Travis was washing his favorite green sweater, the one he had messed up.
Yellow stains on a woolly sweater aren't easy to wash out, especially not when you have to hand wash it.
After successfully washing the bright yellow stains out, Travis hung up the sweater to be dried.
Travis's house was very neat and clean. The walls were painted many colors. The wall's paint job was very sloppy. Some sections had random colors of paint spread across half of the house, others had random dots or splotches.
The shelf that backed against the wall nearest to the basement had random trinkets all over it.
Travis went to the closet and looked through his options.
Dang it. I messed up my last good sweater. Well, while I wait, I could take Lisa to the other location...
Travis went to the basement, where Lisa, a bright yellow colored inkling, sat, tied up and gagged.
Travis picked Lisa up, enduring her wild squirming and muffled curse words, and went outside.
Once Travis had dumped Lisa into the back seat of his car, Travis picked up his suddenly ringing phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi! Travis, you know me by now, if you don't, it's-"
3 sounded like that time she ate a bowl of sugar and had to go to the hospital. Extremely giddy and happy.
Travis covered the microphone and sighed before removing his hand and answering, putting on his most recognized act.
"Yes. I recognize you. What do you need?"
"Hey, so, at work, I found out that there's a serial killer near your area, have you seen anything?"
Travis looked at Lisa, who was now in the back of his car. "Heh… No. What was his color?"
"Gre-... You know, they didn't specify."
"Well, I'll be alert then. Is there anything else you need?"
"You sound tired. Are you okay?"
Travis quickly shoved a knife into his pocket.
"Yep. You know I just got back from vacation, so my sleep schedule is basically a mess. You know what I mean, right?"
"Yeah... "
Travis smiled. You understand. Good.
"Yeah… it's hard, but I'm getting there."
"Yeah… Ok, well I gotta go. It was nice speaking to you again, work has me currently, but when I get back, I'll speak to ya, 'kay?"
Travis rolled his emerald eyes and quickly answered. "Y-yeah, see you."
Travis hung up and then looked at Lisa.
"What do I do with a childhood friend, Lisa? I mean, you WERE one… I can't just drive a knife through her chest and say she's dead. I am not just a typical stereotype. Even psychopaths need friends… you know what?"
Travis paced and pondered for a minute while Lisa glared at him.
"That's it. I won't kill her. She'll be my friend to the end. The end being the singular moment she finds out about my secret life. Then I can drive fifteen knives through her and say she's never been anything more than useless. Yes. My philosophy. Kill her when she tries to get me out of the game. Ok, ready to go?"
3, after hanging up, looked at Luigi.
"So, your friend, Timothy-"
"Travis."
"Yeah. Travis. Is he one of us?"
3 shrugged. "If he is, he hasn't told me."
"Well then. So…. is he your boyfriend?"
3 glared at Luigi with a desire to kill and it took her entire being not to punch and shatter his rib cage.
"NO HE IS NOT! Why does everybody say that?!"
"Because it seems like you like him. Or maybe you're childhood friends. I think you like him."
3 ignored Luigi's annoying shipping and continued with training.
Luigi couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "But really… do you?"
3 punched and hit Luigi's hand harder than normal.
"NO."
Luigi felt like he wanted to know, but why? It couldn't get past his mind, so he embraced the feeling to know.
"Are you suuuuure-"
The next punch Luigi was supposed to catch with his hand, he caught with his diaphragm.
"Back off."
Luigi held his chest in pain. Well THAT hurt...
30 minutes later, the agents were in the lounge.
The captain walked in, an urgent matter on his mind.
"Agents. Look. There's a ship ON our exchange."
Alph and Luigi stopped playing cards to look at the captain's picture.
Indeed, there was a ship on the exchange.
"Should we investigate it?" Simon asked, squinting to make sure there was actually a ship ON their exchange.
"Yeah. I've GOTTA see this!" 3 said, running to the changing pipes.
The captain looked around, then back to Simon. "Clearly, yes. Yes we are."
