"Two chapters in one week?! Psycho you slippery snail what is this tomfoolery?"
Its me compensating for releasing last chapter a week late of course!
As you can tell by now, I'm taking some liberties with how the world works, especially in these next few chapters.
And seriously, Dimentio got hit on the face with a bouquet of flowers during the prologue and NO ONE HAS SAID ANYTHING COME ON! I had to halt writing for a bit just so I could figure out how I wanted Peach to throw her hissy fit.
Regardless, on with the reviews!
MagicQuill42: Yes, Luigi and Blecky are indeed a good mix. They might argue a bit in this chapter though, so heads up! And YES, IT FEELS SO GOOD TO PUT THE UNUSED PIXL INTO USE! I was hesitant to add them at first, but decided they would make a wonderful addition to the story. Writing for them is kinda hard though since I purposefully made them gender neutral, but it's a challenge I'm willing to take.
AmberAngelle: I wanted to go all out in terms of swaps and gosh diddly darn did I do it, it only made since to switch the old geezers. Also Luigi feeding the squiglet was a idea off the top of my head at the time since I needed some interactions between him and Blecky, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.
DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Super Paper Mario. Nintendo does. End of story.
And so, Luigi learned of the mysteries of the Next with the help of his newest partner, Laddie. While the achievement of obtaining a new partner was incredible news, our hero did not have time to celebrate as there was still a Pure Heart in need of being found.
"Follow me!" said Blecky as his keen senses led them the looming mountains ahead, the towing barrier protecting the Pure Heart hidden somewhere on the other side.
Chapter 1-2
Afoot in the Foothills
For a mountain trail leading to a populated area, the Mount Lineland pathway was an incredibly difficult road to navigate, if you were a normal person that is; luckily, Luigi was anything but normal by many standards. Case and point: Luigi's Super Jump, which allowed him to leap to heights not possible for the average man, made navigating the mountainous region a breeze. Then the enemies appeared.
It began with an encounter with a goomba and a koopa troopa, a typical sight to see among members of the Koopa Kingdom, they looked perfectly normal and indistinguishable from normal members of their races, but their behavior was peculiar. The second they spotted Luigi, they tried to attack him, actions usually attributed to them being forced under Princess Peach's commands out of fear to oppose her; this simply wasn't the case however, they attacked willingly and with a great amount of determination.
Naturally, Luigi's first action was to fight back, albeit with reluctance since he always felt a tinge of guilt in harming the normal docile creatures. The goomba ran towards Luigi, bearing its teeth as it jumped towards his face. A single swing from Luigi's hammer was enough to knock the angry fungus out cold, leaving only the koopa to fight back. It tucked its body into the ruby-colored shell on its back, using its hind legs to spin the shell at a remarkable rate and launch itself at the plumber. The attack was unavoidable, but it allowed Luigi to attack from up close as he kick the turtle in the stomach, forcing it to fall helplessly on its back and pass out when the initial impact, added with being injured and upside-down, caused it to experience a concussion.
With their foes unconscious, the trio was able to examine the cause for the sudden madness: a tiny, green sprout with a single leaf fashioned like the tail of an eighth note.
"Who would've thought such a tiny plant would be the source of our 'treble'...wait." Luigi fumbled when he realized the pun he had made and vainly tried to cover the mistake before receiving an expected glare of disapproval. Surprisingly, the look he got from Blecky wasn't one of distaste, but rather one of shock; he swore he could see a visible smile on the bats transparent face the second they made eye contact.
"I did not realize you had a 'forte' in the art of word-play." Jested the bat. What followed suit was back-to-back puns between the two parties as they moved their former foes to a safe place away from the scorching elements of the sun and proceeded upwards on the mountain trail. Laddie lagged behind them to avoid the annoyances in front of them and moved closer when the material their companions had began to run flat. At the very least, Laddie was glad the bickering duo had found common ground.
"Those are spiny tromps."
"OW!"
"You can't fight them."
"Thanks for telling me ahead of time Fang Face!"
'So much for common ground.' Thought Laddie.
The team had reached a part of the trail that was a long slope...infested with spiny tromps. The circular, spine covered rocks had a knack for conglomerating on the slopes, hence why the mountains were 'difficult' to navigate everywhere else except for the slope straight to town.
"All I'm saying is that maybe you should let me finish my analysis before you approach things all willy-nilly."
"I was trying to knock it out of your general direction you bat brain! It would have steam-rolled you into oblivion if I didn't interfere!"
"You were the one that wanted information."
"You couldn't have flow out of the way?!"
This was getting tiresome.
Laddie hovered between the other party members on the hill they argued upon, droning out the slander that was beginning to erupt and flipped them all into the Next, where the rolling foes were seemingly nonexistent, thus allowing the group to continue onward.
Another plus was that the fighting had stopped when they flipped. The hill they originally stood on was also missing in the Next, causing Luigi to plummet to the ground from his spot.
They reached the top without anymore hassle, only to be halted by an obvious gap between them and the town.
