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Chapter 3
Ship Scuffle
Mario and his group were surprised to see that Shadow Luigi's identity is Bowser Jr., though they were sort of expecting this already. What surprised them the most was that he claims Donkey Kong's archnemesis K. Rool is his father and that he is the leader of a group called Koopa-Kremlings.
"You're K. Rool's son?!" Donkey asked Bowser Jr. in shock.
"Not only is that fat bastard your father, he also combined my army with his?!" said Bowser in disbelief. "I refuse to believe it!"
"My father is the meanest and baddest dude around! That mean old Luigi took Mama Peach from him and me, so I'm taking her back!" said Bowser Jr.
Peach, who was now no longer held by him but instead standing next to him, was shocked by what she heard. "You're my son?! I don't remember giving birth to you! I mean… K. Rool did kidnap me multiple times, but nothing ever happened between us both!"
"Yeah! There's no way someone as pure as Peach would get it on with that ugly guy!" said Bowser in anger.
While the Mario folks kept a straight face throughout the entirety of this conversation like it was the most normal thing in the world, the Nikke folks had disturbed expressions on their faces. "She got together with a… crocodile…?" said Helm with a disturbed and blushing face.
"I'd rather die than marry an animal…" said Syuen in disgust.
"And how do you get a turtle out of a human and a crocodile anyway? This doesn't make sense!" pointed out Drake.
Brandishing a large paintbrush he was carrying the whole time, Bowser Jr. said, "I'm taking Mama Peach with me! None of you are going to get in my way this time!"
"I won't-a let you take-a him!" Mario angrily said to him as he stepped forward. "You will also prove Luigi's innocence!"
"Right! I'm not anyone taking my beloved Peach away!" said Bowser in anger. "I don't care if you're my son from another world! I'm still going to give you a good beating like you're a stranger's kid!"
"I don't know what on earth you're talking about, about me being your son in another world or something, so I'll pass you off as a madman," said Bowser Jr. "None of you are taking Mama Peach from me! Take this!" He swung his paintbrush to fire a glob of brown and white slime. The slime touched the ground, and an instant, it took the form of a Piranha Plant, or rather, a Proto Piranha.
"What is that?!" said Noir in shock.
The Proto Piranha spit out a stream of brown slime in their direction, making them flee for safety. Rapi fired from her assault rifle at the slimy creature, and though her bullets did manage to make the creature flinch, it didn't seem to do much to it overall, as the holes that were created by the bullets soon filled up. It was like shooting a wall of liquid. At the same time, Rapi ran out of bullets. "Darn it!" she said in anger while shaking her machine gun. When the Proto Piranha spit slime at her, she rolled out of the way fast.
"Hey slimy! Look over here!" shouted Mario. The Proto Piranha turned to him just in time to get a face full of water. Mario had ran to a conveniently located garden hose nearby and turned on the faucet to spray water at the slimy creature, remembering well that in his past encounters with Proto Piranhas, they were all weak to water.
The Proto Piranha cried in pain as it shook its body around, trying to avoid getting water on its face, but Mario made sure to aim the stream of water at it with great precision. The slime consisting of the Proto Piranha gradually dissolved and got washed away by the water, causing it to shrink in size until it disappeared completely.
"And that's-a that!" said Mario with a smug expression.
Meanwhile, Bowser Jr. ran from the scene, forcefully dragging along Peach. He had a surprisingly strong grip for a child and someone shorter than Peach, who couldn't break out of his grasp. "Let go of me!" she angrily shouted.
"Yeah! Let go of her!" shouted Bowser, who was giving chase.
"Uh oh…" said Bowser Jr. nervously, looking back. Bowser leaped forward a bit of a distance and slammed one fist against the ground hard, sending forth a shockwave that caused Bowser Jr. and Peach to fall on their front
Peach stood up while crying softly in pain, and all of a sudden, something caught her shoulders from above and carried her into the air. "Yaaaah!" Bowser looked up in shock and saw a large vulture wearing a pirate's hat holding her in his talons.
"I got her!" said the vulture happily.
"Way to go, Krow! Now take her back to papa fast!" Bowser Jr. told him. "I'll catch up later!"
"You bet! Take care, young prince!" said the vulture named Krow as he flew away from the place, taking with him the crying and struggling Peach.
"Get back here, you buzzard!" Bowser shouted at him. He readied to shoot a fireball into air, only to get a mouthful of slime tossed at him by Bowser Jr.
"Haha! You'll never get back Mama Peach!" laughed the young turtle before turning to run.
"Surprise!" shouted Drake all of a sudden as she leaped out of bush he happened to run past. Bowser Jr. cried in surprise while jumping back, and when Drake reached out towards him, he held up his paintbrush. She grabbed the brush and began wrestling against him. "You're too young to be a villain! Wait till you grow up first!"
