Mario and Bowser: Frenemies Forever Redux
Luigi's Awesomely Ambivalent Allegory (Chapter 19)
Disclaimer: Mario and co belong to Nintendo.
Author note: The ensemble meets Twilight Zone!
The realms afar there was no choirs for the great fallen hero. Planted firmly in place the star warrior was with the dark star in her entrapment. She was shrewd enough to not enlighten him in any way regarding her purpose. With no response to his distress call yet, Geno had to figure it out on his own and he knew trouble when he saw it.
"Getting tired?" she purred.
A loud and staticky but benign pop went off behind Geno, the five hundredth and twenty-seventh phantasm to try to catch him off guard. He'd counted. "Cease THAT." Here he thought was the five hundredth and twenty-eighth as his shadow grew from a new light source. Her tricks were getting better. This time he could feel the heat and smell the embers-
WHAM! The celestial bodies above became white streaks across the sky while the planetoid was jettisoned out of orbit. It careened into the neighboring Good Egg galaxy and bounced around like a ping pong ball before finally resting into a slow spin near Pear planet. Geno lifted furniture and scraps of debris off him. There was a deep fissure in the land taking half of his house down with it. TV? Gone. Precious jar of frog coins? Gone. But that was material. Geno was okay and conscious enough to spot the object responsible for the impact. See! Alive, glowing, radiant! The Millennium Star then swooped down like a pidgit beside Geno with a frightening thud.
"Ho-ho-ho, I rushed here when I found your message. Has Eld. really gone quiet?"
Geno was expecting any helper but him, but he'd take it. "I'm sure what's going on but thanks for just showing up buddy! Help me find where she went!" He gestured in the general area where the bubble used to be.
"Who?"
"HA HA HA." A ripple of dark mater rolled over the jagged boulders and pebbles on the edge of the fissue and rose into the atmosphere to escape. Millennium Star sent a beam of light but the two forces missed completely (and then proceeded to blast part some other unfortunate planet miles away).
"I'll handle the crafty she-devil. You check on Great Eld." Mill. Star flailed into action and Geno respected the older star's orders, heading to the Star Temple.
…
Luigi parked the Mach bike farther than usual and flinched at seeing Peach's neat hedges flattened by a large tractor and other big company trucks. He didn't recognize any faces to the toads wandering around with florescent hard hats so he weaved around them, including the contractors inspecting where there the stone moat was chopped in half. He made the seven foot leap to the other side uneventfully, almost like the good old days, until he feet splashed in the water flowing from under the door. He rushed in with the mat key and discovered that stream went from stairs to the mezzanine to the check-board tiles, an inch up on his boots. He could even hear the clanging of the leaking pipes. The lights were out and trash littered the floor. Peach's stained-glass portrait from the balcony was shattered and the pieces crunched under his feet.
Now that was sacrilege.
"Is anyone home?"
The second floor's door was gently pushed open by Peach. Hair down, she wore an unanticipatedly light grey simple dress with matching rubber rain boots. "Everyone else left me alone here, just join them."
Luigi met her on the stairs puzzled. "What? This place looks terrible. Where are your toads?"
"There was a great fit all morning! I confessed to ALL of the toads about my mistake. You know this was my father's castle before mine, but it wasn't even that. Dear Toadsworth went deranged. That was it, I broke him, Luigi! He wanted nothing to do with the castle and the toads followed, even secretary Toad Toad."
Luigi pulled her in close embrace. He felt gentle shaking from her as she tried and failed to resist crying into his shoulder. "The Koopalings are still in town trying to cause trouble, but if you're not up for an epilogue to an adventure no one asked for I don't blame you." They pulled apart a little so that he held her arms.
"You just sounded like your brother." She squeezed his hands tighter with a weak smile. "I think.. I want to help."
Toad Town was static in respect for their fallen. Even the Post Office was closed. Luigi tried to ignore the occasional images and mementos of his brother that afflicted him with dread. His hands were quivering on the handle bars and feeling the panic attack coming on, he longed for an excuse for a short break. He found one. Outside the Toadley Clinic the doctor's assistant was dragging a lab table to the sidewalk's edge.
"Will I move out of town? Yes I will," Dr. Toadley explained to Luigi and Peach, arms tucked into the thick fur lined coat he wore. Birdley was perched on his left shoulder placidly.
