Gemini I: Gemini's Weekend Off

It was a normal morning for the dutiful workers in the M.S.I. Headquarters. The building is full of activity, from the engineers in the workshops cooking up some new contraption or the chefs hard at work to fill the stomachs of the thousands of people that live inside this building of indescribable size. While most of the guys were abundantly at work chomping down their food for the morning meal, there was one familiar guy in particular who was off doing something else since he had stashed away an early meal from the cafeteria the night before.

…There's not really a need to hide his identity considering the title of this chapter, huh? Wandering through the steel lined hallways of the M.S.I. HQ, the yellow-shelled Koopa Lieutenant Gemini was on his way to the Command Sphere in the very center of the building. His reason for heading to this particular room was known only to himself, but the fact that he walked forward with a surprisingly cheerful smile on his face.

As he winds around a corner, the Lieutenant takes note of a faulty light fixture in the ceiling and quickly takes a moment to look up while lightly placing his left hand against the wall. With a flexing of his muscles, the Koopa lets loose a few bolts of electricity that travel through the wires in the wall and reach the light bulb above, causing the problem to be fixed almost instantly. Gemini smiles as he pulls his hand back, thinking to himself "That will free up a lot of time for our electricians" before he lowers his head and continues on his way.

Gemini was in a really good mood today, as evidenced by how he began to hum a tune to himself as he rounded the final corner before the Command Sphere and slowly walks towards a solitary sliding metal door at the end of the hall in front of him. Detecting his presence and identifying him as part of the M.S.I. database under the label "Ally", a camera hidden perfectly out of sight slides the doors open to let Gemini in. Walking forward, the Lieutenant dials down the humming song to silence.

In the Command Sphere is a large series of machines that whir lively as they keep the dozens of computers on the frontal wall going strong throughout the days and nights. At the top of a staircase is a padded seat that is capable of spinning around, with a single person sitting on it with his bulky, golden mechanical arms resting on the sides of the chair itself. The person was examining some old files on his computer screen, a few regarding the now dead Cackletta. Gemini raises his right hand into the air and waves it up at the person in the chair, saying happily to him "Hey Commander, you awake up there?!"

The chair quickly turns around, as the Goomba Commander of the M.S.I. glances down at Gemini with a surprised look in his left eye, since as usual the eye patch covers his mechanical right one. "Gemini? You are looking rather chipper this morning." Commander Alpha notes in a delighted tone of voice as he cracks a small smile.

The Lieutenant quickly gives a brief salute in front of his forehead and proceeds to say to the Commander "And you are also looking rather well. Have you actually gotten some sleep recently?"

Alpha pulls his head back and lets out a laugh for a couple good seconds before looking back down at Gemini and saying to him in a joking manner "Well I was getting a good amount of sleep recently until that incident in Sarassaland. But I guess I haven't been awake long enough for the lack of sleep to affect me yet…"

The Commander then grins at Gemini and says to him as the Lieutenant manages to keep a smile on his face "But I see that what you found out isn't a bother to you at all, so I'm not going to speak too much about it."

Alpha flips his chair back around and looks up the computer while waiting for Gemini to speak to him. The Lieutenant lowers his right hand and looks at the Commander's chair, saying to him in a respectful tone of voice "Commander Alpha, if there are no objections, I'd like to ask permission to take this weekend off so I can visit my old friends at the Koopa Village!"

Bravely asking his Commander for this favor grabs Alpha's attention away from the computer screens and causes him to turn his chair back around so he can look down at his Lieutenant and say to him "A weekend off? You sure that's a good idea? Isn't Peach's banquet coming up pretty soon?"

Gemini responds with a simple "That's still a week off. I'll be back before then, naturally." With his good memory that Alpha has come to rely on at times, the Koopa nods his head and looks up his Commander's smile as Alpha proceeds to say "Then by all means, go on ahead and see your friends. I just didn't want you to neglect any important duties, especially since Peach specifically requested our protection seeing as Luigi's going to be in the hospital one day past the banquet, and Mario is still missing in action."