"You're the villain here! Taking my mama from me!" replied Bowser Jr. in anger. Due to having the superior strength, Drake was able to snatch the paintbrush out of Bowser Jr.'s hands. "Hey! Give it back!"
Drake backed away from him while sticking out her tongue. "Try and get it if you can!"
Bowser Jr. saw the other good guys approaching him with looks of anger on their faces, making him scared and nervous. Just then, a Magikoopa materialized out of thin air next to him. "Young Prince!" he said to him. "Are you all right? Your father is worried about you!"
Bowser's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the turtle dressed like a wizard. "Kamek?! Is that you?!"
"She took my paintbrush, Kamek!" Bowser Jr. angrily said while pointing at Drake.
Kamek looked at Drake and then at the others. "I understand your frustration, but we have to get you to safety first. Let's go!" With a wave of his wand, glittering dust filled the air around them, and then they both disappeared into thin air.
"They disappeared?!" said Helm in surprise.
Bowser stomped the ground angrily and said, "Not Kamek too! Even he works for K. Rool in this world! Am I really nothing but chopped liver here?!"
"I can't believe K. Rool would be in charge of your army…" Donkey said to Bowser.
Drake held up the paintbrush she stole from Bowser Jr. and said, "At least we have this. If that brat likes this thing so much, I'm sure we can get him to exchange the princess for it! How's that for a villainous plan?"
Mario walked up to Drake and took the paintbrush from her to look at it. "It looks just-a like da Magic Paintbrush E. Gadd created and got-a stolen by Bowser Jr. in my own world…" But then he noticed something different about it. Rather than E. Gadd' sown logo which looks like his face printed on the area underneath the brush, it was a metallic-looking C instead. "Uh? I don't recognize this logo…"
Mario approached Bowser and asked him, "Do you recognize this logo?"
Bowser, who was still angry about Peach being taken, said in frustration, "How would I know?!"
Wario came forward and asked, "What about the logo?" Mario showed it to him, and he shook his head. "Can't say I recognize it."
"Hmmm… Strange… E. Gadd was the one who made da paintbrush back in our world, but eet doesn't seem to be da case here…" said Mario, observing the logo while scratching his head. "Eef only we can find-a out who made-a theez, then we might-a have a clue on where to find K. Rool…"
Wario thought about the letter C on the paintbrush, and then he said, "Wait a minute… Maybe it's just a coincidence, but… didn't the Crygor of this world said his company is called Cyber Ware? Cyber starts with C, and the metallic design on that C goes well with his cyborg motif…"
Mario's eyes widened a bit. "You mean Crygor made-a theez?"
Wario shrugged. "This is just a guess. We won't know until we show it to him, and I say we should show it to him."
The group was eventually able to track down Crygor in his hotel room. When Mario showed him the paintbrush, the cyborg scientist was surprised to see it.
"I recognize this! My company made this paintbrush!" said Crygor, looking at the paintbrush that he was now holding in his hands. "The person using this transformed himself into Luigi and polluted this place?! Yes, this paintbrush can indeed do that! After thinking that it could be misused too easily, I locked it away, never to release it to the public! How did this end up in the Koopa-Kremling's hands?!"
"So you really did make it!" said Wario in surprise.
"See! I told you that this thing should've been scrapped, but you didn't listen!" Waluigi said to Crygor angrily. "You do realize what will happen if word gets out that our company created something that messed up this place and also framed an innocent person, right? You won't be able to see the public without a paper bag over your face anymore!
"I never expected this to fall into the wrong hands… Perhaps you're right… I really should've destroyed this thing…" said Crygor, sounding regretful as he continued to look at the paintbrush. "But how did it end up in the hands of the Koopa-Kremlings? Our vault shouldn't be able to be breached so easily!"
"Well, obviously your security isn't as good as you think! If only someone was more careful and competent in designing things, this wouldn't have happened!" said Waluigi, almost in a mocking tone. "What are you going to do? Keep it a secret and preserve your reputation? Or tell everyone about it and ruin your reputation? Who knows? Maybe the public will be forgiving and praise your honesty! Either way, you're not getting out of this unscathed!"
Crygor then said, "I need to look into this more. I need information on when and how it got stolen. I will decide on what to do about it after gathering more info."
"And you better start deciding on who should take your place as CEO next in case you have step down," Waluigi said to him, once again in a somewhat mocking tone.
"Right, and make sure it's not someone who will make things worse," Wario told Crygor while shifting his eyes to Waluigi. Clearly Wario knew something was up with the latter.
