Chapter 6: Memories are Made in Rifts
Story Song - 'Hat and Tie'
Pop on your hat and pull up your tie,
Now lock your arms and reach for the sky!
We're running out towards the morning,
Even if we're still tired and yawning.
No matter what we face, we'll make it through.
'Cause I'm unbeatable when I'm with you.
It's a whole new world, so much to explore!
Climb every wall and break down every door!
There's things to collect and sights to see,
I'll follow you, and you'll follow me.
We'll most definitely run into trouble,
But it's fine, we'll beat 'em up on the double!
So pop on your hat and pull up your tie,
Now lock your arms and reach for the sky!
We're running out into the day,
No dark clouds or walls in our way.
Let's do our best and make it through.
'Cause I'm unstoppable when I'm with you.
Move and laugh together in harmony,
Forward as friends is where we wanna be.
There may be times when we're scared,
Just remember the good times that we shared.
To keep our faces bright with smiles,
Go on and face all of life's trials!
So pop on your hat and pull up your tie,
Now lock your arms and reach for the sky!
We're running out into the night.
Our path is guided by bright starlight.
I'm ready and confident we'll make it through.
'Cause I'm invincible when I'm with you.
And we fight 'cause we know we're imperfect...
Each others opinions we tend to neglect...
You're a pain and a jerk and a moron...
But I'm still here, singing this song.
It's been us two for a while, together...
After everything I know...with you my life is better.
So pop on your hat and pull up your tie,
Now lock your arms and reach for the sky!
Set off for a brand new tomorrow!
Leave behind our regrets and our sorrows!
Side by side, we'll definitely make it through!
'Cause I'm unbeatable when I'm with you.
'Cause I'm unstoppable when I'm with you.
'Cause I'm invincible when I'm with you.
'Cause I'm happiest when I'm...with...you.
"Are you two enjoying your dessert there?"
"Yep! Thanks, CC!"
"It is very lovely...but..."
I grimaced at Hat, giggling madly as she shovelled strawberry cake into her mouth whilst I ate chocolate donuts. I knew sweets right after breakfast, no matter how fishy it was, was a bad idea.
"Like we said, it's the least I could do to repay you both after you saved us." She said.
"It's actually nice not having to cook." I admitted.
"Well, whilst you're here looking for your Time Pieces, I'll take care of all your meals." She said. "You're guests on our planet after all."
'Never been called 'guests' before. Usually its 'invaders' or 'aliens' or 'hideous'.' I thought bitterly.
"I'mreadyI'mreadyI'mready!" Hat bounced up and down excitedly. "Let's go look for more Time Pieces!"
"Hold on, Captain." I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck as she made a break for the door. "You SHOULD know that we collected enough Time Pieces to keep the door to the Machine Room open, and divert power to the telescope there. We should be able to explore more of the planet with it."
"More places to explore!?" Now her eyes were sparkling.
"But there are still more Time Pieces in Mafia Town." I went on. "We should focus our attention on finishing up there first, then see what else there is."
"Mmmmm..." Her pouting face meant she was thinking about it.
"Um, sorry to interrupt." CC said. "I was hoping I could show you two your present first."
"Present!" Hat already celebrated.
"You mean that big box?" I asked.
"Yeah!" She nodded.
The three of us walked back into the main room where the box still was. A beating from my yo-yo and Hat's umbrella caused it to open and reveal what looked like some kind of lottery machine, it had the three slots, handle and everything.
"What is it?" Hat poked it.
"It's not gambling, is it?" I was NOT a fan of dirty luck.
"This is an Orb Machine." CC patted it. "When you get it working, it gives you a random prize in an orb."
"You guys...really like capsules." Was all I could say.
"This one has Flairs and Colours. Thought it would be pretty stylish for you two." CC said. "Unfortunately, it works the same as any other machine of its kind. You need 3 Rift Tokens to spin it and get a prize."
'Great present.' I thought.
"Oh! By Rift Tokens..." Hat pulled out three red and gold coins with stars on them. "Do you mean these?"
"Yes! That's it!" CC nodded.
"Then I've got enough!" She cheered excitedly.
'Seriously!? What HAVEN'T you picked up since we got here!? Would you pick up a dead rat if it wasn't nailed down!?' I had a mini breakdown in my head.
