1-1 N. Sane Beach Party
Sorry that this was a week late. I blame a combination of getting addicted to watching Pikmin 3 videos on Youtube, Don't Starve Together and Team Fortress 2 distracting me from getting any work done. Not to mention some restructuring of the story line, which I'll explain at the end. Otherwise, still managed to get it out though. So, enjoy, I guess.
Crash and Mario are owned by their respective companies.
As the light of the moon illuminated the ocean waves, a rift opened up on the shore of N-Sanity Beach, right in the area where the Bandicoots "Pad" was located. It deposited it's passengers of the Bandicoot siblings, the Mario siblings, and the magic mask that guarded the island itself, right on the beach. Poor Luigi face planted onto the sand as he exited last, and had to be helped up by Crash back into standing position.
"Welcome, to N-Sanity Island." Coco declared, with Crash presenting their Pad with a "Ta-da!"
Mario and Luigi couldn't help but gawk at the beauty of the jungle greenery and the sandy beach they were on. Delfino Island had nothing on this place.
Crash and Coco started leading their guests through the path to their house, with Coco giving them a tour. "As you can see, our abode on this little slice of paradise has only the best of luxurious amenities. Where we landed was our little beach pad, where we hang out and catch some rays, play video games, and just relax. Oh, mind the crabs, by the way."
Luigi screeched in terror when a giant crab pinched his butt. Mario quickly came to the rescue and gave the crustacean a swift kick, sending it flying into the woods.
Crash and Coco didn't seem to notice the whole exchange, as they simply continued walking forward. "And at the very end of this path is our house, the place where we live, and that is… currently... being attacked?"
Coco grabbed her brother to stop him from walking, causing Crash to notice what was going on. Mario, Luigi and Aku Aku rushed towards them, and took notice of what was going on as well.
Coming out of the Bandicoot household, through the doors, the windows, and even phasing through the walls, was an army of blue, Casper ripoff looking ghosts. Most of them looked like they were getting out in a panic, with some carrying random objects in their hands. One thing was clear, they were in their house, and they were taking things away from it.
"Are those ghosts from the Last Resort?" Mario pointed out to his brother, who nodded as he stared gobsmacked at the scene.
"My stuff!" Coco shrieked as she pulled on her hair. She then realized Crash was also with her. "I mean our stuff!" The two quickly ran to their home, with the Bros and Aku Aku quickly following after.
Crash smashed the door open, interrupting the scene inside. A bunch of ghosts of many shapes and sizes, red and square; to yellow and thin; to the blue, casper looking ones all froze in midair, all in varying states of escaping and ransacking as they stared at the new creature ready to make their unlives hell.
Coco shoved Crash aside to enter, analysing the scene. "Is that my Nuclear Hairdryer?!"
The red ghost she was pointing at looked at the thing in its hands, then back at Coco, then back at the thing again. It opened its mouth wide open and shoved the device inside its mouth as a response.
The panic resumed after that, now with an angry blonde bandicoot and her older brother doing their best to kick them out by force. The Mario Bros arrived at the door to witness the whole scenario, too busy discussing with each other their confusion over the whole ordeal.
"How did these guys get here? And why are they robbing their house?" Mario wondered out loud.
"You know who these undead are?" Aku Aku asked them as he watched his children clean house, confident in their abilities to deal with the situation themselves.
"They're from a haunted hotel. Mario and my friends were kidnapped, I saved the day, they turned out to be brainwashed, and now they're friends of mine." Luigi explained quickly. "But why would they be here? Coco's the only one who controls the Psychenator, right?"
"Yes. Another mystery to add to the pile, I guess."
Crash spun the last ghost left in the house out the window, and rushed to it to see the whole group fleeing into the jungle. He frowned and grumbled to himself as he turned to see the state of his house after the whole infestation. Furniture upturned, knick knacks and picture frames missing, a lot of their stuff had been stolen in the kerfuffle.
Coco sighed as she put down the lamp she used as a weapon back on the floor, only to pull it back up when she and the others heard a noise from the kitchen. She, along with her brother, slowly tiptoed their way to the area, ready to catch the remaining intruder on guard.
She and Crash gave a look at each other, and nodded. With a war cry, the two knocked the door over, ready to attack whoever was on the other side.
What was inside, however, made them drop their weapons and gawk in surprise. The Bros and Aku Aku came by as well, and the mask joined in gawking as well, with the Bros simply looking on in confusion.