Soon after this, Mario and his group, including Luigi, went over to the police to tell them about the truth behind Luigi's supposed crimes. Fortunately for them, the security cameras of Pinna Park were able to capture everything, so the police were able to see Shadow Luigi becoming Bowser Jr. and him using his the Magic Paintbrush to create the same kind of goop that polluted Isle Delfino.
"Well, that seems convincing enough, and you said that the paintbrush originally belongs to the CEO of Cyber Ware, Crygor?" asked the police chief Pianta.
"See? I told you from da start that-a I'm innocent!" said Luigi, sounding angry.
"Yes. Crygor eez also a victim in all theez," Mario told him. "The Koopa-Kremlings are responsible for everything, so we have to stop-a them!"
"Never thought those folks would take their troubles to this place…" said the police chief in frustration while face palming. "Well, I guess you proved your point in showing me that Luigi indeed is innocent in all this, but we still have to review everything we know first before we can free him, though given what you've told and shown me, I'm sure it will be easy to declare him innocent."
Mario and Luigi were happy to hear this. "Thank you for understanding!" the former said to the police chief.
The police chief then said to Luigi, "I guess we do owe you an apology…"
"Neva mind..." said Luigi with a sigh, trying to relieve himself of anger. "The culprits did do a good-a job trying to frame me, so I don't-a blame you for misunderstanding… I'm just-a glad eetz all over, and I don't want-a things to get any more complicated…"
"Hmph! Any other people would've demanded compensation…" said Syuen, unimpressed by Luigi's forgiving attitude.
The police chief went off to do his business, and the gang talked with each other about what to do next. "So how are we going to find the Koopa-Kremlings?" asked Helm.
Wario turned to Donkey and asked him, "K. Rool is your enemy, so do you know where he is?"
"K. Rool doesn't exactly have a stable base of operation…" said Donkey while scratching his head. "He sometimes has a pirate ship, sometimes an airship, and even a floating castle that is also a laser cannon at one point… He's constantly on the move, so it's not really possible to track him down. All those times I got into conflicts with him, it's he who came knocking on my door first. Since this is a different world, he may operate differently…"
"Perhaps this version of him operates in a castle? He is charge of the Koopa Clan here, so I guess that makes sense," suggested Bowser. "Man, the thought of him being in my castle, leading my army, and sitting on my throne enrages me!"
"Back in our world when Bowsa caused trouble to Isle Delfino, he was hiding out on Corona Mountain," said Mario. "Perhaps K. Rool eez there as well."
"Actually, we have an easier way to find out," said Rapi as she held up her smartphone. It showed a map of the island as well as a blinking spot that was moving. "I secretly placed a tracker on Waluigi."
The others turned to look at the smartphone, and Syuen asked, "Let me guess. You suspect him, right?" Rapi nodded in response. "Man, his acting was so bad that it doesn't require half a brain to figure out that he's the one who gave the paintbrush to the bad guys! I know too well that kind of attitude, one who wants to be more than just a subordinate and instead usurp his boss's position!"
"Cyber Ware may not be my company, but I'm still not going to let a different version of Crygor get his name ruined!" said Wario while cracking his fist. "The one from my world is actually a pretty cool guy. He contributed a lot to my company and even created my car and bike! If this Waluigi thinks he can mess with him, then he'll be messing with me too!"
Rapi looked at her smartphone and said, "This is Waluigi's current movement. If our suspicion of him is right, then it's possible that following him may lead us to K. Rool's current location. I would say that his movement is a bit suspicious already, given that he is traveling to an area located outside of Delfino Plaza."
Mario looked at the map. "Unless Crygor is heading to the outskirts of the plaza, I doubt that-a eez da kind of place Crygor would go to. Waluigi must definitely be up to something!"
"What are we waiting for? Let's follow him already!" suggested Bowser.
Luigi went up to Mario and said to him, "Thank you for helping prove my innocence!"
"I kept my promise!" Mario said to him. "Eet doesn't matter who you are, I still consida you my brotha, and I will do anything to help him!"
"That-a version of me from your world must be very lucky to have you as his older brotha!" said Luigi happily.
"Why are you being framed by K. Rool anyway?" Donkey asked him. "In our world, he never has any grudge against the Mario Brothers. As far as I can remember, they only ever met once during a baseball game, and even then they barely interacted with each other."
"Eez that-a how eet eez in your world? Here, K. Rool eez in love with Peach, but she loves me and eez currently my fiancee," replied Luigi. "I guess all deez start becuz eet does not sit-a well with K. Rool. He must-a tried to get rid-a of me by ruining my reputation."
"Are you even a famous person in this world to begin with?" Wario asked him.