"Prof. E. Gadd offered a small workshop in Boo Woods," his assistant added in a succinct professional way. "The square footage would not accommodate the doctor's outdated- ah hem- vintage instruments. (Thank goodness!)" Constantly moving until that point, she dropped her hot pink colored bags next to the compact little car with a psychedelic custom paint job. "Oh, and sorry about Mario," she tacked on, becoming very red. "Umm. He was really cool- I was in the fan club when I still studied in college before I left because those people were nuts. Great guy. We'll miss him."
…
The many acres of flat territory south of Toad Town but before the official southern boarder and into more desert like conditions was an area was known as 'Area 64'. In the past Shroobs landed there according to legend. Luigi stopped next to the big object covered in black tarp with the thick wires. When Peach stepped close strings of her hair stood up on their own. She decidedly did not peek under the cover.
Luigi scanned around. It was so flat he could see for miles; you couldn't lose anyone there yet they had. "We missed them!"
"Did we? We still have the airship dear, and Ludwig stows notes there unless Junior doodles on the backs or Larry hides them to sabotage plans. In that case we need to check the bathroom also, in the medicine cabinet. Iggy's cell phone should be simple to discover for clues, not that he's politically inclined, but he adores science and methodical nature of schemes and he lets his phone drain to seven percent before he panics and keeps it glued to the charger. Wendy's room might be worth checking out, she's secretly interested in her brother's plans and will xerox papers and blueprints...Luigi?" Tapping her rain boot impatiently, she stood at the airship's inner hatch. "Shall we enter? -And, don't look at me like I should not know those things. I have spent a percentage of my life I don't want to calculate as Bowser's captive."
They snuck in. A wave of dust and must burned Luigi's nostrils right away, but Peach brushed it off. The squeaks of their shoes went along with the squeaks of the mouser infestation. Luigi followed Peach wind through all sorts of things he never knew was in an airship, like laundry room. They went up creaky spiral steps to the captain's quarters. Peach zoned to Iggy's phone on the charger and swiped the passcode. With a flush sat it back down gently and shook her head again. Luigi went the table of darkened cast steel. There were maps of territories rolled out and kept flat with rocks along with a feather pen fossilized in place. Dark Land must have looked very different before he and Mario entered the Mushroom World. Half of the kingdom was just swamp land at some point. The ragged antique chair had the imprint to suggest that it had only ever been touched by Bowser.
"Ludwig must be keeping all of the plans on himself personally," Luigi admitted defeatedly.
They went back out to see a something coming from Toad Town. The silver patrol car had its flashers and siren on, contrasting with its leisurely cruise off road and into the field with them. Before they could react, Yoshi got out from passenger door. Drawn and haggard but very serious looking, he had a brown cowboy hat on and a belt.
Whatever Yoshi was to say at first died when their eyes met. There was a flash of some emotion on his aged face before everything flattened. "You aren't authorized to be here."
"We just had some business to clean up, Yoshi."
The driver's side window then rolled down. "No need, Mr. Luigi. We were already pursuing Ludwig as he stole my phone yesterday. By the way, have you fixed that pipe in your backyard yet?" Captain Toad flashed a little grin that made Luigi's skin crawl. Peach's fingers curled into Luigi's as Yoshi did something brought out handcuffs.
"The Captain will now escort you two back to home," Yoshi said, but Peach and Luigi sprinted to the Mach Bike and took off down the road. The Captain pursued in the cruiser, leaving him at the doom ship.
The dinosaur approached the object under the tarp, braving the ticklish feeling over his green skin. He hated how he'd just behaved but could he really trust the two people that weren't at Mario's memorial this morning? He pulled off the tarp and braced himself. It resembled a punch card computer, twice as tall as him and five times as wide with spinning wheels visible from slits near the top. Plastic panels wrapped around the metal was salmon colored and directly opposite of the tubing he could see where something would connect with a massive power plug. Yoshi made his mental notes and then continued on to his next task of securing the area. Rumor said, something big was imminent.
…
Luigi's bike veered through a narrow gap in between two old country fences, barging in someone's backyard disturbing their chickens. Clucks and caws and cuckoos ensued as they embraced the Southern territory with open arms filled with feathers, Mt. Rugged poking up from the horizon in the distance. Luigi took them to the southern hospital, it being the only land mark he knew guiding him subconsciously. He banged on the locked door. Peach joined him.
"Be patient, y'hear?" Probabilly stepped up onto the porch with a heavy bundle of keys in hand.
Jr. Troopa closed to shutters tight inside. "Don't grant 'em in Bill! I can't help no one today. Too painful. I should of been nicer to Mario! I should of!" he cried from the other side. Probabilly shrugged in suggestion that he wasn't going to let them in after all.
