Once Vivian had time to get her health up, she and Doopliss picked up the Light Prognosticus chase. This meant that the chase would be even harder for Mario and his gang. They continued following Doopliss' trail, although it was actually Vivian's, using Tiptron and O'Chunks' expertise. Shortly after Vivian and Doopliss left for Shadoo, Tiptron found the shrub that Doopliss had been hiding in. The mini-battle between Doopliss and the two shadowy beings left some scorch marks where Fiery Jinx and Shade Fist had been used. Tiptron informed,
"It appears we are still on Vivian's trail, not Doopliss's…this task could prove to be very difficult…" Luigi said,
"Yeah, Tiptron's right." The computer pixl responded,
"You mean Tippi is right…" Luigi continued,
"Maybe we should go get help from Merlon. The Merlon from Rougeport really helped me on my adventure three years back; so much so that I have him a 20% discount on my book!" Mimi agreed with Luigi (as she tended to do a lot lately), but Peach countered,
"No way! I don't want to resort to using the fortune teller! That's the sissy's way out!" They were all shocked Peach would speak in such a non-dignified manner, but Bowser ignored this and said,
"For once I agree with Peach!" Peach shot back,
"It's 'The Pink Wonder' now, remember?"
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"You're a different kind of wonder, Peach."
"It's 'you're a different kind of wonder, The Pink Wonder' to you, sir!"
Mario sighed and pulled out the Return Pipe. Despite Peach's efforts, he used the item to return the group to Flipside Tower. Peach tried to go back to the Ancient Forest, along with the stubborn Bowser and O'Chunks, but the other teammates managed to get them to follow. Of course, Thoreau had to carry Bowser, the other pixls had to carry Peach and Mario had to challenge O'Chunks to a race, but they all ended up in Merlon's house one way or another. Merlon looked up from his crystal ball with intrigue, but saw their empty hands and said,
"I see that the Light Prognosticus is still out of your grasp." Luigi said,
"We need your help, Merlon. Can you show us where Doopliss is?" Merlon answered,
"Of course! That will cost 5 coins." O'Chunks yelled,
"Yer chargin' us? We're goin' outta ar way to get yer Light Prognicus, and yer chargin' us?" Merlon reasoned,
"Well, I still have to make a living! I don't get money just for being a wise sage; you know…alright, I'll try finding Doopliss for free. I miss my old job at Hogwarts…"
The wizard sighed (but felt lucky he had been able to charge Mario up until this point), and waved his hands across the crystal ball. Once he did, a green blur started to emanate from within. It was the Ancient Forest. After a few seconds, two unrecognizable figures became distinguishable from within the green haze. One figure was Doopliss, and the other was Vivian. They were both running towards something, but…not from each other. They were travelling as partners! Everyone leaned in to get a better view, since what they saw seemed very unlikely. Merlon asked in disbelief,
"He doesn't have the Light Prognosticus?" Tiptron asked,
"He's travelling with Vivian? But she and Doopliss fought in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, circa 2004, and have not been in any coinciding game since…" Peach added,
"And she's way too good-looking for him anyway!" Mimi shrugged,
"If you like that sort of thing."
Mario knew why Doopliss and Vivian would be travelling together as partners, why they would be friendly towards one another. They both had to put up with Beldam. Besides, it seems like they were both looking for something: Vivian wanted to find her sisters, and Doopliss looked like he was after whoever was in possession of the Prognosticus. Mario explained this, and Merlon said,
"Interesting point, Mario. You know, you really should be more articulate with your ideas! Well, regardless of who Doopliss is travelling with, he does not appear to have the book I am in need of. Nolrem has locked himself up in his house for days studying the Dark Prognosticus; I don't want his exhaustive efforts to be in vain. So, shall I try and see who has the Light Prognosticus?" Bowser cut in,
"If it's free of charge, you can."
"Yes, of course. This one's on the house."