"Looks like Green pulled the bridge up...stay here for a second." Laddie didn't give either person time to respond as they flew to a distant house where the guard of the drawbridge apparently lived, a rather unorthodox action since the group could probably climb up the lifted bridge and leap to the other side, but the ladder shaped pixl needed some time away from the others, and they needed time apologize, so it seemed like a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
With nothing to do, Luigi and Blecky sat down and decided to engage in small talk, a nice change of pace compared to the yelling and word-play of before.
"I'm sorry about earlier..." Luigi was the first to admit. "I've been worried about my friends and brother, and the sudden task of rescuing the entire universe is a lot to chew as well."
"..."
"I guess I'm just incredibly reckless when it comes to having too much on my plate to handle at once. You know what I mean?"
"Not really," Blecky replied. "But I'm assuming it must be very overstimulating...I'm...also sorry. I should have realized that organic beings get stressed under different circumstances than pixls, I'm just so used to people that already know me and immediately listen to me. I should have been thinking about your problems alongside my own."
"It's ok...I forgive you." Luigi assured the bat. The mention of 'organic beings' bugged Luigi a bit though, were pixls not organic? He decided he'd ask later.
Laddie finally began their trip back to the duo, it had taken longer that usual due to Green somehow ending up in the Next and needed some time to calm down. When they arrived, the drawbridge had made its way down, over the seemingly bottomless ravine below.
Laddie saw a tall figure in green robes and an almost impressive mustache wave to them with a spear in his hand, the trio waved back or attempted to wave back as they cross the wooden bridge into Yold Town.
Yold Town didn't have much going for it, it was a small town on a isolated mountain, neighboring a ridiculously large desert that harbored hidden ruins which, in turn, were guarded by a ferocious guardian that protected a sacred treasure at the very end of said ruins. Needless to say, the town was very lackluster compared to what was ahead of it, so the prospect of anyone passing by was far from unheard of.
The trio were quick to notice a sense of unease among the townsfolk, they were nervous and glare at one another with untrusting eyes, the only exception was a young boy hopping around town in search for a playmate. The boy approached the visitors with beam of joy on his face; Laddie noticed the child's arrival and seemed to smile as well when he appeared.
"Laddie Laddie! You came back! I knew you would!"
"It's good to see you're well Bozzo." Laddie flew to the boy and gently pat him with one of their wings. "My friends, please meet Bozzo, my usual partner." They introduced him to Luigi and Blecky who couldn't help but gush at the child's playful nature. The number of eyes staring at the boy were unnerving to say the least.
"Why's everybody acting so strange?" Asked Luigi, wondering if the group had done something to wrong everybody.
"You mean you haven't heard?" A feminine voice answered. The voice's owner, a young woman who had been near the town store, moseyed over to the group, gentle pushing the child aside. "Word has it that someone from town tried to end the Mayor's game earlier today, not long after he sent his 'that' pixl", she pointed at Laddie, "over to his cousin's house in Lineland Road. Apparently he sensed this attacked ahead of time and needed to keep his special flip-magic away from his attacker. He says the assailant was someone from the town itself, so we've all been on edge trying to figure out who it is."
A failed assassination attempt? Seemed rather fishy to Luigi.
"The Mayer, I'm assuming his name Bestovius?" The hero inquired.
"Yes sir. Why do you ask?"
"I came here to speak with him. Would that be possible?"
"I don't-"
"Of coarse you can talk to Grandpa! I can take you to him!" Bozzo interjected and grabbed Luigi's hand to walk him over to the end of town. "Bye bye Miss Babs!" He said as they left.
On the way there, Bozzo talked about how much he missed his 'best friend Laddie' and how excited he was to see the beast that lived in the Yold Ruins make his annual visit to the town and bring snow to the children. This visit, known as "The Day of Ice", was a tradition that had been around since the Pure Heart was first placed in the ruins and that the beast, according to Laddie, was a creature of the heavens that insisted on remaining in the Linelands as a mortal being to bring joy to the children of the dessert. Luigi found this tradition to be incredibly heartwarming to say the least, and filled him certainty that, with this information in mind, his journey for the Pure Heart would be a bit easier.
Bestovius was an odd fellow to say the least, but that was to be expected from someone referred to as a 'Flip Wizard'. He was a red-cloaked man on a magic cloud, his eyes obscured by a pair of foggy glasses underneath a blue hat. The orb-shaped mouth characteristic to members of the Shaman race was emerald green and perfectly aligned underneath a thick mustache.
Such a man would be expected to be rather slow in both mind and body, but his quick movements and way of speaking begged to differ; he greeted the heroes with a swift and pompous "Hello" and a brash "What do you want?". Luigi, not being one to be startled off by harsh words, approached the elderly mayor and made his claim to find the assassin. The bewilderment in Bestovius' eyes was enough to tell Luigi that he would accept his offer.
He led them to a empty house in the middle of town, their place of stay for the night. Bestovius only spoke about the murder on the trip there, the rest of the walk was silent aside from Bozzo's occasional chime-in about how cool the town was, to which Bestovius himself would scorn for the child to quiet down. Bozzo's expressed confusion seemed to indicate that this behavior was abnormal for the mayor; Luigi wanted to shrug it off as Bestovius' nerves making him jumpy, but the wizard had proven to have a calm demeanor over everything else, it was as if he didn't recognize the boy as his own grandson.
