Chapter 7-2: A Link between Worlds
Since Kamek prepared Junior's backpack, Larry entrusted that the magikoopa packed the bag with everything the prince would need on his journey. They drove a few miles before spotting a few dry creatures. The punk stopped the bike and the two travellers got off.
"Why did we stop, Larry? We're still far away from Pipeland." Junior asked.
"I wanna see if you can defend yourself from any dry creature. I hope you brought yourself a weapon." His big brother replied.
The prince took his backpack and pulled out a retractable baton.
"And easily portable, that's even better. Now, you see those dry creatures over there? Pick one and show me what you can do." Larry ordered.
Junior nodded and extended his baton. He approached one of the dry creatures, who spotted him. The prince hit the monster's knee with his baton, breaking it and making the creature fall on his belly. It was still alive but Junior proceeded to repeatedly smash the skull until the monster no longer moved..
"I'm impressed. Where did you learn to fight like that? I don't recall having taught you anything like that." Larry asked.
"While you were looking for our siblings, I'd follow Poppy and help him with his job until you announced us that Bowser passed away. After that, I had to do classes from Kammy so I was rarely outside helping Poppy and Birdie."
Thought Junior was referring people Larry might have never heard of, the latter knew who the prince was mentioning. It was a tendency for the prince to pronounce everyone's name with a "y" or "ie" at the end.
"Now you show me what you can do!" Junior said, excited.
The koopaling looked around and saw a few dry creatures wandering. He went to them, grabbed one by the arm and threw it into the others. The monster got into one pile of broken bones. Junior applauded and laughed. They did not stay here for too long though. They got back on the bike and went back on their way to their destination. They went through Grassland and Woodland before eventually reaching Pipeland. On their way, they met some shy guy patrols. King Wart spread his army all over the lands that renewed the peace treaty to offer them protection against the dry creature considering how shy guys were not affected by the virus. Though Pipeland had a totalitarian government, the borders between lands did not have high security. When they arrived at the border, only one piranha plant and a wiggler were standing duty.
"Good afternoon, guys!" The wiggler greeted.
"Hi, we're here to go to Pipeland City." Larry replied.
"I hope you have all the papers required to get in. They have a new ruler now and the rules became stricter than ever. He even went as far as shutting down pipeline services and communications that got outside the land." The piranha plant warned.
"What happened to King Petey?"
"We don't know. During the big day, he went on his daily walk outside the city but he never came back. We looked everywhere but there were no signs of him. To make things worse, some terrorist posing as a Space Federation member attempted an attack on the Pipeland Maze with some sort of blue gas but we managed to contain the gas. Don't worry. The city is intact, same for most of the maze. With the king gone, we had to find another ruler in case he was permanently gone."
"Who's the new ruler?"
"You are about to violate Rule number 974: No outsider can mention the ruler."
"That's interesting. I have all the papers we need. Before I leave, have you seen a certain Ludwig B. Tobin?"
"I'm afraid not. No one left the land so if he was already there I'm sure you'll find him easily. Carry on and don't forget to consult the daily Pipeland map."
The duo took a look at the Pipeland map then drove through the border and entered Pipeland. This uneven portion of Amarioca was filled with mountains of different sizes with jungles and rivers on them. Some rivers even exceeded a mile in width, forcing the inhabitants to create the pipeline system to allow fast and safe travelling. Pipeland was in fact a giant lake with numerous islands. Those islands would often move around in the lake. The scientists in the land studied their movements and adapted the pipeline to this phenomenon. They went through the first pipe they saw. They arrived at the Piranha Plant Slide. It was one of the numerous places used for karting competitions.
"Say, Larry, do you think we can take a look inside the slide?" Junior asked.
"Why would you want to do that? We've raced inside many times before." Larry said.
"I know but we never have enough time to pay attention to the small details that makes the track memorable. And what if Ludwig was inside?"
"Alright, we can take one quick look but we can't stay for too long. The access permits have a date we need to respect or we'll have to go back to the castle and make new ones."
The duo got off the bike and explored the slide. The blue bricked walls illuminated with the few lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling and the streams flowing through the middle of the corridors. Many pipes stuck out the walls and ceiling, with water flowing out of them. They heard a voice echoing through the corridors but it was to faint to understand what it said. They kept walking and…
"No, I did not kill her! How many times do I have to repeat you that she was already like that when I arrived in her throne room?" A voice echoed.