Luigi thought about it. "I would say yes, though I don't really care about fame. I'm mostly known as Captain Toad's sidekick. Captain Toad is a famous hero who saved Mushroom Kingdom several times from K. Rool and other threats. I think he's currently in Sarasaland doing the royalties there a favor..."
"Captain Toad? Toad?!" said Mario in surprise. "Mamamia! I neva thought he would be such a big-a shot here!"
"Who is he?" Noir asked Mario.
"Toad eez an ally of mine and also one of Peach's servants back in our world," replied Mario. "While he eezn't exactly the most talented guy around, he still does his best to help us with various problems."
"Wait a minute… You said the mushroom-headed people are called Toads, and you're implying that this friend of yours is named Toad?" asked Syuen, sounding a bit confused.
Mario turned to her and nodded. "Yes. It's normal for people in theez world to be named after their own species. I have a Yoshi friend who eez named Yoshi."
"That sounds stupid… That's like having a Nikke whose name is Nikke, or a human whose name is Human!" said Drake.
Mario shrugged. "Cultural difference, I guess…"
"Before we go after Waluigi, there's another thing we need to tackle," said Rapi, grabbing the others' attentions. "We Nikke do not have the authority to kill humans unless given by higher ups. Our opponents may not necessarily be considered human, but they still behave like one."
"I don't want to kill anyone..." said Noir. "Our opponents aren't Raptures, and it doesn't seem right to kill anything that aren't Raptures…"
"What do you suggest we do?" Helm asked Rapi.
"We can aim for body parts that do not cause fatal damage," suggested Rapi. She thought of something and turned to Mario and his gang, asking them, "How do you usually subdue your enemies?"
"I use whatever I have at my disposal," Mario told her. "Be eet fighting up close unarmed, using weapons, jumping on them, throwing stuff at them, or… Basically whatever goes until our opponents can no longa fight. If I have to be honest, there are times when my opponents do end up dying. Not-a saying I enjoy taking lives, but eetz just-a something that-a happens. Perhaps our view of death eez not da same as your world."
"Punch them, stomp them, toss things at them, hurl them away! As long as they won't cause any more trouble, that's good enough," replied Donkey.
"Smash them into pulps with my fists and muscles! I especially like ramming into them with my shoulders!" said Wario. "Who cares if they live or die? I'm just glad I thrashed them!"
"Burn them! Bite them! Claw them! The more painful, the better! Even better if they can't get back up ever again! I'm a bad guy after all!" replied Bowser.
"You guys sound like fun folks to be around in combat!" commented Drake with interest.
"By the way, when you were fighting the ghosts, you displayed impressive jumping heights and even the ability to hit them with your bare hands," Rapi told Mario. "How are you able to do it?"
"And Mister Wario was also very strong…! He lifted up something several times his size with ease!" pointed out Noir as she looked at Wario.
"Hahaha! All the training and bodybuilding I do made me who I am today! You won't find someone stronger than me anywhere else!" boasted Wario while flexing an arm.
"We should arm wrestle some time," Donkey said to him, taking that statement as a challenge.
Mario said to Rapi, "Well, I am known for being quite a good jumpa. As for Boos, they are ratha different from other ghosts. You can indeed hurt-a them as long as they are tangible. They have da habit of covering their faces and becoming intangible when you look-a at them, and you can't-a hurt them when they are in that-a state. I take that-a feats like ours aren't normal in your world?"
"No, humans do not have any special abilities and are under normal circumstances inferior to Nikke in physical capabilities, even incapable of fighting Raptures unarmed," Rapi told him.
"Hmph! Someone's got to tell the people of your world to man up, then!" said Wario, sounding unimpressed. "I bet I can end this Rapture invasion of your world all by myself in a single day or two using only my fists!"
"I bet the Koopa Clan can easily wipe them all out too!" boasted Bowser.
"Who knows? With how crazy you folks are, maybe you can!" said Drake.
"So… how are we going to fight?" asked Helm, returning to the original topic. "Whether or not we have authorization, I think it's agreed that none of us want to take lives. Given that we use firearms, trying to use nonlethal methods can be a bit difficult..."
"Another suggestion is to use nonlethal bullets, like rubber bullets," suggested Rapi. "We can ask the police and see if they have any we can borrow or even buy."
"That sounds like a good idea. Surely rubber bullets won't kill anyone, right?" asked Noir.
Drake turned to Syuen and asked her, "Boss, what do you say? You giving me the authorization to use lethal force?"
"I'd rather not… This isn't our world, and the last thing I want is to get on the bad side of its folks for doing extreme stuff in such a place…" said Syuen. "Just adjust the voltage of your Sadistic Carnival to nonlethal levels. You don't use actual bullets for your firearm in the first place."
