Chapter V

The Pirate's Plunder

"There you are, Red!" Aimee noticed. "Taking your sweet time there, eh?"

"Sorry, Aimee." Red sighed. "Just wanted to say bye to the group. Let's head to the Thousand-Year Door, the next location is waiting!"


"Looks like an island, Red." Goombella looked it over.

"Of all the times for Frankly to go out for BREAD!" Robbie tossed his arms in the air.

"Hope he bought some for us." Gyanna snickered.

"Ah, Red! Inklings! Good to see you guys!" Professor Frankly greeted as he returned. He dumped his bag on the table. "How goes the search?"

"Great, we just found the location of the Sapphire Star, the fifth Crystal Star!" Paul explained.

"Let's see that map," Frankly looked it over, and Red's phone got a buzz.

"Looks like the Squid Sisters." Red checked. "Let's see what's new. 'Red! BIG NEWS! We figured out what the treasure behind the door is! According to the X-Naut computer, it is the spirit of a thousand-year old demon! The X-Nauts plan to revive it and use its powers to take over the world! They are collecting the Crystal Stars to open the Thousand-Year Door and release it! However, the only thing that can keep this beast locked away is the Crystal Stars themselves! You must not let them get any, but we may be telling you too late. See, we're getting sent with Grodus, Octowser, Dr. Phun and a troop of X-Nauts to Crystal Valley to claim the Crystal Star! Red, you can't let them get anymore!' Sent from the Squid Sisters."

"Wow." Abbie realized. "So the X-Nauts may already have one Crystal Star?"

"That would suck bigly." Aimee sulked.

"'Suck bigly?'" Paul repeated. "Not even sure that's proper grammar."

"Professor?" Red walked over to him. "Have a look at this. The Squid Sisters' most recent message to us."

Frankly looked it over before dropping his coffee cup on the ground. "WHU-WHU-WHAT?" He read it over. "The treasure is the spirit of an ancient demon…and those freaks want to resurrect the demon? Sadly, it does seem to add up with what I've learned."

"Uh-oh…" Erick moaned. "I got coffee all over my leg." Goombella gave him a puzzled look.

"Ignore him." Abbie dismissed. "What was that about the treasure, Professor?"

"Ah, yes." Frankly cleared the table, pushing his bread into his spilt coffee. He placed a book on table. "This is a story that may prove essential in piecing this mystery together. Everyone listening?"

"Everyone who's capable of listening is." Gyanna pointed to Erick who was cleaning the coffee with an old book.

"Leave him to his business," defended Aimee. "C'mon, Prof! We gotta know!"

"All right." Frankly flipped to the page. "The great cataclysm mentioned in this book could refer to the demon. It says a monster destroyed a large town that once stood on this area. It also says that the monster created the Crystal Stars and it used the power of them to try to control the world. According to the book, the demon was eventually defeated by four heroes, but only its physical form was destroyed. Its spirit was indestructible. So, the heroes used the Crystal Stars to cast the demon into a large maze and sealed the exit. Therefore, we know that the Crystal Stars cannot tell good from evil, so if they were brought together, they wouldn't know whether to seal the door or open it. In other words, whoever wields the Crystal Stars determines if they will be used for good or evil."

"But, wait!" Robbie interjected. "What if we took them as far away as possible? Like, Red took three of them to Inkopolis and I took the rest to, I don't know, Jamaica?"

"What the heck is a Jamaica?" Goombella asked.

"You don't know JAMAICA!?" Robbie gasped.

"Save it, Robbie." Red ordered, before he stopped to ponder Robbie's suggestion. "Actually, Robbie's got a point. Why can't we separate them?"

"That was my original plan, but then I looked deeper into the task at hand," Frankly began, "And there may be a sliiiiiiight possibility that the Thousand-Year Door is weakening."

"Sliiiiiiight?" Paul's eyes widened in fear. "How slight?"

"Enough for us to observe the wear." Frankly informed. "See, this has almost happened before, when we thought that it was the thousandth year, but it turned out it was not, and we were spared for a few more years. However, this may actually be the thousandth year upon us. The fact that those X-Nauts picked this year to begin their collection of the Crystal Stars this year may be coincidental, but if we don't make an attempt to seal the door, another cataclysm may open, and this time Rogueport will fall."

"That sounds exactly like what happened in the recent Great Turf War, Red!" Aimee reminded Red.

"Omigosh, you're right Aimee!" Red recalled the event.

"Care to tell a story, Red?" Frankly asked.

