URGENT UPDATE: A few wires got crossed, it's kind of complicated, but I ended up publishing the second-to-final draft instead of the actual final draft, which left out an extremely critical and interesting detail in the Dimentio-Mimi encounter. Super sorry. Everything else is fine, if you don't feel like reading the whole story again. It was very unprofessional of me and I apologize. Enjoy "Episode 7-2 2.0"

EPISODE 7-2

"Well, here we are in Creepy Steeple," said Count Bleck. He sounded a bit like a tour guide or a Jungle Cruise skipper, pleasent and informative. He was trying to keep everyone in good spirits, although after being in Twilight Trail for so long, it was almost impossible to be in good spirits. Spirits were involved, of course, just not the good ones.

"It's so... creepy," said Tippi with a shudder. "Blumiere, I want to leave."

"It's all right, Timpani," said Count Bleck. "I'll protect you. I'll protect us all."

"Ah'll make sure no 'arm comes teh tha group," said O'Chunks agressively, slamming his fists together. "I ehn't get teh pound on haunts much. Tryin' somethin' new, ya know Always good ta broaden yer horizons."

They all looked around. It was tranquil inside, falling apart in some places but held together strongly in others. There wasn't much of a ceiling anymore, the walls just stopped somewhere on the second floor. There wasn't an entire second floor, just a walkway around three sides with, what else, a cathedril-style ceiling. The walkway didn't look safe- there were actually hunks of it missing. There was also a fancy rug going down the middle of the large steeple, moldy and moth-eaten. The only signs of life came from the recent reonvations- there was a work lamp hanging up, wired into the wall, and a radiator. And that weird smell. It was a pretty desolate place, the perfect place to run into a monster or a ghost. They were actually suprised that the only monsters they'd found on the way had been Clefts and Crazyee Dayzees- essentially, flowers and rocks.

Finally, the waiting-for-ghosts-or-monsters-tension was cut. A horrible, throaty voice that surely would appear in a purple word bubble with white text in the game cried out, "All who enter here are put under the Curse of the Trespasser! Run or be destroyed!"

Count Bleck held his cape out to shield Tippi with one arm and held his staff out with his other. O'Chunks put his fists up.

Suddenly, a monster appeared in their midst. It was a dragon, one like Hooktail or Gloomtail. It was dark purple, almost black, with the same huge, round snout and gnashing claws. It was strange- one second they were all standing around, getting their bearings, and all of a sudden this monster simply exploded out from the middle of them. It was as if it burst out of the ground, although there was no hole. It all happened to fast for anybody to really see what was happening, even if they had been looking for it.

They scattered- it wasn't a sign of poor training, it was survival. The problem was, they all went in different directions. Dimentio vanished, probably turning invisible or materializing somewhere outside. Count Bleck grabbed Tippi and ran out the front door. O'Chunks grabbed Nastasia and ran out a side door, but not before laying one good punch on it's leg- the dragon didn't even seem to feel it.

Out on the side, there was a walkway running the length of the building. It was shaded by another walkway above, and on the side there was so much nautral growth it was basically an outdoor hallway. O'Chunks slammed the door shut behind him when they went out, and then tore a whole wall of growth away to get more distance between him and the monster. He lifted Nastasia over the rail and the thorny bushes and put even more distance between them. When he thought they were far enough, but not too far, he stopped.

"It's part o' bein' a warrior," he was explaining to her. "A good warrior knows when 'e shouldn't be takin' up a fight, and there's no shame in' runnin' some o' the time."

"He who turns and runs away lives to fight another day," Nastasia supplied.

"Yeah, sumthin' like that." O'Chunks scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Didja see the size o' that great boogly brute? I laid 'im a good one an' 'e didn't even feel it. And o'course a gentleman warroir always protects 'is-- uh, that is--"

"Thank you for saving me," Nastasia said politely. "I wouldn't have known what to do."

O'Chunks was about two seconds away from admitting that the only reason he ran was to save her, but he had chickened out at the last minute. Of course he had feelings for her, and anybody who's played after the end of Super Paper Mario would know it. But he didn't know what those feelings were, or what to do with them. After all, he was a fighter, not a romancer. And besides, Nastasia was still pining for the Count. Who makes his move on a girl on the rebound? Scum, that's who, he thought.