The duo recognized the voice. They ran toward it and saw two individuals but only one of them was talking. The first individual was a human with pointy ears and blond hairs wearing a green tunic and a green cap. He was making gestures with his arms to a giant plant. The green plant had a red polka dot head with golden petals all around on the head. Its big-lipped green mouth showed many pointy teeth. Its long leafy arms also made gestures but the plant could talk. It was standing on two small pointy feet that would baffle anyone if they were told the plant could actually stand on them due to the ridiculous size difference. It was wearing a swimsuit that shared the same coloration with its head. It was obvious that the "conversation" was frustrating the plant. It turned around and walked away toward the koopas but did not notice them at first.
"I did not kill her. It's not true. It's blasphemy! I did not kill her." The plant said.
It was also holding a wooden stick that it nonchalantly threw sideway.
"I did not…" The plant continued.
It then noticed the koopas.
"Oh hi guys!" The plant greeted.
"Hey Petey! What's up?" Larry asked.
At first, Petey Piranha did not want to be the Pipeland king like his father. Instead, he wanted to become a humorist but this dream made other royalties consider him a joke and take him as the laughingstock among them years ago. Recently, the former Pipeland king passed away and Petey had to take his place. No one believed that he would be able to rule over a totalitarian land like Pipeland but his odd ways of managing taxes and laws made him earn his place as the new Pipeland king. An exploit to be noted was that he was able to calm down his people during rebellions in record times, a task even his father was unable to do without use of military forces.
"This guy says that I killed his girlfriend." Petey explained.
The punk looked at the human. The latter was hesitant to address himself to anyone since no one seemed to understand his gestures. The punk approached him and presented himself by first waving at him then pointing himself while spelling out his name in sign language. The human was impressed. He spelled out his name too. He was named Link. Larry remembered him from the karting competitions. Recently, he would come over to the Mario World whenever the Triforce World was not in danger or when Link wanted to do something more exotic and unusual.
"What are you doing here?" Larry asked.
Link explained with gestures that his world was attacked by blue flames that turned people into skeletons and that he could not do anything against it. He found a portal that led him here.
"What were you trying to explain to Petay?" The punk asked.
The human made the same gestures as before he met the koopas. The punk understood them.
"He wants to know how you got there, Petey." The koopaling said.
"Ah, I thought he was accusing me of killing his girlfriend. So, I was on my daily walk like every day on the big day before going to the meeting. Then, I decided to go into the Piranha Plant Slide for fun and that's where I saw this big portal inside. I found it unusual to see a portal there because you know that they appear at places like airports, docks and subways, right? So, I decided to take a peek inside but something pulled me in there. I found myself surrounded by what seemed to be piranha plants at first but they attacked me. I got stuck a whole day with these mean guys and the portal closed itself. Then, this guy came and saved me from them. He brought me to a town near where the portal was. We reached the town and then, out of nowhere, BOOM happened! Blue flames filled the streets and everyone turned into dry creatures. I'm surprised that neither I nor he became these things." Petey explained.
Link looked away, toward the corridor.
"Is there something wrong?" Larry asked him.
The human made a few gesture. The punk understood that he wanted to go back in his world to see if one of his friends is fine but suspected that the friend in question might be gone.
"Listen, even if your friend's gone, we can still free him from this disgusting curse. We can't let him aimlessly walk around as a lifeless puppet." Larry claimed.
The human was surprised. He made a few gestures to ask him how he could free his friend.
"Is there something your friend holds dear?" The koopaling asked.
Link searched in his tunic and pulled out a blue ocarina with the triforce on its pipe. The group made their way to the portal and entered it. Once in the Triforce World, they discussed a plan.
"Alright, I'll go with Link to his friend. Petey, can you fight?" Larry said.
"What do you think I am: a sunflower? Off course I can!" Petey replied.
"You stay near the portal with Junior. I don't want too many dry creatures near that thing."
The group agreed with the plan. Junior pulled back his baton and extended it. Larry followed Link toward the town. They did not bother to break any dry creatures here. They would waste too much time and Larry had other things to do. They entered a castle and went to a bedroom where they saw a dry creature about the same height as Link. The human took his ocarina and played a song that started as follow: left, right, down, left, right, down. The skeleton reacted to it and emitted a powerful light from its body. It blinded the two living beings. The light faded and a spectral princess with pointy ears like Link appeared.
