Hello! I am not dead!
To put a long story short, I kinda got in a rut while in college and hyperfixated on at least 5 separate fandoms before graduation. I have a job now and happened to loop back around to my beloved Super Paper Mario fandom just in time for the 7th Anniversary of this story's creation, and 5th Year Anniversary of my accidentally abandoning it. Whoops!
As fate would have it, I started trying to rewrite the prologue about a year ago and while it's nowhere close to done, I want to finish what I started and get this fanfic out there. When I last abandoned the story I had Chapters 3-1 and 3-2 finished, with 3-3 about 80% aside from trying to wrap up the fight with Nassy. I'm planning on releasing all I have for Chapter 3 over the new few weeks, for your enjoyment. In addition I will be sharing a freshly baked chapter 3-4 in my new writing style (whenever it gets finished) so you can get a taste of what the rewrite for the first two chapter groups is going to look like.
Without further ado, here's Chapter 3-1.
With an air of unsureness looming above, Luigi and his friends opened the next door. Concerns on finding the other two heroes plagued their minds as they wondered if such heroes waited for them in this new world, and if not here, where?
They hadn't much time to dillydally as the ominous and haunting Void grew ever larger in Flipside's gentle, beige sky. The universe's hopes lied entirely on the Heroes as they searched for the next Pure Heart.
Chapter 3-1
Attack of the Brainiacs
The end of the Yellow Door's gap between worlds brought the Heroes to the Bitlands, a dimension aesthetically stylized like a pixelated masterpiece with every blade of grass, drop of water or speck of dirt sporting a bumpy pattern typical of pixel art. The pixelated, rolling plains before the Heroes were a sight to behold, it was too bad that all the pixls, aside from Blecky, were still fast asleep in Luigi's inventory and couldn't be bothered to admire the strange new world they were in.
"Com'on guys, really? You're just gonna sleep the day away?" Blecky asked his fairy comrades, all of whom replied with their own snoring melody. The little bat pouted in retaliation. "Fine, I'm the only one that can sense the Pure Heart anyway."
Blecky's ears twitched as he did his usual scanning around the group, returning with a perplexed look. "That's weird, the Pure Heart actually feels close by but…where is i-ACK!" Without warning, a tongue grabbed the little pixl and drew him away from his teammates.
"Nerrrr, what an interesting specimen…" said an intellectual voice. A large, green lizard in a lab coat manifesting himself as the voice's origin. He held Blecky inside a loose net as he observed the pixl, "I'll need to take it home with me for further examination, I need to know everything about this miraculous creature!"
Luigi and Bowser had tried in vain to stop the lizard, but as soon as he appeared, he vanished from sight, giving the duo little time to react to the kidnapping. With their mouths agape, the two heroes looked in each other's direction, as if to ask the other if they had seen the same thing.
Finally, Luigi broke the stunned silence, his exclamation echoing to the air, "MERLEE IS GOING TO END OUR GAMES IF WE DON'T SAVE BLECKY!"
The other pixls were jolted awake by this time.
"What's with all the loud noises?" Laddie whined as they flew out of the bag.
"We lost Blecky. Merlee's going to have our heads on silver platters." Luigi kept muttering to himself, the shock seeming to linger for him.
"Good riddance, he was annoying." Mumbled Thoreau, his comment getting him a glare from Boomer, who was the only pixl next to Fleep that seemed to like the somewhat annoying bat.
The bush in front of them rustled amongst the ruckus, a quarter-note-shaped pixl of marine green hue and blue eyes fluttering from the leaves.
"Dearest me, it seems that by escaping my potential capture, I have allowed some other innocent soul to be taken in my stead." Sighed the pixl. She turned to look at the Heroes, "Heroes of Light, please forgive me for bringing such tragedy upon your way."
"You are forgiven." Bowser nodded. Luigi rubbed his temples as he nodded as well.
"As a means of making up for my mistake, I'll help you get to the lizard."
"Who was he anyway-KABOOM?" Asked Boomer.
"His name's Francis. He's an aspiring bioengineer that is a little too invested in his work. To reach him, you must follow 'The Rule of Red'. First go past the fort with the red mark, use a strong force on the mark if the fort is occupied." Piccolo made an explosion sound effect for emphasis, "Then duel the red beasts of the Tile Pool to proceed to the next location." She then made bubbly noises like a fish underwater, "Finally, ride the red winds on atop of the Dotwood Tree." The sound of wind rustling through a tree came last, "From there, we will reach Fort Francis and save your friend."