Acutely Peach spotted a dark open barn. They scurried there, being startled by and tripping over some of the Mecha-Yoshis lined up against the wall, deactivated but still sporting red glowing eyes. Countless mechanical parts from vehicles, computers, farm equipment, and radios were in rusty piles all through the room.
"Bother some other vermin...Junior.." someone slurred. Only Vick's tall ten-gallon hat was visible from the gamery computer chair turned backwards. His multimonitor setup displayed a plethora of sitcoms and television programs. Jolly Roger Bay watch was the biggest screen and despite both hating that show, their feet were moving on their own towards it before blue lights swept over the room from outside.
Luigi and Peach scampered behind scrap metal as Captain Toad invited himself in. Heats thumping, they saw his lamp on full blast.
"Identify!" Mecha-Yoshi #7 blared. It sniffed the air with a childlike twist of its robotic neck before unleashing a pink expandable tongue on Captain Toad. The resulting unsettling noises, the gurgling, the gesticulations, and the electronically distorted utterance of 'YOSHI' painted a picture that had Luigi and Peach blindly running back out of the shop. They had options, the puny bike again or the patrol car with the key in the ignition ready to go.
Yoshi completed this blockage across the street made of hay bales to stop incoming cars from Toad Town. When The Captain returned in the car he leaned down into the tinted window as it rolled down. Wham! Luigi punched him instead and he fell backwards seeing stars.
"You must explain right now. Do not forget who I am!" Peach held him down with a fearsome glare.
"The Captain and I really are the sheriffs now, alright?" Yoshi sputtered. "Even with Bowser gone you never know so we volunteered!"
"But this news escaped me?"
The dinosaur's lips pursed. "..It wouldn't have if you showed up at Mario's memorial."
Deeply ashamed anew, Peach backed off and into Luigi who was staring at the uncovered machine.
Peach gasped. "Luigi! Mario tore this 'Timulator' apart at one point. Why would they revive that?!"
…
After moping around in a rocking chair and feeling bad about himself, Jr. Troopa remembered he needed a menial task done so he dragged his feet to his secretary's hideout cautiously. Piranha Plant leaves weren't susceptible to spare nails haphazardly left on the shop floor, but his feet were. Seeing a Mecha-Yoshi's disembodied head in the middle of the shop made him almost wet himself. He clapped three times to light up the shop. The torso had the abdomen area busted open from the inside, colorful wires hanging out like spaghetti. Jr. Troopa made a mad dash to the computer chair, feet splashing in semi clear liquid.
"Victor?!"
He yanked the chair around to face him. His buddy was slumped back into the seat with his green vine like neck half severed and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. His sap pooled on the floor, chair and desk. Next to the monitors was someone's travel backpack. A note tacked on it stated in neat hand writing:
'Didn't want it to weigh me down.. -The Captain.'
…
"Something at six o' clock!" Yoshi dove down into the grass.
Approaching opposite of the bunkers leading to Toad Town were the entire catalogue of Bowser baddies in military file, koopas, hammer bros, goombas, dry bones, boos, thwomps, and more with flowers in hand heading into the airship. Bowser's desk became covered with thorny native Dark Land. Peach hid in the secret closet and watched through the crack in the door. Outside, a different wave was approaching from Toad Town, all dressed a particular way. Having destroyed the Toad Town message board's servers since that morning, this group a few hundred members strong planned to raid Area 64 and uncover the truth. A Dark Land air cruiser parked before them confirmed their conspiracy theories to the point of starting a frenzy. Luigi used the uproar of the cult like group to take some action. Mind splitting into many directions, Luigi was still in the process of attempting to dismantle the machine but he was hopeless. So many options of destruction paralyzed him so he went for the cord.
"Don't do that Luigi Mario. Those lines aren't isolated."
Luigi goofily reeled back into Ludwig. "Where were you?"
The Koopaling tucked under his arm a cheap looking four stringed guitar with a sticker attached stating '4000 tickets'. His siblings had carnival bags with them with candies, Wendy held a stuffed dino rhino, and Junior a cotton candy tower, Lemmy a new ball. "Relaxing, easing the sorrow by enjoying ourselves. Also biding time until the Mario fanatics and the ex- Koopa Troop met. It is the art of obfuscation, Luigi Mario. Where would we be without Larry's dazzling fireworks and shapes in the grass catching the attention of Toad Town?" Ludwig's eyes twinkled at Luigi's bewilderment. "Oh, you only ever found the star shape? And not the other larger and more spectacular geometric entities a mile down? I was sure you'd like the N64 logo. Anyway Iggy told me how weak the web infrastructure was in the city so I was sure the legion of Mario zealots would make it self-destruct, thus no news of anything happening in town!"
