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Author Topic: Super Paper Mario 2: The Tribe of Darkness (Complete + Art Project)  (Read 81767 times)

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« Reply #30 on: October 22, 2007, 06:59:35 PM »
Count Bleck flipped in. "I assume the heroes are either enslaved or killed by King Animaul and that the Pure Heart is safe?"
Dimentio seemed annoyed. "Well, we really thought this plan would work...but it didn't. I am afraid they've again managed to get the Pure Heart."
"What!? That is preposterous! shouted Count Bleck. That plan was foolproof!"
"Yes, it was foolproof...but it wasn't Kara-proof, I'm afraid."
"This is nuts!" shouted H-X Alpha. "And bolts! And nuts! And bolts!"
"I know you're all upset that the heroes have already managed to find five of the eight Pure Hearts, but something recently happened that will guarantee the heroes' destruction. They'll never be able to find the rest of the Pure Hearts, not with him working for us."
"Him? You have found another minion?"
"Indeed, I have. I have already discussed our plan with him, but I'll share it with you all, just to ease your mind about whether the heroes will succeed. Come in!"
Bowser flipped in on the middle platform between Bleck and the two robots. "I'm big, I'm, strong, and I'm ready to roll!"
B-A Omega looked at Bowser suspiciously. "Master Dimentio, isn't that Bowser? Isn't he a hero?"
"No. He is not Bowser. He only looks like Bowser, because he's talking about how big and strong he is."
Count Bleck knew who "Bowser" actually was. "Oh, it's him. I see what you meant, Master Dimentio. Knowing him, he'll prove to be an excellent minion."
"Indeed. After he lost his two close friends, he was lost for many years. I managed to find him, and he was more than willing to serve me. Although you know who he is, I think it would be best if the two robots do not know his identity for now. They don't need to know everything right now. Though, they should know that he isn't Bowser."
The new minion was surrounded in a purple cloud, and when it dissipated, O'Chunks was standing there. "Of course I'm not Bowser! But I'm still big and strong!" The cloud formed again, and another Dimentio appeared. "And I'm also cold and calculating!"
"Thank you," agreed Dimentio. "Now, you remember every part of the plan, right? Those mountains are uninhabited as far as I can tell, so we won't have anyone to trick this time. You'll have to do this all by yourself. Do you think you can do it?"
The minion transformed into Mario. "I'm ready like nothing else! This time, I'll be the hero!"
"Very well. You may go to the assigned place now and wait for the heroes."
"Got it!" He flipped out.
There was some silence before B-A Omega spoke. "Master Dimentio, you haven't sent us on a mission yet. May we accompany this new minion? We can certainly destroy the heroes."
Dimentio thought for a while. "Well...you certainly have demonstrated your abilities, but seeing that those heroes can topple a plan as foolproof as the one we had, I'm not sure if you're quite up to it."
"Please, Master Dimentio?" begged H-X Alpha. "Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Pretty please...OR ELSE YOU'LL FEEL THE WRATH OF, UH, CORN? AND BEANS? AND POT-PIES?"
"Hm...well, you two do seem to be powerful enough, so I will allow you to accompany him to stop the heroes. Do not fail me."
"OH YEAH! You are DARN lucky I didn't have to unleash my califl-"
"Let's go, already!" B-A Omega flipped out, taking H-X Alpha with him.
"Well, they're certainly anxious," noted the count. "That's a good thing."
"It is," agreed his master. "With both of them up against the heroes, there's no way we can fail. If they somehow collect the sixth Pure Heart, we'll have to re-evaluate our strategy."
"What will we do? wondered Count Bleck with great anticipation."
"I'm not exactly sure right now, but I think I know what can stop them. Internal conflict."
"You'll turn them against each other? Marvelous plan, Master Dimentio."
"I do believe it will be a good one. Bowser is already clashing with the others, and while I don't think he's at the point of willingly leaving them yet, another push could send him over the edge. You have noticed that O'Chunks has joined the heroes, correct?"
"I have, Master Dimentio."
"If I'm correct, then Mimi, and perhaps Nastasia, will want to join the heroes soon as well. Although we are trying to get rid of them...if I don't succeed to kill them this time, they must be kept alive for this phase of my backup plan. I'm not particularly interested in Nastasia...but if Mimi joins them, I will let the heroes know something that will cause them to fight, and they, particularly the minions, will be easy targets without the support of the rest."



"You really do want to find Timpani, don't you?"
"Yes. I will search to the end of all dimensions if I need to. I must find her."
"We haven't had much luck so far. No one knows where she is, and no one wants to help us."
"Hmm...perhaps there is something we can do. No...that wouldn't be right."
"What is it?"
"It wouldn't be right. Just ignore what I said."
"I want to know, Blumiere. You said you'd search to the end of all dimensions. You wouldn't pass up something that could help you find her."
"Well, if you must know..."

"Well, we're here. Are you sure that I have to be the one that goes in?"
"Yes. If I go along with you, the power will spread to me as well, and I don't want anything like that. I'm still not sure about this..."
"Trust me, it'll help us find your love. You said so."
"Very well. I guess you can go in."

"Wow. It's pretty dark down here..."
"Is this the stone he was talking about? It's very smooth...and polished."
"Is this how I'm supposed to do this? I guess so..."
"OK...stone, thing, give me your power!"
"HEY! What are you doing in here!?"
"Aaah! Uh...just looking at some...stuff. You've got some pretty interesting stuff. Yeah...stuff."
"Is it true? You've taken the power of that stone!? Oh, you..."
"Oh, great. I've gotta get out of here!"