A tall, blonde bandicoot in a pink shirt and blue shorts was busy shoving a giant block of cheese on top of a goobs head, grunting as the poor ghost struggled to escape. She was so busy, in fact, that she had yet to notice the audience that had formed at the door.
"Stay still! You're not leaving this place without answering questions, you blue Casper ripoff!" She grunted out, and finally succeeded in shoving the goobs head fully into the cheese. "There. Good luck cutting this cheese… that was bad."
Her disappointment at her bad cheese pun vanished the moment her eyes laid on the people gathered by the kitchen door. "Crash? Coco? Aku Aku?" She gasped out.
"TAWNA!"
The taller bandicoot braced herself as a fuzzy orange marsupial physically threw himself at her and glomped her, almost knocking her over. Then she was knocked over when Coco slammed her with her own hug. Aku Aku hovered over to them to watch the pile of bandicoots with a big smile on his face.
Realizing that this was a reunion, the Bros politely stood by the door and watched the snuggle pile. Until they noticed the goob bumping into random things due to cheese blocked vision.
They probably needed to do something about that.
As Mario and Luigi went over to grab the bumbling ghost, the pile of bandicoots was broken up as Tawna got up from the floor, Crash still clinging on to her. "Oh, I missed you guys. Sorry I went missing for so long."
"You have a lot to explain about that, that's for sure." Aku Aku lightly chuckled, before turning to the brothers who were trying to grab onto the cheese blinded ghost. "You two don't mind if we have some time to catch up with our friend, Tawna, right?"
"Oh, it's no problem." Mario waved off the worries, leaving Luigi with the task of chasing after the ghost. "I know a thing or two about meeting up with someone you haven't seen in years." He said, reminiscing while Luigi was dragged around by the trashing ghost in the background.
"And then Von Clutch hired me after I kicked this Wumpa Whip mascot off a cliff, and I was stuck under a year long contract where I had to promote the park and interrogate corporate spies. Not my idea of heroism, but it paid the bills." Tawna finished the retelling of her very first adventure, taking a sip of her tea.
Crash was laying on her lap, staring dreamily as he listened to every word that came out of her mouth, while Coco was lying on the floor, kicking her feet in the air.
In one of the other chairs was the goob, still with a block of cheese blocking its vision, having been seated by the Bros as to not bother the reunion that it ended up involved in. Not that it planned to do anything about, being just as invested in the wild story about kart racing and corporate warfare Tawna was telling.
As for the Brothers themselves, they and Aku Aku had gone back into the kitchen to prepare the tea, the acoustics of the building being good enough for them to still be able to hear the others while inside. They were just exiting with the beverages, in fact, when Coco piped up from her spot on the floor.
"So that's the reason you went with those two chicken guys and the possum girl?" Coco pointed out.
"Yeah, I wanted to go on my own adventure, get some experience under my belt so that I could help out better in our adventures. It ran a lot longer than I thought it would. But the important thing is I'm back. So, what did I miss while I was gone?" She asked the others, accepting a relief from Luigi as she did.
"Oh, same old, same old. Cortex tried to use time travel to take over the world with an evil mask and some time travel expert. We banished their butts to the past when that was dealt with." Coco explained. "But then they broke out and tried to take over the multiverse. We actually teamed up with an alternate version of you, in fact. I call her "Cooler Tawna." Crash, you got a picture?"
Crash pulled out his phone from his jeans, quickly through it for the picture in question.
Tawna stared at the picture of her alternate reality self, before slowly nodding. "Yeah, I can see why she's the Cooler version of me. I was actually planning to get my hair dyed like that. Guess this version didn't chicken out at the last second. And those thighs."
Crash gave her a comforting hug, making his opinions clear. There was only one Tawna that would ever belong in his heart.
"Awww, that's why you're my bandicutie." The two nuzzled noses with each other.
Coco rolled her eyes in disgust at the mushy sight. "Yeah, anyway, after the whole ordeal, the Quantum Masks sent Cortex to the end of the universe. Open and shut case, right?"
"Wrong?"
"Wrong. He broke out at some point, and now he's off running around making a mess in their universe." She pointed at Mario and Luigi, who waved hi. "And that brings us here, back at our house, which was ransacked by a bunch of ghosts."
"Yeah, I never got your names." Tawna turned to the two brothers.
"Oh, I'm Mario, and this here is my bro, Luigi." The red plumber introduced himself, with Luigi giving a small "Hey." as his response. "We just came here to find something that's gonna help deal with this whole mess, is all. Although I'm thinking we might be dealing with a different problem right now.