"You baited those people this morning with crop circles and flashing lights? You brought down Toad Town communication and staged a warzone with Mario's deranged fans and your own soldiers so that you could work in secret under the ruckus? No reporters in town like Kylie Koopa snooped?"
"No and not Toad Town spies either Plumber. Observe how we managed to do something right for once!"
Iggy pointed to the flip counter on the Timulator with white digits on a black background. "I repaired this faster than ever using the principle of my Wacky Watch. This will take three of us to last Friday May 17 2019. Sounds scary but it won't be. Nothing scary ever happens in the day time!"
"Are you familiar with the novel called 'It'," Morton noted in a scholarly but winded way. He hauled with Roy the cramped looking capsule into place. It was silver like a pod with a large glass front.
Luigi then faced Lemmy, Wendy, Larry, and Junior and found they had an alacrity about them that implied no contention.
"Listen Luigi, straight up!" Larry said as if read his mind. "I don't give a flip about this Koopa Troop stuff anymore but I wouldn't be right here if I didn't think this was a good idea. I tried to save Peach, know that?"
Lemmy dug his foot in the ground, fidgeting. "Plus.. I can't say this too loud but it was my idea. I better strap myself in. I'm supposed to drive I think.."
Inside the airship: Tanner was the last to leave his contribution on Bowser's desk, ice flowers from Sky Land. "This might seem like a weird place to do it, but Dark Land doesn't even feel like home anymore, the castle's gone anyway, and this is the family's personal airship. It just felt right, princess who I know is hiding back there. This place smells about right too."
Peach ignominiously stepped out.
"This was the FIRST airship built. Have respect, punk," someone growled from out of sight.
Peach didn't know where Sentry 11 stowed himself and didn't want to. There was a disturbance outside when she peered through cloudy port window to see. She felt sick- it was Mario! And Mario again... Myriads of effigies produced a such a rage within her she didn't remember how she ended up at the front of the battle line screaming and reviling along with the Bowser baddies. The fights spilled out into the fields and in the midst of crop circles to make it more 'epic' (ignorant that teenage koopalings were actually responsible.) Strong hands carried her away from the commotion, almost like in a dream she'd had very recently.
"Peach, were some of the koopas traitorous to their own dad?"
She awakened with a start. "Oh.. yes. More than once, and it was Lemmy who's the reason I got away in the desert. Why?"
He let her return to her feet, clinging to each other. "We going to trust The Enemy this time."
They arrived in time to see the glass hatch of the pod was closed down with Iggy, Lemmy, and Ludwig inside. Nary a comfortable looking fit, each had a zone to cover inside the Timulator pod. Lemmy's was the wheel, Iggy had a punch panel, and Ludwig had a florescent little radar screen. The others were farther away and low to the ground except for Junior.
"Ten, nine, uhhhhh what's next.." Bowser Junior counted down, hand hovering over a button.
"Will they be alright?" Peach asked.
Roy grunted. "Da things pretty safe I think. Nothing ta worry about."
Morton raised his hand. "Actually-" Roy's nostrils flared and the tan arm dropped. "-Never mind! Disregard! Pay no mind to me!"
"Three, eleven, twenty-four, one. Blast off!" Bowser Junior smacked a big red button. Timulator emitted a shrill zap noise and everyone smelt burnt grass. Ludwig nearly burst a vessel when saw that someone (that wasn't him) missed the most obvious thing, to plug the darn capsule in.
"After I pass out from agony, keep off the throttle until someone tosses by body in the pod," the commander announced, connecting the two super-charged circuits.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The Timulator v.2 roared to life so climatically that it finally attracted the attention of the Mario Fan club and the Koopa Troop. They stood and watched in awe and reverence then went back to fighting, the rivalry of the two groups almost matching those they worshiped. With so much power a swirling portal was ripped into the Earth. Luigi threw himself to the ground due to its magnitude. The pod's hatch was still open and Lemmy and Iggy stared into the abyss screaming. The koopalings on the side were the same, as was Luigi but Peach was silent. She glided towards the portal with a blank face.
"AAAAAHHHH STOOOPPP HEERRRRR AAAHHH!" Ludwig warned.
Luigi's heart leaped into his throat seeing the portal hungrily devour the princess right after. He sprung up and into the pod with Lemmy and Iggy, taking Ludwig's spot.