Nonetheless, there was still an assassin loose in town, and such information made it difficult for one to sleep when nightfall arrived. Luckily, Blecky offered to keep watch for the night, just in case the assassin appeared; unluckily, the assassin did appear, and did everything in their power to put Blecky and Laddie to sleep before throwing the trio into a secret room underneath the house they were sleeping in. A heavily guarded room. Protected by thwomps.
Granted, the assassin made the poor decision of trying to trap our main character who, regardless of the obstacles ahead of him, would stop at nothing to accomplish his end goals. Yes, it would take a while for everyone to wake up, but what mattered most was that they would wake up at all.
Upon waking, the first things Luigi noticed was that it was very dark and that his companions were far from conscious. The next thing he noticed was the heavy breathing of Bestovius next to him and a gross gurgling sound on the opposite side of the room. The thing he noticed immediately afterward was the lack of his trusty hammer being in his possession.
The sounds of gurgling death rammed towards Luigi's direction, its attention drawn to his movement. He stood up, surprised to find himself unharmed, and ran to one of the side walls, hugging it as he slide to the opposite side of the room to draw attention to himself instead of his friends.
He felt a switch, and instinctively yanked it upward. Something large dropped from the ceiling and clunked onto its side, its single content, whatever it was, rolled out. Luigi's pursuer could be heard slurping up the spilled treasure. A hissing noise commenced and the room lit up from the place of the hunter, a simultaneously gelatinous and heavily-armored creature with millions of tiny legs akin to soggy french fries, grey-purple body plates, and a single, giant, blue-lipped mouth, puckered up as if to prevent its meal from escaping.
Stacking out of the mouth was a light blue fuse, the only light source in the room. The burning fuse entered the mouth briefly before the monstrosity combusted, miraculously not leaving any insides behind, making it easier for the author to keep this story at a K+ rating; what was left behind instead was a key, Luigi's hammer, and a bomb-shaped object.
The blue colored bomb sprung to life with beady light blue eyes and a pair of semi-circular wings of the same color. He moved with the rhythm of a ticking clock, jittery but rapid.
"BADA-BOOM! Talk about a rude awakening!" Yes, he's got a Jersey accent now, don't question it. "I ain't one to appreciate being interrupted from a nap, but I've been trying BLAM myself out of that box for the past 1,500 years or something, I was going crazy in there. Actually scratch that, I was crazy to begin with." He stuck out his fuse and held it out like a hand, "Name's Boomer, BADA BING. I'm assuming your one of them Legendary Heroes I gotta team up with, right?"
"Yeah. Um." The hero hesitantly shook the...hand...fuse, "I'm Luigi."
"Luigi, eh? Nice name." He spun around the plumber, the movement somehow created a irritating ringing inside Luigi's head that stopped as soon as Boomer ceased his spinning. "You da boss now, so here's the deal: I put up my special psychic link exclusive to you and the other heroes, you use it to help fuel my pyromaniac-like tendencies, and BADA BING, BADA BOOM, we blast our foes into dust." Luigi nodded and plucked the two remaining objects off the ground.
The key fit perfectly inside the room's only exit, and quickly unlocked; the spiked rectangles known as thwomps that slammed outside were impossible to avoid without being squished, so Luigi decided to wake his friends so he could avoid the beasts in The Next, but Bestovius had been far ahead of him. The magician, carrying Luigi's other partners, took them to The Next with much more ease than Laddie ever could and led them to the other side of the room where a ladder led to the house above.
The light outside indicated for it to be midday, the commotion outside indicated that everyone was in a panic at the disappearance of the mayor, and the confused mumbling of Bestovius seemed to indicate that he had no memory of the previous day, aside from sending Laddie to Watchitt.
"That creature...I think it took me...when I had left my guard down." Bestovius muttered, something about his voice seemed different, more genuine than before. "Are Bozzo and Laddie doing well?"
"Yes sir, are you alright?" Luigi responded, concerned for the old man's well being.
"That creature was quite aggressive, but I think I will be fine. I'm more concerned about your quest, dear Hero of Light. I shall tell Red to lower the bridge to the desert, you can stay here until you are ready to leave."
Luigi's team stayed for another night at the town, this time without the fear of some monster assassin looming above their heads; they met the shopkeeper, a look-alike cousin of the one in Flipside, and became more aquatinted with the members of the small town. Bozzo seemed quite relieved that his grandfather was acting like his normal self again and asked Luigi to say 'Hi' to the ice beast when he found the Yold Ruins.
The following morning, Team Luigi bid farewell to Yold Town, a red clothed figure waving goodbye from his distant home, and headed towards the Yold Desert. Following behind Luigi was no longer two but three pixls, loyal to the end and ready to face the scorching heat and blistering sand alongside their human leader.
Thats a wrap! Did you catch the hints to our world boss? Let's just say his appearance will be CHILLING...I'm not sorry for that pun.
Expect the next chapter to be on a Wednesday like normal.
And with that, Adios!