Me-Welcome back everyone! Glad you could make it!
Dimentio-You're a month behind schedule...
Me-At least I'm uploading now.
Dimentio-But you haven't even finished writing Chapter 2-2.
Me-Well...
Dimentio-You also haven't started on 2-3 or 2-4 either.
Me-...I got lazy...anyway, how about those reviews?
Space Dimentio (who reviewed Prologue): Yeah, there's actually a pretty thorough explaination as to why the prophecy's unchanged. As for Dimmy touching the Chaos Heart, considering who the true "Dark One" of the prophecy is, I think you can guess what happened.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Super Paper Mario. Nintendo does. There.
Mimi stood before Mistress Tempo and Dimentio with the bitter taste of defeat, and sand, plaguing her mouth. The Mistress was quite surprised that one of her followers had returned not just empty-handed, but badly bruised and beaten as well. Mimi was a renowned assassin before her recruitment by Tempo alongside another one of her current team members, so the fact she was so easily felled was shocking to say the least.
"So based upon what you've told us, it didn't go well?" Dimentio asked.
"Yes, please forgive me for my failure, Mistress."
"Fear not Mimi, all is forgiven in the eyes of the chosen prophet." Tempo consoled to Mimi. "Even if you didn't retrieve him, your encounter with the Hero is enough to prove that his strength is formidable. I suppose it is to be expected, of course. Dimentio," she turned to the assistant. "I request that you consult the prophesy to determine the next location of our hero. I'd suggest an attempt to out-brawn him with Mimi's old friend."
"I will get on that immediately my Mistress." Dimentio bowed in acknowledgment of Tempo's plan.
"Excellent, I shall be in my bed chamber, catching up on my reading. Let me know when the hero is in our grasp." With that, Mistress Tempo snatched the Dark Prognosticus from its mid-air perch and teleported away.
Dimentio sighed, "Are you doing alright Mimikins?"
"My head is still ringing from the number of bombs I was hit with, but I'll live, and don't call me Mimikins. As much as I like the nickname, the last thing I need is Nastasia thinking we're, well, you know..."
"Right, right. My apologies." He stuttered. "I just wanted to say that you should rest some before your next call into action. If you need me, I'll be scouring out some of Bowser's unassimilated supporters."
With embarrassment still bright on his face, Dimentio left in similar fashion to Tempo as a pulse of energy emitted from his original position and he left the room.
"Have fun." Mimi replied, before she, too, exited.
Bowser unfurled himself from his shell with pain jutting out from every fiber of his being; he endured the agony on all fours before rising up to his usual bipedal stature, confused about his surroundings: a dimly-lit, red-orange hallway with a number of blue, kaleidoscope-like patterns painted on the walls.
"This is probably the second or third strangest place I've ever taken a nap in, where am I right now?" The Koopa King asked to no one in particular before he remembered, "Wait. The wedding! PRINCESS?! MARIO?! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!"
"Mister Bowser?" A voice called out. Two goombas approached him. "Thank goodness, we were worried you wouldn't make it out of your honeymoon alive, but here you are."
"Gary? Gerald? It's great to see you guys!" Bowser welcomed the lesser minions in open arms. "How're you doing?"
"We're fine Mister Bowser, but we haven't had any luck finding anybody else." The second goomba replied. "We were hoping you'd like to lead the search party while Gary searches for more survivors."
"No problem Gerald. Let's skedaddle."
And like that, Bowser and Gerald made their way in search of other teammates. Said search did not last long when the only unlocked door led them to Gary helplessly trying to talk sense into some of his former comrades, whom all sported eighth note-shaped sprouts atop their heads.
The sound of footsteps halted the conversation as Dimentio appeared from behind the brainwashed group. The conversation between the goomba and jester were inaudible, with the exception of its ending, in which sounds of indescribable agony escaped from Gary as a green sprout grew on his head at the snap of Dimentio's fingers.
"GLORY TO THE ESTEEMED MISTRESS!" Rang through the hallway after the troops received orders from their higher-up. Bowser ran with Gerald in arm in the opposite direction upon the dispersal of the troops, fearing the possibility of losing another precious ally to the strange, cranial weed.
The duo were thwarted by the misfortune reaching a drop-off into the Void below, forcing them with only one choice.
