"Why that heartless good-for-nothing..." Cappy was angrily muttering under his breath, "Anyway, how are we going to get to the Ocean Kingdom?"
I figured we could take another sub, but then I realized I didn't really know how to do that.
"Well, let's ask a local." and then Cappy was quiet.
I sighed. Bowser was probably just annoyed and frustrated. That didn't mean he was intentionally being bad.
"I know, but it's still irritating." Cappy didn't move, indicating that his eyes were invisible, "Isn't it?"
I've known Bowser for a long time, so it's no surprise to me.
Cappy didn't respond, but he did ask directions to a travelling sub that led to the Ocean Kingdom. It was a stark contrast to suddenly be too cold after being too hot, but at least it was a slow change.
As the darkness of the molten candy gave way to the water of the ocean, Cappy leaned back on my head to look up at the fish that were swimming around outside the glass of the sub, "Are you on good terms with Bowser?"
Good terms?
"Well, you know...when he's not kidnapping Peach..."
Cappy's question confused me at first. It wasn't like I particularly liked Bowser, but that didn't mean I hated him. When he doesn't have plans for Peach or universal domination, he'll join in when we play tennis or go kart racing, and he always plays fair like the rest of us.
"Weird..." Cappy jumped off my head to fly around the sub. He seemed lost in thought, so I didn't interrupt that as he simply drifted around the enclosed area, making comical facial expressions to follow his train of thought.
When we arrived at the Ocean Kingdom, the sub slipped into an air pocket where we could breathe before opening to let us out. The Ocean Kingdom was located in a giant crater, several hundred feet underwater. It reminded me of the Lake Kingdom, with lots of fish, vegetation, and mermaids, but it was also overall darker, but with bright spots coming from pearls that radiated light. There were plenty of bubbles too, so I didn't have to worry about drowning.
With Cappy on my head, I jumped into the cool water, and quickly swam to the tunnel where I remembered the door was, when something jumped out of the sand to block the way.
"Ahh!" Cappy watched all the monster seaweed jump out and surprise me, taking one of my three available life energy, "Get out of here!"
I swam up, out of their reach. They were completely blocking the way. If I wanted to get in, I'd have to be fast.
"Mario, wait!" Cappy said, "What if the entire tunnel is full of them!? We'd never make it to the door!"
Realizing I was low on air, I retreated to one of the air pockets, where I could clearly look into the tunnel full of seaweed. Cappy was right, they were so dense that I'd never make it through.
I looked around for a fish I could capture. Maybe if I spun fast enough I could get through, but all the fish were gone. What happened to them?
"Huh? Where'd all the fish go?" Cappy looked around with me, until he gasped, "Mario, look!"
I turned to the direction he was looking. Something clearly stood out in the darkness, near the top of the crater.
"It's a multi-moon!"
I pulled Cappy down on my forehead before jumping back into the water. The multi-moon was far away, so I had to pick up plenty of air bubbles to avoid drowning. I had a bad feeling as I got closer to it, though. Like it was going to trigger a boss battle.
A giant eel burrowed out of the ground to swallow the multi-moon, then tried to swing at me. I swam out of the way, and it spun around me, swimming around the deep crater.
"Look at the size of that thing!" Cappy shivered, "What's it doing!?"
I'd seen it before, in one of Peach's castle paintings, and again somewhere out in the universe, but this one was about ten times bigger. How was I supposed to get it if it swallowed the moon? It didn't usually do that! I tried to think of how I could beat it as it continued to try and bite me, sometimes swinging its tail at me like it was annoyed.
And then I saw the shells along the sea floor, which I hadn't seen in ages, and got an idea. Diving down deeper, I grabbed the shell, which propelled me forward without the need for me to wave my arms. Positioning it right, I threw the shell as hard as I could at the eel's face, and it reeled back in pain. It was only a matter of time before it fell. It screeched, disappeared in a puff of bubbles, and the multi-moon was freed.
Cappy whistled, "How'd you know that would work? You've seen them before?"
I gave a quick nod, seeing that the scared fish had simply been hiding from the giant eel, and were now swimming around in the open. I quickly captured one before I could drown, and used it to grab the multi-moon. Normally, after collecting a multi-moon, we would zip back to The Odyssey, but since we had no ship for now, we just continued where we left off, twirling through the seaweed to make it through the tunnel to the door.
I jumped out into the air pocket in the room with the purple door, after abandoning the fish. Once I hit dry ground, I bumped into someone unexpected.
He stumbled backwards before he smiled at me, "Mario!"
I beamed in response.
"Luigi!" Cappy swirled around my brother, "It's good to see you again! Where's your balloon pack?"
He frowned, "Lost it. I ran into Bowser a few days ago, and he threw a massive fireball at my head!"
"Oh no! Are you okay!?"
"I am now, but he destroyed my hat."
"Huh?" Cappy eyed his head, which held his usual green cap, "Did you get a new one?"
"Hehe, sort of." He pointed up with one finger as the hat flew upwards, turning into a grey bowler hat, her purple eyes framed with large dark lashes.
"Hey! Lucy!" Cappy got stars in his eyes, "I remember you!"
"It's nice to see you again, Cappy!" she was the one running the purple coin shop in the first two kingdoms, "I've been adventuring with Luigi! He's so cool!"
I nodded approvingly. My brother was ivery/i cool.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me..." Luigi pointed behind him with his thumb, "That door won't open without a key. Do you happen to have one?"
I pulled the purple key from my pocket.
"Oh! Nice!" Luigi tightened his hands into fists, "Go open the door, Bro!"
I quickly obliged, running to the door and twisting the key into the lock. The door swung open with a iClick!/i I stepped aside to let more light into the dark enclosure, and to let Luigi see inside.
All the tiny space had in it was a bright red key. Not rainbow multi-colored. Disappointed, but not surprised.
"Well, then." Cappy lifted the key, which looked enormous in his tiny arms, "Looks like we need to go on a wild goose-chase, opening new doors until we get the key we need..."
"Aw, man..." Luigi scratched his head, "What do you need a key for?"
"Peach and Tiara were kidnapped." Cappy handed the key to me, "Again."
"Really!?" Luigi brought both hands to his face, "When!?"
"Yesterday. It wasn't by Bowser this time, and that's why we're so worried..."
I pocketed the new key and moved towards the exit, Luigi close behind, "I'm sorry. I'll keep an eye out for more keys, though I'm not sure it would do much good..." he stopped walking, and I turned back to face him. A look of horror took its place in Luigi's features, "Then, does that mean...?"
Lucy had a similar look in her large oval eyes, "We'd better go, Luigi!"
"Oh! Before we do, here's a power moon we found!" Luigi said, "We haven't found it useful, but maybe you will!"
I watched him fiddle with the snap on his front pocket, brandishing the power moon for me to take. We now had 4 power moons in total.
Satisfied, Luigi grabbed Lucy's brim, who was back on his head as his green cap, "Come on, Lucy! Let's go!"
And then he was gone, having captured his own fish to swim out with. Cappy settled back on my head as he looked at the retreating Luigi-fish.
"Huh. Not bad." was his final remark.
