How long had he and Big remained tense after he refused to kill Sammy? It hadn't been too long before they seemed to be back at it, like that whole situation had never happened. Mario knew though, he knew though that every moment he spent with Pauline that there was something wrong. Something between them. He and Big had never been the same. Perhaps that was why he was the one who had to sabotage the archaeology dig. Why him instead of the dozens of other plumbers in the city.
It didn't take them nearly as long as it did to reach the Amp as it did to return to the gondola's busted controls. "When I was younger," said Luvbi. "I didn't just make the portals I found. I remember making them."
"Making them?"
"I could go wherever I wanted," she said. "But I always wanted to come back."
"To what?"
"I don't know," she snickered. "My family? When I left, I could be Daisy. But when I came back, I had to be Luvbi. It was always harder being Daisy and I guess, I embraced that one little bit they put on me."
Her family. The Daisy that Mario knew, the one that Luigi loved. She… she had grown up without a family as well. Her mother had been killed by Mario's father and her own father, at least she got to know him before King K. Rool gutted him. Where was she now? Maybe they should head to Dinohattan, thought Mario, by all accounts, Daisy would technically be the Queen of the Koopahari now. Maybe she could help him figure out the deal with Luvbi. Technically, she was the only family Luvbi had.
Shoving the Amp into the busted system, Mario watched it hum to life before pulling the lever to call the gondola. A large drumming horn came out, calling for the gondola to come to them. Thankfully, all of Bowser's gunships were over at the Astral Hall exfiltrating or executing Morton Jr and not here going for them.
"He will abandon you, my sweet Luvbi," came Bowser's voice through a PA. Why was he doing this, speaking to her with this calm respect. That same respect he spoke to Daisy with back in Dinohattan. "Once he has what he needs, he will leave you alone. What else could you expect from a liar and a deserter of women?"
"Bowser," Mario muttered.
"Bowser… King Koopa… Morton Koopa… whomever you are," Luvbi gave up in trying to reason with him and entered the gondola with Mario. "I'm leaving and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Oh, sweet child... that's where your wrong," Bowser responded, a dinosaur-like growl coming at the end of his voice. Suddenly the gondola was surrounded by snipers, all aiming at Mario. Bullets primed, Mario ducked down from the cops' line of sight and crawled out of the gondola. Slowly getting out, he looked around and realized none of them knew he had left. Running towards the nearest building, Mario walked into the back alley. Jumping from wall to wall, he made it to the roof and took out the first sniper. Repeating the same tactics, soon the remaining snipers were gone too.
Getting back in the gondola, Mario sat mostly off to the side while Luvbi looked out the window at the clouds below. "When you were unconscious on the beach, you kept repeating a woman's name," said Luvbi. "Peach."
"I don't wanna talk about that," said Mario. That was ancient history.
"I, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have pried," Luvbi quickly apologized. "Where are you from, Mario?"
"New York City," he answered. Daisy was from there too.
"What did you do there?"
"Plumbing, not really business much like this," he sighed.
"It was a fine thing you came along when you did," she thanked.
"How do you think I ended up here?" he asked with a chuckle. "I gambled and now I owe money to men you don't want to owe a debt to. I came here to pay it back. Me busting you out, what do you think that was? Charity?"
"Who sent you?"
"Somebody who was willing to take my marker in exchange for you," said Mario. Who did send him? Those two on the boat. Right. Why couldn't he think about them? Luvbi became quiet at that. He had to bring her back to them, though. Didn't he? Whoever Luvbi was, they would know where she came from. Once she was out of his hair, he had to go back to Dinohattan and check on Daisy.
Once the gondola stopped, the platform they stepped off to was at the base of an Aerodome, a large structure that housed the airship. It looked like they were so far from the rest of Delfino Isle that it shimmered in the dark night sky. Entering the Aerodome, they found the building abandoned but, in the foyer, there was a miniaturized version of the airship. It was supposed to be a magnificent, beautiful, large white flying blimp called the Koopa Copter. At the end of the foyer, up some steps was an elevator. The two quickly got in and began to rid etheir way up.
"So," she said. "Looks like they call you the Plumber."
"And you the Kumo."
"Let's not call each other that."
"Suits me."
"How do you figure they'd know you'd be coming?" she asked, pointing to the poster behind her warning of the Plumber.
"Either they've got a prophet on their side, or the people who hired me wrote the signs as well," speculated Mario.
"Why?" asked Luvbi as they got off, stepping on to the wooden platform right in front of their salvation: the Koopa Copter. Man, Mario had to say, it actually was a pretty good-looking airship. The inside wasn't as nice, though. It seemed to be functional but under repairs. There were heavy tools laying around everywhere but there were still some assortments of luxury.