"We?" Asked Thoreau, noticeably peeved, "You're coming with us? You're not going to wait in the bushes for us to get Blecky back first?"
"Well of course, it's the least I can do to help you get to your destination." Piccolo nodded, "I'm an auditory pixl, it would be pointless of me to make the heroes pick up a useless pixl after the fact. Unless the Heroes object, I'm coming with!"
"Sounds fine to me!" the Heroes nodded in agreement.
"Piccolo!" Exclaimed Fleep, who finally decided to wake up after hearing a familiar voice, "My dearest returns to me amore~"
"Fleep my sweetest? It's been too long! We've been so far apart!"
The two lovebird pixls took no pause reconciling with each other, which wasn't that hard to understand given the circumstances of their 1,500 year separation. Luigi caught bits of how and why they were separated, but not enough to piece together the whole story, which presented yet another point on Luigi's ever-growing list of things he'd need to ask about later; he honestly didn't even know what time later was at this point, he just knew that he was waiting for it.
Laddie nudged Luigi to get his attention, asking "Are we going to go now?" with anxiety in their eyes. He knew the ladder pixl was always distant from the others aside from Blecky, so obviously the pixl was equally worried about their talkative friend.
Luigi gave a firm yes as he walked forward, one thing that hadn't changed thus far was that the direction the team entered the dimension from was the same direction the Pure Heart was located, so they headed Eastward.
Immediately the other pixls began debating on who would take Blecky's place as the unofficial 'Pixl in Command' until he returned. Most of them, excluding Thoreau, suggested Laddie since they were the pixl recruited immediately after Blecky. The one objector insisted that he take the job for reasons he refused to go into detail for, prompting all of the fairies to argue for the next five miles, which in turn forced Luigi to pick a pixl on his own accord.
The Pixl in Command ended up being Thoreau, not just because Laddie claimed to stress out in positions of power, but because Luigi felt that he and Thoreau didn't know each other very well. He'd gotten to know the other pixls through small talk and action, but whenever it came to Thoreau, the hand pixl always worked without question and refused to talk to anybody; anything he did say was always a personal attack on either himself or Laddie, and it needed to stop. What a better way than to force leader-based cooperation unto him?
Thoreau accepted his temporary position and flew alongside Luigi in place of their missing teammate, spotting shortcuts and loopholes when necessary and in general being of good, tactical use; any other action that Thoreau engaged with consisted of flicking Luigi in the face when they stopped moving. He seemed interested in flicking Luigi and only Luigi for whatever reason, refusing to explain himself. Luigi didn't mind, however, and let it slide as they hadn't met any opposing force that could take advantage of the flicking.
After a few uneventful hours of walking, face flicking, and background swooning, Team Luigi's attention was drawn to a loud "H-HALT!" from a small fortress in front of them. A unnerved looking Koopa Striker, who wore a soccer uniform and a soccer ball colored shell, stood atop the fortress, noticeably lacking the sprouts that most of Tempo's forces typically had adorned on their heads.
"By order of Princess Peach…um, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. If you don't I have permission to…um," he pulled out a slip of paper to read off, "...to 'Give a knuckle sandwich to whomever trespasses and refuses to leave'."
"The princess is alive? That's great!" Said Bowser, "She might not be very nice, but I do worry about her sometimes. And you too Goalburt! Why don't you let us in? I'll just tell the princess we beat you fair and square."
"No can do sir." Goalburt shook his head, "The princess has orders, and as long as she's in command, I have to follow them, less I risk getting the stuffing beat outta me."
"Fair enough," Thoreau announced, in the heroes' place, "we'll take you on!"
Startled by the sudden appearance of a sentient, and aggressive, flying hand, Goalburt let out a sharp whistle that summoned his comrades to battle. A sea of miscellaneous koopa species rose from behind the pixelated fortresses, all anxious for countless reasons, not excluding them being ruled by the tyrant known as Princess Peach.
"Good job Thoreau." Luigi huffed, "Let's scare our allies, I'm sure that'll end well for everyone."
The koopas all unleashed a flurry of attacks towards the direction of the Heroes, despite their best judgements, forcing the group to flee just far enough to avoid getting hit.
"We need to calm them down!" Bowser exclaimed, "They're too stressed to stop once they start trying to defend themselves!"
