Author's Notes: (what are these things good for anyway? sheesh.) I'm updating tonite, because I received some very disturbing news in my email when I got home. The suspense factor in this story, if any, is killing, that's right...KILLING a young person who, thanks to me, will probably never know why flying fish are jealous of dolphins cause she'll be dead before she can figure it out! Sad, isn't it? Which is why this action is taking place here and now.

Oh yeah, and Koji might kill me if I don't. I don't know about you, but I fear that author. You'll feel her wrath if you touch her Nemo plushie. ^_^ Just kidding babe.

ANYWAY...enough of pointless ramble. Pauline? Finally in a story?? No one can say for sure. Only time will tell......enjoy!







The hunt for the exact warp pipe was not hard; Mario and Luigi had a direct line to the city in the basement of their house. Where it led to, neither girl knew. They held their breath, they said a prayer. Peach and Daisy warped to their fate.

Peach had never really used warp pipes, only when necessary. The whole process was uncomfortable anyway…at some points she felt like she was being ripped apart, and on others she could feel herself falling, hear herself screaming, watching the pipe zoom by. So it took a little while for the weakness to go away in her legs. Daisy, using a warp pipe maybe twice in her life, took longer.

"I've forgotten how exhausting those trips can be," gasped Daisy, resting her hands on her knees after standing up. "Where are we?"

The tunnel was dark, but most of all, wet. They stood in dirty water up to their ankles. Peach wrinkled her nose at the foul smell and swallowed hard.

"Who cares. Let's just find a way out…"

They tried to ignore the looks on people's faces when they emerged from a manhole in the street. Peach felt stares all around her, and felt like yelling "Mind your business!"

"Wow…look at all those shiny, colored things." Daisy pointed out the stopped cars. "They look so mean…"

As if on cue, the light turned green and the colored things sped past them, nearly through them.

"Augh!" Both screaming, they raced for the sidewalk and leaned against a brick building.

"Those…are cars," Peach gasped.

Daisy pouted. "Stupid cars."

Peach grabbed her hand and they walked down the street, taking in all the big sights and sounds while trying to fit in. They finally stopped and asked a woman. "Do you know Pauline?"

She looked at them haughtily. "I know three."

"Uh…okay. Can you tell us where she lives?"

"Do a few crazy chicks like you? Forget it!" She stalked off.

"Well that wasn't nice," frowned Peach.

"I am not a chicken!" shouted Daisy.

Somehow they managed to understand the concept of a phonebook and found one in a convenient booth. Barely remembering her last name, they found her address, tore out the page and slowly but surely made their way to the fated apartment building.

Peach stared at the paper in her hand, then at the plain white door in front of her. "Here's our last hope…" She took a deep breath, stepped forward, and knocked on the door. Some sounds inside stopped, and footsteps treaded their way.

~*~

Pauline had just kicked the punching bag when she heard a loud knock. Turning down the volume, she froze for a moment. Few ever came to visit her, she didn't have many friends. Shrugging a shoulder she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, pushing back strands of dark brown hair. She walked to the door and squinted through the peephole.

People were always hard to see through peepholes, so she never thought them to be much use. Today, she hoped the magnified ball of glass was playing tricks on her when she stared at what she saw; two young women, one dressed mostly in pink and the other in yellow…or was it orange? The longer she stared at the pink one the memories that surfaced.

I'll never leave you…Please don't go…It's only for a while…

Narrowing her eyes, she leaned against the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Prin--Peach and Daisy."

Daisy. Now that was a new name. She'd never heard of her before, but Peach…

Peach.

You've forgotten me…no I haven't…where are you...

For a moment Pauling had lost her voice, lost in her thoughts. Finally, against her better judgment, she opened the door as far as the safety chain would allow.

Yes, it was Peach and the daisy, but their ridiculous dresses were soiled from the knees down. Their hair had become less than perfect. Not so royal now, are we Princess? thought Pauline.

"What do you want?"

Peach felt that her tone could have cut through stone, but she forced composure as Pauline's critical dark eyes scoured over her every being.

"Princess Peach…I've heard so much about you."

She felt herself gasp in spite of herself. "Are they here?"

"Who?"

"Mario and Luigi," said Daisy.

Pauline could have cringed at the sound of those names, mostly the one starting with an "m," but she forced herself not to.

Peach noticed something painful flit across the woman's face, then it was gone. She couldn't see much through the crack in the door, but Pauline's face was pale, beaded with sweat, and her brown eyes were piercing. Her dark brown hair curled in wisps around her ear.

"Are you crazy? Why would he be here?" She started to shut the door, but Peach stuck her foot in it.

"Because he isn't anywhere else."

Daisy had to wonder when the conversation began to revolve around only one plumber. The statement seemed to grab Pauline's attention, but only slightly.

"They're missing, Pauline," said Daisy softly. "We need your help."

"With what?

"Well, finding them."

She stifled a chuckle. "Why would I care about them?"

Peach finally grew impatient. "Well, they still mean something to us. We don't need your concern. Frankly, all we need are your skills."

Pauline returned her cold stare. "Forget it."

"Pauline," Daisy whispered. "Please."

She could see the girl had tears in her eyes. Shutting the door softly, she supposed those Marios really meant something to her, perhaps Luigi. She reached to unlatch the chain from the door and opened it again, her face a mask.

