Author's Note: Yeah… Minecraft's doing a number on how much time I'm spending on writing. Well, Minecraft and studying. And Cross Country. And Drama Club. And online videos about gaming. But that's no excuse, let's get back to the story about a Dream Keeper in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door!
Chapter-
Holy crap, I just realized! Someone in the reviews mentioned that Vivian's not supposed to sleep, and when I think about it, neither should Pax! But… they BOTH had to be asleep or something to not notice Smorg taking over. Hm… Alright, I think I figured it out! I'll have to specify this when I edit it for the book… Pax was asleep because he lost a chunk of his Nightmare Tendencies after the Infection Beam, and Vivian was… oh, focusing her powers! Yeah… let's go with that. Alright, we good? Good? Good. Back to the chapter!
Chapter 54: Poshly Heights
Enter Pax:
"They did WHAT to me?" Goombella shouted.
"Hon, we all got mind controlled," replied Flurrie, holding an ice pack to her head. We were all standing around the exit of the train, waiting to pull into the station.
"Can't believe none of us noticed…" Koops muttered.
"I know!" Leon said. "Darn the jerks! Darn them to heck!"
"Ah don't worry about them," I said, holding out my Nightmare Hand, which Ms. Mowz took quite an interest in. "They're safe and sound in my hand."
"…pardon?" Vivian's head snapped toward me.
"Whenever I beat a big Nightmare," I said, "they leave behind a ball of dark energy that's sucked into my hand."
"It's not always a Nightmare," Goombella reminded me. "Remember Hooktail?"
"Oh yeah," I nodded. "The ol' Glutton."
"And then there was Grubba," Leon said.
"I guess it can be either a Nightmare or someone who's completely lost their humanity?" I shrugged.
"…and you absorb dark spheres that come from them?" Vivian asked.
"Yeah," I nodded. "Is that bad?"
"Is that… Mario, that's-" started Vivian.
"So Mario…" Ms. Mowz interrupted , sliding up to me. "I was thinking… you could use me on your adventures. Why not take me with you? I could be an invaluable partner."
"HECK no!" Goombella interjected. "What makes you think we'd let a floozy like you come with us?"
"Floozy, am I?" Ms. Mowz asked with a smirk. "At least I can pull off these heels."
"…wait, what the heck does that have to do with anything?" I asked.
"Have you ever seen someone wearing heels lose a fight?" Ms. Mowz asked me.
"…well there was this one time where my friend wanted to see what it was like to wear a dress and-"
I was interrupted by the loud sound of the train whistle. The train rolled to a stop, and the door opened to the golden and shiny town of Poshly Heights.
"Finally!" I said, stepping out onto the yellow brick road. My friends followed me, and we all looked around the place.
Grassy Green hills surrounded the place, reminding me a bit of the cliff by Hollywood. There were plenty of big houses, people chilling on lawn chairs, sunbathing, pools… the whole kit and caboodle.
"Alright…" Koops looked around. "So where's the Crystal Star?"
"Let me," Ms. Mowz said, stepping forward and sniffing the air. "I can smell rare treasures."
"Oh PLEASE," Goombella rolled her eyes. "Explain to me how that's even possible?"
Ms. Mowz ignored her as she closed her eyes, sniffing in the air and slowly walking forward. Having no other lead, I decided to follow her, and my friends followed me. We walked down streets of mansions, celebrities, and in one lawn chair…
"…Tutankoopa?" I asked, looking at one of the guys who tried to keep a Star Card away from me in my last adventure.
"Mario?" Tutankoopa sat up, removing his sunglasses. "Oh, Mario!"
He hugged me like an old friend. "Long time no see, man! How's it going?"
"Um… not bad?" I awkwardly hugged him back. "Er, not to sound rude or anything, but… didn't you try to kill me last time we met?"
"Aw I'm over that," Tutankoopa shrugged.
"…hey, who is this dude?" Leon asked.