"Are you thinking again, Nastasia?"
"What? Oh, uh...yes, I guess, sort of. I was thinking about when I recieved the power to hypnotize. Count Bleck...I mean, Blumiere, suggested that I should find a strange stone hidden in the dungeon of a castle that would give me power. He regretted his suggestion, but I told him it would help us find Timpani. Once I found the stone, and after its power drained into me, a strange guy found me. I guess that was his castle, and he was steaming mad that I took the stone's power. I don't know who he was...and I still don't know how Blumiere knew about it. He never told me."
"So that's how it happened? How does Dimentio know about that?"
"I have no idea. He certainly wasn't there, not as far as I could tell. He seems to know more about us than we'd like him to know." She sighed. "I'm still troubled by that decision. I'm sure I did something wrong."
"Indeed, you did," answered the jester. He held his right index finger up. "That leaves only one minion who hasn't blurted out her troubled past. Care to share your feelings with us all, Mimi?"
"I'm not afraid of you, Mr. My-plans-are-totally-failing! They've probably already found the fifth Pure Heart, and you've done NOTHING!"
"Oh, really? But I'm about to do something. That is, show you what I didn't get the chance to last time!" He waved his hands in the air, and the Flipside scenery fell away in series of rectangles, replaced by a weird, small green room. "I'm sure you both recognize the scenery. Welcome back to Dimension D!"
"Dimension D?" asked Nastasia. "I've never been here."
"Yes, you have. Don't you remember, pathetic minion? Oh, that's right. You were dead. Or, almost dead. But now is when what should've happened then will happen!"
"This guy is confusing me," stated Mimi. "I'll take this demented jester."
"Are you sure?" he taunted. "I've modified Dimension D heavily from when I last used it. It will now magnify my power exponentially, while keeping your pathetic power at normal. Let's see you face the power of exponential mathematics! Or understand them, for that matter."

BOSS
Dimentio

Mimi cracked her neck and went through the entire transformation, emerging as a giant spider. Dimentio hovered to the right side of Dimension D, firing a very fast white energy blast. The blast hit Mimi, but she barely felt anything.
"Is this what you call 'exponential powers'?" she asked in a creepy voice.
"You haven't seen the worst of it." He unleashed another ball of energy. Mimi was hit again, and the blast felt slightly stronger, but it still did barely any damage.
"Wow. You really are a demented jester."
"Demented I may be, but demented enough to come up with something like this!" Another blast hit Mimi, and she felt the pain considerably stronger. "Haven't you figured it out? My second attack did twice as much damage as my first attack, and my third attack did twice as much as the second. Pretty soon, you'll be on the floor, begging for mercy. Let's turn things up!" He disappeared, and two Dimentios reappeared. When the now pink energy balls came, Mimi ducked and produced a Rubee that, fortunately, hit the correct Dimentio. He vanished, only to reappear with two clones. While one of them fired a pink energy ball, the other two created glowing boxes that formed on either side of Mimi. Realizing that he was trying to squish her between the two blocks, Mimi withdrew her legs and surrounded her head with Rubees. Spinning her head around, she broke free of the boxes and hit all three Dimentios, nailing the true one the final time. However, she had forgotten the pink energy ball fired by a Dimentio clone. It slammed into her, doing considerable damage.
"You think you've got me? Think again! I've got plenty of these." Mimi used a Super Shroom Shake, and she was back to full health. When the jester reappeared, he snapped his fingers, and a large field of blue electricity enveloped Mimi. The jester's exponential powers were still going, and when Mimi managed to shake the attack off, she was just as weakened as she was before she had used the shake. Dimentio didn't give her a chance to use another shake, appearing with clones and firing pink energy balls all around. She managed to get one more hit on Dimentio before she was knocked out by one of the pink blasts. She collapsed, returning to her normal form.
Nastasia walked into the area. "So you think you've got what it takes?" asked Dimentio. "You did defeat me last time, but with the power I've gained from fighting Mimi, I'll finish you quickly and easily." He fired a wave of pink energy blasts at Nastasia, who swiftly dodged them. However, the blasts ricocheted off the wall and ceiling, coming back to hit her. The damage was intense. Nastasia pulled out a super shake of her own, but not all of her health had been restored. She used another one to be safe.
"Even if you're at full health, you can't withstand anything more! My next attack will be capable of knocking you out in one hit." The jester tried to enclose her in a box from afar, too far to use it as a platform to reach him. Frantically, Nastasia tried hypnotizing Dimentio again, but the red bolts disappeared after a few moments. "You think your pathetic power of hypnosis can match against mine?" The jester attempted to hypnotize Nastasia, partially succeeding.
Although in no shape to fight, Mimi was still conscious. "Nastasia! Take this!" She tossed a Block Block in her direction. Instantly, a glowing, reflective cube surrounded Nastasia, and Dimentio's bolts vanished. Now invulnerable, Nastasia gave it everything she had. She managed to hit Dimentio once, but the jester simply produced a clone and disappeared. The Dimentio clone continued firing pink energy balls, waiting for Nastasia's invincibility to wear off. When it did, the real Dimentio reappeared, attacking her with glowing boxes.
"I can't take this for much longer!" moaned Nastasia.
"I'll see if I can help," suggested Mimi. She stumbled to the nearby shop. While she was gone, Nastasia damaged Dimentio once, but she knew she couldn't keep avoiding the bouncing pink blasts for long. When Mimi returned, she looked nervous. "They didn't have any more Block Blocks, but they had this! It'll increase your power!" She tossed the power-up to Nastasia, and her power was indeed increased. Dimentio responded by firing several more blasts, including a lightning strike. Nastasia was out, but Mimi had planned ahead. She tossed a Life Shroom in Nastasia's direction, reviving her but with very little health. "Come on! You can do it!"
Nastasia tried to do it. Dodging more blasts and boxes, she hit Dimentio one more time, and the jester seemed weakened again. He managed to hit Nastasia again, but Mimi had prepared for this, too. She used a super shake on herself, putting her in fighting condition again. Realizing that if she used her spider transformation, Dimentio would easily hit her, she flipped out, reappeared above Dimentio, and dropped several Rubees onto his head.
The jester was certainly defeated. "Gaah!" he wailed. "Why can't I defeat you? Why can't I defeat these pathetic minions?"
"We won, and that's that," asserted Mimi.
"Only because you cheated! You two used cheap items to help you. I fought honestly."
"It was either do that or be killed. And we'd rather choose not dying."
"Hm...you both do have strength, I'll admit." He returned to his normal expression. "Ah ha ha ha! It doesn't matter, anyway. The next part of my plan requires me to keep you alive. So watch out!" He disappeared.

