Time: 5:38am, Monday, October 15, 2001 – Jasper, Pipe Land.
The magic carpet lands in Jasper, Pipe Land, and the six riders eventually get off in front of a house. After all, Alex decides to see her dad. The lights are on in the house; Alex's dad always goes to work early on a Monday morning. Breathing in a big breath, then releasing it as a long, nervous sigh, Alex eventually knocks on the door.
"Visitors at 5:40am? I have to leave for work at 6!" a male voice shouts inside the house. Despite the voice being filled with confusion and disappointment, the door is immediately opened, displaying a male figure that has the similar build as Bowser, except not as big, menacing or heinous. As the Koopa saw the others, he expresses a shocked emotion when he sees one of them.
"Alex?! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with your mother!" the Koopa asked, with a little bit of anger, but mainly confusion.
"I was going to a friend's house, but these guys," Alex starts as she waves her hand at the group, "They saved me from being robbed, and I agreed to join them to help them with something."
"What do they need help with?"
"We need to find some item that got lost somewhere in Ice Land. Apparently it belongs to their uncle, and it's very important to find it. I promise I'll be safe though, Dad! Let me go with them!" Alex lied as she continues her begging.
Alex's dad puts his hand on Alex's shoulder, "Of course you can. I have to tell your mother though; you know how she is. She's probably freaking out by now. There even may be an Amber Alert going on throughout Desert Land."
Alex reluctantly nodded, knowing how protective her mother can be when she's gone, "Yeah. I guess it's a good idea."
"By the way, who are the rest of these people? Are they really who I think they are?"
"Oh!" Alex gasped in surprise, "Sorry I forgot! Here's Ludwig, Morton, Wendy, Violent and Larry! All of them, except for Violent, are the royalty of Dark Land."
"Dark Land royalty, you say? Be careful around them; we were taught to not completely trust the Darklanders," Alex's dad warned, "Well, I should head off to work. I'm having a short day today though since it's Plit Day. I'm calling your mother soon Alex."
"Okay! Thanks dad! And bye!"
"You guys can sleep here by the way. There's a few beds in the two guest rooms. Enjoy," Alex's dad concluded as he drives off. Alex nods as she goes into the house, followed by the Dark Land royalty and Violent.
~7~7~7~7~7
Time: 6:00am, Monday, October 15, 2001 – Jasper, Pipe Land
Alex's group isn't the only group of heroes in Jasper. Bowser and his group also lands here in this pretty big town. While Alex landed in the Southwest part of the city, where the college is, Bowser landed in the Northeast part, where the Pipe Maze entrance is located.
"It's 6am everyone, the Pipe Maze should be opening up soon. I hope they aren't closed during Plit day," Bowser hoped.
"They're never closed, really," Peach stated, "They always keep transportation open 24 hours a day here. The whole Mushroom kingdom may go through a furlough period which will prevent nighttime operations between 10PM and 6AM. You must have thought that took action at the beginning of 2001, but it has been delayed to next year, January 2002."
"Oh. I don't know what I was thinking," Bowser admitted, "Well, guys, we should get going then."
Bowser parks the doomship, and then eventually exits the massive wooden airship. Mario, Peach, Toad and Roy follow the King of the Koopas, the five of them eventually getting off the doomship. Since they parked close to the gate of the Pipe Maze, they walk in with ease, and the five of them jump into the entrance warp pipe.
They come out the other end of the same warp pipe, which ends up being in some underground cavern with a stony wall, dirt floor, lit torches on the wall, and several entrances of warp pipes. Most of them display green tubes, which are either short travels or domestic travels through the Mushroom Kingdom. But some of the pipes even express color-coded pipes; red for an area covered in lava, orange for a desert, yellow for an island, light blue for icy areas, dark blue for underwater areas, pink for miscellaneous travels on Plit and two violet pipes, which actually contain portals in them, that transport the users to the pipe maze areas on the planets Atroba and Madoso. In front of all the warp pipes stands a middle-aged Toad.
