Chapter 6: On the Blue Oceans of Plit
Genius Guy hoisted the life preserver off of him and threw it to his left. Water trickled down the Shy Guy all over. With a brief shaking of his body to let loose water like a dog, he hustled to his laboratory under deck. Meanwhile Changling was talking to the Grand Glum Reaper about all the saddening and depressing facts of his insignificant life, which made the Reaper annoyed and tired. Below deck, Captain Torte was busying himself with the lunch he was making. Mini-Moi was enjoying his cabin’s Jacuzzi machine, apply named the Banjo-Jacuzzie and made by that odd company, LVK Industries.
“Mon dieu! Dingpot, vill you move? Ze food’s catching fire!” Torte yelled.
“Well that’s only cuz Embert’s dancing on it!” Dingpot replied.
“EMBEIRT!!! Vhere’s my PAN OF PAIN?” Cap’n Torte roared.
Genius Guy tripped into the kitchen and threw the newly repaired PAN OF PAIN, and it plopped in Dingpot’s acidic goopy junk.
“YOU FOOL! GET IT OUT!” Torte erupted.
“Don’t worry Cap-i-tan Chef! I’ll gets it!” Genius Guy said, jumping into Dingpot.
“HEY! GET OUTTA THERE! AH... AH... AHCHOOO!!!” Dingpot sneezed.
The cauldron spewed the goo out of it’s top, along with Genius Guy and a slightly melted PAN OF PAIN straight at Captain Torte. The pirate chef was covered in witch barf and Genius Guy. Torte held his anger and went to go wash off. Genius Guy licked up the goop on him, grabbed the PAN OF PAIN. and returned to his lab.
Soshi looked puzzled. “Wait, so Dungbox, your top is your nose?” Soshi asked.
“Uh… I don’t know,” Dingpot answered.
“How do you even exist? You are cauldron with face and can talk!” Soshi shouted.
“Hey! I got feelin’s too!” Dingpot said.
“Sorry, Mister Personal!” Soshi said sarcastically.
“At least I don’t find Gruntilda attractive!” Dingpot snickered.
“I don’t...” Soshi said confused.
“Oh... well than you’re stupid!” Dingpot said.
“Why?” Soshi persisted.
“Vat’s eveiryone talking about?!” Torte said walking in.
“Um… nothing, Captain, Soshi just admits he likes Gruntilda,” Dingpot stammered.
Chef Torte laughed at Soshi full heartedly, and the annoyed blue dragon walked up to the deck. Torte continued finishing up the meal for his motley crew. Inside his laboratory, Genius Guy had just had an amazingly detailed conversation with Mini Moi, and now the two were talked out.
“Wow.... what... a great... CONVERSATION!” Genius Guy exclaimed.
Mini Moi nodded his head in response.
“So... (swallow) ... I’ll make a new version for the captain instead of his old useless PAN OF PAIN. It’ll be called, the PPP!” Genius Guy announced.
Mini Moi giggled lightly.
“Hee hee, PPP. Standing for of course, the PROTOTYPE PAN OF PERIL!!!” Genius Guy shouted. Genius Guy danced around and Mini Moi jump kicked him. “Thanks I needed that. I better get to work.” Genius Guy said.
Mini Moi left the room so Genius Guy could get to work. “Hee hee, it’s safe for you to come out now and at these dead mice, Lucy!” Genius Guy called to his cat.
An ominous-looking black cat with frazzled hair and smoke lightly rising from it emerged from the darkness. Its ears curved upward like horns. Its long dragging tail flicked about, with the hair shaping an arrow at the end. Lastly the cat’s evil eyes were nothing short of demonic. The cat scooped up some mice with its mighty claw and wrapped them up in its lizard-like forked tongue. Then after swallowing, the cat hacked up a flaming hairball. Genius Guy quickly put out the fire and added the hairball to his massive collection.
“Oh I wuv my kitty! My purty, purty, kitty! I LOVE LUCY FUR!” Genius Guy said, petting the cat.
Back up on deck, a screaming was heard with a cat shrieking. Cap’n Torte and Mini Moi brought up the lunch for the crew. Changling, the Grand Glum Reaper, Soshi, the Apprentice, and Embert came and engulfed their food.
