Reunited
Chapter 3: The Heroes Take Flight, A Villain Sets Sail(Along With a Hero)
Bobbery's killer stands on the deck of his ship, glancing over Toad Town, his recently conquered territory. It'd been three days now; he suspects a major strike by Ludwig's men any day, especially as Ludwig had just sent a small attack two days prior. With it being a weekend, Saturday to be exact, he is especially cautious. He turns around to check the other side and spots a figure hanging from his flag by one hand. A small sword rests in the other.
"Gutless coward! Get down here and face me like a man!"
The figure responds to the killer's shouting by jumping down. The man lands on his feet, revealing himself to be a bean with long blonde hair and a slight beard, fitting the description that had been earlier given to Goombella by Vivian. He wears a long, flowing cape, green pants, and an armor-like chest plate.
"Heh, are you who I think you are?" asks the murderer of his soon-to-be opponent.
"Depends. Are you who it is I believe you are? 'Cause if so then it is my duty as the prince of the Beanbean Kingdom to bring you down."
"Maybe. Either way, Prince, prepare for your untimely demise!" The pirate captain jumps at Prince Peasley, tackling him to the ground. As the murderer lands, Peasley changes the location of the handle of his sword in order to nail his enemy with the handle, which he does.
The captain lifts his hands to his head over the location of the hit, enabling Peasley to kick him off. After this, Peasley flips his sword around and shouts, "Withdraw your sword! It won't be as sweet a victory unless I beat you using your own methods!"
The pirate captain complies and jumps at Peasley, striking fast and hard numerous times. The prince barely blocks all of the shots and then retaliates with a few swings of his own. The killer falls to one knee from being knocked off-balance and knocks Peasley's sword from his hands on the way down.
"Well, what a predicament we have here," says the murderer to his adversary. "Well, how've things been going back in the Beanbean Kingdom?"
"What, now we're old friends or something? Anyway, things have not too bad compared to everywhere else. If you'd shown a bit patience with your attack then you could've likely been a lot easier off. I was busy convincing my mother to help Sarhasaland's new ruler in overthrowing Ludwig whenever you invaded it and caused her top advisor to strongly go against it. What about you?"
"I've been sailin' the several seas with my group of rookie Ninji that I'd met at an auction four years back. A couple of years ago I saw this ship get sunken by some ship beneath the water. Its captain snuck aboard the ship and blamed me for killing all of his crew and attacked. I fought him off for awhile and tried to explain, but he then caused me to lose my eye by exploding while launching into my face from my mast. In a rage, I had him executed by my men and decided to do the same to all of his living allies that I'd discovered in a photo within a library in Rogueport a month beforehand. As he prepared to die, he said the oddest thing, Despite all you've done to me, I have to thank you. I may finally rejoin my Scarlett. Needless to say, I had delight in doing that pitiful Bob-omb in after what became of my eye."
"Underwater ship, huh? I find that quite doubtful."
"It's true. I saw it plain as day. The cannons were fired by two blue sharks with a large blue shark between them wearing a cape. I could've swore I heard the leader say something about us being next if we were to return to that area."
"I think you may have run into Captain Jonathon Jones. Nonetheless, you're still a murderer and-"
Peasley put his foot back to kick his sword into his hands, but the killer put his sword to the throat of the Bean first.
"Don't even try it, Princie. Now then, tell me all about this Jonathon Jones and where he lives."
"All I know is that he occupies a sunken ship near Seaside Town, a small sea-ferrying town hundreds of miles outside the Mushroom Kingdom."
"This is good news for me. I will skin-"
"Actually, it'd be more like 'scale'."
"Alright, fine! I will SCALE that shark and use his teeth to impale the allies of that worthless Bob-omb! And I expect you to help me do it, Peasley!"
"Well, as prince of the Beanbean Kingdom I don't think that that would be a good way for me to establish good feelings between our country and the colony living underneath the seas near Seaside Town..."
"Would you rather have your throat split in half?"
"So, when can we get goin'?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goombella sits up, hearing her alarm clock go off. She yawns and then head-butts it, then stands up to put on her tie- which, despite her lack of hands, she does rather quickly.
"I wish that just once I could go back to my adventuring ways. What I wouldn't give to be able to do it all again."
"Maybe you can help with something."
Goombella turns to the window and sees Professor Frankly looking into the window. He obviously just got there.
"Frankly! What're you doing here?"
"Well, I came because me and my partner have reason to believe that the world is in grave danger. We think that those mysterious storms, the theft, and Ludwig's rise to power may all be interwound."
"How so?"
"I have no time to explain. Pack your bags and hurry out here. I've already got some old friends of yours together outside inside E. Gadd's private plane, and I know you'll want to help with this."
"I'd love to but... what about my job?"
"It's June, right? Just explain to your boss that you've got important matters to attend to out of the country over the phone. There's only a week or two left of school anyway, right?"
"Yeah, but- how'd you know I teach school?"
"Your friend Vivian told me everything about what's going on with all of you."
Goombella sighs. "It's almost as though Vivian spends all of her spare time spying on everyone. Anyway, I'll do it! I'll be out there in a few minutes!"