"After her!"
"Call everything off!" Yoshi announced from behind everyone. Captain Toad was at his side. Without his backpack, the toad made and acrobatic leap over the heads of all of the Koopalings and landed next to the pod, focused at-
"Ludwig. I want my phone back," Captain Toad requested kindly. He slung his pickaxe like a tomahawk.
Luigi only saw the shining object flash across his vision. Ludwig however got a perfect view, tilting his neck down at the blade impaling his lower chest. Dark red blood dripped from the puncture to the ground. In all of his research he regretted not studying mortality and just how quickly it slipped away more in depth. As his claws grew numb and his skin colder, his grey cells worked in overdrive- some of them. Ludwig saw 'Vater' alive and proud standing beside him telling him to handle it how he would and he did, misaligning of the two plugs to create a massive short. Thousands of decibels made Timulator go up in thick smoke as it ejected the pod as it was into the portal. The gateway satisfied, it collapsed on itself and brought a little piece of reality with it.
Luigi, Lemmy, and Iggy's pod soared through the solar system for thousands of miles in a straight path. It collided with a dusty purple planetoid in a cube shape and then an orange planet the shape of a convex icosahedron. The wheel in Lemmy's hands broke loose, patch panels showered Iggy, and that was simply the damage they could see. Another larger impact made Luigi's face bang into the thick cathode tube of the radar. He blacked out with no notice from the koopas, too preoccupied trying to steer away from their direct course to the center of a star ahead, not a luminous spherical object but the five pointed shape hanging in space. Not a normal astronomical object, it was completely blotted out, darker than space around it, and it points stretched out farther than they could observe. With flashing lights they felt themselves get ejected completely into the cold of space!
…
Kylie Koopa slammed down the landline and sprung out of her cubicle. The 'curfew' (that she knew was suspect from the start) should have been over by now and the news had to get out, her knowledge like a dam ready to burst but held back by the doors of the Mushroom Press being locked. She knocked vexingly on the glass while glaring at her boss on the other side on the sidewalk. He seemed vacant and the pupils of his eyes had an unusual shape. "Steve, this ain't funny!"
With no response her left eyelid twitched, as upset at him as she was herself. If she'd not drifted away into a nap after chasing around Ludwig down South, she would not have missed the arrival of the princess back into the Kingdom and the announcement of Mario passing. But she had, and earned the privilege of waking up to an entirely different world where the Toad Town message boards were down and it felt like everyone including Steve was replaced with a look-a-like. She took a deep breath and went back to the paper press where she'd been filing away at the lock on the backdoor. Doing this on and off again her arm ached but she was jazzed when a heavy detached padlock finally fell into her lap.
"Getting good! Or maybe I've done this too much.." She pressed the door open quietly and checked the back lot of the press for anyone. An incident more than a decade ago involving Mario Party mean she a dupe key to Steve's old newscaster truck. She sped off on empty streets to Peach's Castle.
"Nope. Left with the green one an hour ago," a contractor told her. Tall and homely under his hard hat, he was definitely not a sprightly castle toad. "The others before even that."
Kylie cranked the window all the way down. "You talking about her toads, brother? Think the message boards will be up soon?"
He shrugged. She tried Hotel Mario for the toads. The goomba at the counter after offering star quartz bracelets informed her that no toads were staying there. Gee whiz, she thought, she was a reporter and not a detective. Then she snapped her fingers. Shy Guy's toy box, or rather the unmarked house in East Toad Town containing the portal there was locked up. She heard the distant horn of K64 traveling on the train tracks and had to wait for it to pass to get to Pleasant Path. Nothing was going right! She raced to Mitch's condo.
"Use my mat key."
Kylie kicked his mat over for it. Everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom need to stop being so predicable with that trick. It could lead to theft, she thought.
"Something close enough. They tore the place up for info but didn't hurt me. Well, the pink boo wanted to, sick freak playing it off like it's an interrogation technique..."
Kylie felt her stomach flip. Her co-worker's home was rummaged and his nice things, odd trinkets collected from distant kingdoms, signed photos from celebrities, and designer clothes were tossed around like a tornado. With some slight discoloration on his exposed skin hinting at a fight despite the story he'd just told, Mitch leaned against the back of his couch.
"Mitch. Gosh.." she grimaced. "What else."
"And they took my wheelchair," he mumbled.
"Ablest little.. Let's go." Kylie swung the keys on her finger. "Oh snap. This means I have to carry your sorry butt.."