"Link… I'm sorry we could not do anything against it… Please, leave the kingdom. Find a way to restore our world. I do not know what happened. It is definitively not Ganon's doing. I am counting on you." The princess said.
Link and the ghost gave each other one last hug before the princess vanished.
"Don't worry, Link. I'm working on a way to restore a world. I need one last royal artifact and then we'll be able to bring everything back to normal. I'm heading to Pipeland City in the Mario World. If you remember this place, you'll need your passport and an entry permit." Larry reassured.
Link searched in his tunic and showed his passport. As for the entry permit, he went to an office and made one himself. The duo left the castle and went back to the portal. There, Petey was running around in front of the portal doing the plane while Junior was on his head. They spotted Larry and slowly stopped.
"We did our job, I swear! We were bored so we decided to play around." Petey said.
The punk looked around them and saw the broken bones. He did not doubt they did their job. The group returned to the Mario World. They exited the Piranha Plant Slide. The moon already took the sun's place.
"Great, it's too dangerous to continue at night." Larry said."
"Don't worry guys. I got a place where we can stay right here tonight." Petey proposed.
They returned inside the slide. The giant plant pushed a brick in a wall and revealed a secret passage. The group went into the passage and found themselves in a room with many beds. They all took a bed each. The plant had difficulty to find a comfortable pose because no bed was built for his size. Larry took a bed right next to his libra. Larry did not fall asleep yet. He saw that Link was still sad about his loss. He went to comfort him as best as he could. A few minutes later, the human fell asleep, so did the giant plant. Only Larry and Junior were still awake. This gave the punk the occasion to pull the photo out of his sidepack and show it to his little brother.
"Hey, Junior, I found this for you." Larry whispered while handing the photo to the prince.
"Is that…" Junior started while looking at the photo.
The koopaling nodded at him. Junior smiled and held the photo near his heart. He put it in his backpack and pulled out his Bowser plush and went to sleep. Larry did not tell him that Peach gave him the photo because he did not want his little brother to know that there are other people beside him and Bowser that knew about Clawdia hence why the king kept it a secret. The punk went to bed. The group woke up the next day and had some breakfast before heading out to Pipeland City. Larry did not ride his bike because the two new travellers would be unable to catch up to him. After a few hours, they reached the wall that inhabited the city. They entered it and found themselves in an outpost. The vast empty room had a few chairs for people that could no longer wait while standing up. Pipeland had strict border policies that forced people to have their passport and either an entry permit or their id card. With the incident, not many people would travel around Amarioca and they would avoid Pipeland at all cost in case the rules became stricter. The group took some chairs. A piranha plant, who was stationed next to one of the booths, noticed them.
"Hey Jerry! We got some people there today! I hope you're ready!" The plant said.
"Yeah, I'm ready. NEXT!" A voice shouted.
The group looked at each other. Link decided to go first. He stood up with his papers in his hand and entered the booth.
"Papers, please."
"…"
"What is the purpose of the trip?"
"…"
"Immigration you said? What happened to your world?"
"…"
"Some blue flames turned everyone into dry creatures? Darn, we heard rumors about that but we didn't think it was actually real or that it would have reached other worlds. Here, we managed to avoid the worst. A space pirate posing as a Space Federation member launched a terrorist attack on the Pipeland Maze but we managed to contain the bio-chemical weapon to minimize the damage. Now, let's see those papers: everything is current, all the information is properly written and matches and… There, you're granted entry to Pipeland City. Glory to Pipeland!"
A few seconds passed and…
"NEXT!"
Petey stood up but was not holding his papers. He walked into the booth.
"Hey, Jerry, remember me?"
"Papers, please."
"Come on! It's me, Petey! I'm the king, remember? I don't need papers."
"You're not the king. Papers, please."
"Wait. There's a new king now? Since when?"
"Right after an incident and being unable to find the former king, Pipeland elected a new one. Papers, please."
"Alright, alright, I'll give you my papers… Hum… I kinda forgot them at the Pipeland Maze."
"Sorry sir: No papers, no entry."
"That's an outrage! I'm still the king! I wanna see that poser now!"
"Sir, we'll have to detain you."
"Don't you mean GROUNDED?"
"You are in violation of rule number 1056: No puns allowed."
"I didn't adopt such rule!"
"I keep telling you that you're not the king! SECURITY!"