"Alright then. You better hurry though: Rogueport is part of the Mushroom Kingdom, and we don't want Ludwig knowing anything about this."
"I understand."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doopliss sits on a huge golden throne that is much larger than he is. In front of him stands Lady Lima of the Beanbean Kingdom.
"So, a representative from the Beanbean Kingdom, eh? What is it you want with me?"
"Well, I was sent to discuss the matter of Ludwig," says Lima to the King of Sarhasaland. "It is my belief that you are crazy for wanting to attack while the country is being attacked by not just Ludwig but by that band of pirates as well.
"After all, we both know that neither country is sufficently able to stop Dark Land's army. I doubt that the two combined would be much more powerful."
"See, that's the thing," says Doopliss in response to Lima's arguement, "If those stupid Mario Bros. could do it then why can't our armies? It's simple. Our armies are both used to relying on those brothers for everything and thus never want to fight. We need to face facts: Mario is dead, Luigi is missing, and Bowser's been replaced by a more intelligent and younger ruler.
"We need to get to training. Our problem is not our army's size, nor our budget, or even the lack of the Mario Bros. We just need for our men to stop relying on others and fight!"
"And what do you know about it?" asks the Beanbean ambassador in response. "I've spent years earning my way up to the ambassador and advisor position, studing law book after law book. You just came into power through the fear of another in less than a month. Don't tell me that you know what you're doing."
"You have a good point," replies the Duplighost to the Bean, "but I know very well what I am doing. I have fought Mario- have you? Or Daisy? Or Queen Bean or Eclair or anyone else with my kind of power? No. I can fight- all you can do is be politically correct. Well, sometimes it's time to say forget politics and go with your own instincts and right now my instincts are telling me to fight! So, will you help?"
Lima turns around and walks away without answering. She leaves the room as Doopliss sighs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peasley and the murderer stand on the ship. Ninjal stands next to the two, with the captain explaining everything to Ninjal.
"And so," the pirate finishes, "you're in charge while myself and Peasley go out and bring in this foolish fish. And on that day, we feast upon him and his crew!"
"Aye, captain!" Ninjal yells in response, saluting. Ninjal then walks off of the boat as it sets sail for the other side of Plit in order to kill the shark who caused the pirate to lose his eye.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goombella sits aboard a plane next to Vivian. The plane is piloted by a young Koopa around 20 or so and Koops and Eggo(Gonzalez Jr.) sit next to the two girls. Frankly and E. Gadd both sitting in the same circle(actually, it's more like an oval) of seats as the others with 5 or 6 empty seats between E. Gadd, who is on one end, and Goombella, who is on the other.
"So, allow me to explain everything to you all. You see, you know the theft that occured recently in Rougeport?" asks Professor E. Gadd of the four guests.
All four nod.
"Good. Anyway, I recently met with Ludwig and- since he respects my devotion to science and I likewise feel the same way toward him- he told me that the stolen thing was a limb- a hand to be exact."
"A hand? What's so important about that?" asks Eggo.
"Allow me to explain. This hand belonged to a highly powerful villain who years ago was killed in battle. This villain is believed to be working from the grave, manipulating others into fulfilling certain tasks to fulfill a resurrection. If resurrected, this villain could literally become unstoppable due to the ability which it will have if brought from the dead to feed off of suffering, something that is in mass amounts in this day and age. All malevolent forces who are brought from the dead and have some knowledge of black arts can do this."
"Which villain is this?" asks Goombella curiously.
"Not sure. Ludwig wasn't entirely in on the experiment and only told what he knew. Anyway, point is, with this hand a key part of the resurrection has been found. The other part is a collection of seven jewels. These jewels-"
"Why is everything on Plit in groups of sevens anyway?" Goombella suddenly blurts out. "I mean, come on: SEVEN Star Pieces, SEVEN Star Spirits, SEVEN Crystal Stars. What, are the gods just big fans of the slots or what?" Goombella suddenly realises that she's been ranting and shuts up.
"Anyway, these jewels each control a part of the cycle of life: baby blue for birth; green for memories; blue for sorrow; yellow for happiness; pink for love; red for anger; and black for death. Each of these jewels can be found in a different location; a legendary map is said to be held in a hidden tomb far beyond the Dry, Dry Ruins but still within the desert."
"Sounds just like what I've been waitin' for. So, where are we headed now, Professor Gadd?"
"Right now we're heading back to my lab. There's still more explaining to be done. A lot more."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peasley sits in the crow's nest, tapping his sword's side on the wooden flag pole. I should have brought my pillow thing. Then I could get out of here easily and wouldn't have to go through with this, he thinks. The murderer suddenly shouts up from below.
"Hey Peasley! How close are we getting to this Seaside Town place?"
"It's going to take days. Maybe even a week." Peasley yells back before getting back to his tapping. The bean sighs and looks over the edge, seeing a gigantic shadow underneath the water. He notices two tentacles pull up out of the water and onto the boat and gasps as he sees a gigantic Blooper, much bigger than the Gooper Blooper and other larger versions of the species, pull out of the water and begin shaking the boat.
Realising that he's going to die if the ship goes under, Peasley withdraws his sword and dives downward, ready to do battle with the squid. The murderer withdraws his sword and moves in on the squid as well.