"No problem." Red dismissed. "Recently, the Inklings had to defend Inkopolis from a tyrannous Octoling by the name of General Zorn and his Octarians. Near the end of the war, a large chasm opened at Inkopolis Harbour and swallowed up a vast amount of Inklings. The Octarians began to claim they opened it, but the only Octarian that could get remotely close was General Zorn, who was fighting a battle in Octo Valley at the time. After I defeated him, there was a report that the chasm was closing. As I was about to end General Zorn right there, he made a mad dash of the chasm, and dove in. After the chasm swallowed him, it sealed right back up. When you said this might be the thousandth year, there may be a chance that the demon's seal below is already cracked, and it was able to open the chasm in Inkopolis instead of Rogueport. In other words, it is possible these events are linked." Red finished.

"Wow." Frankly gasped. "I never heard about the chasm in Inkopolis. These events may be linked!"

"RED!" Paul piped up after madly flipping through a book. "It may be possible that the demon may be trying to emerge in Inkopolis instead of breaking out of the sturdy Thousand-Year Door!"

"Which means Inkopolis will be in trouble if this beast breaks out!" Aimee realized. "Red, we've got to find those Crystal Stars!"

"Aimee's right." Robbie agreed. "Where's the next one at, Professor?"

"Let's see…that looks like Keelhaul Key. It's an island south of Rogueport, and is only reachable by boat." Frankly explained. "You'll need to find a sailor to get you there. Anyway, I'm going to head out to pick up more bread. Good luck on retrieving the Sapphire Star, Red." With that, Frankly walked out.

"So, Red." Goombella approached Red as they were about to leave, "I'm actually interested in the story of your ancestors. See, I know how you had the Paratroopa shell, the Toad speed, the Yoshi flutter jump, but who did you get those from?"

"Ah!" Red pointed, "See, it started a long time ago. You see, about five generations back, my great-grandfather (with five greats), Ulysses was a high-ranking Paratroopa in the Koopa Troop. However, he never really agreed with Bowser's military goals. One day, he checked out and left with a five-man crew to explore an icy mountain. He always wanted to be an explorer. About five days into the trip, all the men except my great-grandfather had died, and he wasn't going to hang on much longer. He spotted a cabin on the mountainside, and knocked, looking for help. His future wife, a widowed female Toad named Toadella greeted him and let him in. Now, normally Toads and Koopas don't get along very well, but since he was on death's doorstep, she welcomed him in. He decided he'd work as a cartographer in a nearby town. Eventually, Grandpa Ulysses proposed and the two got married, leading to my great-grandmother Koopella's (with four greats) birth. She also became an explorer like Ulysses and set out to find the fabled Yoshi's Island." Red began. "Bored yet?"

"No, keep going." Abbie urged.

"Anyway, like Grandpa Ulysses, the boat capsized on a rock near the shore. Grandma Koopella had no choice to swim to land. She managed to swim the long kilometre to Yoshi's Island, but was exhausted from the swim, and passed out. She was discovered by a few Yoshis, who took her to a doctor named Art Yoshi (no clue why his name wasn't 'Yoshified'), who would be my great-grandfather (with four greats also). Now, Koopella had no way of returning to land, so Art suggested she live with him until his friends could build her a boat. The time came when the boat was built, but she refused to leave because she'd fallen in love with Art. They got married and gave birth to two daughters and a son, my great-grandfather (with three greats) Rufus. From there, he returned to the Mushroom Kingdom, and served in the Mushroom King's castle, before getting married and giving birth to my Grandpa, Toadzart, who'd go on to conduct the Mushroom Kingdom Philharmonic Orchestra. Once he settled down a bit, he got married and gave birth to my dad, OJ, and that's my dad's side of the family." Red explained.

"Wow." Erick gasped.

"What about your mom's side, Red?" Goombella asked.

"Well, obviously, that's the side I get my Inkling and human from. There's not too much to explain on that side of the family, other then my great-grandpa (with about ten greats) is Inkling and my great-grandma (with ten greats) is human. They were both killed as a result of the First Great Turf War, over 500 years ago. Since then, my grandparents have been 100% Inkling." Red explained.

"But hold it, Red!" Robbie stopped him. "You said you came here from another continent. Our Inkling continent and the Mushroom Kingdom were the only ones that existed after the First Great Turf War, so where did you come from?"

"That's what I thought," Paul added, "Until I checked a variety of atlases that came into the Inkopolis Public Library last year. I read that continents similar to Earth's continents 500 years ago were discovered; it's just all of the citizens of those continents have some form of Inkling in their blood."

"Paul's right." Red agreed. "Anyway, we'd better head to the dock, we'll start our search there."