…
'Pinks, reds, blues, greens, and purples. See! There you go! Ho-ho-ho'
~No. NO! My call resonated already. Your antics only drag the inevitable, sweetheart..~
The dark and light cosmic entities warred again.
Luigi eyes snapped open. Skin sparkling before he blinked again, he was in a bed inside a strange one roomed cabin that smelt musty. He tossed off the covers to find the arm of a snoring person wrapped around his torso. He shrieked, sending Iggy out the bed with a thump on the wooden floors.
Lemmy barged through the door and buzzed about the room like he knew the place. "We missed our past selves so come on!" told them frantically.
Iggy hopped up with his glasses crooked. "Yep! There's the junk in the corner Luddy knocked you into. Hey, he didn't make it did he? Actually, I can't remember the last five minutes so it doesn't have to count! Bazinga!"
Luigi grabbed his arm before he slipped out. "The princess! The princess!"
She was outside the door with Lemmy. It was pitch black in the Dark Land village but she was pure white with bruises on her arms and cuts into the dress.
"Y-you s-saved.. w-why?" She slumped into Luigi, losing consciousness.
Spurred on by the mission, Lemmy lead Iggy through the woods on way to the incline and cliff's edge. They leaped through one more sticky bush to the other side where another Iggy and Lemmy were pining down Ludwig. Zoo Diddley was at the apex of the cliff on the brink of ringing the Doom Reverb bell-
"Everyone STOP! We're from the future and have to keep Zoo from dying tonight!" Lemmy waved his arms and bounced around to their deceased custodian's attention. Stupefied, the dark boo let the bell slip and roll downhill and straight to Ludwig's clawing hands like drawn with a magnet.
Ludwig cradled the bell close to his chest, eyes gleaming in the night. Past Lemmy and Iggy spun around: Their eye sockets were hollowed out and black and their hair was stringy and washed out. The skin was extremely dry, fossilized, and riddled with micro cracks.
Lemmy gaped. "Whats wrong with us?! Them! Whatever?!"
Iggy fired off his 'toy' gun. Past Iggy had no reaction to the hole in his arm, dragging his feet towards their counterparts with Past Lemmy on his heels. The present versions retreated into the forest again, stumbling over vines and bushes.
Lemmy felt his shell smack the back of a tree. "We're cornered!"
"I should have completed my 'eyes in the back of your head' project," Iggy muttered thoughtfully. Laughing abounded but from Ludwig so they were used to that. There was however subtly and distantly behind it however a deeper chilling tone.
Lemmy took a big gulp. "It's do or die." He balled his small fists in preparation for something when something happened without him.
breathing down the necks of Past Iggy and Lemmy, Zoo raised his arm at both monsters to send his 'death ray'. They seized screeching as their skin cracked up completely and they collapsed into a chunky mush of skin flakes and black goo.
"Nooooo my subjects!" Ludwig dove down at the ugly puddle, scoping up some of the goo and letting it ooze between his fingers before Zoo decked him, knocking him out.
"You're welcome!" Zoo sang, his smile twisting into maniacal smirk. "Nooow it's your freakin' turn, because I quit!"
"Hold, soldier!" Lemmy commanded in his manliest voice.
As drilled into him, Zoo paused while they bailed. Then he felt stupid. "Oh how the heck did I fall for that?!" The dark boo stalked them, anything their height like bushes with green top resembling their hair mixing him up and slowing him down with his low vision. He shot his death ray at who he thought was them but wasn't . Ooh, satisfying none the less.
The Anti-Monarchy member's eyes rolled back and he collapsed as part of his brain drizzled out of his nose. His brethren would not notice. "Down with monarchies!" they chanted, exhilarated by their activism. The goombas, koopas, monty moles, buzzy beetles and other Dark Land were dispersed in the forest on way to Bowser's Castle, before commotion brought them there.
Luigi sat with his back against the wall of Zoo's home, hugging himself in the cold of the night. "Why would you say that? Why would I not follow you here?" He shivered feeling very hurt, physically and emotionally.
Peach inched closer so that their shoulder's brushed. "Because I'm not myself anymore. Why'd I jump in? I don't remember doing it, but I suppose a part of me thought I could fix something. I know that's foolish and we're likely to just make things worse meddling with the past. That's why Mario damaged the Timulator beyond repair. -We thought."
"Peach, you don't need an excuse. I would have followed you no matter what because you're all I have. I don't care what your toad brats- excuse my language- think about you. This isn't about duty," he said, voice breaking.
"I'm sorry." She reached up to cover her face when his hands stopped her gingerly.