Everyone turned to look at their ghostly guest, who was still seated at the chair. "... Is it me?"
"Indeed it is. Far as we know, the only way to travel between our realities is through Cortex's Psychenator, and he has abandoned the one we are using." Aku Aku summarized. "So how could an army of undead have crossed over onto our island without Cortex's involvement?"
The room remained silent, until the goob realized who the question was directed at. "Hey, I'm not talking. You shoved cheese on my head, so you don't deserve to get answers. Ghost law."
"Oh boy, this again." Luigi sighed, all too familiar with the situation. "We're not gonna get any answers out of him for a good while. Once you offend a ghost, they just clamp up and never talk for hours."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Tawna said as she got off from the sofa, cracking her knuckles. "I learned a thing or two about getting people to squeal back at the racepark. You guys go ahead and look for whatever thingamabobber Coco has that can help you out."
Crash couldn't help but swoon at the sight, needing an annoyed Coco to drag him away from the room and into her lab. Mario, Luigi and Aku Aku followed after, with the former stopping for a moment to wish Tawna good luck.
The goob could hear the footsteps slowly fade away and gulped when he realized exactly where things were going to go for him.
"Alright, buddy. Let's talk." He heard Tawna's voice say in a menacing tone.
[hr]
Coco's lab was exactly what one would expect a teen genius' lab to look like. Bits and pieces of machinery for inventions of unknown purpose were lying around in a disorganised manner, either on the floor or on the large workbench full of high tech tools. There was also the skeleton of a massive supercomputer at the back of the room, still in the works given its current state and all the blueprints lying around in front of it. Completing the room was the lovely color of hot pink that decorated the walls.
"Lovely lab you got here." Luigi said as he looked around the room. "Very pink. And kinda messy."
"Ugh, fudge. Those ghosts must have ransacked my lab." She said, lamely. The girl wasted no time in heading to her workbench, rummaging through it and tossing out item after item. "Help me look for the tracker. Hopefully it's the one thing they didn't grab."
The group spread around the room, digging through drawers and piles of machinery in search of their object of interest.
Luigi sifted through a pile of wires and gears, pulling out a strange looking camera in the process. "Is this it?" He said while examining the device.
"That's my Skeletal Examiner. Don't activate it, I haven't figured out how to deal with all the radiation yet."
Luigi's finger was hovering over the button when she said that. He carefully set the camera on the floor, and carefully tiptoed as far away from it as he could.
Crash looked around by the half-finished computer, taking note of a strange looking metal rod sticking out of the machine. He pulled it out, examined it, shrugged his shoulders and went ahead to use it as a back scratcher. He was feeling a bit itchy.
Coco didn't bother turning around when she heard Crash be electrocuted by the device. "The Electron Prodder is not a back scratcher, Crash. Put it down."
Mario stared at two oddly shaped gadgets he had in his hands, taking note at their unfinished states. "Hey, Coco. I'm no scientist, but these things kinda look… unfinished."
"Yeah, I tend to flip flop between projects a lot. I have a lot of unfinished projects that I forget about whenever I come up with a new idea." She said as she turned to look at what he was holding. "No, those aren't it."
The process continued for a few minutes, turning the entire room upside down, Luigi and Crash almost being zapped by the occasional gadget, all without a single glimpse of their technological macguffin. Coco huffed as she face planted on her workbench, Crash doing his best to comfort her once she came to the logical conclusion: the ghosts had taken her invention.
"Can't you just make a new one?" Mario asked her.
"I'd love to, but no. I haven't- The process is too complicated to just do overnight." She got off the chair and went to walk out of her lab. "So we're just gonna have to find those ghosts, beat the stuffing out of them and get my stuff back."
Crash and Aku Aku gave each other knowing looks. A vengeful Coco was never a good thing, especially when it came to her inventions. They could still remember what happened to Pinstripe Potoroo when he tried to take credit for an air purifier she was working on. Potoroos should never bend at such angles.
The others followed her out of the lab, making their way to the living room, only to be startled when they heard the goob scream. They all ran the rest of the way, wondering what Tawna had been doing to the ghost. And hoping it didn't violate any laws.
They're arrival showed them that what had happened was nothing that broke any undead rights, thankfully.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHahahahahaaa!" The goob, now with cheese in hand instead of on head, was just laughing uproariously at something Tawna had told him.