Regardless, she put the three coins in and spun the handle. The three wheels whirred to life, and quickly stopped on three pictures of what looked like her hat. In fact, it looked exactly like her hat! From it, a capsule rolled out of the bottom.
"Looks like you've got a Flair there." CC told her. "It changes the appearance of one of your articles of clothing." The cat then tapped on a star on the capsule. "This is a 1-star, and it can go up to 3-stars."
"How does it change it?" Hat asked.
"You just open it." CC said.
Hat stuck her tongue out in effort and twisted the capsule, causing it to pop open and release a small ball of light that attached itself to the brim of her hat, turning into a ribbon. "My hat got a ribbon!"
"So it's something like that, huh?" I mumbled.
"Here, Tie." CC offered me three Tokens. "You can have these three."
"Thank you." I nodded as I accepted them and put them in, before pulling on the lever. The wheel rolled before stopping on what looked like a paintbrush.
"That right there is a new Colour." CC said as the capsule rolled out and I picked it up. "You pop it open and your colours swap. If you wanna return to your normal colour, just open it back up again."
"What do you mean, my colours swap?" I twisted the capsule and it popped open, enveloping me in a puff of smoke before it closed back up again, like with magnetic force.
"Oooooh!" Hat seemed to marvel at me.
"What?" Her being amazed made me worried, so I ran over to the window and squinted at my reflection, then gasped.
My hair had turned completely white! My shirt had turned silver, my tie was black and white stripes, my trousers were white whilst my belt was black, the buckle and my buttons were silver, and my shoes...well, they stayed black.
"I look like an old cartoon!" I gasped.
"That's not true, your eyes are the same." CC pointed out. "Looks like you got the Bright Noir colour scheme."
"So, to turn back, I open the capsule again, right?" I twisted it open again and once more smoke enveloped me, returning my colours to normal. "Oh thank goodness."
"Not to worry, there are plenty of other Flairs and Colours that you can get." CC assured me.
"Let's go get more Rift Tokens!" Hat cheered.
"And hopefully the rest of the Time Pieces from Mafia Town." I reminded her as we opened the window.
CC gasped. "Wait, do you two literally ju-"
"Yep." I answered as we leapt out of the window and descended back down to Mafia Town.
"Rift Tokens..." Hat mumbled as she stared around.
"You should be looking for TIME Rifts instead." I said. "Speaking of which, tie, any around here?" I gave it a tug and it pointed to the bazaar.
"Okay then! You go look for the Time Rift, and I'll collect things!" Hat beamed.
"You look for Time Pieces too!" I told her.
So now I was jumping around Mafia Town looking for a Time Rift, Pons, Yarn, Relic Pieces and Relic Tokens. If the list got any longer I'd have to carry around a shopping cart. But I still found some Relic Tokens and Yarn.
"Here you are." I found the Time Rift in a market passageway. "Looks like it hit someone walking down."
I straight up jumped into the Time Rift and came out in the other icy dimension. And the cookies were still there.
"Alrighty, feet don't fail me now." I mumbled.
Does using the Bat Bow count as cheating? Because if so I cheated a lot. It's just so convenient to have a double jump and a glide! You'd know if you had those!
'Still...' I took the time to stop and look around. At the faded images, the sparkles, the whole area around me. 'I wonder if this really is the space between time. Or if its just some kind of pocket dimension. Because I highly doubt the COOKIES.'
'But if that's so...' I climbed up another platform. 'Are Time Pieces actually affected by the world around them? How does that work? Do they have some kind of sentience? I hope not...'
I eventually reached the end and grabbed the Time Pieces, causing me to return and fix the Time Rift. "...Am I just really overthinking everything? This is what happens when Captain isn't around to distract my thoughts."
I teleported back to the ship as Hat was putting a Time Piece she had collected in the Vault. "Oh, so you did find one."
"Have more faith in me." She pouted as I put my one in. "I had to go through a lot of trouble to get that one!"
"Like what?"
"I had to collect golden tickets and open a golden vault."
"...Uh-huh."
"But more importantly!" She dived over to her Relic and placed another piece on it. "Only one more piece to go, and it'll be complete!"
"And what exactly are you gonna do with it when its finished?" I asked.
"...Bounce on it?" She suggested. "It is pretty springy."
"Mm." Was my response.
"You two are back quick." CC said as she poked her head out of the door.
"Thankfully." I said.
"I've been looking around, and you guys have got a pretty nice place here." The cat admitted. "Though, a lot of the doors are locked."
