Reunited
Chapter 2: Catching Up
"Do you know what you must do, Apprentice?"
"Yes, my leader."
"Alright. In order to resurrect me, you must be able to create a copy of my old body in order to use as a vessel."
"How do I accomplish this?"
"First of all, you must find some remains of my old body. There is a small section of my left hand in a laboratory in Rogueport which is analyzing it for the origin of my magical abilities. You must infiltrate the lab and steal said limb, and once you have you shall bring it back here and I will tell you what is in need of doing next. However, you'll need to do something else first: get the Warp Pipe, plane, boat, and balloon travel down so that no one can get to you quick enough to you back here. If anyone where to ever learn this location, we could have serious problems."
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Goombella leans against the Warp Pipe in Twilight Town. All of the others stand nearby. The group is talking when suddenly Dopliss' cell phone rings. He pullsit out from underneath his crown and urns it on.
"Hello? Is that so? Too bad, I suppose. Okay, I'll see you in a few days then, hopefully." Doopliss hangs up and turns toward the others. "Apparently someone's jammed the central run for almost all warp pipe systems and all planes and boats are being frozen by some mysterious storm that only hits a controlled area, mainly around the skies in Rogueport, meaning that planes are falling from the sky and boats are sinking. No warp pipes will be open until day after tomorrow and no planes, boats, or balloons will be running until the storms stop."
"That blows. Can I see your phone real quick so that I can call in for a sub at work?"
Doopliss hands it to her. Goombella calls the principal, Mr. O'Goomb, and he's of course heard the news and understands. After this, Goombella sighs, "I suppose the inn will be very busy tonight."
"Hey! Why don't you all stay with me and Marilyn? We have plenty of rooms."
"I was gonna do that anyway," Doopliss says to the Shadow Siren, "since it is, you know, my house."
"Well, that sounds like a great idea," Goombella says to Vivian. "In fact, we could even spend more time catching up. After all, it's been years."
"Yeah. Still, you gotta wonder as to who could summon such a strange blizzard and why," says Gonzalez Jr. "I'd bet that it's that Culex guy I heard Mario talk about once."
"Nah," Koops replies to the Yoshi, "Culex can't survive in Plit's atmosphere and he wouldn't do this anyway from what I've heard myself."
"Some evil Nimbian maybe?" Vivian asks.
"Perhaps, but I don't think it is possible for a Nimbian to do that," replies Goombella.
"Well, either way, we can't leave tonight or tomorrow. We might as well make the best of it," says Koopie Koo to the others, still holding her egg.
"You're right," Gonzalez Jr. says as the others nod in agreement. "Still, I wonder what this means."
The group heads back to the house. There, they all sit down at the table and begin to talk about what's been going on with their lives(since they'd spent dinner talking about Doopliss helping fight Ludwig). Goombella starts out.
"Well, at the University of Goom, I meant to change my major from archaeology to sociology, but there was a mistake in the system and I instead ended up with teaching. Unfortunatly, they never corrected it when I brought it to their attention so... I'm a teacher. At first I did pretty well substituting. When I got a full-time job teaching, I began becoming stressed out. I already hated the job, that's for sure, but now it was just plain unbearable. I began to gamble as a way to relieve stress but ended up losing big-time. When the school found out about it, they lowered my pay hoping that it'd make me see the light of day. It did, but now I am struggling just to survive."
"How sad," Vivian says, "As for me and Marilyn, we were at first living in the Palace of Shadow but we decided to move out what with having to put up with archaeologists 24/7. We sold it to them, and used the money to start that fast-food chain of Marilyn's I mentioned. It flopped, and we were soon in massive debt. That's when we found Doopliss in need of full-time house-keepers. We volunteered, saying that all he'd need for us to do it is to pay off our debts and allow us to live there. He agreed upon adding the term that we'd have to work with him until the debt was paid off, which he equated to be roughly 4 years. It's been 2, but we don't intend on quitting anyway."
"In my case," says the Yoshi, "things haven't been that bad. A new promoter came in about two years ago because of what happened to Jolene. He changed the lay-out of the Glitz-Pit to be more wrestling-like, and the crowd's really eating it up. At first I didn't like the change, but look where I am now! Anyway, competing in the new 'light-weight' X division in the Glitz-Pit has been a blast and I've made quite a bit of money doing it. In fact, as champion, I'm entitled to a title shot when I return to action a week from now. I plan on dedicating it to Mario."
Goombella frowned slightly. Though she was glad that the Yosh'ter was doing well, it sort of disappointed her that he was referring to the one he formally knew as Gonzalez by his real name. She quickly covered it over with a smile. "So, who is the current champion?"
"Well, I guess you could say Rawk Hawk but..."
"But what?"
"About two years ago, Rawk Hawk fought in a non-title match against some newcomer from a southern island in the Beanbean Kingdom. He was a Tribal Guy-like guy, and Rawk easily beat him. After the fight, he gave Rawk Hawk a mask resembling tht of a Phanto as a commeration. Rawk put it on, and his eyes instantly began to glow green as he followed every whim of the Tribal Guy. In one match, where he defended against the Tribal Guy, he was told to lose by his master. The mere thought of losing caused him to kill his master before the match even began, and the unfortunate Toad between them."