"Peach, listen. If you weren't the kind, loyal kind of friend worth risking it for, I would have never saved you now. I would have never saved you the first time from that fortress way back when we saw that shooting star."
"I remember almost like yesterday. Almost like-" she rose her head.
One star in the sky was brighter than the rest, twinkling purple. The longer they stared the more they could hear a faint whisper. They thought it could be the light rain pattering but actually-
"Over here! Ho-ho-ho.." the 'star' said.
Something fell out of a tree a few houses down, followed by the unmistakable sound of something expensive shattering.
"-GOSH DANG RAVEN!" Luigi and Peach broke out of the trance. "WE TOTALLY COULD HAVE TOOK PICTURES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA AND MADE PROPAGANDA OR SOMETHING FROM THAT!"
The Timulator pod, bashed up from impact, was surrounded by the mob just in time for Lemmy and Iggy to return and keep running to get Luigi and Peach. A split path from the village lead two directions, 'Dead end' the other 'Neo Bowser City'…
It was a raining more heavily in the heart of the city but the event went on for the inauguration of the new mayor at Bowser Stadium, a grand stone coliseum surrounded by a lava pool in classic Badland tradition. A stout koopa troopa with a leisure suit on that dragged the ground had a scantily clad pom pom in a bright pink top and short shorts, his 'assistant', clutching his shoulder for photos. A couple were snapped, audience mostly dispersing from the deteriorating weather. Mayor Koton was in the office for many years, exalted by Kamek so long ago that the magikoopa had likely forgotten. Spending the first half of his life thwimp #75 in Morton's castle and the other as the Mayor in high rises and court houses gave him a unique, he felt, perspective. He handed over the key to the city with his invisible arms.
"It was an honor to but now the time has come to pass the baton. Soo… Have fun," Mayor Koton said laconically. He saw the young new guy's future already. He was going to either die or become literally Bowser.
Koton hopped away into the crowd of older conservative Dark Land residents that were steadily being replaced with a new set of onlookers, decidedly younger residents who eyed the authority figures closely for the correct buzz words. One got too close-
"Get outta here," the new major snapped. The new mayor's assistant smacked the protester with a huge gaudy 'Douchie and Cabana' purse and he was sent back into the crowd. "Alight, folks." The new mayor tapped the microphone which squealed. His voice, despite appearance was boomy. "We have enough problems in town so cause any more." The 'speech' was not eloquent, filled with grievances about how the cops stopped him too much coming from night clubs and that speed limits were dumb, the New Mayor not a politician just a guy rich enough to bribe Koton out. He concluded, "And you don't like it. I'll just complain to King Bowser!" He watched the change of faces from the crowd.
"DOWN WITH THE MONARCHIES!" they roared.
The new major backed away from the angry mob with his girl. They sprinted out of the stadium and into the streets where the black limousine waited. They drove off down Neo Bowser City's traitorous and damp highways. New Mayor head southbound to tattle, obviously to Bowser, but anyone above him would do, like two of Dark Land's princes running down the street. He told the driver to pull over and let them in.
"Thank you thank you thank you tell your dad we're running from these weird lunatics with megaphones this is my first day you gotta help me!" New Mayor cried out the open car door.
Lemmy climbed in, followed by Iggy, Luigi, and Peach. "We are too!" The limo took off again with an unwilling jerk.
"Now that we have time to talk, kind of, mission complete!" Lemmy announced. "Ludwig didn't Zoo tonight so the dark star should not be born or whatever."
"That's wonderful!" Peach eased a little more into the plush seating.
"Buuut, Zoo still has the bell. I kind of wanted to take it from him but we ran into problems. We'll just have to rely on Iggy's Wacky Watch is all." Lemmy smiled but Luigi quietly didn't buy it.
Iggy continually wound up the Wacky Watch for way to long, his back against the mini bar. "Err… right! He he.."
With bated breath, Peach listened to some familiar squeaks from the vehicle bouncing around a steep hill. A realization burst upon her, it was the exact limo Larry tried to rescue her with in Sky Land. The last thing she wanted to fathom was the time paradox they were tethering on.
"-This thing is bullet proof right?" New Mayor pat the sweat off his forehead.
Lemmy wondered where they were going because it wasn't route to Bowser's Castle anymore. The car began to get banged around by rough terrain. He pulled back the shutters into the driver's cab and tapped the glass. "Driver?"
"ALL AS PLANNED SIR!" The Boom-Boom turned to the side with a crooked smile. His pupils were an irregular starry shape.