"Come on in." Peach and Daisy stepped in hesitantly; part of them was still wary of the young woman, and another part was still scared of this strange new place. Peach shut the door after herself, then looked down. Her lower half was filthy, and she wondered how anyone could live in this city and stay clean at all.

Soon her attentions were distracted, and she found herself in awe of Pauline's apartment. Pauline herself was dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt and was wearing strange black gloves that were missing the fingers. A big bag swung from the ceiling and silver wheels, big and small, were lined up along the floor. Some…noise was emitting from a black box in the corner; she remembered Mario showing her a radio just like it. The place was small, and overall uninviting.

Pauline drank a glass of water in five seconds flat, and turned to shut off the music.

"I met him fourteen years ago," she said softly. "He was roly-poly but still sort of cute. His little brother too, but he was skinny and goofed off too much." She stared thoughtfully out the window, as if reliving everything she spoke of. Carefully and slowly, she removed her black gloves. "He was the best thing to ever happen to me…After that freak of a gorilla chased me down, I thought things couldn't get any weirder. But they did." Her voice sounded icy. "He found some weird pipe on the job, and it sucked them right out of my lives…right into yours." Pauline turned around and stared at Peach. "He stopped writing letters, and I stopped caring. I had to." Her voice was laced with sadness. "...I don't want to lose all over again."

Peach stepped forward determinedly. "You won't. None of us will. I know we can find them if you help us."

Pauline looked away a moment to compose herself, almost looking apologetic. "I'm not some kind of ninja, you know. Just a self defense teacher."

"We don't care," said Daisy. "We need all the help we can get."

"You don't think you're tough?" Something twinkled in Pauline's eyes as she stepped a little closer. "All right Daisy, hit me."

She just stared with wide eyes. "What?"

"Just hit me, show me what you got."

What she "got" was light punch to the shoulder.

"Okay, that sucked. You've got to do better than that."

Looking bewildered, Daisy just shrugged.

"I know that behind that delicate flower is a tiger who's hard core. Now show me what you got."

Daisy punched a little harder, but barely.

"Come on, hit me!"

"I…I don't want to."

Pauline shook her head, clearly disappointed. "Ah, you're just chicken. Just like that kid brother of Mario's, Luigi."

Fire sparked in Daisy's eyes.

"Yeah, I heard when he gets near a swimming pool, he cries like a baby--oof!"

Daisy smacked Pauline in the jaw soundly and jumped on top of her screeching.

"It's not his fault he can't swim!!"

"Daisy, cool it!" Peach grabbed the younger princess's arms and dragged her up.

Pauline held her chin in her hand and sat up. The twinkle in her eyes had not left.

"Peach must have a secret strength too, holding back "crouching flower hidden beast" like she was." She stood up. "All right, I'll teach you some basics…um…"

"Is something wrong?" asked Daisy, forgetting her outburst.

"You…didn't come through the city in those clothes, did you?"

The Princesses noticed Pauline's look of disgust and felt their cheeks grow warm.

"Well, we couldn't run around in our underwear."

"Better than what you've got on. Here…" Pauline led them to her tiny closet and opened her arms wide. "Pick something, anything. My apparel is your apparel. I don't wear half this stuff anyway."

Peach and Daisy found suitable shirts and pants, but the latter wasn't satisfied.

"Luigi would kill me if he saw me wearing this."

"Nah, he'd like it," Pauline reassured. "You could be his hot mama."

"Uh....okay, but he'd kill me if I wore it in public."

Peach looked at herself over in the mirror, seemingly happy. "It's okay to live a little, Daisy."

Watching Peach in the mirror, Pauline abruptly changed the subject. "So, where do we need to look for these guys? I'm gonna kill myself if they went back to plumbing in the city this whole while."

"They've only been gone for two days," sighed Daisy.

"Two days?? They're big boys. Can't they look after themselves?"

"Actually, from the looks of their house, they didn't just leave."

Pauline stopped. "They were mugged?"

"I…I guess. We think that…Bowser did it."

Tense silence. "…Bowser."

"Yes."

"The…the big, ugly, turtle thing?"

"…Yes."

Pauline pursed her lips, nodded once, then proceeded into her bathroom. Then she locked herself inside.

Daisy made a face. "Pauline?"

"I'm not coming out."

"Pauline," sighed Peach. "Come on, you agreed to help us."

"You never said anything about talking dinosaurs!"

"We forgot!"

"You forgot?" she screamed from inside the bathroom. "You forgot to tell me about some huge, wild creature that kidnaps people and murders the innocent??"

"Should we tell her he breathes fire too?" whispered Daisy.

"Hush," Peach silenced her. "Pauline, we're sorry. But a promise is a promise."

"I never promised anything! Now I suppose I have to go to your world?"

Daisy chimed in. "It's not so bad there, Pauline. Just think of it as a vacation!"

Silence inside the bathroom. A very impatient and bitter looking Pauline cracked open the door and slipped out. Lips still pursed, she asked, "What do I need to bring?"






A/n: Wow. Pauline kind of lost it for a second. And Daisy seems very convincing to her for some reason...hmm...mysterious indeed! Stay tuned, and...try not to die! = ( ^_^