After another money-related sigh and a flick of his wrists, the image inside the crystal ball faded away. Another image started to appear, with a similar greenish color. Only with this image, one figure appeared instead of two. The figure was simply a black blob, but after the image became complete, Peach noticed,
"Mario…that black blob looks like you!" Mario looked at his gut while Bowser added,
"It's Shadoo, the thing from the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials! I thought we killed it! How did she survive?" Merlon wondered,
"Shadoo? I know that name…yes; I've read ancient articles about her, articles from about a millennium ago! It is told that Shadoo suddenly teleported to Flopside one day and started attacking the civilians. She even managed to kill Merlight, the Sage of the Ancients responsible for creating these two flip-flopped cities. My ancestor who resided in Flipside was a powerful sorcerer, and managed to stick her in the Pit of 100 Trials. I've read that some being with dimension-controlling powers helped my ancestor in his task, but I cannot find out whom. Merloo, another Sage of the Ancients, had those powers, but was killed long before Shadoo appeared. Merloo's brother, Marloo, was also killed at the same time. He was the adoptive father of Merlon – the first Merlon, I mean. Marloo was a powerful sorcerer, and was the inventor of the pixls that float amongst us right now." Mimi said, after just having woken up (her not being the only one),
"OMG…so bored right now." Merlon concluded,
"A n y w a y s, Shadoo has the Light Prognosticus, so I will need for you to find her instead. You've already taken my crystal ball once before to track down Bowser's Castle, so now you can use it to track Shadoo." Bowser interrupted,
"So THAT'S how you found me! Thanks a lot, Merlon…" The wizard continued,
"It's not as accurate without the use of an experienced wizard, but again, it can point you to Shadoo's general location." Mimi asked,
"If it's not as accurate, then why don't you come with us? It'll be safe!" Bowser added, so as not to be beat,
"Yeah, it'll be safe! After all, I'm in the group!" Merlon responded,
"No, I'm too old for that type of journey. Besides, I have to check up on Nolrem's progress, and Nastasia should be returning from the Marrymore Chapel any minute. You should be able to defeat Shadoo if necessary; you've fought her before, correct?" Bowser said,
"Yeah, we were able to defeat her after going through the ENTIRE Pit of 100 Trials…twice…" Merlon laughed, despite Bowser's anger, and said cheerfully,
"Then it will be easy! Besides, you already have experience in tracking down shapeshifters due to your encounter with Doopliss." Peach said,
"True, but…Shadoo is actually smart..."
"It will be easy, Peac-the Pink Wonder." Bowser whispered to Merlon,
"Nice save." Merlon gave the crystal ball to Mario and exclaimed, "Well, good luck on your task – yet again! Farewell!"
The group of heroes left the wizard's house, yet again, in pursuit of the Light Prognosticus. Mario led the way with the crystal ball in hand, and went to the portal that hung above Flipside Tower. Also at this point, Nastasia finally made it back to the Marrymore Chapel, but she strongly wished that she didn't. She had only 256 coins to her name, yet Tom Crook's price for "destroying" the church was 20,000. Too bad her connections with the Beanbean Kingdom fell through once The Void was created or else she could've paid him easily.
Upon her arrival, she noticed that the chapel wasn't the only building demolished; the entire town seemed like it was about to fall apart. Tom Crook went to their arranged meeting spot, ten minutes ahead of schedule (Nastasia was a master organizer, after all), and recognized her in the distance. She recognized him, too, despite the fact that his tie was loose and his sunglasses were missing. Tom ran to Nastasia and begged,
"Nastasia! Please tell me you have the money to rebuild this church! It's the only tourism attraction we have, and now it's ruined!" Nastasia still meant business, regardless of how tattered the man looked, and said,
"So, yeah, you're requesting a pretty large sum. Why is the price so steep?"
"Labor! The church is easy enough to build – heck, the townsfolk could do it if we all pitched in. But they want money!"
"So if I could somehow fix the chapel, my debt to you would be nullified?" Tom Crook answered (always thinking of money, no matter how bad things got),
"I suppose, but that would also cost you a large amount. And better pay me than some construction workers…" Nastasia thought, and said,
"…I hate to do this, but you're kinda making this necessary…"
With a single adjustment of her glasses, Tom Crook suddenly became trapped in a red vortex. He struggled to escape, but eventually, he calmed down and spoke in a monotone voice,
"We shall build you your chapel, Master Nastasia." Nastasia said,
"Uh-hum, that's much better. Love the gusto."
Immediately after Tom Crook's brainwashing, she repeated her actions with all the other civilians in town. Together, they started building the stained glass that was needed. Tom Crook ran up to her and asked,
"What design would you prefer?" Nastasia answered in a heartbeat,
"The same design as you had before – of Count Bleck and Tippi."
"Yes, that was a very popular and beautiful image. The marriage rate spiked after stories of Count Bleck and Tippi first got out." Nastasia adjusted her glasses and said,
"I'm sure it did. Now, get back to work." Tom Crook headed towards the other brain-controlled townsfolk as Nastasia thought,
"Hm…having definite control of these people could majorly increase my work effort ...no wonder Blumiere liked having mindless servants so much. But without him, there's no real task for me to do. There's free time now; time to myself. I hate it. I want to be part of something larger again, something impactful to all worlds. I want to help organize something of greatness. I want him – but I have to move on. He's faded into Oblivion, and there's no possibility of him returning. Even if he could somehow…he's with Timpani now. His dreams have been realized, and all life has been saved because of it. Still…all I have to remember him by is that cursed book and this ruined chapel."