Tippi and the five heroes exited the green door. When they descended to the second floor, Merlon was indeed there, along with Mimi and Nastasia. "I trust that you've managed to find the Pure Heart?" Merlon asked.
Here it comes, thought Tippi. "Yes," she answered, proceeding to explain their ridiculous story.
"It seems you've had quite an adventure there," noted Merlon. "Well, that world has been saved, and you've got the Pure Heart, so I guess everything's OK for now."
Wow. He believed us.
"Dimentio attacked again," explained Nastasia. "It was close. He almost managed to kill us. Something he said worried me, though. He said a part of his plan involves him keeping us alive. What could he be planning?"
Merlon thought. "I don't know. I just don't know. That Dimentio is a complete enigma. Who knows what he's planning." He paused. "I have read a very strange passage in the Light Prognosticus. It says this: 'Of three lost friends, only one will survive the chaos that will ensue upon the Chaos Heart's reemergence.' I have no clue what it means. Do any of you have ideas?"
Mario thought. "So it says 'the Chaos Heart's reemergence'? Does that mean the Chaos Heart will reappear? Dimentio will pull off his plan, whatever it is, to reactivate it? It doesn't sound very good."
"I don't think it's a very happy prophecy either, but since the book also implies that you'll find all of the Pure Hearts again, I'm not sure what to think. Well, you all are heroes, anyway, so I think you'll be able to stop him."
Mimi walked toward the heroes. "So the prophecy said there's going to be nine heroes? And O'Chunks is the fifth? In that case, I'd be obliged to join you as well."
"That would be excellent," observed Merlon. "Is Nastasia willing to join, too?"
"Well...um, I think I should tell you guys something." She related the story of her past. "And I'm still troubled by what I did."
"I see. Do you need time to reflect? Perhaps you should stay here in Flipside a while longer?"
"I think so. I don't think I'd be very helpful anyway. And Dimentio said he'd keep us alive, so I think I'd be safe if I stayed. I'll try to improve my power so I'll be a better help if I join the heroes sometime."
"Very well then. Well, heroes, you know what to do. I'll keep reading the Prognosticus. I'll tell you if I find anything else." He walked back into his house.
Mimi turned toward the heroes. "So I'm with you now, huh? This is gonna be fun!"

-Mimi has joined the party!-

"So now we've got to go to Flopside to find the next Heart Pillar," explained Tippi. Our heroes, now including Mimi, descended the elevator to the first floor, walked to the right, flipped into 3D, and walked the pathway to the Mirror Hall. Once there, another flip into 3D brought them to an inverted version of the place they had been in, and it was much darker at that. The door in this area took them to Flopside, the flip-flopped town on the other side of Flipside. Our heroes took the elevator up to the second floor, and a voice startled them. "Oh ho! So you've found five Pure Hearts, have you?"
They turned around, and Nolrem, the Flopside equivalent of Merlon, was standing there. "Merlon told me about your new quest to recover the Pure Hearts. I knew you'd reach this place eventually, but you did it must faster than I expected."
"Well, they're heroes," stated Tippi. "Did Merlon tell you about what he read in the Light Prognosticus?"
"He did," Nolrem answered. "I haven't been able to figure out anything from that book's words either, but two heads are better than one, and you never know, we might discover something useful sometime."
"I see."
"Now, place the Pure Heart in the pillar above here, and continue your quest. Talking will only delay us."
Our heroes took the elevator up to the third floor. The Heart Pillar was in the same place as the first pillar in Flipside. Our heroes set the Pure Heart in the proper place, and the patterns again formed. The pale blue door was drawn on Flipside Tower, which our heroes returned to as quickly as they could. They passed the red, orange, yellow, and green doors before arriving at the pale blue one. It had once lead to the Land of the Cragnons, but there was no telling where it lead now.
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2007, 07:00:27 PM »
So now I'm exactly halfway through Super Paper Mario 2: The Tribe of Darkness. Starting now, I'm going to be taking a break from the game...I mean, story (it's so tempting to say game) for a while, while I fully plan out the rest of the story and work on some of my other projects.

What do you all think of the story so far? What do you like/dislike about it? I'd like some feedback so I can improve my writing for the second half.

In the meantime, here's some artwork I've done for the g...story. I know they look dark with the charcoal texture and all, but this is SPM2: The Tribe of Darkness after all. Speaking of which, there is a reason it has that subtitle. ^_^

Mario
Luigi
Peach
Bowser
Dimentio
Count Bleck
Timpani
O'Chunks
Mimi
Nastasia
The Ruffer Ruffian
Tedac
Radnamok X
Kara
H-X Alpha
B-A Omega
« Last Edit: October 22, 2007, 07:03:40 PM by Reading »
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

« Reply #32 on: October 26, 2007, 07:34:17 PM »
Hee hee, I love your O'Chunks picture. He looks like he's gonna get chunky on someone!
"If they make greeting cards to thank people for helping with evil plans, I owe you one!" ~Dimentio, Super Paper Mario

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« Reply #33 on: November 30, 2007, 09:12:47 PM »
Yep, SPM2 is back. I'm back from my break, and I've got Chapter 5-1. I've done some more planning for the story, but I probably still need to work on my plans for some of the later chapters. I've got a pretty solid idea of where the story is going to go, though (as I've had for a while). Also, you may find yourself thinking "What the heck?" at the end of 5-1, but don't worry, it'll all be explained. :P



With only Nastasia remaining to join our heroes, the group now totaled six. Nastasia was certainly going to be the seventh, but who were the remaining two out of nine? And when would they join? Sometimes I wish the Light Prognosticus was more precise, thought Mario. Sometimes it seems like we're just reading riddle after riddle. Who are these three lost friends? How are we going to defeat Dimentio? He thought for a bit. Well, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about those things. We should just focus on finding the Pure Heart for now. Those other things will come when they will. And so Mario stepped bravely into the new, mountainous landscape.