The Lieutenant smirks up at his Commander and says to him "And you still aren't going to tell me what you were doing with Mario, are you?"

Alpha shakes his head and replies to Gemini with "He personally asked me not to tell you. That's all I can say."

The Commander then flips back around and clicks a few keys on the arm of his chair to summon forth a keyboard in front of his body, saying to the understanding Gemini "If you want, I can use the teleporter to send you to the village."

"Not a bad idea. That way it'll be even more of a surprise when I arrive." Gemini says after taking things into consideration for but a few moments.

"Wait, you didn't give them a heads-up that you were coming?" Alpha notes in a puzzled tone of voice as he keeps his right hand hovering over the teleportation button and glances to the right.

"How exactly could I do that? They don't have a communication device like we do." Gemini is quick to point out.

Alpha blinks twice and immediately tries to dodge the matter because of his own forgetfulness, but his Lieutenant points out to him with a coy swing of his right pointer finger in front of his body "Try and get a little sleep while I'm gone, ok Alpha?"

"I'll try and fit some sleep into my schedule. Anyways, I'll see you in a couple days Gemini, just make sure not to forget about your Comm. Link, since I would hate to see you traverse the wasteland to get back to base." Alpha chuckles quietly at the end of his statement, a smirk laid across his face as he quickly pressed down on the teleportation device's button in front of him.

The Lieutenant smirked as though he didn't believe what his Commander had said as he responded with "Ha, I know you aren't being serious Alpha." But when the Commander doesn't reply as his body is wrapped in neon-colored rings descending from the top of his body Gemini actually grimaces in shock before saying to Alpha just seconds before he's sent away "Wait a minute, don't tell me you are serious about that." As Gemini is teleported away from the Command Sphere in a blink of the eye, Alpha smiles and quickly focuses back on the computer screens in front of him.

Gemini is left in the middle of his thoughts as he is sent through a neon tunnel in mere seconds, his body being deposited through a flash of light at the very end of the tunnel that places him right onto the middle of the dirt covered Koopa Road. More specifically, he was at the bottom of the grassy steps leading towards the Koopa Village. It was sunny outside, as per usual in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the fact that he was deposited onto the ground with his head looking up meant Gemini had to quickly swing his right arm in front of his face to block most of the sunlight out until he could adjust to it. After this was done, the Koopa lowered his head and turned it to the left, and in the distance he could see huts with Koopa shell shaped roofs.

"There it is." Gemini says quietly and happily as he cracks a smile and draws his hand away from his forehead, beginning a short stroll over to the village that was once his home just a moment later. Upon entering the village, the Lieutenant is unsurprised by the chatter of everyday life going around between Koopas and some of the residential Bob-Ombs.

Gemini's appearance in the village actually caused most of the to go quiet and look at him, recognizing him from the battle against Subspace a couple years back that he took part in, where he assisted in fending over the army of Primids and other Subspace soldiers that had invaded Koopa Village. Only a few people in the village actually knew who Gemini really was, but that was something the Lieutenant didn't mind since he'd didn't want people to remember him after he departed from this place all those years ago.

Gemini waved at the people as they looked at him, keeping a bright smile on his face as he made his way through the village. As he made his way to a specific destination, he glanced off to the left and happened to notice that the yellow-shelled house he used to live in was still intact. While it was plain as day that someone else had moved in since he left the village, it was nice to know that nobody had changed the roof's color. He hadn't actually made note of this detail when he was here before due to the franticness of the situation, so it warmed Gemini's heart all the more as he turned his gaze away from the hut and moved forward.

There was another hut that Gemini was after. It was topped with a blue-shelled roof and was the only one of its kind in the entire village, and for good reason too. Its lone inhabitant was a Koopa with a blue shell, and he too was the only one of his kind in this village. Granted, a yellow shell wasn't exactly a common sight in this village either, but Gemini could at least safely say that at the moment there were at least three yellow-shelled Koopas in this village from his current glance as he walked in front of the door of the blue-roofed hut.