“Genius Guy! Lunch! You von’t get any if you’re late!” Torte called.
A badly sliced Genius Guy emerged. His pirate uniform was shredded and torn. He was bleeding, but no one knew from where as his blood and Shy Guy cloak were the same color red. He hopped up and chomped down some food.
“Vhere’s Vhomp? Hey blockhead! Vhere are you? Lunch’s ready!” Cap’n Torte shouted.
“YAY! Whomp like consume!” Whomp yelled from above in the crow’s nest.
The grey brick jumped out of the crow’s nest and fell fast to the ship below.
“MON DIEU!!!
Not too far off in the same ocean...
“Arrgh! Where we be headin’, captain?” a pirate asked.
Jonathon Jones, the scurvy seadog... or should I say seashark pirate, had his ship repaired and was once again sailing the seas in search of booty and what have you. The large upright shark stood tall on his flipper and clutched his trident-spear in his right flipper, the same weapon he’d used on the now-deceased-reborn Mario so many years ago.
“We be headin’ west! Don’t you remember anytin’? Arrgh!” Johnny barked.
“Right! Sorry captain!” the Bandana Red replied.
Recently, Johnny had taken to the seas with his orphaned nephew, Dimplestick. Dimplestick was very.... vertically challenged. In fact if you mentioned his little problem, he would spaz out and nearly kill you. He stood just below every “You must be this tall” sign. Dimplestick wore a green bandana on his head and a green striped shirt. He had a shorter spear, modeled like Johnny’s. Besides its size, the only difference was that it had a star-shaped point at the end of it. Johnny had taken Dimplestick under his gill, and his nephew was now more pirate than most of Johnny’s crew, though Dimplestick was oblivious to this. They were currently heading west to the Mushroom Kingdom because Dimplestick wanted to meet the Mario his uncle always told him about in his stories. It would take awhile to cross the vast Shitake Sea, however.
“Captain! We got another pirate ship sailin’ off the starboard bow!” a Bandana Blue called from the crow’s nest.
“More pirates! Are we gonna fight, Unky John?” Dimplestick asked.
“I don’t see any reason to, as long as they leave us alone. This isn’t MY sea, remember. MY sea is the South Shitake Sea, this be the North Shitake Sea. Let’s just hope they’re not as territorial as your uncle is!” Johnny responded.
Back on Torte’s pirate ship, everyone was eagerly trying to fix the leak caused by the giant hole Whomp created. Finally it was patched up, thanks to Changling being forced into a giant rubber tub stopper and smushed inside the hole.
“Um... Cap’n, do you expect me to stay here the entire trip?” Changling asked.
“Rubbeir tub stoppeirs don’t talk, Changling!” Torte snapped.
Torte and the rest went back up on deck and fixed the hole on the upper deck Whomp created. Whomp ate the rest of the food while everyone fixed the holes.
“YOU FOOL! Help uz! Zat’s it, vhere’s my PAN OF PAIN?!” Torte shouted.
Cap’n Torte lifted Genius Guy into the air and used him like a bat to swat Embert at Whomp. Whomp ducked down to grab a gold doubloon and Embert shot over him and landed next to a cannon. The fuse was lit by Embert’s fiery-ness, and the cannon fired.
Back on Johnny’s ship, they saw the oncoming cannon ball. It splashed about ten yards from the ship.
“Arrgh! I was hopin’ we wouldn’t have ta fight ‘em. But we have no choice. We gotta protect ourselves!” Johnny said. “EVERYONE! TO YOUR BATTLESTATIONS!”
Torte chased Whomp around the deck until the Grand Glum Reaper pointed his scythe out to sea. Mini Moi, being the only one to notice, tried to get everyone’s attention. Unfortunately these two never talked, but finally Torte’s Apprentice caught on. “Master Torte! There’s another ship out there, heading this way!” the Apprentice yelled.
“Vat? Vhere’s a telescope?!” Torte demanded.
“OH NO! I LEFT MY TELESCOPE WITH THE MERMAID!!!” Genius Guy screamed, running toward the side of the boat.
“MAN OVERBOARD!!!”
