Disclaimer: Paper Mario owns all, none of it is mine
REPOSTED WITH SCENE DIVIDERS!
Saturday
Kooper awoke bright and early the next morning and hiked to the other end of town to knock on Koopa Koot's door.
"Oh, what luck! You came at the perfect time, young man! Could you do me a favor?"
"That's what I came for," Kooper said as cheerfully as possible, hoping it was something easy.
"Oh! How very kind of you! I guess the younger generation isn't so bad after all. Well then, young fella! I don't usually ask for favors, but...The Cheif Yoshi has an artifact of mine. Would you mind running to Lavalava Island to get it for me?"
Kooper almost said no, but the weight of seven coins in his shell made him smile and nod and race out of there as fast as he could. Through the tunnels to Toad Town and straight to Toad Town Port, he skidded to a stop on the dock. The enormous whale that had taken up residence in the port opened his big eyes.
"H'lo Kooper," he said sleepily.
"Hi, I need to get to Lavalava Island as fast as possible."
"Ok, ok, climb on." Kooper scrambled onto the whale's huge back. "Next stop: Lavalava Island!"
-PM-
Bombette hid in the uppermost room in the castle, looking out at the great view of Pleasant Path below. It would be a while before Bruce would climb all those stairs looking for her, so she was safe to just think. "Safe" might not be the right word for it though, because the more she thought, the worse she felt. She blew up at Kooper - not literally - for almost no reason yesterday. He had every reason to be upset with her, but he hadn't been, and one little slip of the tongue and she attacked him.
"Some friend I am," Bombette muttered. "Of course he wasn't talking about babysitting me. Why do I always get so mad at him when Bruce comes over? I should be mad a Bruce, not Kooper. Kooper never does anything..."
But that's the problem, isn't it? a voice in her head said. Kooper never does anything. He doesn't get angry with Bruce, he doesn't stop him from saying all those annoying things, he doesn't get jealous -
"Oh no!" Bombette cried when she realized what she'd just thought. "I'm not...I don't..."
Oh yes you do.
"Crap."
-PM-
"Crap," Kooper said. The Fearsome Five had just cheerfully informed him that the Chief was visiting Raphael Raven in the jungle today.
"Yep, if you wanna find the Chief, you've gotta go in the jungle," the little yellow yoshi said.
"We'd go with you," the red one said, "but Sushie would tidal wave us, so we'd better not."
"Yeah, I wish she hadn't learned that move," the blue yoshi said. "It hurts."
"Thanks guys," Kooper said and stepped warily into the jungle.
Jade Jungle was full of unseen dangers. Bushes and plants could come to life at any moment. Jungle Fuzzies dropped on you from the trees if you weren't careful. Spear Guys tried to impale you. Putrid Piranha popped out of the ground and bit you - getting eaten by a flower is not fun. Kooper enlisted Sushie's daughter, Sashimie's help in swimming to the old Raven Shrine in the center of the jungle and let her go back to caring for her newborn son.
"Great," he muttered, "now which branch was it that I'm supposed to pull?" He stared at each hanging branch intently, but no matter how long he thought, he just couldn't remember which one it was. "Great," he muttered again.
He finally just guessed, and guessed wrong. Three jungle fuzzies dropped on him and he just barely got out of the way before they made the first strike. Trying to conserve his energy, Kooper decided to attack them one at a time with his regular old shell toss. But every time he killed one, one of the remaining ones would spin around and create a new fuzzy. This happened about five times before Kooper just got fed up.
"I don't have time for this." He used his flame shell followed quickly by his power shell to get rid of all the fuzzies. "So it's not that branch." He pulled the one next to it and the bushes slid aside. Kooper sighed in relief and passed through. "Now if I remember right, there's a few Putrid Pirhanas up here."
Sure enough, they were there, accompanied by a Magikoopa. A couple flame shells took care of them, but by then Kooper was low on HP and FP. He stumbled on and lifted his head to look up at the enormous tree growing out of the ground. It was bigger than any tree he had ever seen and it never stopped amazing him how something that huge could have just popped out of the ground one day from a tiny little seed and grown into the massive trunk before him. In the side of the trunk there was a little opening. That was the other amazing thing about the tree, it was hollow. A set of stairs wound all the way up to the top of the tree, where Raphael Raven's nest was. Thankfully, there was a heart box inside where Kooper replenished his strength before starting the long climb. That was the end of his good luck, however, because after traveling all that way, fighting off all those enemies, and climbing all those darn stairs, Raphael Raven wasn't even home.
"Caw!" a small raven greeted him.
"Uh, hi, is the Chief here? They told me he would be."
"Mt. Lavalava! Caw!"
"They're at Mt. Lavalava?" Kooper moaned.
"Caw! Back tonight! Caw caw!"
"They'll be back tonight? Can I wait here for them?"
"Caw!" Kooper took that to mean yes and settled into the branches for a long wait.
-PM-
"Booooombeeeetttteeee!"
Bombette ran as fast as she could through the cold, damp hallways of the castle. "Go away, Bruce!"
"I looooovvvveee yoooouuu!"
"Shut up, shut up!"
"My darling pink bob-omb, my fuse burns eternally for you!"
"Ahhhh!"
"I wrote you a poem!"
"I don't want to hear it! Leave me alone!"
"Fire flowers are red, super shrooms are blue, I'll let all of Mushroom Kingdom know, I'm bursting for you!" He exploded in a spectacular display of fireworks.
"Aaarrrrgg!"
-PM-
Kooper was close to just giving up and going home when Raphael Raven flew in a little after midnight.
"Kooper? What are you doing here?" Raphael Raven asked.
"Er..." Kooper strained his neck to see around the big raven, but it didn't look like the Chief was with him. "I needed to see the Chief of the Yoshis. They said he was with you."
"Oh, he was. I dropped him off in the village."
"Oh." Kooper looked toward the distant village. There was no way he would be able to make it all the way back there in the dark.
Raphael Raven must have known that as well and offered, "You're welcome to spend the night here. I'll take you to the village first thing in the morning."
"First thing?" Kooper said. He needed to be home tomorrow. The festival was tomorrow.
"Yes, very first thing," he big raven promised. "Birds wake at the crack of dawn, you know."
"Ok then, thank you," Kooper mumbled, half asleep already.
-PM-
"What do you mean 'he left!'" Bombette demanded. Koover backed up a little and held his hands up defensively. "Where did he go?"
"He just went on an errand for Koopa Koot. He said he'd be back tomorrow."
Bombette frowned. "He'd better be back tomorrow," she grumbled. "Thanks Koover, you can go back to bed now."
"You won't blow me up?" he asked nervously.
"No, not tonight," she joked. He didn't look so sure. "Go back to bed Koover, I won't blow you up, I promise."
"Ooookkk..." he said slowly. "I'll see you at the festival tomorrow then."
Bombette nodded and gave him a weak smile. "Yeah, see you then."
She went back to Kooper's house and sighed. Koover had enlisted his bob-omb committee to rebuild the house before the festival tomorrow and they had done a pretty good job. At least it looked presentable on the outside, even if the inside still looked like a war zone. Unable to sleep, Bombette got to work straightening the place up.
"Kooper better come home tomorrow or his house will get blown up three times in a month."
A/N: One more chapter to go! Is anyone reading this? Feedback is always greatly appreciated...love it? hate it? Let me know. And stay tuned for Chapter 3 for the answers to all your questions! Will Kooper make it home before Bombette blows up his house? What is he saving up to buy? What crazy gimick will Bruce try next to get everyone's favorite pink bob-omb to fall in love with him? Seriously, is anyone reading this?
--X