"We need to turn around." Bowser thought aloud. His concentration was disturbed by a snap and the sound of Gerald screaming in pain. The goomba then proceed to nip at Bowser's arm in aggression before the Koopa King dropped the fungus, who scurried to the miniature army behind Bowser, led by non other than Dimentio.
"I'm sorry King Bowser, but this is the part where I need you to surrender. You won't feel any pain if you join us willingly, I promise." The jester pleaded, clearly distraught by the situation at hand.
"What are you doing to my people anyhow? Even under Peach's control, they're composed but hesitant to attack anything." The koopa asked hesitantly, inching closer to the edge of the drop-off.
"I'm persuading them into joining our cause, your highness. It's a cruel method, yes, but it only hurts for a little while." Dimentio prepared to snap his fingers once again. "I'm not a fighter your highness, nor are you, so let's finish this dispute before it has to begin."
Bowser snarled in defense, firmly holding his ground.
"I suppose we're doing this the hard way then." He held up his hand for the snap, but something struck and took hold of him; a tiny whisper that nagged over and over indefinitely, suggesting the same thing again and again. A tiny voice that seemed so incredibly tempting to obey, for whatever reason.
"Ah...ha...ha." Dimentio laughed to himself, not realizing that he'd done so. He snapped his fingers in accordance to the voice's demands, which caused a transparent box to surround the koopa and closed in on Bowser before teleporting him elsewhere. Immediately afterwards, the assistant snapped out of his trance, confused and exhausted but the events that had transpired.
"I...what? Why did I...?" He clutched his head. "Ow ow ow. Nevermind then, If he's gone, he's gone. We'll just have to deal with it later. I should be busying myself with the Mistress' accommodations anyway." Dimentio assured himself as he made his way back inside.
He couldn't help but feel like the voice he'd heard was familiar.
I remember the day we first met, the day that everything changed.
"Ughh...Uuugh..."
"You're awake at last?"
"Where...am I? Is this...a human's home."
"Don't wiggle like that. I found you at the cliff base. You took quite a fall."
"You're a human, correct? I don't...repulse you? I am of the Tribe of Darkness."
"Why would that matter? Anyone with a heart would not ignore an injured soul!"
For a moment, there was peace. But we should have known better. We should have known how everything would spiral out of control by meeting.
From that day forward, everything was going to be different.
Emerging through the red door, Luigi and his pixl companions found themselves back in Flipside with the orange Pure Heart in arm. A small, heart shaped ruby sparkled above the door as if to confirm the Pure Heart's successful collecting as Blecky insisted on the team returning to Merlee.
The group mutually agree and made their way down the elevator to the second floor. Luigi noticed that the Pure Heart he held gave off a familiar aura as it healed his wounds; it felt like he was being visited by an old friend in its presence. He realized that he had felt a similar aura with the red Pure Heart, but with a familial feeling, like when he and Mario hung out together on off days. Both Pure Hearts, he noticed, had an air of nostalgia to them that he couldn't quite shake off, but decided it'd be best to ask about why that was when he was with Merlee.
Right next to the elevator, Merlee's sunset colored house stood out like a sore thumb, but was a welcome sight nonetheless. Luigi "saved" before he entered, sensing something important was about to happen, but halted when he spotted the grey-robed fortune teller peaking out of his house. Luigi decided to introduce himself, which alerted the elder to his presence more violently than anticipated.
"Confounded Man in Green, do you not see that I'm already frightened to my wits?!"
"No sir, I'm sorry. I just wanted to say 'Hi'."
"Why does that matter?! I'm too sleep deprived to care! I should have become a Prognosticus interpreter! These eyes were meant to read the pages of fantastic prophesies, not the palms of the impatient! I keep having the same cursed dreams of my game ending at the top of the tower in that other world, I don't have time to read into the futures of others! I should have been a Prognosticus interpreter darn it all, I'm going back inside!"
"Can I at least get your name?"
"NO! I'M GOING BACK INSIDE!" And true to his word, the fortune teller returned to his abode and abruptly proceeded to slam and lock the door behind him as he continued to ramble to himself. Luigi felt a sort of sympathy emit from the Pure Heart's light and held it closer to his chest like he was hugging it. This seemed to return the Pure Heart to to its normal glow as he made his way back to Merlee's house.