Chapter 7: Warrior of the Ancient
Yoshi steered the sailboat towards the east. Currently they were sailing through waters carrying a group of whales. They shot up bursts of air and water with their blowholes, giving the sailors a nice misty feeling, and a strong sea smell. Splooshi was having the time of his life. The light blue Yoshi sucked up water from his canteen and spurt it out like the whales. Mallow and Yoshi found Splooshi’s behavior funny, but they didn’t let him notice. Mallow was carrying his old Froggy Staff given to him by Frogfucious. It wasn’t the best of his weapons, but he had never gotten rid of it. The Sun was nearing the edge of Plit behind the boat to the west. The sky was rich and vivid with orange color. It was a great day to ride the seas.
“How long until we will reach island?” Splooshi asked.
“Oh, I’m not exactly sure how long it will take. I bet by the end of this chapter... I mean before nightfall. Yeah. That makes sense,” Mallow answered.
“Maybe that it up ahead!” Yoshi said, pointing to a nearing islet.
“Hopefully. I can’t wait to get back on dry land!” Mallow said.
“Are you kidding? This great! Splooshi love da water!” Splooshi exclaimed.
Meanwhile...
Wendy and Iggy looked off into the ocean ahead of them. It was now a dark navy blue. The Sun was halfway set and the evening had begun. Some stars were visible in the pre-night sky. Ahead was a spectacular array of colors, an Aurora.
“You think Lemmy can see that where he is?” Wendy asked.
“Probably not. But it’s nice to think so!” Iggy said.
“I hope he’s back before the story ends...” Wendy muttered.
“Yeah. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him in person,” Iggy replied.
Up around the crow’s nest, Kammy and Kamek had stopped circling it and looking in all directions. They hovered on their brooms looking to the northern lights, in a trance-like state. It was very quiet for a while as the Sun went down and the darkness of night conquered the sky. The Moon glowed in its waxing gibbous state. Then the silence was broken by Bowser, when he walked up on deck and stared up at his two Magikoopa soldiers. “Enough already! Just admit your love for each other!” the soap opera-watching Koopa yelled.
“Uh... I think it’d be best not to respond,” Kammy said.
“Yeah. P-probably,” Kamek replied.
The Sun was down, but ahead the island Yoshi and company were sailing to was lit up with an orange glow. Something had caught fire.
“I hope it’s a controlled fire... but from the looks of it....” Splooshi mumbled.
“We have to get there fast! Someone could be in trouble, possibly the person we need to translate this map!” Mallow said in a panicked voice.
“We’re going as fast as we can!” Yoshi said.
When the sailboat crept towards the shore, smoke was rising into the sky. They felt the heat from the fire as they hopped out of the boat, and the orange glow came from behind some trees. The three of them ran fast but cautiously into the forest. They stayed together for the most part. When they reached the fire’s mouth, it was burning up a cabin. It was a massive flame and they had nothing to help them put it out.
“What we to do?” Splooshi asked.
“Yoshi know!” the clever dinosaur said, kicking Mallow hard in his stomach.
“OW!!! YOSHI! Wh-what was *sniff* that for?! ... It... really HURTS!!! WAH!!!” Mallow cried.
Mallow, the Nimbian, of course was in tune with the weather. And when he cried, the sky rained. And Yoshi really hurt the fluffy prince, so a downpour came down and stopped the fire. Mallow sniffed up and the weather dried up.
“Oh… I see. You still could have told me what you were doing!” Mallow complained.
Yoshi rolled his eyes. “Come on! Inside cabin, people may need help!”
The two dinosaurs rushed into the cabin while Mallow lifted himself and dusted off his cape. When Mallow walked inside, Yoshi and Splooshi were lifting an old Mushroomer woman, and the Nimbian they were looking for. They had passed out from the smoke.
“What do we do?” Mallow asked.
“We take ‘em to boat. They’ll be safe there! Mallow, look in back room for anybody!” Yoshi said, running out the door, Splooshi not far behind him.