"Hello, Peach, Mario and Toad! What are you doing here with Bowser and his kid?" the toad asked in curiosity.
"Oh hey. Umm, we're on an important quest to try to form an alliance between the Mushroom Kingdom and Serenity Isle," Peach lied. Well, it wasn't really a lie, but she just didn't tell the toad the whole truth. All the characters want to keep this spectacular task of saving the world classified.
"Good luck with that; we sprouted random warp pipes throughout Serenity Isle in refugee centers to escort out all people from Serenity Isle. But we cannot do that anymore, as the oppressive government somehow banned ALL warp pipes from coming up in that land. So, unfortunately, we're unable to go from the Mushroom Kingdom to Serenity Isle now."
Peach nodded, understanding what the toad is saying, "Thanks for that. But I'm just wondering. How's the rulers like at Serenity Isle?"
"TERRIBLE!" the toad shouts, surprising all five characters, "THEY'RE TERRIBLE!"
"Why? Who's the royalty of Serenity Isle? The only thing I know of that country is its name," Peach asked, "Did any of the refugees talk to you about the island?"
"Yes, the refugees did tell me about the island a bit. They tell me that these things, called the X-Nauts, are ruling the island, and Grodus is their leader. The government is so oppressive and totalitarian that no Internet is allowed, no computers, no radios and no televisions. It's going to be extremely hard to get onto the island, because every corner of the island has troops securing the border. Anyone trying to enter, or anyone trying to leave by aircraft, will be shot down by them," the toad explained.
"And warp pipes aren't allowed?" Roy questioned, "How did dey manage to do dat?"
"The X-Naut scientists have developed a machine that's used to prevent warp pipes from popping up throughout Serenity Isle. The machine has to be destroyed before warp pipes can appear on that island again. My fear is that the X-Nauts will eventually come up with a machine strong enough to prevent warp pipes from popping up in ALL of the Mario World!" the toad explained, adding the last sentence of his explanation in a shaky voice.
"Okay, thank you! We don't need a pipe, we were just wondering! Have a great Plit Day!" Toad replies back to the toad as the five characters jump back into the tube towards the entrance.
"Good luck to you guys…" the toad wishes as the warp pipe goes off.
~7~7~7~7~7
Time: 9:37am, Monday, October 15, 2013 – Alex's dad's house in Jasper, Pipe Land.
The members of team two are all tired, so they're sleeping in Alex's dad's house. Wendy, Ludwig, Violent and Larry are sleeping in the four beds in the two provided guest rooms, while Morton's sleeping on the couch. Alex, however, is lying on the floor in the living room, on her magic carpet, reading a book while listening to Morton's snoring. She has been asleep for the past four hours, but because of the effects of Ludwig's potion, she already feels energized.
"I already read this book a thousand times. And I read the other books in my dad's library a thousand times. There's nothing to do except to listen to Morton's snoring… Oh! I have an idea!"
Alex immediately puts the book away in her father's library, then grabs her purse and opens the front door. She carefully closes the front door so nobody, namely Morton, won't wake up. She then runs down a few houses and knocks on the door.
"COMING!" a muffled voice shouts. A few minutes later, a Koopa woman opens the door, "Alexis! How are you doing! Long time no see! Let me get Reeka!"
"Okay thanks mom!" Alex smiles; she usually calls the moms of her best friends that. In her world, she has more than one mother, along with more than one dad.
"REEKA VAN DRIEL! Get your butt down here! I have a surprise for you!" Reeka's mom yells up to her. A few seconds later, a figure storms down the stairs, and a tanned, slender, black-haired Koopa is revealed. The Koopa's hair is in a ponytail that goes to the middle of her pink shell, with purple-painted claws on both her hands and feet. Reeka, in a way, looks almost exactly like her mother.
"Yes mo- ALEX!" Reeka screams in happiness, "How are you girl?! I thought you were still in Desert Land!"