"I know, right? And then the lady goes "You'll never see the last of me, Tawna Bandicoot!" And then she explodes and dies." Tawna finished her retelling, bursting into laughter after that. When she noticed the others were in the room, she did her best to stifle her laughter to talk to them. "Oh, hnrk, hey guys. Come in, I got the guy to open up."
The others made their way to sit on the sofa, their attention now on the ghost chewing on the cheese to stifle his laughter.
"You alright with answering our questions now?" Tawna asked the ghost.
"Yeah, I'm good now." The ghost answered.
Coco was the first to start asking things. "What did you guys do with my stuf- Mphr!" Her mouth was covered by Crash before she could finish the question.
"What she's trying to ask, politely, is how did you get into our world? Isn't that right, Coco?" Aku Aku said, staring pointedly at the bandicoot girl when he said the last part. He earned himself an eye roll at that.
The goob didn't seem all that perturbed, though. "Well, it all started when this giant hole in the sky opened up above the hotel. I don't remember much, but apparently some guy called N… something or other, came in and started brainwashing everyone."
"Cortex." Coco, Aku and Tawna all said at once.
"Did he look short and yellow, and have a big N on his forehead." Luigi parroted the description their bandicoot friends had given them to the goob.
"No, he was kinda like if you gave an egg holder arms and legs. I don't know who this Cortex guy is, but it's not that guy."
That brought everyone's mood down. The bandicoots always knew the fact that every single of their scientist enemies' names started with N would fool them someday.
"Anyway, while the guy was brainwashing everyone, some of us took notice of the giant portal behind the guy. We cut our losses and just ran through to get out." The goob continued. "Next thing we know, we're on some tropical island in the middle of nowhere."
"What happened to the others? Dr. E. Gadd? Steward? Morty?" Luigi asked in a worried tone.
"Heck if I know. All I remember regarding the Dr. was us hearing an explosion coming from the lab. By the time we heard that, we were already through the portal." The goob finished, taking a sad bite out of his cheese.
"Hooh, boy. This is bad." The poor green brother grabbed at his head while Mario gave him a comforting pat on the back. "First the thing we need is missing, now this? What else can go wrong."
"Oh! I remember now. King Boo followed us through the portal." The ghost casually revealed, taking a bite out of his cheese. "Mph, yep, that's what the explosion was probably about. He broke out, followed us, and probably brainwashed all of us to do his bidding."
Luigi blinked twice, took one deep breath, and then fell over to everyone's surprise. Mario had to pull his brother up back to sitting position and fan him with his hat to help calm him down, all the while the others looked on in confusion.
"Who's King Boo? Is he some sort of ghost king who wants revenge on you, or something?" Tawna asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. He's the king of the Boo's, and he has a vendetta against Luigi here." Mario explained. "He usually tries to capture us and imprison us in paintings whenever he breaks out. Usually starting with me. My bro always manages to defeat him, though."
"After having to fend off an army of ghosts who want to kill me on my own for an entire night." Luigi complained.
Crash, scooting over to Luigi, patted him on the shoulder to comfort him. His reasoning needed no explaining, he knew exactly what Luigi's situation was like.
"Wait, so you're a ghost hunter?" Coco said, an excited gleam in her eyes. "What tech do you use? Photonic? Magnetic? Occult?" She asked him, getting uncomfortably close to Luigi, and requiring Tawna to drag her back.
"Vacuum cleaner, actually." Luigi responded."It's the only thing that can beat and capture ghosts. The problem right now is that I left it back at the hotel, and that's been taken over."
Everyone had a worried look as they processed the information. It was definitely a problem, having an enemy with only one way to be beaten that they did not have on hand.
Well, everyone but one genius inventor was worried, that is.
"How much do you know about the machine you use?" Coco asked Luigi, a confident smile growing on her face.
"Eh? The poltergust? Well, E. Gadd has given me tons of lectures, plus I've done some work on it myself. So a lot?" The ghost hunter said, scratching his mustache and wondering what Coco was on about. "Why do you ask?"
"Because you are talking to a genius inventor. If you explain to me the paratechnological principles it functions under and sketch out a blueprint of it's internal functions, I can probably jury rig a functioning facsimile out of the leftover oddments left here from the ghost invasion!" She explained excitedly. Everyone's confused looks made it quite clear that they didn't actually get what she said. "I can make another poltergust with Luigi's help." She explained deadpanely.
Everyone "Ooh'd" out loud, now understanding what she meant. All but Crash, who still looked confused. He'd get it eventually.
"Wait, but if you think you can make a poltergust in just one night, why can't you make another Detector?" The ghost hunter pointed out.