"That's why we're out dong a collectathon." I said.
"By the way, you've been making one of these, right?" CC pointed at the Relic.
"Yeah! Know what it is?" Hat asked.
CC shrugged. "Not sure. Just know that they're felt and pieces are all over the planet. For some reason people tend to just leave them alone. Like..." CC actually stared at it. "...They're afraid of them."
"Afraid of felt?" I questioned.
"Weird, right? Anyway, now that this one s almost done, I think I can give you this." CC produced the top!
"The last piece!" Hat practically grabbed it and hugged it.
"I was holding onto it because it seemed to remind me of something." CC said. "But now that all the pieces are here, I think it is-"
"Boop!" Hat placed it on top, and the Relic was complete. It looked like a sandwich...but rounder.
"I knew it! It's a burger!" CC said.
"What's a burger?" I asked, as Hat began bouncing on the Relic.
"You can't tell me you two have never had burgers before!" CC gasped.
"Nope." Me and Hat responded.
"Well we've gotta fix that right away! I'm making burgers for lunch." CC declared as she headed into the kitchen.
"Welp Captain, you've completed it." I nodded.
"Awesome, right!?" She giggled. "So this is actually some kind of food replica? Now I actually wanna try eating ooooooooo-!"
"Captain!" I gasped.
All of a sudden, a pink portal had opened up above the burger and sucked her in!
'What the-!? That...looks like a Time Rift!' I thought. 'But...it's pink! Agh, no time to think about that now!' I quickly jumped in after her, and when I emerged...woah.
This was NOT the typical icy Time Rift. It was grey as random lights flashed around. I was on a floating platform with random metal buildings everywhere as if it was some kind of junkyard, and the whole area just seemed to give off a weird ambience.
'What is this?' I thought. 'I've never seen a Time Rift like this before...and where's Captain?'
I looked over and saw a Mafia member of all thingns standing next to a pipe! "Hey! What are you doing here!?"
"Hm? Why little boy talking to Mafia?" He asked.
"Hold on...who are you, exactly?" I asked. "How did you get here?"
"Mafia is Mafia. Mfia has always been here. This Mafia home." He said.
"Your...home?" I echoed.
"Yes...very smelly. Very polluted." He nodded almost sadly.
'No way he lives here.' I denied it. 'So what is...?'
"Little boy should jump into pipe." The Mafia said. "Smell bad, but take you somewhere else."
"Ah...thanks." I nodded, as I jumped into the pipe.
I ended up in another similar area, just with more girders, and piles of dead fish.
"What kind of Time Rift is this?" I pondered. "It's so different...and it appeared right after that Relic was complete."
I walked around the location for a bit when I spotted a faint glowing. I walked over and found it to be a floating picture. I grabbed it and the glow faded, but when I looked at the picture it was blank.
"That's odd. The glow suggested it was super important." Nevertheless, I pocketed the picture and jumped into the pipe.
I landed in a new area, with giant crates and a metal ship floating off in the distance. There were several Mafia members cheering, as another few gathered around a large pile of fish.
'More Mafia members...' I thought.
"Hey! There is child here!" One of the Mafia members noticed me.
"Child snooping where child shouldn't!" Another one said.
'And these ones aren't friendly.' I realised.
The trio rushed me, but I simply jumped over them and they banged their heads against each other, before I knocked them off the edge with a whip of my yo-yo.
"Still easy." I noted. "But they talked about me 'snooping'...hm..."
I walked over to one of the Mafia waving at the ship. "Excuse me?"
"Hm?" He turned to me, indicating he could hear me.
"What's that ship for?" I asked.
"Ah! It is marvellous ship!" He seemed happy. "We Mafia of Cooks are using it to sale to new island, away from this smelly old one."
'Ahhh, I get it now.' I nodded. 'These are distorted memories of the Mafia. So this must be before they left for what would later be Mafia Town. But why is the Time Rift emulating these memories? And why did it appear from a Relic?'
I then noticed another shimmer, and picked up another blank picture. 'These must be important...pictures hold memories...' I pocketed it and jumped into the pipe.
Now I landed right smack dab on the Deck of the ship as a wind and waves seemed to be blowing.
'So this must be their journey there!' I thought.
"Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!" Suddenly I was familiarly tackle-hugged.
"Captain!" I gasped as she wrestled me to the floor.
"Did you come to rescue me?" She beamed.