Drake grinned and said, "If you say so!"
A rowboat was seen traveling across the sea off the shore of Isle Delfino at a moderate speed. Waluigi was sitting on it, and the boat was being rowed by a crocodile, or to be a precise, a Kritter. The rowboat traveled towards a large rock and went behind it, where a pirate ship was located.
A rope ladder was lowered for Waluigi to climb to the top. Arriving at the deck, he saw various kind of crocodilian creatures as well as Koopa Troopas, Goombas, Buzzy Beetles, and more.
Bowser Jr. was among the people there, and he went up to Waluigi and asked him, "Welcome aboard! This must your first time here."
"Yes," said Waluigi, looking around. "Not bad for an outdated transportation device." The passengers were not happy to hear this and bared their fangs at him. Waluigi was undaunted by this, however. "Oh please, anyone up to the date with the times would've been using a more modern ship that runs on engine power and whatnot! Imagine how much fun you could have if you used a steel ship instead of a wooden ship! You're just mad that I told you the truth!"
"You have a point, but you shouldn't underestimate this beauty either! It's made from the finest woods!" said a deep, monstrous voice. Everyone turned to the door leading into the cabin, and then out of it came an overweight crocodile dressed like a stereotypical pirate captain.
"Ah, King K. Rool! We finally meet face to face!" Waluigi said as he went up to him to shake hands with him. "You look more impressive and intimidating in person!"
K. Rool shook his hands and said, "That's Kaptain K. Rool to you! And you look meaner up close!"
"Haha! I'm sure we can get along with other well!" said Waluigi, laughing. "So… how is your son enjoying the toy I snatched from our vault for him?"
"It was great fun! You should've looked at the faces of those people when I covered them in goop!" replied Bowser Jr. in glee. "Too bad those meanies took it with me…"
"You should've taken good care of your toy. That's not my problem you couldn't look after your toy properly!" Waluigi said to him.
"It's a shame the paintbrush got taken, but what's important is that we managed to carry out our plans," said K. Rool. "When news broke out that Cyber Ware is partly responsible for all this mess, it's going to be a huge blow for its current CEO!"
"And who better than me to replace him? I will use my talented business skills to launch the company to new heights, and I'll also be sure to supply you with our advanced tech that will grant you the power to get away with your crimes much more easily!" said Waluigi evilly. "Crygor is a fool! He could've used his talent to make much better things, but instead, he just had to waste his talents on making toys! You won't believe how much cool stuff he has locked away in the company vault! He said those are not safe and entertaining enough for people to use, so he decided to lock them away! What a waste of talent!"
"I can see what you mean," said K. Rool with a nod. "That thing you gave me is indeed a wonder! You won't believe the mess it made, and without getting caught too!"
"Haha! I gave it some of my own modifications to make it deadlier than it should be!" boasted Waluigi. "By the way, what of Mushroom Kingdom's princess? I supposed you have her as your prisoner currently?"
K. Rool laughed. "Haha! She's with me safe and sound! There's no way I would hurt someone as beautiful as her! Come and see!"
K. Rool took Waluigi into the lower part of the ship, where there is a jail cell with Peach sitting inside of it. Waluigi went up to her and asked, "Enjoying your time here, princess?"
"I never thought that you would be affiliated with K. Rool!" Peach angrily said to him. "How can you do something that harms your company's reputation?!"
"Crygor could've make it better, but he's too big of a fool to not do that! He's only content with being a humble toymaker when he could have seized the world instead! It takes a genius like me to realize the potential his technology can pull off!" said Waluigi, sounding angry. "If he won't do it, I'll do it! I'll take our company to heights previously thought impossible! I will become the most famous person in the world, providing everyone with solution to every problem!"
"And I will be unstoppable with your tech on my side!" said K. Rool with enthusiasm.
"Your evil ways is why I can never fall in love with you!" Peach angrily said to K. Rool. "You think you can earn my favor by becoming king of the world? Think again!"
"Oh, I'm sure you will fall for me eventually!" K. Rool said to her with confidence as he walked closer to the jail. "Even if I have to brainwash you to get you to love me, I will!"
"I'm sure I can whip up some kind of love tech if you want me to," Waluigi said to him.
"Captain Toad and Luigi will save me and defeat you!" Peach said to the villains. "You won't get away with this!"
"That pipsqueak Toad will be no match against the new weapons I will be soon be getting, and Luigi is a weakling who can't do anything by himself! He can only ever rely on others, and now he's framed for a crime he didn't commit thanks to my son! Not like his innocence being proven is going to save you either, since you're already here with me!" K. Rool said to her, which made her angrier.
Just then, they heard the sound of fighting coming from the surface as well as shouting and screaming. Looking up, K. Rool asked, "What on earth is happening up there?"