"Jolene's dead? I thought she just retired..." says Vivian sadly with a hint of depression in her voice.
"That was what was told to the media to keep the word from breaking out about Rawk Hawk's transformation. We know that there is no hope of returning him to normal as once the mask is removed, it will initiate a self-destruct which will electrocute Rawk Hawk from the brain outward. In short, he is dead one way or the other."
"Sorry to hear that. What about you, Koops?" asks Goombella.
The Koopa sighs and leans back. "Well, things have been okay up until recently. I moved to Koopa Village a couple of years ago. There, I was elected mayor unopposed as the only other person that a lot of people wanted as mayor, a fellow named Kooper, refused to run because he travels too much to run the village. And you know what happened from there..."
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Bobbery's murderer walks into his ship, passing numerous Ninja while heading down. He reaches his quarters and locks the door behind him before reaching under his desk, pulling out a chest. The Bean sighs and opens it, looking inside for what it is he wants. Upon finding it, he reaches down and pulls out... a sack. He lays the sack onto the ground and from it draws a photo. He looks at it and sighs.
"It was not enough to kill that Bob-omb over what has become of me. I must kill his closest allies as well, and so I shall upon my overthrow of that pitiful Koopa's son. It has been far too long since I've been out, roaming and stealing as I once did. Not saying that I don't enjoy this lifestyle more, however."
The Bean puts the picture back into the sack and puts the sack away. He follows up by rehiding the chest. Upon doing so, he unlocks his door and calls, "Ninjal!"
A green Ninji hops into the room. Once there, he crosses his arms over his chest, forming an X.
"Ninjal, I am sending you to attack Twlight Town. It is believed that one of the allies of that Bob-omb that caused me to lose my eye resides there. Find and kill her."
"Yes, master," the Ninji responds in a smooth yet malevolent voice before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"I'll have to make a point to ask how he disappears like that in the middle of the ocean..."
A few minutes later, the ship shores and its captain tells the crew to rest until morning.
The next morning, Goombella comes down the stairs of her friend's house and sits at the kitchen table with everyone but Marilyn, who is busy cooking. No food is on the table yet.
"I forgot to ask last night, Vivian," says Goombella to her friend, "but have you seen your sister at all since she left?"
"Only once, about a year ago. I saw her in the store, I believe. She was wearing a black hat instead of her blue one and was mumbling something. She didn't even notice me."
"Odd."
Just as Marilyn arrives with the food and sets it down, a Shruiken flies through the window, just barely missing Vivian. A cloud of smoke appears in the kitchen and it clears away, revealing the green Ninji known as Ninjal.
"Hmm, more than one target, huh? Prepare for your untimely deaths!"
The Ninji throws a few more Shruikens, this time at Koops. Koops ducks into his shell, causing the stars to bounce off and land at Ninjal's feet. The assasian laughs evilly and begins jumping around incredibly quickly, forming numerous hologram-like clones. The clones and the real Ninjal all jump upon Vivian, swarming her with numerous strikes until flames shoot out from all around her, getting rid of the clones and causing the real Ninjal to jump off angrily. The flames then subside as Marilyn claps her hands together, causing a lightning bolt to fire from the ceiling at the Ninji, causing significant damage.
"I obviously underestimated you. Very well."
Ninjal draws out two Shruiken which he heaves into the ground on each side of those he is fighting. Upon impact, the Shrikens send flames up all around them, surrounding those who Ninjal is out to kill. Ninjal watches as a bat flies up over and out of the flames and then turns back into Doopliss and Marilyn and Vivian rise from the ground outside of the fire.
"Let's see how ya like this, Slick!"
Doopliss suddenly transforms into Gonzalez Jr. and begins pummelling the Ninji until the ninja manages to get in a hard kick, knocking Doopliss into the fire for long enough to reveal his original form. Vivian and Marilyn then begin throwing balls of fire and electrcity at their formiddable challenger. After this beatdown, the Ninji turns around to see Doopliss, who has transformed into Beldam.
"Might as well go for all three!" yells the ghost before firing a ball of ice at the same time Marilyn and Vivian each throw a ball of their element. After this very painful combo, the Ninji crosses his arms into an X and mutters, "You haven't seen the last of me," before disappearing along with the flames he had summoned. Doopliss returns to normal.
Goombella sighs, "I just can't ever seem to get relaxation anywhere. Oh well, at least we've got a good meal ready for us."
The group eats while watching TV. Just as they're about to finish eating, the news begins.
The reporter, a Lakitu, starts out by saying, "Welcome to PWN, Plit World News. Today, three major breaking stories have all developed. First of all, the mysterious storms have officially ended and all is alright, though the time the storms ended is very peculiar. Just an hour before the storms stopped, an unknown intruder to a Rogueport lab stole a very valuable piece of research, though the government refuses to admit what. It is believed that the two events are connected. In other news, a mysterious group of pirates has docked in the Mushroom Kingdom and has now conquered a large city known as Toad Town. Their leader, who would not give us his name, said this, 'I am here to overthrow Ludwig but don't start calling me a freedom fighter yet; as soon as I am done with him, his family, and his army, I'll conquer the Mushroom Kingdom myself. You can quote me on that.' Stay tuned for more."