After giving Tom Crook a few more instructions, she headed back for Merlon's house. While she was flying back to the cloud airport near Bowser's Castle (Nimbus Land clouds was the main source of transportation), Doopliss and Vivian were still after the Light Prognosticus. They ran at first, but as the trail grew colder and their feet grew wearier, they started to slow down. Vivian asked,
"So, you've been serving the Mushroom Kingdom for a millennium?" Doopliss answered,
"Yep! I'm a proud member of the Mushroom Kingdom Core! …Go Shrooms!"
"Who was the King Toadstool that created you all those years ago? What was his name?"
"Uh…Dimantro."
"And what was Dimantro like?"
"Oh, he was a great master, so…so…so strict, actually." Doopliss sighed and continued, "He was always bossing me around. He told me before every task I was ordered to do that it's all part of our plan, our plan to rule the universe." Vivian looked at him in confusion. "In peace. Rule the universe in peace. But it was always so long and boring. Most of the time, we were just searching for people to fit some vague description, like a strong, bearded general or a shapeshifting female." Vivian chuckled and said,
"Same with me. When the Shadow Queen gave Beldam the task of reviving her, we couldn't do it alone. We needed to find a group powerful enough to do what we needed, but stupid enough to manipulate." Doopliss was reminded of Dimentio's manipulative nature; tricking Vivian's sisters AND that Count Bleck guy. She continued, "Believe me, it was hard enough finding a group with no knowledge of the Shadow Queen's terrible reign – we ended up using a secret alien race!" Doopliss asked,
"But if the Shadow Queen's spirit was sealed away, why bother doing what she wanted?"
"For the same reason that you're helping Dimantro. Even though I knew she was sealed away, and even though I knew what she wanted wasn't right, she created me. I was still her servant. Besides…what if she was revived by someone else, not by my service to her? Then she wouldn't think too favorably of me when she's off murdering by the billions. I don't even wanna think about it…but I suppose there's nothing to fear now."
Doopliss realized just how similar of a situation Vivian was in. Serving a dead master in case their master returned from death…was that why he was helping Dimentio? Did he quit his acting career and track down the Light Prognosticus just so that he'd feel safe? Well, Dimentio had a far better change of regenerating by himself than the Shadow Queen did. He actually had the ability to explore the underworld and think of a plan, while the Shadow Queen's spirit was simply sealed in a small magical tomb. Besides, if Dimentio regenerated himself using the other two Shadow Sirens and took complete control, then the master of all life would be in his debt. The supreme ruler of everything would have gotten his position through his help! Maybe Vivian felt the same way… the siren added,
"How does serving Dimantro compare to serving my sister?" Doopliss laughed. She persisted, "C'mon, be honest."
"Well…Dimantro didn't ever yell at me…"
"It's fine if you don't like her. But she's changed since Mario defeated my first master. She's a lot nicer to me now…well, at least she was."
Doopliss thought he remembered Dimentio saying that Beldam was an evil lunatic, but maybe he remembered wrong. Maybe Beldam's death made her cranky again – dying tends to do that sort of thing. Regardless of how she was behaving after death, Doopliss was still the one to kill her. No one else knew about it besides Dimentio, right? Just to be safe, he tried to refrain talking about Beldam and Marilyn, although they both had so much to say about the topic. They both had so much in common…
Doopliss knew he had a crush on Vivian, but someone might have seen him
kill the other two sirens. If Vivian somehow found out, she would help Mario track him down. Vivian was nothing but a tool for Dimentio's plan, like her sisters. She would help him until she'd get in the way; then she'd be gotten rid of. This is how it had to be, for Dimentio's success and ruling the world. For Doopliss' safety if Dimentio revived without his help.
While those two and Mario's gang were trying to find Shadoo, Merlon waited for the heroes to return. He already knew many passages of the Light Prognosticus by heart, but there were still so much he had yet to learn. Everyone knew the basic story that it told, but there were so many passages that no one had ever heard of – some possibly even controversial. In addition to studying the Light Prognosticus itself, he tried to learn as much as he could about its history, as well as the history of the Tribe of Ancients. The book he needed so badly was written by Merloo, one of the four Sages of the Ancients. The other three sages were Merlimbis, creator of the Purity Heart, Merlumina, the spirit of Yold Ruins that gave the second Pure Heart to Mario, and Merlight, leader of the sages and creator of Flipside. This knowledge was no substitute for the book itself, however.