"Name's Tutankoopa, little Yoshi!" Tutankoopa rubbed Leon's hair. "I used to be a minion of Bowser, but after building a Plane from just sticks and coconuts, I flew all the way here and soon became a multi-millionaire on my inventions!"
"Well… good for you, then!" I gave him a thumbs up.
"Yeah!" Tutankoopa said, leaning back on his chair. "So what brings you guys here?"
"Oh not much," I shrugged. "Just collecting a few Crystal Stars to save the world. You know, every day sort of thing."
"Got it," said Tutankoopa, putting his sunglasses back on and facing the sky. "Well best of luck."
"Thanks, you too!" I waved as we left to follow Ms. Mowz, who was still walking and sniffing while we stopped to talk.
"Wow, he was… pretty polite for an ex-minion of Bowser," Bobbery noted.
"Yeah," I nodded, keeping quiet my strange and sudden urge to hit him. We continued down, Ms. Mowz stopping at the doors of a museum.
"…so the Crystal Star's in this museum?" Koops asked, trying the door. It was locked.
"Alright… this is going to be our hardest challenge," I said. "We have to break into the museum, sneak the Crystal Star out, and leave before we're caught."
"AND NO NINJAS," Goombella said.
"Alright, I get it!" I sighed. "…okay, first, we'll need something exactly as heavy as the Crystal Star. Then, we'll have to shut down the surveillance systems fast enough to-"
"Hello Luigi!" Pennington walked past us and unlocked the door.
"…wait, you have keys to this place?" I blinked.
"Why of course!" Pennington said. "I do own the museum, after all!"
"…so you're both a detective AND the owner of a museum in Poshly Heights?" asked Vivian. "Huh. What are the chances?"
"I'd list the numbers, but based on what we've experienced so far, pretty high," sighed Goombella. Pennington ignored us as he opened the door to reveal the Crystal Star.
…being stolen by Doopliss and Vivian's two sisters.
"Hey!" I summoned my sword and got into battle position. "Give that Star back!"
Beldam turned and smirked evilly at me as she held out her hand to open a Portal, stepping in with the other two. I ran to catch up to them, but the Portal vanished before I could reach it.
"Darnit!" I said, hitting my fist against the wall.
"…they didn't take the Crystal Star," Ms. Mowz said.
"Now what are you talking about?" asked the irritated Goombella. "Of COURSE they took the Crystal Star! Didn't you see what they took?"
"That wasn't the Crystal Star," Ms. Mowz argued. "I can still smell it."
"She's right!" Pennington said. "Seeing as the Crystal Star is our only exhibit, I'd never put the REAL one out!"
"…you only had one-" started Goombella.
"So where IS the Crystal Star?" asked Flurrie. In reply, Pennington pointed to the painting of the museum on the back wall.
"…oh I get it," I said, stepping back and breaking into a run.
"Mario, what in the world are you-" started Bobbery, but I didn't hear him as I jumped right into the painting and landed in front of the Museum inside the painting.
"Thank GOD for Super Mario 64," I said, running through the doors of the painting museum. A moment later, I landed out of the painting holding the REAL Crystal Star.
"Great job, Luigi!" congratulated Pennington. "Now you can put that on display and-"
I didn't let him finish, as I tossed the star into the air and sliced it with my sword. It exploded into light and was absorbed into the sword.
"…MY STAR!" Pennington fell on his knees and sobbed. "MY PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS STAR!"
"Six down, one to go," I said to my friends, making the sword vanish. "Let's go back on the train and ride on home, shall we?"
"At least this time, nothing will go-" started Koops.
"DON'T SAY IT!" we all screamed at him.
"…right, sorry," Koops laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. That said, we all moved back to the Train for some well-earned rest.
Author's Note: Next chapter we check in on everyone else and… maybe even get to see Goombella ask Mario the big question! What will he say? Will it be asked? Am I just pulling you along and fooling you into thinking I'm doing things that I'm really not? Find out next time! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!