Raising his right hand, Gemini knocks on the door so the resident is given at least a fair warning before he enters. On the other side the Lieutenant hears a voice calling out quietly "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

After a couple seconds, the hinges creak and the door swings open, revealing on the other side a blue-shelled Koopa with a red scarf wrapped around his neck. The Koopa looks at Gemini with surprise for but a moment, as he quickly lets go of the door and swings his right hand into the air towards the Lieutenant, who responds by raising his left hand so the two can share a mighty hand slap between the two, with the blue-shelled pulling back more enthusiastically as Gemini cracks a smile.

The blue-shelled Koopa proceeds to say with a brimming grin on his face "I'm surprised that you are here Koo-I mean, Gemini!" The Koopa stops himself before he says the Lieutenant's real name out of respect for his wishes, and after straightening himself in a more polite manner he looks at his friend and chuckles happily.

"Its been a while, hasn't it Kooper?" Gemini says, addressing the Koopa by his real name as he stands in front of the open door and lets out a laidback laugh from the back of his mouth.

"Yeah, I haven't seen eye or ear of you in a good few months…Though this is the first time you've been to the village since that whole deal with Subspace!" Kooper exclaims.

Gesturing towards the house with a turn of his body and a swing of his hands, the blue-shelled Koopa politely says "Come on in!" and Gemini slowly walks inside so the two can continue their conversation behind the closed door.

Kooper goes and sits on his bed while Gemini sits himself down on the edge of Kooper's green-net hammock, leaning his hands back on the edge as he looks at his friend, who is excited to be holding another conversation with his old friend after quite some time. "So what made you decide to come here today?"

"I thought it would be a nice surprise." Gemini says in an honest tone of voice as he cracks a smile at his friend. He then puts a more serious look on his face as he asks "Though I have to say, I'm actually surprised I caught you here. I would have assumed you'd be out on an archeological quest with Kolorado."

Kooper shrugs his shoulders and leans back a bit, responding to his friend with a simple "We are on a break right now since we've almost run out of temples or ruins to look at."

"Has your crew actually touched the Elemental temples yet?" Gemini inquires curiously.

"I thought you, Mario and the rest of you guys had covered the temples entirely?" Kooper replies in surprise.

Gemini shakes his head and says to Kooper "Nope, we only covered the basic floors. I'm pretty certain we dealt with all the traps though, so further examination of the temples would be possible if you wanted. The Frozen Palace actually had some interesting stuff in its throne room, if I could recommend a place to start."

"I'll run the idea by Kolorado later." Kooper says with an appreciative nod of his head towards his friend, but then proceeds to move onto another subject. "So hey, did you get an invite to Peach's Banquet?"

"Yeah, me and Commander Alpha are going to on guard duty during the event since Mario and Luigi are out of commission at the moment." Gemini points out, which causes Kooper's eyes to widen in shock as he exclaims "What?! What could have possibly taken Mario out?!"

Smirking in an embarrassed manner, Gemini chuckles and says to Kooper "Err…Maybe 'taken out' is a harsh term. What I meant to say is that he's gone missing, but since Alpha said he's alive I can just assume he's doing something personal right now."

"Oh, well that's a relief." Kooper says after letting out a relaxed sigh, especially upon reminding himself that there's no way someone like Mario could be defeated easily.

"Anyways, I'm guessing Peach invited everyone who has ever helped Mario before. If I remember correctly, E. Gadd even figured out a way to let people from Flipside come over to join the banquet." Gemini mentions.

"That'll be an interesting gathering, that's for certain." Kooper mentions, proceeding to say to his friend with a sly smile on his face "By the way, Kaylie and Kylie got invites too."

Gemini's heart nearly skips a beat as Kooper mentions the first name, and as he cocks a grin to try and stay cool he says and then asks "Is that so? Come to think about it, are either of them around at the moment?"

"Kylie is off at some place called Pi'illo Island at the moment for some photography deal, and Kaylie is watching the house in the meantime. But she's on duty for a cover story at the moment, so it'll be a couple of hours until she returns home." Kooper replies with.

Gemini hangs his head slightly out of disappointment, something Kooper catches onto as he taunts his friend with a few words. "You still like her, don't you?"