K. Rool and Waluigi left Peach to herself and returned to the deck. There, they were surprised to see most of the subordinates knocked out, and the conscious ones were in fear and injured. The two looked and saw Mario, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Rapi, Helm, and Noir standing there in combat stances.
"What happened?! Who are you people?!" K. Rool said in shock and anger. "What did you do to my men?!"
The good guys turned to him, and Donkey said, "So it really is you!"
"You're the one who kidnapped Peach? Then you better get ready to be pummeled by me!" Bowser angrily said to him.
Rapi pointed her machine gun at the two villains and said, "It's over for you two! Surrender quietly if you don't want to get hurt!"
Bowser Jr., who was still up and standing, said to K. Rool, "Papa! Those are the bullies who stole my paintbrush!"
"How did you people know about this place?" K. Rool asked them.
Rapi pointed at Waluigi. "I secretly placed a tracker on him when we returned the paintbrush to Crygor because we suspected him, so we were able to follow him here using a boat." Below the pirate ship, one could see a motorboat docked next to it.
"And looks like we hit the jack-a-pot!" said Mario. "Waluigi eez indeed in cahoots with you!"
K. Rool glared at Waluigi, who was shocked to hear about the tracker and so searched all over his body until he found it on the back of his hat. "How dare you?!" he said in anger as he took off his hat and looked at the tiny tracker there. "This is stalking! I can get you sued for this!"
"The only person getting sued here is you stealing from your own company in an attempt to frame your own company!" Helm said to him.
"You made a mistake making enemies out of us!" Waluigi said in anger while stomping the floor.
"You all will be walking the plank and become fish food! Get'em, boys!" K. Rool loudly commanded his subordinates.
The pirate crew members charged at the good guys to attack them. When a Kremling lunged at Mario, the latter jumped up and landed on his head, pressing him onto the floor. Another Kremling charged forward, but Mario jumped up again and landed behind him before grabbing his tail and spinning him in circles. The one that got stomped on stood up, only to get hit by the Kremling that was being spun around by Mario and knocked out. Mario eventually let go of the Kremling he was holding and tossed him overboard.
A couple of Koopa Troopas charged at Donkey while flailing their arms. He held out his large arms can caught them by their heads, stopping them in their tracks, though they continued to flail their arms in childish manners, trying to hit him. Donkey then slammed their heads together to knock them out.
Rapi aimed and fire from her assault rifle at Kremlings, Koopa Troopas, Goombas, and more that tried to close in on her from all directions. The bullets she fired were round and black, and when they hit the enemies, they disappeared, while the enemies cried in pain and fell back, some of them passing out.
"Huh, Superballs…" thought Rapi as she looked at her downed opponents.
FLASHBACK
Quiry pushed a cart carrying a crate over to the police chief and Mario and co, though not before going in the wrong direction a number of times beforehand due to not being able to see clearly. The police chief opened the crate, revealing black bullet casings inside. Picking up one of them, he said, "These Superballs should be what you're looking for."
"Superballs?" said Rapi curiously, looking at the bullets.
"I know these! I used these when I was in Sarasaland once!" said Mario.
"What are these?" Syuen asked him while looking at the contents in the crate with interest.
"Superballs are created from special flowers found only in Sarasaland. These bullets created from these flowers bounce all over the place when they hit hard surfaces, though they will disappear after about four seconds of flying around the air or if they hit something softer, like a person," explained the police chief. "These bullets are nonlethal, but they still pack quite a punch and can even faint a person with a direct hit! Oh, one bullet can be used multiple times before it completely disappears. A fully loaded gun can fire as many as one hundred shots! These things are very useful for subduing people non-lethally!"
"Interesting," said Rapi, observing a Superball bullet she was holding in her hand.
END OF FLASHBACK
Rapi saw a cannonball flying in her direction, so she stepped aside fast to avoid the projectile that was fired at her by K. Rool using his blunderbuss. Rapi fired at him, hitting him in the belly, but the golden armor he wears there protected him from the shots. K. Rool fired another cannonball at her, and she dodged it before running towards him. At close range, she swung her leg at him, kicking him in the belly armor. She was hoping to knock him back with the kick, but to her surprise, K. Rool remained standing firm for the most part and showed no signs of pain, and the armor didn't even crack.
"He's strong!" she thought in surprise.
The crocodile reached out to her neck immediately after that, grabbing her and then forcefully slamming her against the floor. K. Rool tried to stomp her afterwards, only for her to be saved by Bowser when he lunged at K. Rool at the last moment, pushing him away into a wall.
"You're my opponent! I won't let you get away with it for taking my woman Peach as well as my army and everything else!" said Bowser in anger as he faced off against K. Rool.