A line was drawn.

Joining this line were some others, forming rocky ground detail. Long lines appeared in the background, forming mountains near and far. The ground was splashed with gray, as were the mountains in the background. Some of the taller mountains contained a powdery white snowcap. The sky became a clear blue. Various mosses, grasses, occaisonal trees, and other plants appeared along the landscape. After the white borders disappeared, the pale blue door was drawn into existence, and our six heroes stepped into the mountain air.

"Looks like we're high up," noted Luigi, peering down into the thousand-foot drop in front of them.
"Yeah, whatever," groaned Bowser.
"Wow! The air is so clear!" observed Mimi. "I can see for miles!"
Tippi sensed for the Pure Heart. "The Pure Heart is in the direction of that tall mountain over there. It's pretty far away."
"Well, no time like the present to get started," announced Mario. "Let's get going."
Our heroes walked along the rocky cliff, being careful not to slip and fall to the ground thousands of feet below. They were utterly glad there wasn't any wind.
After the usual ? Blocks, platforming, and 3D Flipping, our heroes entered a pipe, and found a tall vertical tunnel, framed on the sides by mountain walls.
"How do we get up here?" asked Peach.
Mario flipped into 3D, but didn't find anything that would be of help.
"Nothin'?" asked O'Chunks.
"Nothing. How do we-"
"Hey, guys, did you notice I'm here?" teased Mimi.
"What?"
Mimi cracked her neck, spun her head around, and grew legs from her head that pulled herself into the air. "I'm going to see if there's anything up there. Can someone come with me, just in case?"
"I'll go," offered Mario. He gripped one of her long spider legs. Mario and Mimi climbed the vertical chamber. After a while, they came across an inconveniently placed floating spike. "Who put this here?" wondered Mario.
Mimi was able to duck and continue climbing, but another spike was right above her. "I think Dimentio's trying to stop us yet again." She dodged a third spike.
When they approached the ceiling of the chamber, several spikes suddenly dropped. Mimi didn't know what to do, but Mario was used to situations like this by now. "FLIP!!!" he shouted. They both flipped into 3D, and the spikes passed harmlessly by them. Wait a second... Mario observed a conveniently placed switch near him. "HEY! Everyone down there! Get in the pipe, fast!" He hit the switch, and a pipe appeared at the floor where the other heroes were waiting. The others entered it, with Mario and Mimi in her regular form soon following.
"How'd you know that pipe would appear?" asked Mimi, once they were on the other side of the pipe.
"Routine."
After they had hiked through the mountains for some more time, our heroes came upon a steep uprise. "How do we git 'cross this?" asked O'Chunks.
Luigi observed some spots in the cliff that could be used as places to rest his foot. "Let's try climbing like this," he suggested. He placed his foot on one of the flatter areas and slowly worked his way up.
"I'll catch you if you fall," offered Mario, standing below the small cliff. Luigi didn't fall, although he did slip a bit one time. He made it to the top.
"I'll go next." Mario began climbing as well. When he reached the top, he was followed by Peach and O'Chunks.
Only Bowser and Mimi remained. "Please, let me go up first," begged Mimi, but Bowser ignored her and started climbing up anyway.
"Hey, Bowser, let her go first." Mario knew exactly what Mimi was thinking.
"Quiet, you! Who do you think-" but before he could finish his sentence, he slipped and fell under his own weight, taking part of the cliff with him.
Mario sighed. "That's what I was afraid of."
Mimi looked at the now-half-destroyed cliff. "I can't climb up this...I could injure myself!"
The heroes standing on the higher ground tried to figure out how they would get Bowser and Mimi up the cliff, but a low rumbling sound interrupted their thought process. "What's that?" asked Tippi. Everyone besides Mimi and Bowser turned around so they were facing away from the cliff and toward the direction they wanted to go.
"ROCKSLIDE!!!" shouted Peach.
"Oh, for the love of..." uttered Luigi. "I think I had enough rockslides for one lifetime back in that desert."
"What do we do?" asked Peach. "We can't just go to the side. There's a giant cliff on one side and a huge drop on the other."
Mario's mind raced. They were on the cliff, and Bowser and Mimi were several feet below them with no apparent chance of making it up there. And in 30 seconds, they would all be crushed by the-
"I have an idea," stated Peach. A few seconds passed. "Why are you all staring at me?" She walked to the edge of the cliff. "Bowser, can you break more of that rock?"
"I can, my lovely wife, but then how am I going to get up?"
"And me!" corrected Mimi.
"I don't know, but if you don't, we may not live at all. The rock there is pretty lose, so just dig a cave into it."
Bowser, with his...somewhat inferior intellect, couldn't tell what Peach had in mind, but he knew better than to disobey his lovely wife. He dug into the loose rock, forming a small cave.
"Jump, everyone!" The boulders were seconds away from smashing everyone, so our heroes didn't question Peach. They jumped off the small cliff and dove into the cave Bowser had hollowed out. It was a bit cramped with everyone in there, but the boulders passed harmlessly over them. When the rumbling stopped, our heroes came out of the cave and looked at the cliff they had to climb.
"NOW how do we get up there?" asked Luigi. The rocks had practically destroyed what was left of the cliff. If they tried climbing up, they would be blocked by jutting pieces of rock of holes they couldn't place their feet on.
"Can't Mimi climb the side of this cliff and carry us to the high ground on at a time, like she did with Mario?" asked Tippi. Come to think of it, why didn't she just offer to do that in the first place?
Mimi frowned. "This wall is less smooth than the one I carried Mario up. I might injure myself if I'm attached to it."
"It won't be hard," offered Mario. "It's still pretty smooth."
"I'm still not sure. I don't want to get hurt."
"'Ee's right, Mimi." O'Chunks pointed at the cliff. "It won't mattah if yeh get a little scrape anyway."
Mimi finally gave in. "All right, I'll try."
She carried them up the cliff as a giant spider one at a time, but the others could notice she was making a careful effort to step in only the smoothest regions, and when she slipped a bit once, she almost screamed.
Is she just afraid of getting hurt? wondered Mario after all of the heroes were safely on the upper ledge. Or is there something else going on here?
"What was that rockslide all about?" asked Bowser.
"Probably Dimentio again," offered Luigi. "But I didn't see anyone up there where the rocks were falling. Actually, I don't have an idea where the rocks came from in the first place."
"Well, it's no wonder there wasn't anyone there," pointed out Mario. "I don't think there's anyone inhabiting these mountains, so Dimentio couldn't use his usual turn-the-dimension's-inhabitants-against-us plan."
"But then who's behind the falling rocks?" asked Mimi. "I'm pretty sure the only time Dimentio leaves...wherever he usually stays...is when he tries to kill us every time you guys get a Pure Heart."
"Well, it could be him," offered Peach. "But suppose it's not? Suppose it's someone else?"
"Someone else?" asked O'Chunks. "That'd hafta mean..."
"He has someone else working for him?" realized Mario and Luigi out loud, simultaneously. "It's possible," Mario continued. "He wouldn't do very well with only himself and Bleck."
"Well, let's just avoid thinking about it too much," suggested Peach. "We can't just come up with theories without having some idea of what we're talking about."
"Something tells me he does have another minion or two, though..." mused Mario. "I wonder, if he has any new minions, if they joined him willingly or if he had to hypnotize them."
"Who'd willingly work for a demented jester like him?" asked Mimi.
"Well...there's probably someone out there who would."