"I came here with a group of people," Alex replied, "We're on a quest to find something in Ice Land. But we stopped by here to stay the night- err, well, the morning. Until everyone else wakes up."
"Very interesting!" Reeka's mom replied in excitement, "Reeka! You should join her on it!"
Reeka beamed, "Really?! You'll allow me to go?!"
Reeka's mom smiles at her daughter, "You always dreamt of going to Ice Land. But I sense you guys will need coats so… How many of you are there, Alex?"
"If Reeka joins us, there will be 7, mom," Alex counted in her head. Ludwig, Morton, Wendy, Violent, Larry, Reeka, herself. Seven!
"Okay, high-quality costs around here probably cost around 1,000 coins each, so here's 7,000 coins, Alex! Well, 70 blue coins," Reeka's mom says as she attempts to hand out a bundle of coins. However, Alex will not accept them.
"We don't want to leech off you, mom, you might need those!"
"Stop that crazy talk, girl! We're rich; my husband probably made the money back while we are here yakking at each other!" Reeka's mom rejected as she basically forces the bag of money into Alex's arms. Finally, Alex smiles.
"Thank you so much, mom! I'll bring Reeka safely home, okay?" Alex promised as both she and Reeka begin to walk away.
"I know you, Alex. And because I do, I trust my daughter's safety into your hands. Do your best you two! And Reeka, remember to brush your teeth!"
Reeka rolls her eyes at her mother as she replies with clenched teeth, "I KNOW, MOTHER! I do it every night and most mornings!"
"Good girl! Alright bye y'all!"
Reeka's mom slams the door shut. Once she did, both Alex and Reeka sparks a conversation.
"So, who's with you guys?" Reeka asked, "Are they from Desert Land or Pipe Land?"
"Neither," Alex replied, "They're from Dark Land."
"DARK LAND?! Are you crazy Alex?! We were taught NOT to associate with Koopas from Dark Land!"
"It's a long story, Reeka. Let me tell you about it before we enter my dad's house…"
Alex and Reeka both sit down on the steps leading up to Alex's dad's house; Alex rambles on about how she was going to go to the store to get a gift for her friend, until three robbers tried to rob her. Then she tells about the Princess of Sarasaland being able to beat up the attempted robbers, and basically saved her. After that part of the story, she explains to Reeka about when she found out the whole purpose of the royalty of three different kingdoms being in her remote Desertlandian town, and how they split up into groups that eventually led them here.
"… Wow! So you guys are doing MORE than just finding something in Ice Land?!" Reeka shouts.
"… Yes. I'm sorry for not telling the whole tru-"
"Hold your apologies! I'm just playing with ya, chica! I want to join in helping you all beat up this 'Jabrael' person!"
Alex smiles as both of them got up and walk towards the door to her dad's house, "That's the spirit doe!"
Alex opens the door slowly, being sure not to wake up anyone. The scene in the house hasn't changed one bit: Morton is still adventuring in dreamland, although his snoring has stopped. Instead, a snore that sounds like a lawnmower is coming from one of the guestrooms. 'I think that's Larry…' Alex thought to herself. But she didn't want to explore the house and wake up everyone.
Reeka, however, has different intentions unlike Alex. When Reeka sees Morton on the couch, she whispers to Alex, "Who's he? Maybe all of us in this place can hang out one day!"
"That's Morton. He, along with most of the people here, are Dark Land royalty! You know that's THE number one no-no to hang out with!" Alex whispered harshly.
"And that's coming from you, Alex…" Reeka shakes her head as she tries to hunt down the character who's emitting the lawnmower snores.
She checks the room that both Violent and Wendy are in, slowly cracking the door a bit. Nope, neither of the girls. Not surprisingly, females in most species on Plit don't snore as loud as their male counterparts, although the snores of a female typically have a longer duration.
Reeka closes the door as soft as she can, then takes little baby steps towards the room the guys are sleeping in, and instead of seeing two sleeping figures, she sees two blue-haired Koopalings watching an infomercial on a lawnmower. Hearing the door creak due to his sharp hearing, Larry instantly turns around and spots Reeka.
