Disclaimer: All characters, unless I say it's a fan character or such, belongs to Nintendo. Also, this is an alternate ending to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door that I made up, so if something doesn't sound right, this is likely the reason.
Also, as an extra note, regular text is from Koops' POV, while the (somewhat) brief text that looks like "this" is from Bobbery's POV, and "this" text is from Parakarry's POV. This makes Unmasked Warrior the first of my (Izumo's) fics to have three POV's in one chapter!
As I hid in my shell, I spun it around, readying for a powerful Shell Slam attack. My target was the Shadow Queen, a purple, shadow-like being with long strands of pink hair, large claws for hands, and donned a tall golden crown with red jewels. After a few seconds of powering up, I charged towards the shady being, finishing her off.
As black smoke started to disintegrate the Shadow Queen's lower body, dragging her into the stone gray coffin behind her, she cried out, "I may have lost, but if I go down this time." She then grabbed me with one of her long hands and concluded, "Then you're going with me!"
Right before I plunged into her dark vortex, I called out to Mario, the mustached plumber wearing blue overalls over a red shirt, and wore a red hat with a red "M" on his head, "Mario! Help me--!" Unfortunately, he didn't seem to hear me, as for a split second, I saw him run away with an old black Bob-Omb with a white mustache, a wooden steering wheel on his back, and wearing a white sailor hat.
As we ran away from the room with the dark vortex leading to who-knows-where, I felt regrets as to why we couldn't save Koops from the Shadow Queen's wrath. But Mario seemed unaware of this. In fact, he looked quite happy.
"Mario, my boy, I'm gonna have to break it to ya. Were you even aware that the Shadow Queen dragged Koops into that vortex? Do you feel anything from that?" Mario said he was aware of it, but then he said that it was Koops' fault for standing up to the Queen. "Mario! That wasn't his fault! That witch just grabbed him and led him to his doom!" Mario said nothing then.
When I opened my eyes, I thought to myself, "Am I dead?" I stood up from where I lay and looked around, only to find nothing but pitch-black darkness. "Hello? Anybody here," I asked, hoping for some reply. Then I heard an elegant voice, and then the bright pink lips and hair from the Shadow Queen appear from the darkness.
"Well, I'm here. And you're my slave," the voice replied. "But for now, I'm going to have to teach you to adapt to the ways of the dark… The power of darkness." I gasped, trying to calm down in order to prevent myself from panicking, and tried to make a run for it. But suddenly, black smoke formed from my left leg, morphing into a chain attached to the ground. "You won't get away that easily. You cannot escape from me until you learn." I looked at her now-revealed slender violet face, and as she placed a hand on my head, my gray eyes turned dull and black.
Over the two years that I was stuck with the Queen, I learned a plethora of dark powers, such as summoning the undead or weapons, sinking into the shadows, and most powerful of all: creating an earth-shattering blast with my bare hands. But then I started to miss my old life in Petalburg… But I missed my girlfriend, Koopie Koo, the most.
The womanly shadow being noticed my forlorn expression and crept up to me. "Why the long face, my child?" I told her that I miss my old life, and that I want to see Koopie Koo just once, to see how she's doing. "Well, then. That shouldn't be too hard," she said quite eerily as she molded an elliptical mirror with a golden frame out of black smoke pouring from her fingertips. She then summoned a small pink sprite from the ground. With the mirror hovering in midair, the sprite circled it vertically, and an image appeared.
A female Koopa with curly blonde hair held back by a red headband, blue eyes, and wearing red shorts under her green shell, strolled around in my living room along the wooden floor. She had a look of glee on her face as a Koopa wearing sunglasses over his reddish eyes, a spiked collar and matching bracelets, and a yellow shell walked in.
"King K! You're back! So, how was Glitzville," the female Koopa asked the yellow-shelled Koopa.
"Same ol', Koopie, my girl," King K—the yellow-shelled Koopa—replied. "So, baby, how was work at the inn?"
Koopie Koo giggled at King K's slang, and said joyfully, "Just fine, dear." The look of joy wore off her face. "But it's just… I sort of miss my old boyfriend, Koops."
King K smirked and said slyly, "That wimp? Forget 'im! You got me for a husband, baby, and ain't nothin' that'll change that!"
Before I could stand any more of it, I punched the mirror and walked away as the image disappeared and the reflective glass shattered to pieces.
As I stood alone in the darkness, my fists clenched in fury, the couple's voices echoed in my head. How could Koopie just ditch me for that jerk, I thought to myself as I summoned a dagger from my right fist. Well, if I have to do so… I'll take back what was taken away from me in the first place!
After summoning myself a portal to the living world and stepping in, I found myself in Koopie Koo's closet. Stepping out of the closet, I looked out the window to my left; the sky looked dark, and small white diamonds sparkled the endless horizons. The moonlight shone from above, streaming down upon the floor. Must be a few minutes to midnight. Perfect.
I climbed up the creaky stairs, making each step slow and steady so the two upstairs don't hear. When I reached the top, I squinted through the now-almost-complete darkness to find the bed. Luckily, the floor felt empty from the way my feet crept through it flawlessly and silently. When I found the bed the couple slept on, I slid a dagger from my blue shorts pocket, raised it above the slumbering Koopa in front of me, and stabbed him.
But right as the blade slain the Koopa, I heard an ear-piercing female scream. My eyes now adjusted to the darkness, I realized my true kill… Koopie Koo.