"Fear not!" Fleep said, "I know exactly how to calm the hoard!"
The rectangular pixl looked to Piccolo, who immediately understood what she had to do. She giggled, blushing before taking Fleep with her and flying into the fray.
Piccolo's voice rang out loud and clear to everybody in the premise as she got close to the eye of the storm. "As an auditory-based pixl, my powers allow for me to play a melody based on the soul of whomever I link with." The duo zipped pass a canon filled with sleek, black bullet bills, getting ever closer. "With this in mind, and with the simple but calm demeanor of my beloved nearby..." Finally they were in the center of the battlefield, where a fortress larger than the rest towered proudly. "I can create a pulsating rhythm capable of ending the chaos!"
Like magic, the music note-shaped pixl sang loudly and proudly. Her body moved at the same, lulling tempo as the song she sung while Fleep flew beside her in his usually wobbly manner. The stress felt throughout the Koopa army melted away; they were completely calm as Luigi and co. made their way down to the greater fortress beneath the pixl couple. Smack dab in the front of the fortress was a great big "X" that marked the wall in red paint to cover up a very obvious weak spot in the building's structure.
Bowser scaled the wall of the fortress to carry down the koopas who stood dangerously perched by the edge of the walls, knowing all to well that the building would collapse when its weak point was struck. Piccolo finished her lullaby, putting every koopa, goomba, and bill at ease as she returned to the heroes with Fleep.
Luigi was the one who ultimately flung Boomer into the X, bringing down the entire center fortress. As the dust settled and the army of timid turtles awoke from their brief slumber, the ever terrible Princess Peach rose out of the rubble with a grumble and a growl, staring daggers at the green-clad hero.
"Please don't tell me I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing." Peach said with an annoyed tone.
"You know I can't lie to you princess." Bowser chuckled. He was the only one that found his response to be humorous in any way and simply slinked behind Luigi as the daintily-built royal huffed and marched over to meet eyes with her familiar foe.
"You always do this! Every time I think I've got a tiny sliver of hope to expand my domain, you strut in and ruin everything!" Peach yelled, "I'm tired of it! Absolutely, positively SICK of it! You want to ruin everything for me again? Fine!" She balled up her fist and lifted up one finger from it, waving the finger around in a circle to create a magic barrier that separated her and Luigi from everybody else. "Fight me, Luigi!"
Luigi shrugged, pulling out his hammer. "Okie dokie."
Peach dashed towards him, seething with hatred as she, in turn brought out her weaponized parasol, and swung it right in front of her opponent. Luigi backed away and swung his hammer in retaliation. They attacked simultaneously, beginning a sequence of parries that would not end until one person faltered, that person being Luigi, who flinched at a swing that was much closer to him than normal and impacted hard enough to throw him to the wall. His non-dominant arm limped, bruised and in pain, but not badly injured.
The princess sped towards Luigi with the intent to skewer him with the sharpened tip of her parasol. Luigi, being as sharp as the opposing weapon's tip, barely dodged in time for his opponent's weapon to get imbedded into the wall. Unlike Luigi with his hammer, Peach was relatively powerless without her parasol as her physical strength was more lacking and she also couldn't put anyone under her control without putting down the barrier first. Both fighters knew this quite well, and it didn't take long for their fight to become a race between Peach running for her weapon and Luigi trying to get ahead to stop her.
Peach's lack of physical strength was made up in exchange for her speed, so she quickly was able to outmatch Luigi's running skills to reclaim her weapon. The two began to clash once more, this time with Peach simply blocking attacks with her parasol, which was especially enchanted by its owner to remain invincible as long as its user had a strong enough grip and kept the petit little silken shield open. It was only a matter of time before Peach's stamina ran dry, allowing Luigi to sneak behind and flank her, knocking her to the ground. A solid defeat.
"Well, princess?" Luigi asked, holding his hand out to Peach.
She huffed, taking his hand as she was helped back up. "A fair fight as always. I should feel relieved to know that you still spare me after all these years, but at this point it is merely an annoyance. There's truly no point in me trying to fight you anymore and yet I can't stop trying."
"Perhaps it's because you long for something important, and it can only be gained by encountering me over and over again." Luigi suggested to her.
"Whatever," She scoffed at him as the magic barrier dissipated. "What do you want?"
"We were just trying to pass through, but you kinda got here before us." Bowser explained, "I'm glad you're safe after what happened at the wedding, but how did you break free of Tempo's weird mind-control plant?"