"Thanks for the help," Rapi said to him as she stood up.
"I wasn't trying to rescue you!" Bowser snapped at her, giving her a quick glance before eyeing K. Rool again.
"You want my woman Peach? You'll have to kill me for it!" K. Rool said in anger to Bowser.
"Exactly what I'm planning on doing!" said Bowser with an evil smile while cracking his fists.
Meanwhile, Noir was blasting away enemies around her with her shotgun that was loaded with Superball bullets. At one point, she tripped and fell on top of a Gooma, flattening him with her butt. She stood up fast and apologized to him over and over, and suddenly, Krow caught her by the shoulders using his talon and carried her into the air… or at least tried to. Being a Nikke and currently using a heavier spare body, Noir was much heavier than an average person, so Krow had a hard time carrying her into the air.
"Dang! You're heavy! How much do you weigh?!" he asked.
"Rude!" cried Noir while struggling to get out of his grip.
Helm saw Noir being taken and so took aim at Krow using her sniper rifle, shooting him in the head with a Superball and causing him to drop Noir. When Noir landed on the deck with her butt, a shockwave was created that shook the entire shook and also made several people to fly into the air, some of which fell overboard and into the water.
Waluigi was one of those sent flying into the air by her shockwave, and he fell back down in a rowboat tied to the side of the ship. He untied and lowered the boat into the water before rowing away as fast as he could. "No way I'm staying here to get wrecked!" he told himself.
Back on the ship, Krow swooped at Helm and used his talons against her, and she held up her sniper rifle to shield against him. With his talons wrapped around the sniper rifle, Krow pushed Helm across the deck and to the edge before shoving her overboard into the water.
However, just before she hit the water, Helm pulled the trigger and fired a Superball bullet that struck him in the head, knocking back and even causing him to do a flip. Krow landed on the deck on his back and groaned in pain, and then Donkey's face appeared over him.
Without saying anything, Donkey grabbed his beak and swung him in circle multiple times before throwing him far away, almost over the horizon. The vulture could be seen splashing into the water, while Donkey cheered.
Helm emerged from the water and grabbed onto a rope that hanging down from the ship to begin climbing back to the top. "Good thing I'm a Nikke that can swim…"
Waluigi was able to make it back to the shore of Isle Delfino. He got out of the rowboat and looked at the rock that was hiding K. Rool's ship. "Phew… Made it out of there in time… I'm sure K. Rool can handle things by himself. Now I just have to make sure that Crygor doesn't find out that I'm the one who stole the Magic Paintbrush…"
He turned around and was greeted with the sight of a group of people standing there. Those people included Crygor, Syuen, Drake, Wario, and a group of police. Needless to say, he was shocked to see this. Crygor said to him in disbelief, "You really are the one who stole the paintbrush and have also been working with the Koopa-Kremlings! Waluigi! How can you betray your own company?!"
"Because you're an idiot with no ambition! You could've turned the company into a mega corporation that distributes most of the world's technology!" replied Waluigi in anger. "I was content with being your secretary, as long as I get to enjoy all the comforts of a successful business! However, you lack ambition! Instead of creating life-changing inventions or things that actually matter, you are content with just making childish stuff used for entertainment and nothing else! If I let you run things like this forever, I'm never going to my face on any online encyclopedia! That is why I decided that a change in leadership as well as business strategy is needed! Who better than me to replace you and turn the company into something that actually matters?"
"Tsk! You're just a greedy, selfish, and overly ambitious employee who can't stand being in second place!" said a frustrated Syuen. "The way you are now, I doubt you'll ever be able to run a successful company by yourself! What do you know about running business? You're probably going to run it into ruins instead!"
"Yeah! The version of you I know is incompetent enough! The last time I let him into my company and do some paperwork for me, I ended up having to pay back losses to other companies I partnered with because he got all the papers messed up!" said Wario. "I don't see you being any better than him!"
"Shut up! I don't need you lecturing me! You guys are all idiots who just want to make fun of me!" cried Waluigi in anger while stomping the ground over and over.
"Geez, look at how childish you are! You call yourself a villain? I don't think even a pro villain like me can train someone as dumb as you to become a talented one!" said Drake in a mocking tone.
"I'm going to teach you all a lesson!" said Waluig as he took out from his pocket a small blue origami of a winged dragon.
Crygor recognized it and said, "Isn't that a Vellumental Origami?!"
"Heheh! You should've shredded all these when you had the chance!" said Waluigi as he dropped the origami into the seawater behind him. He then ran off to the side, and a few seconds later, the origami increased in size until it was about as big as a bus.