Making his way to the controls, Mario read up of them pretty quickly. They were really rigid, but if he used the numbers just right, he should in theory have been able to use whatever juice the Shine Sprite had left to get to New York City. Since this was a subdimension, he needed to enter in the coordinates for Dinohattan and then just use the teleport function from there. Luvbi looked out the window, almost as if she felt conflicted to leave. "You, all right?"
"I want to see Paris," she said. "I want to see everything."
"Well that's up to you know," said Mario as he moved the gears.
"Wait," said Luvbi and she looked at the controls. "What is that?" She pointed to the coordinates shown on the grid above her. "40 North by 74 West? That's not Paris! That's New York City!"
"How did you know that?"
"One thing I had in that tower, Mario, was time," she said. "Time to study things like geography."
"I owed money, I told you," said Mario. "And there's a fellow, he… offered to wipe away my debt in exchange for you." She put her hands to her face and she started to cry. She'd known about the debt, she'd known about all of that… but he had lied to her. He had told her that he would take her to Paris.
"We shouldn't leave," she sobbed. "We should stay and defeat Bowser. You can do that, I know you can. Then you won't have to give me up."
"That isn't up to us anymore," Mario protested.
"So, you're going to do what? Take us back to Dinohattan?" remarked Luvbi, giving him a spiteful look.
"C'mon, everything's going to be okay," Mario suggested as she stepped behind her, extending his arm in an almost brotherly fashion. Yet, as soon as he approached her she knocked him out cold with a monkey wrench.
In between bouts of consciousness, Mario saw Luvbi fiddling with the controls. Changing their destination, probably heading back someplace on Delfino Isle. She looked at him one time as he regained some life, but she left, and he faded again.
Then, just as he was about to get up again, he noticed there were several Shy Guys in the airship. Men from the Shy Squad? There were wounded women all around as well, too. Likely. One of them approached him... and knocked him out again.
When he finally regained full consciousness, he was half hanging out the door of the Koopa Copter - all the enslaved Kremlings working below him as he passed overhead. Getting up, Mario approached the one woman who looked to be in charge.
She did not wear a Shy Guy mask. Instead she wore a red domino mask. "So, you're the Plumber we've been hearing so much about," she said, sizing him up. "You've caused a mess."
" You Mowz?"
"Nothing but."
"I've got no quarrel with you or your Shy Squad," Mario told her. "But this is my airship you're hanging me out of and I've need of it."
"Really? Cause it sure looks like old Bowser's Koopa Copter to me."
"Listen, I ain't looking for a fight," Mario put his hands up.
"There's already a fight, question is, Mario, which side are you on?" asked Mowz, pointing to the injured women behind her. "Bowser's the God of the Koopas and the Piantas and the Avatar of good old Kamek. But if you believe in the cause of the Toads and Kremlings, join the Shy Squad."
"I just want my ship."
"And we shall give it to you, but first you must help us," bargained Mowz. "Down in Twilight Town there's a gunsmith who'll help us. Get our guns, get your airship."
Then she pushed Mario out of the airship; he landed hard on his back on hardwood. Getting up fast though, he wondered for half a second where he was. Then he realized, he had been pushed down into Twilight Town. He was on some sort of a dock, a pier by the look of it but the first thing that dragged his attention was a giant ass poster on some ginormous building. It was a poster of that man, Count Bleck.
Luvbi was probably somewhere around here too. No way she hung out around while the Shy Squad took over the airship. Over to his side on a level below the pier were a bunch of green skinned Kremlings just hammering away at giant cubes of salt, breaking them down into fine powder. This was the true harsh reality of slaves up here in the sky. Right next to his feet was a Catch Card SP, grabbing it, Mrio hit play. It was Count Bleck.
"The truth is, I don't have a lot of time for that prophecy nonsense. I tell you, belief is… is just a commodity. Old Bowser, well he does produce. But like any tradesman he's expected to barter his product. You see, one does not raise a barn on song alone. No sir, that's Bleck's timber, Bleck's hammer and bleck's hand to swing it! He needs me – lest he soil his own. I had thought Doopliss a fool when he told me he heard music trumpeting from holes in thin air. Not only though did he make a fortune from holes around the Statue of Kamek, but he paved the way for me. These holes showed me yet another wonder, though Bowser had already seen an application for it. They illuminate a merger of past and present, of power and loyalty, of dark and light. The process seems to be irreversible, bringing it through. Bowser will have need of this kind of thing, for the Statue of Kamek of course. These holes continue to pay dividends and if Doopliss' composer is amazing, my dragon Gloomtail is a new God. Doopliss will be the master musician of Delfino Isle."