"Eh, don't worry about Nolrem. He's always paranoid. I think it comes from seeing into the future all the time." Blecky assured to Luigi before they finally entered the sunset colored house.
The interior was a spectacle of red and orange walls lined with bookshelves; the pitch black ceiling glistened with star-shaped decoration and the floor was of a fine looking wood, covered by an elegant looking rug of a variety colors.
Merlee stood in the center of the room next to a small wooden table, her attention invested in a white book with a star on the cover. A little orange cat approached the heroes from behind her, mewing excessively at Blecky, who swooped down to pet the feline.
"Merlee! Voidslayer! We return with a beacon of hope in hand!" The bat called out.
Luigi couldn't help but snort at the rather inapt name of "Voidslayer" given to Blecky's cat; the sheer ridiculousness that was his first pixl partner brought worried looks upon Laddy and Boomer's faces, but they decided it best not to call out on their friend's peculiar obsession with singlehandedly vanquishing a world consuming vortex.
Merlee pried her eyes off the book in her hands to observe the luminescent glory of the Pure Heart in Luigi's possession, which seemed to pulse in his arms with Merlee's approach, like it recognized her.
"Greetings hero, how do you do? That's certainly a Pure Heart you have you! Come now hero, do not slack, what good news have you brought back?" The enchantress requested with excitement.
"We found the Pure Heart in a desert Merlee," Blecky began. "It was given to us by your ancestor, Merloo."
"Her ancestor?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah, Bleh heh heh. Merloo not only helped write the Light Prognosticus, he was also partially responsible for constructing Flipside. Without him, we probably wouldn't be here."
Then, a knock was heard at the door. Merlee excused herself to answer it, revealing Ellie on the other side.
"Hi Miss Merlee! Papa told me to come get you because a monster fell from the sky and he told me to tell you to check if it was dangerous because it scared him and he said it LOOKED dangerous so he wanted you to make sure and-" Ellie jabbered on and on until Merlee was able to calm her down enough to make sense of the girl's message and followed the girl up to the third floor.
Fearing the possibility that the monster in question may have been one of Tempo's followers, Luigi and his pixl allies tailed behind them, where they discovered the monster in question was actually a familiar face.
"Bowser?" Luigi approached the unconscious turtle in uncertainty. As much as he wanted to believe it was one of Mimi's tricks, he couldn't shake the feeling that beast in front of him was genuinely his friend and not a doppelgänger.
"You know him?" Blecky asked.
"Yes, he's my friend, and the king that Tempo had kidnapped."
"Is that so? Hey Merlee, you getting all this?" Blecky called out to the enchantress, who was observing the turtle's condition.
"This beast is ill, his skin is chill. Hero," Merlee turned to Luigi, "fetch something for his ailment, if you will. Might I implore, Howzit from the first floor? His cooking could help I'm sure."
Luigi nodded and made his way to the first floor, the Pure Heart now in his inventory, where the majority of the population housed; he was immediately able to distinguish the town's kitchen by the hanging sign above its doors.
The chef, Howzit, was astonishingly friendly, offering to cook a bowl of Spicy Soup to warm up poor Bowser with zero hassle. The hero gladly accepted the soup and made his round back to the third floor to deliver the steamy liquid. At his return, Ellie, her father, and Merlee were waiting by the dragon-like turtle.
Luigi gently forced open Bowser's maw to allow the soup to be eaten, slowly pouring in the substance as he did so. When the bowl was empty, the nostrils of the koopa flared slightly as he stirred awake; a puff of smoke seeped from the mouth after a small coughing fit. Bowser's eyes slowly opened as a yawn escaped from him and he clumsily stood upward.
"Mm, where am I this time?" He mumbled. His eyes focused unto the blurry figure before him; his eyes brightened up at the sight of his closest friend, whom he embraced with a warm reception in return from the dear plumber.
Deciding it best to catch up the koopa on current events, Luigi, Bowser, Merlee, and the pixls made way back the the enchantress' house. The overall conversation eventually led to Bowser, filled with determination, deciding to join Luigi on his quest to rescue his followers, his kingdom, and everything else out of moral obligation. Merlee took into account the fact that the Light Prognosticus had specifically mentioned the existence of four heroes to stop the Void, and deducted Bowser's arrival as a calling to his destiny, a reason that the koopa blatantly accepted without question.