After changing, the agents set off.
"Huh. He used our exchange to sneak aboard." The captain said, while steering to land near the other ship.
The other ship was not easy to open, but Luigi had pried it open.
The ship had very few things, it looked just like the interior of an MVP ship.
3 picked up a recording tape and shoved it in her inside vest pocket.
The agents went through the ship, picking through many things.
"Hey, Captain, look." L pointed to a crate near the driver's seat.
The captain opened the crate.
A small subspace bomb sat in half of the crate.
"There's one." The captain said, a small bit of fear in his tone. "That box holds TWO."
"Where's the other?" S said, searching the floor.
"The other one is where the people who drove this ship are. In our base."
The agents ran in and saw the other bomb, counting down from five minutes.
"OH NO." The captain ran over to the bomb and started hyperventilating.
"Alph!" Luigi started running around, looking for their comrade.
"Welp, that's it. We're gonna die here, it was nice meeting you all." Simon said, thinking about how he would write his will.
3 looked over to the bomb while the others searched for Alph.
The captain passed by, calling Alph's name.
3 stood over the bomb, which had just reached 2:37.
The captain fainted. Luigi looked at the captain, then to 3. Luigi fainted as well. Simon saw 3 and started hurrying up with writing his will.
3 had her switchblade out and was bent over near the bomb, about to cut one of the wires.
"Isn't it normally the red one?"
Simon shrugged.
3 looked back to the bomb. "I'll cut the red one."
The bomb's timer stopped, and the red numbers flashed. 3 smiled a victorious smile.
"We win."
"AND..." The captain paraded the other bomb down the hall. "We have something to report to Alpha. Get some rest. Tomorrow's a busy day."
Travis, because of his job, set off with an eighteen year-old kid whom his boss wanted him to take for some ungodly reason.
"Where are we heading?" The kid asked.
Travis took to frankly ignoring her, because she had been given the details already, so there was no need to rewind and explain what she already knew.
The destination was a very familiar MVP base, where, as his boss said, "they held an important crew member we need back," but had left out that Amber, the kid, was supposed to come with him.
Travis kept thinking, why can't my boss do it? I mean, he's able enough to go and do the-
Amber and Travis flew forward when the ship hit a gravity exchange and they stopped moving.
"What happened?"
Travis stood and moved his tentacles from his face. "We hit a gravity exchange."
Amber looked at Travis, confused.
"That means we're here..."
Amber threw on her regal uniform, flaunting it until Travis gave her a look that said a lot, but the main message was, "no."
Travis had left Amber at the entrance to keep guard as he went to find Billy.
The entire base was NOT the way Travis had imagined an MVP base. There were family pictures, weird souvenirs, there was a fruit smoothie on the counter. Travis tried not to help himself to the cup's contents.
Billy was relatively easy to find. The lower rooms had the cells and prisoners.
Billy, who was sitting in a large cell alone, was watching the TV, but didn't look like he was enjoying it.
A thought resembling, That show is cliche rang in Travis's mind, but he didn't want to say that, so he gathered his thoughts and moved closer.
"Hey-."
Billy turned and nearly screamed.
"Oh my goodness! Finally! You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to-"
Travis signaled Billy to be quiet.
While Amber looked for the door key, Travis reached into his pack and pulled out a subspace bomb.
"What? Boss made you bring a sub-bomb?"
Travis set the timer. 10 minutes should do the trick.
Right as Travis finished setting the bomb, Amber returned with a key card.
"Just so you know, there was an angry Koppaite, he's knocked out now, but I think he activated a distress beacon..."
Travis sighed.
"Then let's go."
"Wait. What if we took the Koppaite with us?"
Amber said, pointing to a knocked out Alph.
Travis picked up Alph and turned to the others.
"Let's get out of here."
3 days pass.
Mario, Toad, Peach, and Bowser met up nearby the lost toad's house.
"Ok guys. We have a plan. When the toad comes home, we use Operation: Bag dad. Ya got that?"
Everybody nodded.