Without the Light Prognosticus to study from and the heroes far away, Merlon had nothing to do. Usually at times like this, he could help out one of the townsfolk with some errand they needed to run. But since the Void had just disappeared, all the townsfolk were out celebrating. Plus, the heroes were borrowing his crystal ball, so he couldn't watch TV with it (what else can a wizard do for fun around the house?). So, the wizard headed off for Flopside to check on Nolrem's progress. There was a door built for easy access between the two cities imbedded between dimensions, which anyone could use without need of the magical flipping ability. He knocked on the door that looked like a palette swap of his own and called,
"Nolrem? …Hello, Nolrem?" He tried going in, but the door was locked. "That's odd…wizards' doors are never locked. It's the fortune teller's code!" After knocking a few more times, he heard a strange sort of muttering coming from the other side. It was completely unintelligible and barely audible, but it sounded like Nolrem. "Hello, Nolrem? Are you alright?"
Merlon waited for a minute or so, then gave up and returned to his own place of living. He wondered, "Why doesn't Nolrem take a break from his study? I hope he's not getting too obsessed…oh shoot, I'm missing Flint Cragley-Cragtrotter!"
So Merlon waited, television-less, while Mario and the gang hunted after Shadoo. The crystal ball flashed to show their proximity to the target – flashing faster and brighter as they got closer, and flashed slower and dimmer when they got farther away (which perfectly described the crystal ball's flashes at that moment). It was just like back in the Dry Dry Desert, only this time, his target was mobile. He followed the crystal ball as closely as possible, but it still wound up making the group walk in circles. Bowser complained,
"Oh, my aching feet! This is why I prefer sitting in my castle – travelling the landscape is your job, Mario! Carrie, can you help?" Instantly, Carrie started carrying the large Koopa. O'Chunks saw this and whined,
"'Ey, Mimi, cin you 'elp out a poor weary general and copy Carrie for me?" Mimi sighed and turned into Carrie for O'Chunks' convenience. Luigi also wanted a ride, but none of the Carries would take him. So, he walked alongside his brother, who was concentrating on the pulsing of the crystal ball. Mario only looked up when he saw the princess, running far ahead of the others. Mario called for Dashell, but realized that Peach had taken him. Luigi called out,
"Hey Peach, wait for the rest of us!" Peach replied,
"The Pink Wonder never waits when evil is on the loose!" Peach took out the Dashell pixl she was concealing while the other heroes took a collective sigh. Tiptron stated,
"We need to match her speed…Mimi, please copy Dashell…" Mimi copied the pixl like Tiptron wanted her to; leaving O'Chunks to fall to the forest floor (Thudley impressed by how much force was in his fall). Thoreau grabbed onto him as the heroes chased after Peach, while the crystal ball's flashing grew dimmer and dimmer. O'Chunks whined,
"Git yer hands offa me…wait, you are a hand…well, let go, then!"
O'Chunks was placed on the ground, and he ran with the other heroes in pursuit of Peach, in pursuit of Shadoo. The Pink Wonder searched as she ran across the forest, but there were no signs of their target. The other heroes, besides Tiptron, were too preoccupied in chasing after her to notice anything. Peach wanted to use the crystal ball, but didn't want to go at Mario's cautious pace. So, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, and the charging heroes crashed right into her. The crystal ball flew out of Mario's hand upon impact, and although Peach was knocked to the ground by the plumber, she managed to get up and grab it before anyone else could. Luigi was the second off the ground, being used to falling down a lot, and said,
"Peach, this isn't really helping. You don't need to prove anything! Just stay in Mario's shadow while he finds Shadoo!" The Pink Wonder replied,
"That's easy for you to say, Luigi; you're used to being in Mario's shadow!" Mimi returned to her normal girl form and said,
"You're not being more heroic by making things more difficult for us." Peach offered,
"Then why don't we split up?" O'Chunks finally managed to pull himself up and answered,
"'Ave yeh been touched in deh 'ead? Dis forest is more complex an' interwoven dan an M. C. Esher paintin!" Ignoring O'Chunks' surprisingly sophisticated metaphor, Mario walked over to Peach and stuck out his hand. Peach paused for a moment, sighed, and said,
"You're right, Mario. We need to stick together, and we need all of us to defeat Shadoo again." Mario grabbed for the crystal ball, but Peach held it high above his head, saying,
"But I'm leading the way!"