Tippi felt her Pure Heart sense growing stronger. "The Pure Heart's getting closer..." she announced, "...although it's still kind of far away."
"I wonder what Dimentio has planned to stop us this time," thought Luigi. "We usually have to travel a bit before we can see what he's done."
Our heroes soon approaced a large, smooth portion of the ground, still having a large cliff on their left side and the drop at the right. Another cliff rose from the ground, blocking their progress. However, there was something quite odd about this cliff. In the its center, right in front of our heroes, was a large brown door. Our heroes didn't know what to make of it. "How'd this get here?" wondered Mario. "We didn't see any people while we were traveling."
"Maybe we've discovered the secret dwelling of the legendary mountain people?" asked Luigi. When he recieved blank stares, he added, "Well, it might be a possibility."
"Let's just open it and see what we find," guided Tippi. "The Pure Heart is nearer here, and it just might be inside the mountain."
Mario obeyed, slowly opening the giant brown door. Since they had been exposed to the outdoor light for so long, our heroes found it difficult to see what was inside, but their vision gradually cleared as they stepped inside. They were standing in some sort of short, rather wide hallway with a smaller brown door on the far side. Bright blue carpet covered most of the otherwise green floor, and the walls were a brownish shade. There were lights placed across the walls.
In spite of all these things, though, our heroes immediately focused their attention on the person standing in this room. She had short brown hair and wore a white maid outfit and pink shoes. When she noticed the heroes, she immediately freaked out. "AIEEE!!! Get your dirty shoes off that carpet! I just cleaned it! You careless people! I'll get my big brother! He'll put you in your proper place! A nice, cozy jail cell!"



-END OF CHAPTER-
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #34 on: December 09, 2007, 06:18:59 PM »
More What The Hecks here. :P



A nice, cozy jail cell? Who was this crazy girl? Were there others in this strange cave? Did they know where the Pure Heart was? Perhaps this was another one of Dimentio's schemes? Am I ever going to stop asking myself these questions? thought Mario.