"Good. It might be a while 'till the toad returns, so it'd be best to wait here for right now. Toad, Luigi, you two take the day, Peach, I and Bowser have the night."
The crew went over the plan one more time before Mario began his shift with Peach and Bowser.
"Do you really believe that this is going to work, Mario?" Luigi asked.
"Yes. I firmly believe that this guy is an MVP."
Luigi sighed. "Then I will help you."
The crew took their places and waited.
1 day of waiting later...
Mario woke up Luigi and Toad, while Bowser and Peach readied the bag.
The small, green toad walked toward his house, yawning.
The toad screamed and fainted when Bowser jumped from his hiding spot.
"Huh... that was a lot easier than expected..." Bowser mumbled as he dumped the toad into the bag.
2 hours later...
Billy woke up in a chair, rope pathetically tied to his arms and legs.
"Good. You're awake." Mario said, trying his best to sound and look dramatic.
"Dude. Really? I get home after a whole bunch of bull-crap and here I am, tied up in a basement. Oh, and for what? Because I stole that bread yesterday? No. That wasn't me because-"
Mario felt very impatient. "OK. All we want to know, all I want to know, what happened three weeks ago?"
Billy laughed like he had seen Luigi when Mario wore that ghost-face costume.
"What's so funny?"
Billy looked Mario in the eye. "I wondered why they said they would never hire you. I tried to, I WANTED to know, and here it is. The sole reason they won't hire you. You're not smart enough. Never were, never will be."
Mario stared at Billy, questioning Billy's motives.
"I don't understand."
Billy smiled more. "See? You don't. I heard them speaking. They won't hire you. You can't hold that much info."
Mario realized something weird. "You heard them speaking? If you are one, why aren't they telling you this?"
"Lemme say something, pasta boy." Billy said, his countenance now a scowl.
"I am not one of them. In fact, I'm one of their bitter enemies."
Mario started denying it. "No. How do you open portals then? I thought that only MVPs could do that."
"Lawfully. MVPs can LAWFULLY make portals. I don't. Maybe this is all confusing, yes, but you won't be here to whine to your MVP friends."
Toad, Peach, Luigi, and Bowser walked in.
"Mario! You weren't supposed to do this without us!"
Billy had untied himself and was now holding some sort of watch.
"This'll prevent you from spoiling our little secret."
Billy pressed something on his watch and pointed to the ground right in between Luigi and Bowser.
A portal opened, a portal just big enough to take all of them (except Billy) down inside of it.
As Mario fell, he saw Billy looking down from the portal, waving and staring with that unholy smile.
Travis went to his bunker, underground.
Lisa was now in a room, not tied up or gagged, but in a locked room.
"Hey! Are you still here, creep?!"
Travis frowned. Enough with the name calling!
Lisa's room consisted of a bed, a mirror, and a bathroom. Literally nothing else.
"Are you enjoying your stay? It IS free, after all."
Lisa looked at Travis, who now was watching through the large, glass pane in the door.
"I'm almost done with you. Just a few more-" weeks "days and then…"
Travis pulled the wheeled mannequin in and slowly sliced off the head.
"You think I'm scared of you? If I were out there, you'd be on the floor, crying!"
Travis looked at Lisa with deathly sass levels.
"No. I doubt you'd ever touch me. Maybe when I was faking, but you're about to die anyway, so…"
Travis turned around and started trotting toward the exit.
"Enjoy your stay."
Lisa yelled much more, but Travis smugly ignored it.
"Yelling won't get you anywhere, Lisa."
Alph slowly opened his eyes. I have to protect the… Wait. Where am I?
"MY GOD, how long does it take for you guys to wake up? Geez, first the hacotation-"
The green inkling mumbled something of correction.
"DO NOT CORRECT ME, I KNOW! Anyway, first the other guy and now you. You are actually an MVP though. Cool."
Billy tossed a taser in his hand. "Glad you're awake... listen to the rules. You don't have a choice. I WILL zap you."
Alph yawned, but jolted awake when Billy tapped his leg with the taser.