Mario could've easily jumped up and grabbed the crystal ball from her, but he decided to let The Pink Wonder win. Why he did that; even he didn't know. Maybe he wanted Peach to actually learn to defend herself more often. She did rescue him and Luigi from Bowser once, but he wanted Peach to know how to fight bad guys without using the power of emotions. Of course, he didn't know about her frying pan yet, but a cooking utensil wasn't exactly breaking the female stereotype of weaponry either.
So, Peach looked deep into the crystal ball and followed where the pulsing took her. Before they could go anywhere, the voice of Bowser sounded behind them,
"A little help here!" The heroes turned around to see Bowser, still flipped over on the ground. Mario forgot that Bowser was still a Koopa, and still weak against being flipped over. O'Chunks helped the Koopa King get up, who in turn pushed O'Chunks to the ground again. The Scottish brute jumped up and began wrestling Bowser, until The Pink Wonder screamed,
"Hey you two muscle-heads! Be quiet; we don't want Shadoo to know where we are!" Bowser replied,
"Shadoo probably doesn't even know we're after her! She took that Light Prognosticus from Doopliss, not from us!" Peach responded,
"But he may have mentioned the book being ours! And you know that Shadoo hates us – she tried to kill us, after all. Hmn…that's probably why she took the Light Prognosticus from him in the first place! To get us to follow her!" Luigi asked,
"S-So she may have a trap waiting for us?" Peach said,
"Exactly! What, are you scared of a little trap?"
Peach laughed as she pressed onward, alongside Mario, who felt uncomfortable letting Peach lead their way into a potential Shadoo Setup. Bowser and O'Chunks, of course, didn't want to look scared, so they strutted right behind them. Luigi was trailing behind the others, not in favor of Peach's new attitude or their new mission. The only other hero not eagerly racing towards danger was Mimi, who noticed Luigi walking by his lonesome and walked beside him. Luigi didn't scooch away until Mimi looked at him and parted her hair.
While the heroes were carefully moving in their double-file line, their target was far ahead of them. Shadoo was still in the Ancient Forest, this time taking the form of Merlon. Not the Merlon from back in Flipside, but the original Merlon that sentenced her into the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials. She used this ancient form because the original Merlon was the original owner of the crystal ball. Copying that form gave Shadoo access to a shadowy version of a crystal ball, just like copiers of Peach have access to her parasol. She checked how far away Doopliss was from her: pretty far. She thought,
"This form should be useful to me...at least that blasted Merlon gave me this form to use before Shadoo was imprisoned. But now Shadoo is free, and if I get Doopliss to copy me, I'll be free as well. No one besides Dimentio knows the secret result of Doopliss copying Shadoo, and I believe he's been killed by those pesky Heroes of Light. I heard that the heroes destroyed some dark being of the Dark Prognosticus, and that must be Dimentio. Finally! I'm glad I escaped from the Pit shortly before Dimentio was killed and the white light filled the worlds; I would have needed Dimentio to be out of the picture before trying to get Doopliss to copy me. And I'm tired of waiting."
She continued walking, using the crystal ball to locate something, or someone, or someplace. Fortunately for her, this Merlon was much stronger physically than the Merlon in Flipside. She observed,
"This wizard has walked great lengths in his day. Wizards, especially fortune tellers, don't typically include physical exercise as part of their regimen. But this one walked for many a year. I know that he was the adoptive son of Marloo, that fool, but I never saw him once. I remember his father claimed to have created me, and demanded that I serve him. Though Marloo was killed and I watched over that ancient tribe for years, I never met his son until having this body. I only recognized Merlon by his picture in Marloo's home...speaking of which…"
At this point, Shadoo had finally found what he had used the crystal ball to find. She stood on a hill, towering over a destroyed city, a civilization abandoned long ago. Every building was decayed to the point of rubble; except for one, a dome-shaped structure that stood erect in the dead center. Excluding the dome, moss and rust spread across the landscape, eating away at every scrap of plant life that existed there. Fungus and the few plants remaining were the only life forms that the ruins had to offer. Shadoo said,
"At last, I have found it. The Tribe of Ancients."
Author's Note: Long after the planning of my fanfiction, I discovered that Yold Town was actually built over where the Tribe of Ancients was. This conflicted with a major component of my fanfiction, as the ruins of the Tribe of Ancients (or the Ancient Ruins) will play an important part of the Mario storyline. So please pretend that Yold Town was built in some random location. Sorry for the inaccuracy