This resolve alerted Merlee to explain the Heroes' new mission, since they were now in possession of another Pure Heart; the feat itself was no different from the first time Luigi had placed a Pure Heart into a pillar. The search for the Pure Hearts was a simple cycle of placing one Heart, locating the next one in the dimension provided through a new colored door, returning to town, rinse and repeat. The next pillars, however, were not in town, they were outside of town. With this in mind, Merlee handed a small key to the heroes.
"This key is to the fence outside, inside the Next the lock does hide. Be careful in the outskirts of town, for there are holes where you could fall down. They were dug by Tempo, while you were gone. Such is she, that wretched foe."
"Wait, why was she digging holes back there?" Luigi asked her.
"An answer to that I cannot see, so please, for my sake, be weary."
"...okay then." He said, and then left without further question.
At the bordering fence, Laddie flipped the team into the Next, where a gate and lock were now visible. Using the key, they unlocked the fence gate and returned to the normal dimension.
"Please don't make me have to do that too much in the near future." Laddie pleaded in exhaustion, having never delivered a creature of Bowser's mass into the Next and back in such a short interval of time. Luigi invited the tired pixl into his inventory to rest while the rest of the group moved onward.
Without the gate to block their way, Luigi and Co. passed into the outskirts of town, where there were indeed a copious number of recently dig up holes. Luigi had pulled out the orange Pure Heart again around this time and was allowing its energies to direct him to its respected Heart Pillar.
They eventually located the Pillar on top of a somewhat tall structure that would've been impossible to reach without Luigi's Super Jump or someone with the ability to glide based on the floating platforms that led to it.
Luigi leaped to the pillar with the Pure Heart in tow. At the top, he felt the familiar resonance of the Pure Heart ready to launch itself, and let go.
The second Heart Pillar pulsed like its predecessor as the Pure Heart lifted itself into its home inside the pillar, a light show of clockwork patterns displaying and then dissipating within seconds.
Back at the bottom, the pixls has conglomerated around Bowser's head space due to him complaining about a nasty pain in his cranium.
"It could be tumor."
"Or maybe fire lice! SHHPOW!"
"It's probably just a headache guys, lemme fix it with my acupuncture skills!"
"What's going on here?" Luigi questioned as he descended from the structure.
"The Super Turtle has a headache, so I'm gonna make it better! Bleh heh heh!" Blecky answered, completely inthralled by his task of scratching around in Bowser's bushy hair to find the exact location of the koopa's pain.
"Well, you go do that I suppose. I was planning on booking us a night at the Inn so we can be rested for tomorrow."
"Why can't we just head out right now? The sooner we stop that Void, the better." Blecky concentrated on one particular location inside the fiery bushel that made Bowser mutter in pain.
"We'd be better off well rested and traveling in daylight then still exhausted from our travels in the Linelands and bumbling about at night."
"That wouldn't matter anyway." He massaged around the area of impact, causing Bowser to growl. "Last time I checked, the Yellow Pure Heart was in Gloom Valley, which is always trapped in eternal sunset, except for when its nighttime of course."
"I'm still going to book us a stay at the Inn."
"Fine by me." Blecky sighed, the pressure on the area eventually pulled something out from the sensitive spot on Bowser's head after the koopa began to whimper loudly. The bat pixl pulled on the something until he was able to retrieve it, a little brown seen which he precariously handed over to Luigi for safe keeping.
With the removal of the seed, Bowser's head was at ease and the team was able to make way to the Inn, where Luigi and Company slumbered peacefully the entire night.
After many careful preparations the following morning, the team rode the elevator up to the top of Flipside Tower, where an orange door as elegantly designed as it's red predecessor stood to the right of the first.
With an air of excitement leading the way, the Heroes passed into the Orange door into Gloom Valley.
Me-That's the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed. Next week, we're going to Gloom Valley, YEHAW!
Dimentio-...
Me-Stop giving me that look, I'll get 'em done!
Dimentio-...
Me-...and the next chapters for Reboot.
Dimentio-...good.
Me-...Adios.