As the good guys backed away from the dragon origami, Quiry, who was among the police, leaned forward with squinting eyes and asked, "What just came out of the water?"
"What on earth is that?!" asked Syuen in shock.
"That's a Vellumental!" replied Crygor. "I created a series of special origami that have their own artificial intelligence once you fold them into animals so that they will behave like whatever you made them into! However, this also means they will have the ferocity and dangerous traits as their real life counterparts, so I canceled the product and locked it away!"
"Why did it increase in size from touching water just now?" asked Wario.
"I had in a mind a dragon that gets stronger when exposed to water when I made this!" explained Waluigi. "This dragon not only grows bigger in water, it can also manipulate water and create powerful floods, enough to destroy towns, and that's what it's gonna do now! Go, Water Vellumental! Destroy everything!"
The dragon origami let out a roar, and while its mouth was wide open, the water from the sea around it formed into waterspouts that entered its mouth, and as more water entered it, its body grew larger and larger in size. To be precise, its belly inflated like a balloon.
The good guys backed away when they saw it, having the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Drake pointed her shotgun at the dragon said, "That things an origami, so it's made of paper, right? I just have to…"
Before she could finish speaking, the Water Vellumental interrupted her by shooting a large blast of water that came out like a wave that washed them all away, all the way to Delfino Plaza, grabbing the attention of everyone there.
Under Waluigi's command, the dragon origami took off into the air and flew towards the plaza. "Go! Cause an incident! Nobody will live to tell the tale! Wahahahaha!" laughed Waluigi evilly.
Back on the ship, K. Rool had just been punched into the ship cabin by Bowser. As the former was sitting back up and the latter coming inside to continue beating him up, a telephone on a nearby table rang, grabbing their attentions. "Excuse me for a minute," K. Rool told Bowser as he went to pick up the phone. Surprisingly and hilariously, Bowser nodded, giving him the permission to do so.
"Hello? I'm kinda busy here," K. Rool told the caller. "Make it quick!"
"Captain, it's me, Klump. You know, the guy stationed at the shore to keep watch of things? There's… Uh… I think it's a paper dragon wrecking Delfino Plaza…" replied the caller. "That Waluigi guy seems to have summoned it somehow. I'm calling you to let you know in case you're interested."
"Waluigi brought out a paper dragon and is having it wreck Delfino Plaza?" K. Rool said in confusion. "That's… not something you hear everyday… Huh…" He was in deep thought for a while when he heard this message, and then an evil smile appeared on his face. "Yeah… Why the heck not? Good job on this report, Klump! You just gave me an idea! I'll be summoning the Kraken. You continue staying where you are and let me know if anything interesting happens!"
"You're summoning the Kraken?!" said Klump, but the call ended afterwards.
K. Rool then went to a nearby drawer and dug through it. "Where did I put it?"
Meanwhile, Bowser was watching him the whole time, waiting for him to finish his business. "You done yet? I'm being a nice guy and letting you finish your business since we're both bad guys here, but that doesn't mean I have the patience to wait for you all day!"
"Here it is!" said K. Rool as he took out a remote control, and then he pressed a button on it. "Go and wreck havoc, Kraken!"
Back on the deck, the others were still engaged in combat when they were interrupted by the sound of loud splashing. A Hammer Bro turned to the sea and saw water splashing some distance away, and not too long after, a large metallic tentacle rose. "Is… Is that what I think is it?!" he said in shock.
By now, everyone had turned to look at the same thing the Hammer Bro was looking at. "What… What is coming out of the sea?!" asked Noir in shock.
More and more metallic tentacles rose from the sea, until eventually, the body of those tentacles appeared, revealing itself as a giant mechanical squid.
"Mamamia! Is that a mecha Bloopa?!" asked Mario in shock.
"It's the Kraken! Did boss summon it?!" said a Kritter.
However, none of those present were as shocked as Rapi and Helm. The so-called Kraken that appeared from the sea was something they were way too familiar with, so much that it almost gave them PTSD.
"Krak… Kraken…?!" said Helm, trembling violently.
Her eyes widened in shock, Rapi said, "What… What is a Tyrant-class Rapture doing here?!"
TO BE CONTINUED
What a turn of events for K. Rool to have in his possession of the Tyrant-class Rapture Kraken! Though if you paid attention to what you read in this chapter, you'll know that in this world, Kraken is a creation of Crygor that Waluigi secretly gave to K. Rool.
Of all the four Vellumentals from Paper Mario: The Origami King, I chose the Water Vellumental for this story because of the tropical and watery setting making it more suited compared to the other three. Its background is also changed, but so are several characters' backgrounds in this story. You'll have to keep on reading to find out what exactly is the deal with these different portrayals of familiar characters.