"... We still need to figure out where the ghosts are hiding out. Hey, where did you guys come from exactly?" Coco deliberately dodged the question.
"Eh, somewhere from the north. There were all these old ruins, and this giant locked door in the way."
"Ah, my old home." The mask smiled as he reminisced on old times. "I had that place locked away to keep it safe. And I gave away the key to someone for safekeeping."
"Who'd you give it to?" Mario asked the mask.
"An old enemy named Ripper Roo. He owns a museum on the beach of this island, and I entrusted him the key to my old home to keep it out of the hands of british museums."
"Well I guess we have a plan, then." Mario hopped off the sofa and posed. "While Coco and Luigi stay back and build a new poltergust, we go out to Ripper Roo's place and find the key, then we join back together and go hunt down King Boo. Who wants to come with?"
Somewhere on the island, the great King Boo, King of the Boo's (Duh,) was laughing maniacally, enjoying his newfound freedom for the fourth time in a row. Being captured time and time again by your most hated enemy could really get on one's nerves, so taking the time to fly around and scare the living to actual death was the perfect way to relieve stress.
Right now he was laughing as he floated above the unfortunately unconscious body of a goose farmer, scared half to death when the undead king popped up behind him. It was funny, really, it had taken a full minute before the farmer actually registered his presence. Those were the best kind of reactions, where he could see them process the terror in their eyes.
"So, what is our next step, your greatness?" A female voice came from behind him, and now King Boo's night was ruined.
Hellen Gravely, his number one superfan, which the year imprisoned with her as a cellmate thought him was far less an enjoyable experience than he would have wanted it to be, was examining the land of the island they were on with a keen eye, following King Boo throughout the night.
"My next step, Hellen, is nothing!" He growled out as he turned around, spooking the former hotel owner. "All these failures have taught me one thing, that my lust for revenge against Luigi is just going to lead to my downfall no matter what. I think it's about time that I dropped this whole revenge thing and went on a nice vacation of shorts. Terrorizing the world and building up an army sounds quite nice."
"But, the alien that took over my hotel? Aren't we going to do anything about it?" Hellen questioned with a stunned look on her face. King Boo giving up on revenge? That was preposterous.
"Bleh, he can keep the stupid hotel. You can build a new one, with statues of myself, and with my own personal quarters."
"Oh, and perhaps we can use it to attract unsuspecting mortals for you to terrorize yourself. Yes, I can see it now. Your genius truly knows no bounds."
"Obviously." King Boo rolled his eyes at Hellen's bootlicking.
Thankfully, his prayers of salvation were answered when a few of his boo minions returned with some of the escaped ghosts in tow. "Ah, finally, you found some of the stragglers. About time." King Boo said.
The captured ghosts all trembled in fear as King Boo loomed over them with a menacing grin.
"Now, tell me everything I need to know. I'm assuming you've seen some interesting things while running around like a bunch of headless chickens." He ordered as his newly reclaimed gem glowed a bright purple.
The ghosts' fearful looks melted away as they fell under King Boo's thrall. One of the ghosts, an oozer, was shoved forward by the others, and he began to speak in a monotone voice.
"We found a house not far from here. It had a strange lady in it, I think a mouse."
"No, she was a bandicoot."
"What part about that lady even resembled a bandicoot?"
King Boo growled threateningly, stopping the argument before it got out of control and annoyed him the entire night.
"Uhh, after that, two other mouse people- "
"Bandicoots."
"... Bandicoots showed up, along with a floating mask, and Mario and Luigi."
King Boo and Hellen stared unblinkingly as they processed the revelation. Bandicoots, masks and Mario didn't matter to them one bit, Luigi was on the island.
"Did he have the Poltergust?" Hellen decided to ask the most important question.
"Nope. He had nothing on him."
With a grin of pure evil growing on his face, King Boo laughed to himself. "Hellen, remember what I said about not wanting to bother with revenge anymore?" He asked her.
"Not at all, your greatness." She answered.
"Good. Get the other ghosts!" He barked orders at his boo minions, and they flew off into the woods in response. King Boo laughed maniacally as he plotted his newest revenge plan. One that was guaranteed to not fail!
Step 1: Give his good friend Luigi a visit, just like old times.
Like the first actual chapter, there was supposed to be a boss at the end of this one. I decided to move said boss to the next chapter instead. And also, this one just didn't want to write itself in general. But it's out, and now I can work on the next one.
Remember to review and critique. I desire improvement on all levels.