A look of determination came across Mallow’s face. He stepped into the next room and gasped at the thing inside: a large black armored warrior, wielding a long black staff with horns at the end of it and spikes everywhere. The creature raised its staff and a humbling blue light glowed from the top, in the center of the curved spikes. It pointed the staff at Mallow and let out a bolt of energy. Mallow flew back in pain. He tried to run but the thing was too quick for him and appeared in front of the door. It shot another blast but Mallow dodged it and the cabin was hit. It crushed in on itself. Mallow jumped up from the wreckage only to find the creature awaiting him, floating in the sky. A ring of fire surrounded the two as an arena. Mallow had no choice but to fight. He reached under his cape and pulled out his Froggie Staff. The battle began.
Princess Peach Toadstool stood on her balcony outside her room, looking up at the starry sky. She sighed deeply and put her hand on her chin. She looked up and imagined the sparkling dots forming Mario’s face. It had been awhile since Mario had passed away... or was reborn in a different form. Either way, Peach missed the old Mario. Stario still looked like Mario, though a bit more athletic and a set of different clothes. Stario still talked and thought like Mario. He was a bit smarter though. Stario even liked the same things Mario did. It was something else, something deeper than appearance and personality that Peach longed for. Stario just wasn’t the Mario she’d always been friends with, just not the funny-faced plumber she would want to see rescuing her from the clutches of King Koopa or that idiot chef turtle thing. It was quite the melancholy time for the Princess. A knock came from her door. She turned and said, “Come in!”
Toad, her always-loyal attendant came through and walked up to her. “Hello Princess. Mario- I mean, Stario and Luigi would like to see you again tomorrow for a picnic lunch. What should I tell them?” Toad asked.
“Tell them...” Peach sighed deeply. “I won’t be able to attend tomorrow. I’ll be busy.” The princess sighed.
“Okay Princess,” Toad said, leaving.
As the fungus top walked slowly out of the room, an old chuckle came from outside and Toadsworth stopped the door from closing with his cane. “Mind if I come in, Princess?” Toadsworth asked.
“No, of course not. Please sit down,” Peach said invitingly.
The old butler walked in slowly and took a seat. He smiled under his white mustache and fiddled with his spectacles. He put both hands on the tip of his cane and cleared his throat. “Now Princess, what’s troubling you? Don’t you feel safe with Stario here?” Toadsworth asked.
“Yes. I don’t feel like I’ll be captured, Toadsworth. That’s the last thing on my mind,” Peach answered.
“Then what is bothering you?” Toadsworth persisted.
“Nothing. I’m just peachy,” Peach said forcing a chuckle.
“Oh come on, what do you take me for, a fool?” Toadsworth asked.
“Well truthfully, yes.” Peach laughed.
“Ha ha. Now Princess, tell me. I’m trustworthy!” Toadsworth said.
“It’s Stario... I mean Mario... I mean... it’s both of them. Or maybe it’s just them as one... or... maybe it’s me, I don’t know,” Peach said.
“Now, now. If you’re worried that Stario’s not the Mario you lo… er, like as your good friend, you’re wrong... and right,” Toadsworth said.
“Wait... what was that?” Peach asked.
“Well, the way you’re wrong is it’s still Mario. He’s in their somewhere, and it shows,” Toadsworth said.
“Yes, I see you’re correct. I’ve just been too hasty, or something,” Peach agreed.
“Now I said you were wrong, but also right,” Toadsworth mentioned. “The way you’re right is that though he’s like Mario, and Mario is in him, it’s still not the Mario you um... it’s not your Mario.”
“Yeah... I guess.” Peach groaned.
“But he’s still Mario. Somehow. Just think positively and get some rest. I’ll look for a real psychiatrist to talk with you tomorrow.”
“WHAT?!” Peach shouted.
“Only joking, Princess. Get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning!” Toadsworth said, hopping out of the chair and leaving the room.
The door closed and Peach turned back and walked out to the balcony again. She stared back up at the stars, closed her eyes, and imagined she was with the old Mario, rushing away from Bowser like the old times, when a strange noise came from outside the castle.
From downstairs, Toadsworth heard a brief crash and a scream. The Mushroomer ran up as fast as he could. He burst into the room and saw the window near the balcony was broken and Peach was gone. Toadsworth ran to the balcony and looked down and up. No sign of anyone. He walked back through the room and noticed a card lying on the table. It read, LVK Industries...