"WAKE UP, FRUIT FLY!"
Alph glared at Billy. "What do you want...?"
"You to listen. I already told you. If it leads to your death, I'll do it. You're gonna listen to my presentation, or I'm gonna do something I'll regret."
Alph looked to Billy's side. "Who's your buddy?"
"A refined friend and extremely skilled serial killer. Dare escape, you'll find yourself skewered..."
Alph wanted to laugh, but he halted as Billy shocked the air as a warning.
"I'm gonna say it again. Listen to the rules. You don't have a choice."
Alph went to speak, but Billy smiled and interrupted.
"Rule number one. You're a benefit prisoner. An indentured servant with no contract. Or a slave. The wording really doesn't matter, you're under our control. This means, you'll be working for us. You do NOT have a say in what we make you do. Step outta line, and..."
Billy shocked Alph's leg again.
"Rule number two. Lunchtime. You eat what and when we say so, or you starve... I don't really care."
Alph tampered with the new vest he had been shoved in.
"That is something we... borrowed. If you try to run, it'll... motivate you."
Alph looked to the assistant again. "Why is HE here?"
"You DID hear the rules, right?" Billy said, clearly ignoring Alph's questions.
Alph nodded.
"Good! Such a smart boy. If you hadn't, I'd have to shove this taser up your-"
"BUT, we can guarantee, it's not all boring... we have some... fun... events we use the benefits for..."
a brown haired, blue eyed, six foot, girl wearing jeans and the same dark green vest as Billy and his assistant. (or Amber, you tell me.)
Billy shocked the air again. "I hope you like Russian roulette!"
The three turned around, Billy tossed an apple at Alph's face, and then they left, laughing.
Amber entered a room with a plan spread across a large portion of the wall.
"Father."
A figure wearing a purple vest with an Omega on the back turned from the plan.
"I have a third pupil for the ultra league. Shall we give them the news now?"
The figure, owning unruly, messy brown hair and pale green eyes looked her way.
"Are you really sure we can use them?"
Amber solemnly nodded.
"Then so be it. Don't deliver the news, just put him on the list. The time isn't right yet."
Amber nodded. "Yes father."
The man, presumably Amber's dad, turned back to the plan written out on the wall.
"Amber. One more thing."
Amber halted at the door. "Yes?"
"You remember the rule. We need your brother alive. Let the plan play out. Stay. Out. Of. It."
Amber nodded, but knew she couldn't stay away from the nagging leading sense to move forward prematurely.
"Yes, father."
Mario woke up and looked around. "Mamma Mia… Where has that wretched toad gone?!"
The world around him was grass, plants, many of them larger than him.
What the heck?
Mario stood up and saw a watch on the ground nearby.
"Teleport ready in: 30 hours. Nano-suit ready now."
Mario put on the watch and looked ahead. I've gotta find my friends…
For the next hour, Mario wandered aimlessly, trying to find a clue, or maybe just one of his friends.
"LUIGI! TOAD? PRINCESS?" is what Mario called out, (clearly forgetting a member,) badly hoping for an answer.
Maybe I'm alone…
Just then, Mario heard a sound. Something like footsteps.
Mario ran toward the footsteps, but nearly screamed when he saw who had been making them.
A large animal with two legs, no arms, many teeth, snail-like eyes, a bulbous, spotted behind, a pointy snout, and three miniature ones following it.
The creature stared directly at Mario, before releasing a large roar, it's breath smelling like a rotting corpse and it's many sharp teeth showing.
Mario fainted.
Did you enjoy the abusing Alph special? Good. I know I did. (I'm not a psycho, I swear-)
Ultra league? Amber? LISA? What the world has Travis's side gone through- It's been one chapter, and we turn and Travis is here and then we meet some cryptic girl, Mario gets dumped on a mysterious planet with bulborbs (it shouldn't be so mysterious now...), and Simon... actually, there's nothing wrong with Simon.
If I have earned it, please follow and fave. Unless you really just don't like it...