The piranha plant outside the booth pulled out his baton and looked inside.
"OUT!" The plant loudly ordered.
"I'm not moving until I met the so-called king!" Petey's voice ranted.
The piranha plant entered the booth. There were a few hits but Petey left the booth unharmed.
"I get it! I'll wait here until your king shows up for his daily walk! He does that, right?" Petey let out, frustrated.
Being incredibly huge, not much could actually hurt him. The guard kept hitting him but got tired and went back to his post. The giant plant sat next to the koopas with his leafy arms crossed and a grumpy attitude.
"NEXT!"
Larry stood up and brought Junior with him. Before they could enter the booth, the plant standing guard stopped them.
"Since you have luggage with you, you'll have to hand them to me. I'll check them to make sure you're not carrying anything illegal into the city." The guard told them.
Larry and Junior handed the guard their luggage. They entered the booth and met with another piranha plant behind a desk. He had a book open with a few sheets of paper on his desk. He was ready to verify everything.
"Papers, please." The plant asked.
Larry gave him his papers as well as Junior's.
"What is the purpose of your trip?" The plant asked.
"We're here to visit relatives." Larry answered.
"Duration of stay?"
"Two days."
"I found an empty needle in the older koopa's sidepack. I'll just dispose of it. You won't be detained for that but you'll receive a warning for your future trips to the city!" The guard outside said.
"Your papers seem to be in order. Though, I just need to verify a little something." The inspector behind the desk said.
The piranha plant turned around and looked at the wall behind him. Larry just noticed all the posters hanging on the wall. The posters had pictures of him, his father and his siblings. Oddly enough, Ludwig was not on any of these posters. The plants looked at them and pulled a lever, shutting the booth. An alarm was sounded.
"What's happening, Larry!?" Junior screamed while grabbing after his big brother's shirt.
"OUT!" A voice from outside loudly ordered.
"Can we at least know why we're being detained?" Larry asked.
"Sorry, sir, this information is confidential until you've been detained." The inspector responded.
"I SAID OUT!" The voice outside spoke again.
The guard entered the booth, baton in his right leaf. He swung it at Larry but the punk took his leaf and twisted it, forcing the guard to turn around. Larry then pinned the guard on a wall and pressed the head on it with his other hand.
"I want to know why we're being detained. NOW!" Larry aggressively threatened.
"Sorry, sorry, this was all a misunderstanding! I thought those were wanted posters like you were some sort of criminals but it turns out that those are missing posters. The king would like to see both of you." The inspector said as he raised the grills from his desk.
The koopaling release the guard and they apologised to each other. The guard went back to his post outside the booth.
"Why would the king want to see us?" Larry asked.
"He said something about a procedure in times of crisis. I'll send him the message." The inspector said.
The inspector took a phone and dialed a number.
"Hello? Can you pass me the king? I have two of the people he's looking for at the border… Alright, thanks… Good morning, your highness. I have a certain Larry Mulan and Bowser Koopa Jr here ready to enter the city… Alright, I'll tell them, bye…" The inspector started.
"Wait! Can you also mention that Petey Piranha is here with us?" Larry asked.
"Hold on… Yes, there's a certain Petey Piranha at the border too… Wait. He's the former king?! But he doesn't have his papers. What should I… Oh, you have them with you. Can you scan them and send the prints to me please? I'll check them… Alright, bye."
The plant put away the phone. A machine printed copies of Petey's passport and ID card. The inspector examined them. He took out a stamp and stamped the printed passport. He also stamped the koopas' passports and gave them back to their rightful owners.
"There you go, kids, you're granted entry. The king has a place where you can stay for as long as you want at the 140 Megasmilax Avenue." The inspector said.
Larry recognized the address. It led to Ludwig's house but why would the king tell them to rest there? Maybe the new king already met Ludwig and the latter is waiting at his house after his family. The inspector then left the booth and gave the printed papers to Petey. He smiled embarrassedly at the giant and explained the situation. The giant plant slowly lost his grumpy attitude and stood up. He thanked the inspector and proceeded toward his friends.
"Cause no trouble. We already have enough with all the rebellions in there. The king even threatened its people into causing a drought if they did not stop with the quarrels." The inspector warned.
The rest of the group met up with Link, who had been waiting outside the booth on the other side after being granted entry. The group headed into Pipeland City. Larry was not reassured though. He felt that an unfortunate demise was approaching.