The Lieutenant smirks at Kooper and jabs his right hand forward, socking his friend on the back of his left hand while letting out a joking "Shut up" in a lax tone of voice.

Kooper then says to his friend "Man, its nice to just sit down and have a simple conversation like this. It reminds me of the good ol' days."

Gemini responds with a joking reply of "Well you are kind of draining the fun out of it by sounding like a reminiscing old Koopa."

Kooper jolts his head up and declares "What?! Don't compare me to old Koopa Koot! I'm still a fresh and young Koopa here! And even after almost ten years, I can still run circles around you, Gemini."

The Lieutenant raises his eyebrows in surprise and laughs, saying to the blue-shelled Koopa "Is that a challenge, Kooper?"

Kooper grins and starts to push himself forward with his hands leaning against the edge of the bed, his glare piercing up towards Gemini as he says to him "How about it Gemini? One quick race to the Koopa Bros. Fortress. All on foot, and no powers from either of us."

Gemini kicks himself off of the hammock and gestures cockily at Kooper, saying with a smirk on his face "I wouldn't have it any other way, Kooper. You better be prepared to lose once more though."

Kooper moves forward after leaping off the bed and opens the door so both parties have a fair start. He then goes beside Gemini and kneels down, holding his hands beside his body as he prepares to sprint off the moment he finishes the countdown he started at that very moment. "3...2.…..1!'

Prolonging the counter to try and throw Gemini off, Kooper kicks off the ground and swerves past the door at high speeds, dashing through the village as the Lieutenant follows close behind at nearly the same speed. Kooper isn't surprised by this though, and continued to run with arms swinging back and forth. The pace between the two lessens as they reach the staircase outside of the village, but that didn't matter in the slightest as it gave them a moment to collect their breaths before they reached the top and immediately swerved towards the wooden bridge to the right of the top of the staircase.

Sprinting along Koopa Road, Gemini starts to gain a lead on Kooper thanks to having more experience climbing the staircase, but the blue-shelled Koopa grits his teeth and pushes his head forward to close the gap just a little bit more. The two make their way across a small bridge, nearly squeezing their bodies against one another as they head towards the ruined stone arches above the winding pathway up ahead. They were almost to their destination, and Kooper knew that he needed to push ahead even further if he wanted to beat Gemini in a race.

Straining his muscles with a mighty grunt, the blue-shelled Koopa pushes his body to the limit and started pulling ahead of Gemini as they reached the final stretch. In fact, his feet whipped against the ground so quickly that flames started to trail along the ground as he ran, surprising Gemini to the point that he actually started to slow down and watched as Kooper was running uncontrollably towards the steel doors of the large, abandoned Koopa Bros. Fortress.

The Lieutenant raises his right hand and tries to stop his friend with a single word, but as Kooper rams heads first into the doors he can only bring himself to grimace in pain as he almost feels the impact from afar. After a few moments, Gemini runs over to the front of the fortress and watches as Kooper pops out of the small dent he made in the gate and lands on the back of the shell, his expression partially dazed as he groans in pain and tiny Lakitus fly around his head.

Those tiny Lakitus pop as Gemini stands over Kooper, and the Lieutenant smiles at his friend and says to him "Well, it seems you won this race, but I don't think you needed to get that into it."

Kooper, still in a daze, replies to his friend in a distorted voice "I-I guess…" He then lets out a quiet 'Ow!' from the pain and closes his eyelids while trying his hardest to keep a smirk on his face. Gemini bends down and picks his friend up, hauling him over his shoulder and turning away from the Koopa Bros. Fortress as he says to him "Lets get you back to the village, you should be fine once you lay down for a bit."

Gemini thus began to walk back to Koopa Village with a partially smiling Kooper hung over his shoulder. The Lieutenant was happy to have taken part in that race even though he lost, for it reminded him of the good old days, and that even after all that had changed between the two friends they were still able to enjoy themselves. It was going to be a nice weekend, and Gemini was delighted to know that this was just the start of what would end being a very enjoyable weekend.

Next Time: A Dinner Between Friends