"I'm gonna go back, find the Count and chunk that beast a good'un," said O'Chunks. "You can stay 'ere, or stay close teh me, eh? That sound good?"

"Thank you, O'Chunks," said Nastasia. "Yeah, so us splitting up now would be a bad management decision." She wrapped both her arms around his huge left arm. "I'll just stay close to you, K? Yeah."

"Uhhhh, yyyeah."

Count Bleck ran with Tippi until they hit the gate, and then he screeched to a stop. He hadn't warped because he didn't want to go far away. He wanted to stay here, near the steeple, and not miss a thing if he could help it. And it seemed that once he got outside, the monster wasn't an immediate threat- that is, it was inside and it wasn't chasing them. And at last they were away from that smell, for the time being.

"Great," said Count Bleck flatly. "We're split up and my peach-brained minions can't remember the Doppleganger Code."

"It was 'kvetching,' wasn't it?" Tippi said teasingly.

"You know very well what it was." Count Bleck shifted his shoulders and thought. "Well, we've seen it, and it's big. I suppose that once we collect ourselves, we can overpower it if it comes to that. We'll be expecting it to pop out of nowhere, so this embarassment won't happen again... I sincerely hope."

Dimentio suddenly appeared behind Count Bleck's head.

"Good evening, Count," he said lightly. "I was just out for an evening stroll and--"

"Dimentio," Count Bleck interrupted.

"--and I saw this lovely etching in the back of the steeple," he finished. "It reminded me, we really should get down to business." he held his hands out with one of his energy spheres. "Shall we get to it?"

"I don't want to just pummel it into submission," said Count Bleck. "Making the world a better place is more than punching the evil out of it- we need to know why it was there. We can get rid of the evil while keeping the good parts. At the very least, the 'why' will make a wonderful entry to the Beige Prognosticus. I'd like to find out why it's doing this, if you please."

Dimentio pouted, but dissipated the energy. "Who do you suppose is best suited to talk to it?"

"Timpani," said Count Bleck. "That is, if she's up to it."

"I'm game," she said.

"Why not me?" asked Dimentio.

"Because you're a textbook sociopath."

"I assure you, my Count," he replied, "There is nothing 'textbook' about me."

With that, he disappeared.

"He should know better than to do that when there's a doppleganger around," said Count Bleck.

"At least he remembered the code word," said Tippi.

Dimentio found Mimi lurking around in the underground hallways of Creepy Steeple. In her retreat, she must have fallen down the hole beside the statue at the front of the room. She was looking around, not interested but not bored, when he came up behind her. He grimaced momentarily- the smell was stronger down here.

"Good day," said Dimentio.

"Get out of here, freak," she snapped.

"My, my," he said, shaking his head. "Such a temper on you. If you don't get it under control, you'll never be able to attract one of those attractive young males you're always chasing after."

He raised an eyebrow. Mimi glanced over her shoulder and said, offhandedly, "Etching."

"Etching, indeed," replied Dimentio. "I was just on my way through and was thinking, perhaps Mimi would like to get in on this? Being a shapeshifter and all."

Mimi looked up, suddenly interested. "Why, what did you have in mind?"

"The monster doesn't know you're a Mimic, does he?" he asked.

"No. I can truthfully say, the monster had no idea."

"Wonderful." Dimentio clapped his hands once. "Very well, then. Count Bleck wants to use his words to solve his problem. A true pity, I know, and a waste of precious, precious time. I have a much faster idea, involving one of my patent-pending Dimentio Super-Blasts!" And again he produced a ball of energy. "The Count wouldn't even have to know," he continued. "As long as you keep him busy with your shape-changing tricks. I know you and you can't turn down a game." Dimentio turned around and floated over to the far wall, where a few moldy pictures hung. He pretended to be fascinated with them.

"What do you think?" he asked after a pause. He knew Mimi- she wouldn't want to do it, but she wouldn't say no to him. She was more afraid of what he would do than what the Count would do after. And she absolutely loved shape-shifting anyway.

But that didn't happen. Instead of her coming up behind him and agreeing like he expected, he suddenly felt himself get hit full-force with a blunt object. He crumpld to the floor before he even realized what happened. Mimi stood over him holding a piece of a beam broken off the building years ago.

"You aren't blasting anybody," she hissed. "He wants to talk? Oh, he'll get a talk."