"You're throwing us in jail?" asked Mimi, startled. "For stepping on this carpet?"
"Yes, you dirty people. I am. I mean, my big brother. Not me. Him." She dashed into the door, going further into the cave.
Luigi crept toward the door they had come through, but Mario held him back. "Just wait, Luigi. We may have no clue what's going on, but since the Pure Heart is here, we have no real choice."
After a few moments, the maid returned. "I can't find him. But you're going to jail anyway!"
"Oh, really?" asked Bowser, seeming ready to attack her. "How are you going to make us?"
"I'll get my big brother. He'll put you in your proper place. A nice, cozy jail cell."
Tippi's head was spinning. "I thought you couldn't find him!"
"I know. But I'll get him anyway!" She went through the door again.
A few minutes passed, and she didn't return. "What's going on?" asked Tippi. "What is...just...GAAH!!!"
"I vote we try the door," suggested Mimi.
"Sounds good," agreed O'Chunks.
"You think we should?" asked Peach. "We have no clue what's beyond that door."
"I say we just break the thing down!" proclaimed Bowser.
"I'm not sure we should try that," cautioned Mario. "What if there's someone else waiting on the other side?"
"Then I'll fry 'em! Stop being my babysitter and let the Koopa King make his own decisions." He started for the door.
Bowser's starting to get angry with us again, thought Tippi. I wonder if he'll leave before we find all of the Pure Hearts...
With his giant spiked shell, Bowser easily broke the wooden door off its hinges. Our heroes observed the space behind the door. Two hallways, narrower than the one they were standing in, branched from the area just beyond the door, one going in the direction they had entered, the other going left, deeper into the mountain. Several doors lined both sides of both hallways.
"Whoa," exclaimed Peach. "This place is like a mansion inside the mountain." She stopped. "Should we try one of these doors?"
Luigi looked down both hallways. The crazy maid was nowhere to be seen. "Maybe we should. Is the Pure Heart closer here, Tippi?"
"It's closer, but not by much. It's still a good distance away."
"Well, I say we try one of these doors. Let's see..." He opened the closest door on the right. The room was rather small, containing a few chairs. "Looks like a living room." Our heroes walked into the room.
Suddenly, they felt as if they were falling through air. And, indeed, they were falling. Into a narrow vertical shaft with spikes at the bottom.
"AIEEE!!!" shrieked Peach.
"Mimi, hurry!" urged Tippi. "You might be able to save us!"
"I can't! It would take too long to transform, and I'm not sure if I can hold all of you..."
"Just try!"
Realizing it was the heroes' only chance of surviving, Mimi obeyed. Her large body managed to stop the group just before they were dashed by the spikes.
There was a few seconds of silence before Luigi spoke. "So now what?"
"I can't hold you guys much longer," groaned Mimi, sounding frantic.
Mario thought quickly. "Can you turn into a trampoline so we can get out?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I can only turn into people, and I have to have seen them and know their names." Mimi spoke increasingly quickly as she slowly sank toward the spikes below.
"Try climbing up," suggested Bowser flatly.
"I don't know if I can do that..." She tried pushing up, but didn't get very far. A sudden thought hit her. She attached three legs to one wall of the shaft and three to the other, balancing her weight. In this position, she was able to slowly climb the shaft, taking the others with her. They eventually climbed back into the room.
"What was that?" asked Tippi, worried.
"I think it's another one of Dimentio's schemes," stated Mario.
"You think?" asked Bowser.
"Whatever's happening," started Luigi, "it's clear someone's trying to stop us."
"And that someone is probably Dimentio," agreed Mario. "If that maid and whoever else lives here were already here before Dimentio came, it looks like Dimentio was able to find inhabitants to turn against us after all."
"If?" asked Luigi. "What if they weren't here before Dimentio came? We wondered if Dimentio has minions working for him. This could all be a trap."
"Well," began Peach, "one thing's for sure, and that's that we should get out of this room." The heroes exited the room through the door they had come through.
"What should we do?" asked Mimi.
"Well, the Pure Heart is our first priority." Tippi felt for the object again. "Yes, it's still pretty far away."
Just then, someone walked around the corner next to them. With a roughly spherical shape, a yellow upper body, a round golden hat with bronze-colored pointy hair sticking from it, blue pants, and stubby arms and legs, he looked like a discolored Tedac. "Oh, hello, I didn't notice you'd come in. Are you seven lost?"
Not sure if this person could be trusted, Tippi didn't know what to say. "No, we're not lost," was all she could think of.
"I see. Well, would you like me to show you around?"
Show us around? Doesn't he think we're not lost? "That's fine. We know where we're going."
The discolored Tedac looked at the heroes. "Is something wrong? You all look nervous."
Tippi figured she could at least tell him this. "Well...when we entered the room behind us right now, a trapdoor opened and we almost were killed by spikes."
The round creature's expression showed a "just-the-usual-routine" expression. "Who did you see when you entered?"
"We saw a maid. She said she'd get her big brother to put us in jail for stepping on the carpet."
"Oh, don't pay attention to Paletta. She's been a bit wacky ever since that big fall." He paused for a moment. "We'd better get into a different room before she comes back from looking for her 'big brother'. She doesn't really have one, but she's convinced she does. Are you hungry from your long mountain journey?"