"Watch out Ludwig! An intruder!" Larry screams as Reeka immediately runs towards Alex. Unfortunately, she accidently wakes up Morton when she slams on the couch, causing the second youngest Koopaling to wake up.
"Hey, watch where you're going or I'll fix you up," Morton threatens as he lays back down, instantly falling asleep again.
"… Oops. Well, this isn't a great first impression…" Reeka said sheepishly as she starts to lightly blush.
"Don't worry about them," Alex comforted her best friend, "I'll tell them who you are. Let's just hope that Larry doesn't do-"
It's too late. Larry and Ludwig sneak out of their rooms. Larry is carrying a spade, while Ludwig is carrying a baseball bat. That's when they see the intruder; right by Alex!
"Alex! Watch out! There's an intruder by you!" Larry screamed, wanting to make sure that one of his new friends stay safe.
"Larry, Ludwig. Put down your weapons; this is my friend, Reeka! She wants to join us!"
Larry and Ludwig, realizing how foolish they are, put down their weapons. Immediately, Ludwig walks up to Reeka holding his hand out.
"Ze name's Ludvig Von Koopa. Nice to meet you," Ludwig introduced himself as Reeka shook his hand.
"And I'm Larry Koopa!" Larry calls out a little too loud, causing Morton to wake up once again.
"And you'll be mister potash if you don't shut up!" Morton complains, "You know what, sleeping's impossible with you guys around here. And who's that?"
"I'm Reeka Van Driel, nice to meet you all!" Reeka introduced herself. The Koopalings finally calm down a bit.
Alex gazes at her phone for the time. It's already 11:30am! TWO hours passed since she had the idea to go to Reeka's house! Man, time does fly sometimes!
"What's that rectangle block thing you just pulled out?" Reeka asked in confusion, "Is that some fancy watch or something?"
Alex giggled at the question, "No, silly. It's a cell phone. The only cool thing you can do with it is call people. I can send these things called text messages, but less than 25 percent of the people I actually know have a cell phone…"
"Interesting! They seem expensive!"
"Yeah. I need to wake up Wendy and Violent. We need to get going."
~7~7~7~7~7
Time: 11:52am, Monday, October 15, 2001 – Pipe Maze, Jasper, Pipe Land.
Bowser, Peach, Mario, Toad and Roy are all in the doomship, all of them pleased with the information they gathered from the toad worker. Now, they know what they're facing: First, the island is full of X-Nauts, so the other four characters need to keep an eye out for Peach; second, they know how oppressive the X-Naut government is. Now, all they need to know is exactly HOW to get to the island without being shot down by the X-Nauts.
"How should we get dere if dey gon' shoot us down?" Roy questioned.
That's when Bowser remembers what's in his shell. Digging into his makeshift pocket, Bowser pulls out several of Ludwig's toniques along with the last Knockout potion, "We can get help from the Star Sages. We can put this on the sandwiches I made."
"Alright! Let me get them!" Peach volunteered as she got up from her seat, walks down to the luggage department, 'I think it should be in here,' Peach thought to herself as she rummages through the doomship's storage room. Finally, she finds the red cooler- Right in front of her face! Trying to hide her embarrassment, Peach eventually makes her way up to the deck.
Bowser opens up the red cooler and grabs five sandwiches. Carefully, Bowser puts the Knockout potion on each sandwich, resulting in five infected sandwiches and an empty vial of Knockout. However, before the characters could eat, a magic carpet flies by with seven people on it. Immediately, the characters recognized them.
"IT'S LUDWIG AND HIS GROUP!" Bowser shouts, "Peach! Get the blue cooler in the storage room! It's their sandwiches!"
Peach dashes back down into the storage room, wasting no time, while Bowser opens the Doomship's door as quick as he can and waved down the group on the magic carpet. Seeing them, Alex lands the carpet right in front of the doomship. The group's shocked expressions matches Bowser's surprise.