Peach proudly pulled out a withered sprout from her inventory, it's roots were shriveled up, the stem was flaccid, and the leaf was mostly brown. "The plant was already dying some time before I woke up in that maniac Tempo's palace, so I slipped through security and collected a bunch of non-brainwashed idiots to start a riot." Her expression changed to a scowl, "Or at least I was going to start a riot before someone teleported us to this blocky dump. We kinda set up base here after that, and we've been here for the past two days at least."
The princess turned around to look at the small army of koopas that had been forced to work with her, "We've become a sort of family since we ended up here. They're the kids, and I'm the cruel, unforgiving mother that straightens them up and punishes them if they show even a sliver of weakness to my face."
"Who...who hurt you, Peach?" Fleep asked her. She simply ignored the pixl as she turned around towards the koopas, who reluctantly agreed with her previous statement.
"Hey Peach," Luigi started, "this may seem like a tough pill to swallow but-"
"But what?"
"We need you to help us with something."
She froze on the spot, scowled and turned back around to face the hero. "I beg your pardon?"
"We need you! Tempo wed you and Bowser together to make a Chaos Heart and now the universe itself is being eaten alive by a giant vortex as we speak, it will die if we don't work together to save it!"
"That doesn't explain why I should help you." Peach crosses her arms.
"Because if you don't-!" Luigi paused, "Everything, literally everything, will die! Including yourself!"
"My life means nothing," She said with hesitation. "it's my people and my country that matter the most. The Mushroom Kingdom will live on without me."
Luigi found an opening and immediately took it, "There won't be a Mushroom Kingdom if the universe is gone!"
That terrified her. If the Kingdom alone was gone, she could rebuild it, that was fine; if she died, then the kingdom would go on without her, that was also fine. If both were gone however, nothing would be remembered, the names of herself and her people would become dust to the wind, and that just absolutely terrified her.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked, holding Luigi's hands with her own and staring down at him.
"Come with us, fight some bad guys, maybe learn a little bit about yourself, and follow along to the very end as we completely decimate Tempo and her army before they can decimate us." Luigi told her. "That doesn't sound to strenuous, does it?"
"Not at all." She shook her head, looking back up to call to the troops she had appropriated, "Hey shell-slackers, hold up the fort while I'm gone, Alright?"
"Yes ma'am." The koopas said, returning to their posts.
"Just remember this," Peach mumbled to Luigi right before they set off, "I'm not doing this for you or the universe, I'm doing this for myself and my people, so don't start getting all cuddly on me."
"No problem."
With a new party member by his side, Team Luigi, at Piccolo's urgent request, climbed through the rubble of Peach's place of operations to uncover a secret passage to an underground bunker; the map, compass, and raft inside had all the information they needed to head towards the right direction as they approached a river. The body of water grew wider and wider as they headed towards the setting sun and established a camp on their acquired raft. Bowser's body was a furnace that kept everybody on the raft warm when the moon rose high in the sun's place.
Every night since the adventure began, Blecky would wish everybody on the team a good night, and then lull them to sleep with his knowledge of the stars and constellations, claiming it to be a pasttime of his. Tonight, however, there were no good nights or constellation stories. Bowser attempted to catch Peach up on what was going on, to substitute for the bat not being with them, but it was a hollow and empty replacement.
"Don't worry Blecky," Luigi whispered before sleep overtook him, "We're coming for you."
So I would like to apologize to everybody that ended up waiting 5 freakin years for this fic to update at all. My original intention when I reached the 1-year mark of the hiatus was to try and get all of the story done and then released in intervals, but as you can see that didn't happen.
I did end up doing a lot of RP while in college (nothing nasty ya heckin weirdos) that ended up drastically improving my writing in the long run, so I have all my RP partners to thank for keeping me writing.
In terms of fandoms, I ended up bouncing through OFF, A Hat in Time, Portal and Half-Life. Bounced around a few shows as well but I don't remember which ones, but I'm currently hopped up on Gundam right now. Also currently super duper hyperfixated on Spore and Sky: Children of the Light in terms of games.
So yeah, I've been a bit busy. I'll try to get 3-2 out next week and get 3-3 fixed of grammatical errors for the week after! Like I said at the beginning ANs, I'll have 3-4 done whenever I get it done, but hopefully it won't take a full year this time.