Lemmy whipped around. "Everyone jump out!"
Luigi leap up and bang his head on the car's ceiling. "What?"
Lemmy pushed him and Peach out with Iggy hurling himself behind them. Faces planted against dirt and grass as they rolled around. Lemmy recovered just in time to see the limo careen off the same cliff they chased Zoo Diddley up. Five seconds later the heard the crash against the brambles. A little bit of smoke rose and lingered in the air just atop the hill.
Luigi recognized what had just almost happened and kneeled down, throwing up.
"It really wasn't time for you to lose all of your fluids yet, but thanks for dropping back in my neighborhood." Creeping up on them, Zoo licked his lips sadistically.
…
A Channel 64 news truck screeched to a stop at the bus stop where a forlorn boo waited. Kylie recognized them as Boo and let them in, reminding them that the buses weren't running. It was great to see familiar faces but they were no closer to Peach.
"Town hall." Mitch muttered spontaneously. He was deep in his own thoughts but also bit of others, and someone was feeling vindictive as they sat in the back set anxiously gripping that green Bowser tennis racket..
The City hall in Toad Town Square was underdeveloped, understandably when Peach Castle was always around until now. Strange sibilance drew Kylie out of the car alone into the open court with a defunct fountain in the middle and elevated platforms left, right, and forward of that point. There dozens of toads, more specifically the amount of toads Peach had employed, on the raised portion forming a circle. All bowed with their heads lowered like a prayer circle. Kylie listened in for a moment but then ceased, feeling it was too personal.
"Join if you want." Toad leaned on against the hedge.
Kylie turned to him. So grieved, he was like a stranger. "Brother, I'll be brief. Why did you abandon the princess at the castle?"
"It's not as dramatic as whatever she told you. Toadsworth had a dream that the castle was going to get screwed up again, homegirl, but worse. Guess what? We believed him, yeah he's lost it a bit since yesterday but we all believed him the same. Let me speak to Peach again-"
Kylie's heart sunk. "She's missing."
Toad became white as a sheet. He whipped around to Toadette and some others in the background, not one of those in the circle but worried bystanders. "Got room for me?"
Through Toad Town again they searched and eventually head south where they were stopped by hay bales in the road too high to plow through. They'd have to go on foot, which for Mitch meant staying put in the car.
"It's fine, dudes." He lied.
Kylie, Toad, and Boo entered the fields of Area 64 where the sky was foggy and everything was very quiet.
"Keep up, peeps. We gotta get through to the south. I'm sure Jr. Troopa will hook us up with some answers." She pouted at Boo and Toad trailing slowly. "I said, keep up!"
They walked in silence.
"Help! Assist please! Aid me!" called a voice in the distance.
"Where am I?"
"Help!"
"HEALLLP!" and on started suddenly, from places they could not see through the mist. Something was zapped and the air got warm like lightning had just struck somewhere close enough to raise all of their hair.
Kylie's bravery was bulldozered over and she fled with Toad, sending a mental message for Mitch to pick up.
Back in Toad Town, Mitch slid over to the drivers when he remembered. His legs didn't work! He sent that note back to Kylie. Back in the midst Kylie took a breather with Toad. They'd lost their bearings. Actually Kylie was convinced the area around them decided to change. A winding path here now curved there, a curve there was now a bend here. Never trust Area 64. She checked her back. They'd lost Boo too!
Or so they thought. Boo branched off, seeing just fine in the fog. Mario impersonators and Koopa Troop members wandered until they were either hit by a force of lighting in the atmosphere choosing at random to hunted down by someone with a blunt object. Boo could saw crater in the ground and the remains of a doomship. That got them worried, more so seeing The Captain walking over to a corpse. The toad dug into the blood-stained blazer of the koopaling and retrieved his phone, wiping it off on his shirt to unlock it.
"~THANK YOU~" The message on his phone said.
A tear fell on his screen, his own.
"Keep crying, punk," growled Boo as Booigi the Second. They forcibly turned Captain Toad around to face him.
"Good sir, these are tears of joy." Captain Toad replied civilly. There was something wrong with his beady little eyes…
To be cont.
Author note: This chapter might seem rough around the edges. My bad!
Older version of this chapter created: 8/29/19, 8/30, 9/2, 9/4, 9/8, 9/10, 9/11, 9/12, 9/13, 9/15, 9/16, 9/17, 9/18, 9/22, 9/23
Modern around: 12/1, 12/2, 12/3, 12/4, 12/5, 12/6, 12/7, 12/8, 12/9, 12/10, 12/11