"Woah! How ironic it is to meet you here!" Alex declared.
Bowser nods his head as he held out his hand to them, signaling them to stop for awhile, "Hang on, guys, I have something to give you guys. Don't move. Peach is getting it for you all."
Bowser goes back into the doomship after his message has been announced. When he did, Peach comes running up from the storage room, panting and all flustered out from her two trips to the storage room. Before she collapses down in her seat, she hands Bowser the blue cooler, "Here…"
Bowser smiles at the panting Peach as he jokingly warns her, "Don't tire yourself out yet, Peach, we still have stuff to do in Serenity Isle!"
"No worries!" Peach responded as she looks at Bowser, who put the blue cooler on the doomship's floor. Digging into his shell, Bowser pulls out five toniques and puts them in the cooler. Bowser secures the lid, making sure it's on tight, and walks out the doomship with it. He then hands the cooler to Alex's group, who deactivated the glass shield around the magic carpet.
"Thanks Bowser! What's in here?" Alex thanked.
"Some sandwiches and a few… what are they called? Anyway it's some potion of Ludwig's that prevents people from sleeping," Bowser answered.
"Tonique de l'insomnie? You VENT into my LAB and GRABBED ze potions that I MADE?!" Ludwig shouted.
"I told Iggy to. We need some for our trip," Bowser answered.
"Iggy grabbed zem? Okay, zat's better. If it vas you, you vould destroy ze lab. Luckily it vas Iggy," Ludwig explained as he breathes out a sigh of relief, "How many did Iggy take?"
"Fifteen of them. Five for each group," Bowser replied.
"Ahh."
Bowser begins to walk away from the group, "Have fun in Ice Land! Haha!"
"Have fun in Serenity Isle!" Wendy replied as she lays down on the magic carpet, enjoying a little sunbathing.
"Serenity Isle doesn't sound fun. It's full of communist X-Nauts," Morton mutters before he immediately covers his mouth. Bowser gives his son a weird glance as he asks him a question.
"Morton… How did you know that?"
Morton has a nervous expression as he explains, "I was on this thing called the Internet to check this thing called an email. I then happened to accidently stumble on a website launched by the X-Nauts. Oh my gosh that website was weird it was like a search engine thing that has a ton of control panels that allows and prevents people from that island to access the Internet and stuff like that and I forgot what the website was but-"
"Shut up! I wasn't asking for a life story!" Bowser shook his head.
"Sorry. Bye," Morton simply said as Bowser walks off, getting into his doomship where Peach, Mario, Toad and Roy are at. The four of them gives multiple looks of annoyance at Bowser, the four of them desperately wanting to eat.
"I got caught up with Ludwig's group. Apparently Morton knows a lot about Serenity Isle…" Bowser revealed. Three of the other characters have shocked expressions. The fourth one, however, nods, apparently not surprised.
"I knew dat he knew," Roy confessed, "He was on dis weird thin' on da computer which ended up bein' a website thin' leadin' to da Serenity Isle stuff."
"… Let's just eat our sandwiches…" Bowser changed the subject as he takes a massive bite out of his sandwich. The other four characters follow his lead, each of them taking fair-sized bites out of the sandwiches. As the five of them finish off their sandwiches, they all collapse on the floor, letting themselves advance to the Astral Plane known as Star Haven.
~7~7~7~7~7
Time: 12:29pm, Monday, October 15, 2001 – Jasper, Pipe Land.
It's now the afternoon of Plit Day, and several parades and other celebrations are occurring. Trying to avoid such celebrations, and getting rude gestures from people they bumped into, sometimes literally, Alex makes a roundabout trip to a coat store in Pipe Land.
"HEY! WATCH WHERE YA GOIN WITH THAT GLASS-COVERED CARPET!" someone screams out; they're apparently unimpressed that such things as flying carpets exist. Meanwhile, Alex rolls her eyes as she continues driving.