"Doesn't look like you need it." I said as I stood up and brushed myself down.
"This is weird, isn't it? I've never seen a Time Rift like this before." Hat noted.
"You haven't? I thought you were more knowledgeable." I said.
"I dunno everything!" She argued. "Oh! But I've been picking these things up!" She produced three more blank pictures.
"Really? Then you missed a few." I produced my two.
"Ohhhhh! I feel like we're close to the bottom of a mystery!" Hat proudly proclaimed. "There's one more pipe, so let's go!"
'Of course she's fine.' I sighed inwardly as we jumped in the pipe.
This time we landed on a platform that looked like the plaza of Mafia town, with Mafia members all around.
'And this is when they arrived.' I thought.
"C'mon, Tie!" She was already off!
"Slow down!" I cried as I chased her. "That's how you missed the two photos I picked up!"
"But I was picking up these!" Hat argued as she gathered some little crowns together. "You need them to open the pipes!"
'So it even has different rules then a regular Time Rift?' I wondered.
"Easy-peasy!" She boasted as they fitted into the lid of the pipe and it opened up. "Wheeeee!"
"For the love off..." I checked with my tie to see if there were any more pictures around. Thankfully not, so I followed her.
We were now on several floating building tops, with Maia members around.
'Guess this is when they made the town theirs.' I figured.
"Let's go, Tie!" Hat declared.
"You collect the crowns, I'll beat up the Mafia." What can I say? I liked it.
They rather pathetically threw cans at me before I smacked them upside the chin one by one. "Well, you tried at least." Luckily I noticed another picture, which I retrieved.
"Got all the crowns needed!" Hat cheered.
"AndI got a photo." We each held our three pictures out. "Six feels about right."
"Yeah, it does." Hat agreed. "Shall we go?"
"If you say so." I said.
We jumped into the last pipe and finally found the end of the Time Rift, with the Time Piece there.
"It's a Time Piece. Just a regular one. I thought it would be different somehow." I admitted.
"Maybe it's not the Time Piece itself that's special." Hat reasoned. "Maybe it's what it hit when it broke."
"What could it have hit to make all this? And act so weird?" I wondered.
"No clue!" She happily admitted. "But we've got it now!" She grabbed the hourglass, and we were teleported back.
"Weird..." Was all I said.
"This makes 10!" Hat happily cried as she put the Time Piece back in, bringing our total up to 80.
"That's good at least, but why did it appear..." I then realised I was still holding the pictures, but when I looked at them... "Um...Captain?"
"Hat, you mean?" She responded.
"The photos..." I revealed mine to see that pictures had appeared on them.
"Eh?" Hat pulled out hers and pictures had appeared on them too!
"Just what is this...?" I mumbled as I put our pictures together and ordered them, before flipping through. "...These are pictures of the Mafia's journey to Mafia Town. Like what we saw in the Rift."
"Wait, was that what it was?" Oblivious as always.
"Why would something like this happen?" I pondered.
"Oi! You two! Lunch is ready!" CC suddenly called.
"Yippee! I'm starving!" Hat bolted into the kitchen.
I sighed and looked at the pictures. "So many questions...what a complete pain."
I then stood up. "Ah well..." I glanced at the Machine Room. "We've got a whole new place to explore now. Maybe we'll find some answers there. Or, most likely...more weird things."
...After lunch, obviously.
Bright Noir: Gives Tie that cool old-style black and white look. He looks ready to solve a mystery!
Hello people! I'm back with a chapter, which completes the Mafia Town Arc! Call it an early Christmas present if you want. This one had mostly Tie's musings and a bit more intrigue to the plot. Next time...birds. Just birds.
By the way, I hope you enjoyed the song at the beginning. I thought it up whilst walking home from work one day, and developed it more and more until I just wanted to write it down. It hasn't really got a specific beat or instruments to it, so just make it up yourselves.
And now, more facts about our heroes. Today, it's their Smash Ultimate mains.
Tie mains Incineroar, Young Link, Bowser, Sonic and Inkling. His least favourites are Yoshi, Pikachu, Chrom, Olimar and Palutena.
Hat mains King K. Rool, Pichu, Bayonetta, Ridley and Cloud. Her least favourites are Mr. Game and Watch, Ike, Lucas, Little Mac and R.O.B.
That's all for now. Hope you guys enjoyed, and have a merry Christmas, everybody!