They weren't, and they wondered why he hadn't bothered to ask why they had come. Again, Tippi didn't know what to say, but Mario interrupted her thoughts. "We don't need anything to eat right now. We're looking for something called a Pure Heart. Can you show us where it is?"
"Certainly. You can call me Larneg, and I'd be glad to show you around." He began walking down the hallway going to the left, the one our heroes had ignored. The heroes half-expected Paletta to come out of one of the doors and find them, but she was nowhere to be seen or heard.
Larneg turned down a 90-degree angle in the hallway to the right. He eventually reached one door that he opened. "The Pure Heart you're looking for is in this room. Have fun." When the heroes entered, he closed the door behind them.
"Hey!" uttered O'Chunks. "What's the big idea, closin' that door on us?"
Suddenly, another trapdoor opened beneath them, and water began pouring down from the ceiling! The water was pushing them down, and soon it would propel them into the spikes at the bottom of this shaft. Bowser, being the one closest to being impaled, had an idea. He turned his body so that his durable shell took the impact of the spikes, and all of the others landed safely on top of him. Bowser's shell had taken damage, but the villain himself seemed unharmed for the most part. Our heroes naturally swam upwards, but when they reached the point they had fallen into the trapdoor, they discovered that the ceiling was spiked as well, and it was descending toward them! Quickly, they dashed for the door, but apparently Larneg had locked it behind them. Bowser's strength came into handy once again. He ran backwards and broke open the door with his shell, sending the water and our heroes flying out the doorway just before they were killed by the spiked ceiling. The rushing water first smashed our heroes into the wall, then pushed them to the left, to the top-left corner of the square hallway when viewed from the direction they came. They were then slammed into another wall in that corner. The water had began to spread out, so our heroes were no longer being soaked.
Bowser examined his shell. "My shell's totally bent! Oh, of all the..."
Before Bowser could finish that sentence, Paletta walked around a corner toward them. "YOU DUMB-DUMBS! YOU GOT THE WHOLE PLACE WET! YOU START BLOW-DRYING ALL THIS RIGHT NOW!!!"
"Yeah?" dared Bowser. "What'll you do if we don't? Get your big brother to come and put us in jail?"
Paletta seemed confused. "What? I don't have a big brother."
"I know. I was being sarcastic."
"What's 'sarcastic'?"
"Forget it."
"What's 'it'?"
"Never mind!"
"What's 'mind'?"
"Just get out of my face before I..." Bowser tried to fry the maid with a blast of fire. Paletta shrieked and ran down the hallway. "Yeah, you'd better run!"
Tippi started, "Bowser, you can't just-"
"Quiet! I already have to put up with you guys being here. Now you're criticizing every move I make. If you don't like my performance, just leave!"
Leave? That made Tippi mad. "Who said we have to bring you along anyway? You're the only one who's misbehaving. Why don't you just leave?"
Mario knew the conflict would only escalate, so he stepped between Tippi and Bowser. "Hey! Let's cool it, OK?"
Before Tippi or Bowser could say anything, Larneg approached from the direction Paletta had fled. "Well, well. It seems we have a criminal among us."
"What!?" exclaimed Tippi.
"From what Paletta told me, the large turtle-dragon tried to attack her with fire. And that means you're all under arrest."
"Arrest? You lead us into a death trap and then WE'RE under arrest?"
"Death trap? What?"
"The room you took us to led us to a trapdoor, and we were almost crushed by the ceiling!"
"Oh, that. I apologize. I must have accidently taken you to the Tourist Trap Spike Room. Well, regardless, you're all under arrest!"
"You yourself agreed she was insane," pointed out Luigi. "Can't you forgive Bowser? He's always like that."
"She's not insane. She's a perfectly healthy individual. And quite a pretty one, if I say so myself."
Our heroes stood in silence at the awkwardness of the entire situation.
"Anyway, you're all under arrest. Follow me."
"Who says we have to?" argued Bowser. "You can't make us!"
"Fine. I will make you." Larneg ran into the nearest door.
"Don't tell me Bowser's getting us arrested again," lamented Peach.
Our heroes stood for a few moments, but after those moments passed, another round creature came out a different door. This one was dark green, like Radnamok X, but wore a moderate purple hat and had bright blue spiky hair. And he had a gun. "Get in the last door on the left side of the hallway, or I pull the trigger!" He marched them down the hallway (which was a rather short distance) and into the door he described. "Go in there, and you'll begin your lifetime of slavery for us." Our heroes looked into the door. The room inside looked like the foyer of a mansion; large with a brown wooden floor, tall white walls, and a staircase to their left, going up in the opposite direction they were walking. Our heroes turned back to face the Radnamok X-like creature, but he had apparently vanished.
"'Ey?" asked O'Chunks. "What 'appened to 'im?"
Our heroes turned back to face into this new room and walked into it. As if out of nowhere, another person was standing in the middle of the room. She looked like a storybook fairy; she was shorter than Paletta, had fluffy purplish hair, four fairy-like wings, a lavender dress, violet eyes, and purple shoes.
"Welcome to the hospital for the clinically stupid. May I take your order?"