"Pfft, and to think we're saving them from Jabrael. We should just escape to another planet and let them suffer."
"But I like Pipe Land!" Reeka cries, "Plus that's not the best thing to do! We have to do this!"
"For the people! For the Star Spirits! For the universe!" Larry continued.
Alex thought about the things both Reeka and Larry uttered. They are right, after all, but still, she's tired of the terrible treatment that she's getting from the same citizens she's saving. 'Whatever,' she thought to herself as she continues to drive to a luxurious coat store.
Not too long after, they arrive at the first coat store that's actually open due to it being the middle of October in Northern Pipe Land. The store itself is luxurious, with fancy Greek-style columns and several professional portraits painted on the outside walls. Parking the magic carpet, and then chaining it to a pole, Alex and the rest of the group members walk into the store, the seven of them browsing at the coats as Reeka carries the coin bag.
Hearing some customers come in, the clerk walks out of the back room and goes up to the Koopas, "Hey guys! Do you guys need help?"
"I zink ve do," Ludwig replied in an affirmative manner.
"What do you need help with?"
"Well," Larry responded to the question before the others could, "We're going to the Arctic Circle to visit some people we know. They're nomadic farmers, but they need help moving farther south to Winter there. Do you know anything about the temperatures in those area? I know it gets cold, but what's the best coat to get?"
"Depends. What land portion of the Arctic Circle? The Sky Land sector, Ice Land sector, Pipe Land sector, or the Dark Land sector?"
"The Ice Land part," Morton replied, "Somewhere by the mountains."
The clerk then starts her explanation, "Alright. The Ice Land sector of the Arctic Circle isn't as cold as the Sky Land sector, because the Sky Land sector has a ton of high-elevation mountain peaks, but the Ice Land sector, especially the western part, can be pretty windy. But because where you want to go is by the mountains, it's most likely the eastern part of Ice Land. So how about one of these nice Down coats with a hood attached? These coats can fit the four girls great! For you three guys, what about these Nylon-and-Down coats with a fur trim on the hood? Does that fit all of you? And here's some boots that go great with your coats!"
"Hmm…" Wendy thought, "Let me try this on."
Wendy puts on the coat that the sales clerk pointed out for her. It's a plain, but beautiful pink coat with a pink hood. Wendy smiles when she sees that there are straps on the hood that go around her chin. She then notices she's sweaty, so she immediately takes off her coat. After, she tries on her boots, and decides that she also loves them.
"This coat is amazing! How much is it?" Wendy asked.
"900 coins including the boots," the salesperson smiles as Wendy immediately decides to get it. Violent, Alex and Reeka, who got similar jackets, except in the colors of black, blue and purple, also decide to get their warm, fuzzy coats.
Now it's the guys' turn to try on their coats. Morton and Ludwig try on the large ones, while Larry tries on the medium one. Unlike the coats that the girls got, the guys' coats only came in black. Despite the one color flaw, the three Koopalings also like their coats.
"The two large coats will be 1,200 coins each with the boots, while the medium one will be 1,000 coins, also boots included," the salesclerk says as she walks towards the cash register, "Are you guys happy with the decisions?"
"Yes!" all seven of them happily replied as each of them walk up to the cashier.
"Alright, your total comes out to be 7,000 coins!"
Reeka slams the bag of coins on the floor. Inside are 70 blue coins, which represents 7,000 coins.
"Thank you for coming! Enjoy your trip to Ice Land! Hope the Wintering process goes well!" the salesclerk wished good luck.
"Zanks a lot, madame!" Ludwig thanked as the rest of the characters walk out the store, unchain the magic carpet and finally speeds off to Ice Land.
Meanwhile, with Alex's dad…
"Alex? Everyone else? Are you kids here?" Alex's dad asks as he sees the four beds in his two guests room not made, "Of course, those kids. Oh well, something for me to do…"
A/N: I couldn't resist throwing in another one of my OCs. It's the last major one for quite awhile so… Congratulations on surviving!