hand, had to improvise to get hers to the last mouth on the tail. She threw it in the air and the snake mouth caught it with its mouth. The monster began unfolding and shrank in size. It folded itself again into a much smaller chimera around the same size as Maggie and Rio.
"Oohh…"
"That."
"Fills."
"A."
"Nice."
"Hole."
All of its mouth spoke and interrupted each other saves for the snake mouth which did not speak a single word. The chimera looked at the group with its head and saw the origamis.
"Princess!"
"Ori!"
"And!"
"Prince!"
"Gami!?"
"I!"
"Was!"
"Not!"
"Slacking!"
"Off!" The origami said with its many mouths.
"Alright. First off, my name is Rio. And, second, stop using your mouths to speak a single word each." The paper plane said.
"And I'm Maggie." The swan said.
"Phew." The lion head let out.
"I'm glad for once I'm not seeing them." The goat head said.
"So, what brings you here?" The dragon head asked.
"We're here for the Purple Origami Star." Maggie brought up.
"You want to meet Lord Igami?" The lion head asked.
"In that case, we'll be back in a moment." The dragon head replied.
The small purple origami left the streets and came back with a giant purple star it shrank into a badge and gave it to the group.
"Thank you…" Rio began, not knowing the guardian's name.
"Amethyst." The snake head said.
"That's the only word he can say so we let him say it." The lion head added.
"So, you're not victim of the grey substance?" Maggie asked.
"A grey substance?" The lion asked back.
"Never heard of it." The goat head said.
"It might be because there are technically no livings here." The dragon head theorized.
"In that case, I guess we'll leave." Rio concluded.
Before the group could leave, the dry bone that led them to the streets came back to see them.
"I suppose you must've watched my video tapes." The dry bone brought up.
"Wait! You're Klaira Koopa!?" Daisy asked.
"Yes, I was. But, if you ever find Petey, please tell him to come see me."
"Will do." Rio said.
With that and only five Origami Stars remaining, the group left Bowser City and back to the outpost. The hammer bros there were baffled to see them without a scratch. The group returned to their minivan and headed back to the hotel. It became nighttime. Maggie wanted to know more about Tatanga and wanted to see him. The alien just moved in with his butler and they both slept on a sofa. They were short enough to share it with each other.
"So, where do you come from?" Maggie asked.
"I don't remember clearly. It must've been…" Tatanga began.
"We come from the 21st galaxy in Sector 89, master." Katsini answered.
"Wow, with those numbers, you must've travelled a lot." Maggie commented.
"It took us a hundred and fourty-seven thousand lightyears to get here." Katsini added.
"I see. Goodnight then."
Maggie returned to Rio's room where she slept on the couch once again.
"Someday… Gami… I'll find you…" She whispered while sleeping.