"What? Who's there," King K asked in shock from the scream. In a split second, as he picked up a flashlight from the nearby counter and waved it towards Koopie Koo, I sank into the shadows, feeling guilt about my own actions.
As I strolled through Petalburg peacefully this morning, (since today was Sunday, and the Toad Town Post Office is closed on Sundays) I heard a calamity of voices coming from nearby. News reporters and cameramen gathered around the front door of a yellow, two-story house, asking questions all at once to a yellow-shelled Koopa.
"King K, who do you think could've done this," one female reporter asked loudly, sounding the loudest out of the reporters.
The yellow-shelled Koopa shrugged and said, "I coulda said Koops, but he's a wimp who loves her too much to kill 'er. 'Sides, he disappeared two years ago, so I say he's long gone, like my baby girl!"
Murder? This sounds serious… I thought to myself as I stepped closer, wanting to listen better. Suddenly, a hand touched my shoulder, and I turned to find a female Paratroopa with a green shell, black hair, and bright blue eyes like mine, but wearing a black suit.
"Aerith, of the KSI," the female Paratroopa said in a serious tone as she took out a black leather wallet with her ID from her suit. "And by the code of the KSI, unless you're from the media or a member, which you're neither, you're not to get within three meters of this area." She cocked an eyebrow as she stared at me for a second. "That aviator's helmet… That green shell…. Are you Parakarry, of the Toad Town Post Office?"
I nodded my head in certainty. "Yes, I am. But I'm on break. The Post Office is closed on Sundays, you know."
"I know that, you dunce." She then took out a letter from her suit and gave it to me. "But here is a letter to Mayor Kroop, the mayor of Petalburg. It involves the incident here, nothing else important. Unfortunately, he's out of town, probably to Koopa Village, where Koopa Koot lives. Take this to him, and don't open it."
I saluted, giving her my trust. "You have my word! For I am the hardest-working mailman of the Mushroom Kingdom!"
"Good. Now get," she ordered as she pointed to the direction behind her. I waved her goodbye, and I took off to Koopa Village.
Seven hours later, I landed in front of a white house with a brown roof shaped like a turtle shell. I knocked the wooden door, and an old green Koopa with eyebrows so bushy, they cover his eyes, a green shell, and holding a wooden cane, answered it. "Huh? Who are you? Thief--! Oh, wait. You're the mailman. Uh, what's your name? Pancake-curry, right? Well, come on in!"
As I shrugged and stepped in, I saw another old green Koopa, but with no eyebrows, sitting on a red chair. "Welcome, young Pancake-curry! Have a seat. So, what business do you have here, my funny-named mailman?" I told him about the letter to Mayor Kroop from the KSI about the incident in Petalburg, and then gave the letter to the Koopa with the bushy eyebrows.
"What? Something's wrong in Petalburg," Kroop asked as he opened the letter. As he read it, he shouted, "Flight of Paratroopas! A murder?"
As he shouted the word "murder", a young Koopa of about nineteen years with blue-purple eyes, a blue shell, and wearing a red bandana around his neck ran in. "Murder? Where," the Koopa said, almost panicking.
I chuckled and said, "There's no murder here, Kooper. But there is one in Petalburg."
"Petalburg? Where's that?"
"It's a Koopa town far from here. It took me seven hours to get here from there."
Kooper paused, then said, "Speaking of 'Koopa', I got something from when Kolorado and I went on an expedition of Dry Dry Ruins." He then gestured me to follow, so I said goodbye to the old Koopas and followed Kooper next door to a house that looked like the Mayor's house, but with a green roof.
When I walked in, I had a look of surprise on my face. In front of me sat a young Koopa that looks about nine years old in appearance, with blue eyes and wearing a white dress with blue rims, and a yellow and orange Pharaoh's crown with blue and purple strips, and a Chomp-shaped crest on the front.
"Parakarry, don't you remember Tutankoopa? The Koopa spirit who haunted the Dry Dry Ruins? Well, I made a deal with him. He can live with me, and I help him avenge the one who murdered him."
I sighed and said, "Kooper, Tutankoopa is a three-thousand year-old spirit. His 'murderer' is probably long gone by now."
Tutankoopa pouted in his chair. "Well, maybe he's still alive. Anything could happen with the use of black magic."
Kooper looked at Tutankoopa in excitement. "Black magic? Black magic existed in your time?" Then he paused and tilted his head. "What's 'black magic'?"
"Black magic is, basically, a curse or a hex," Tutankoopa answered in a tone, which made Kooper sound stupid.
I intervened into the conversation. "So, you think you were killed by black magic?"
Tutankoopa nodded. "Well, it's mainly a—how do you say it? —theory of mine. But from what I remember, I wasn't stabbed or beaten up or anything of the sort. In fact, I've never seen my killer's face. Which is why I think so."
I nodded, following every word. "Well, it sounds quite possible." Standing straight, I bowed to Kooper and Tutankoopa and said, "Well, I have to go now. It was nice to meet you again."
As I left for the door, Kooper grabbed my hand and said, "Wait! We'll come with you!" I thought it over, my eyes moving about, and then I accepted their request. "Yes! I have to go to Twilight Town to retrieve something from Kolorado, anyway. Besides, Tutankoopa needs to get outside the house and see new things." As we stepped outside of Kooper's house, he asked, "By the way, you mind if we walk?"
Well, I hoped you enjoyed that:) Ch. 2 will be coming up sometime soon.