-END OF CHAPTER-
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #35 on: December 16, 2007, 07:15:23 PM »
I have a double update today: 5-3 and 5-4. Enjoy.



This mansion was just getting crazier. Our heroes struggled to comphrehend what was going on. Was the whole thing a trap set by Dimentio? Were the people trying to stop them from finding the Pure Heart? And what was this "Hospital for the Clinically Stupid"? The six heroes stared blankly ahead, unable to guess what could be about to happen to them.








"Why are you all staring at me? You act like you've never seen me before."
"We HAVEN'T seen you before," stated Luigi.
"Oh, that's right, I forgot for a second. You were just arrested, right?"
"Um...yes, that's right." Another mentally unstable girl...
"I see. Well, this is the Hospital where Paletta and Larneg make people like me stay. They say I'm insane. Can you believe it?"
"Of co-uh, no way! They're the insane ones!"
"I think so too." She gave them a weak smile. "Well, good luck doing whatever they make you do." She turned around and walked up the stairs.
"That doesn't sound good," thought Bowser aloud.
"Who was that?" asked Tippi. And why isn't Paletta here?
"Nobody cares," uttered a voice beside them. The person who looked like Radnamok X was standing at a desk beside them. "You're all going to work in the incredibly lethal and dangerous and toxic coal mine. I'm Tavirp, and I'll be your boss."
"What!?" exclaimed Mimi.
"Did you not hear me? Now go up those stairs. You'll recieve further instructions there. Once you find 100 pounds of coal, I'll consider giving you guys a break. Bring them all here. Now go."
Seeing that Tavirp had a gun, our heroes obeyed. Mimi looked back at Tavirp, a confused and mildly suspicious expression on her face, then followed the rest. There was a short hallway at the end of the stairs with a door at the far side. Mario opened the door, and our heroes stepped in. The mansion floor, walls, and ceiling abruptly ended as the area turned into a standard dark gray cave instead of the decorated mansion. "So I guess we're supposed to be finding coal," noted Peach.
"You guys new here?" Our heroes turned, and a person was standing in a corridor that branched to the right. He was very squarish, with a red striped hat and shirt.
"Yes, we're new," confirmed Tippi. "And we're a bit lost. Can you tell us exactly where we are?"
The worked shrugged. "It's the work area for prisoners. Not much more to say."
Tippi thought the prisoner looked familiar. "You look similar to the workers in another mansion I've been in. Have you heard of Merlee's Mansion?"
"Um...I think I heard Tavirp mention something like that once. But I've never heard of it before then."
"I see."
"Well, since you guys are new, you'll need some guidance. See patches of rock in the wall like this?" He pointed at a section of the rock that was darker than the standard rock walls. "This is the coal you're looking for. You'll have to get it out using a shovel. Just grab one from that pile."
Our heroes, not including Tippi, picked up shovels for themselves. Luigi had a question. "Do you know what Tavrip needs this coal for?"
"Um...nope. Hey, do you have any idea?" Our heroes thought he was asking them at first, but it was soon apparent he was asking a much thinner blue-clothed worker beside him.
"Not a clue," replied the other worker. "They're just working our rear ends off without telling us why. Well, except for that fairy."
"Except for her?" asked Tippi. "Does she work with Tavirp? I thought they put her here because she was insane."
"She started working here a while ago. She does work with Tavirp, but she's been confined to this area because of her mental problems. She's said she doesn't like the way we're being treated. I think she's trying to find a way to set us free."
Tippi thought. Is she another person trying to set criminals free? This whole thing seems suspicious, though. Is this just a trap?
"Anyway, you should head down that tunnel." He pointed. "There's lots of availible coal down there. You might as well get started."
Our heroes walked down that pathway. There were several small patches of coal lining the walls. "Let's get started." Mario started his mining.
"Might as well." Bowser tossed his shovel aside, knocking out a nearby worker, and simply used his claws.
Our heroes worked until they became incredibly bored. "Let's put all of our coal together," suggested Peach. They did so, and their collected coal reserves made a small pile about half a foot tall.
"This pile is probably worth only five pounds!" complained Mimi. "We'll never get 100!"
"Don't we just have to keep doing this?" asked Mario. "It hasn't been too long, has it?"
A nearby worker checked his watch. "It's been five hours since you guys came in here."
"FIVE 'OURS!?" exclaimed O'Chunks. "It was gittin' late when we came in 'ere! It's night now!"
"That's a pound an hour!" stated Tippi, horrified. "We can't get the 100 pounds Tavirp wants at this rate. We've got to go somewhere else."
O'Chunks observed another passageway that seemed to contain more coal. "How 'bout this 'ere one?"
The heroes began mining in the new area. After an hour, though, they had only produced slightly more than a pound of coal. "This won't do either," figured Mario. He had a thought. "Maybe we could do the same thing I did in Merlee's Mansion when I thwarted Mimi's evil plot to...ahem...uh...no offense."
"We found a safe that contained all of what we needed," explained Peach. "There might be a huge coal reserve hidden somewhere."
"How can we tell where it is, though?" Mimi looked nervous.
"I guess we'll just have to look around...Um...is something wrong, Mimi?"
"What? Me? No, I'm fine."
Mario looked down the tunnel in the direction they had entered. "There's nothing down there but a dead end."
"Let's look in this path," suggested Luigi, looking at a tunnel branching from the one they had previously been in.
Our heroes walked down that tunnel. A few more workers were mining here, but a while of walking yielded yet another dead end. "Come on!" complained Bowser. "Isn't there any path that'll lead us to something other than a dead end?"
"There might be..." contemplated Tippi. "But there's so many different paths here...it would be hard to find anything."
"We might as well try," sighed Mario.
The heroes walked out of that tunnel and tried another, and then another. "Are you looking for better coal reserves?" one of the workers asked.
"Yes," answered Tippi. "There's too little coal where we were working. Do you know where we can find more?"
"Well, frankly, I don't think there's any particular place where there's more coal reserves. You'd better start working instead of just wasting time looking for a place where you can do it faster."
The seven walked down another tunnel, finding nothing. Dissapointed, they began to turn back, but there was someone standing in this passage. It was the fairy-creature our heroes had seen earlier. "You're the new workers, right?" Her face reminded the heroes of the concerned expression Kara had worn while she was describing her situation at night by the palm trees.
"Yes," explained Tippi. "We just came here today."
"Well, let me tell you a few things. My name is Novelle. I've been watching you guys, and I'm impressed with your talents. If the seven of you work together, you can overcome any obstacle."
Bowser groaned.
"That's why I want to ask you to help me with something. You see, I've worked here for a while. I've known lots of workers, and I've known Larneg, Tavirp, and Paletta for a while. But I always felt that the workers were being treated unfairly."
Tippi figured she'd ask the big question. "What exactly is this place?"
"We're using the workers to gather coal. But I never understood why Tavirp and the others need it so badly. I've tried to ask them, but they just answer 'It's for a good cause.'"
"Really? They don't tell you? Then why do you agree to work with them?"
"Because I'm planning to rescue the workers from within. They'll never suspect what I'm trying to do if I'm actually working for them. So that's why I need you to help me with something."
Something didn't seem right. Is she telling the truth? Or is this some kind of deception? And is Dimentio behind this? And where's the Pure Heart? "Well...what do you want us to do?"
"It's pretty easy. Follow me." Novelle began walking down the corridor, the heroes following her. She turned a corner.
Suddenly, our heroes felt as if they were falling through air. And, indeed, they were falling. Into a narrow vertical shaft that seemed to have no bottom.
"AIEEE!!!" shrieked Peach.
"'Ey? Was this whole dern thing a trap?" questioned O'Chunks.
"I'll see if I can help us again!" But before Mimi could begin to transform, she was slammed against a slope at the bottom of the chamber, along with the other heroes, and tossed into a tunnel that now ran diagonally downwards and to the side.
"Waaaahh!!!" Luigi shouted, frantic. "How do we get-" At that moment, our heroes slammed into a dead end. It wasn't a real dead end, though. The heroes crashed into a pile of rocks that filled the tunnel, scattering them and getting lost somewhere in the mess. They slowed down, finally coming to a stop somewhere in the rocks.
"Ugggh..." Mario struggled to move. He was covered in bruises, making every movement painful, but he'd suffocate if he couldn't get out of these rocks somehow. The others were undoubtedly in similar situations. Finally Mario managed to loosen the rocks around him. He saw Luigi's hat in front of him. It was moving slightly, so Mario knew Luigi must be struggling as well. Mario began shifting some rocks to help his brother out. While he was working, something to Mario's right caught his eye. It was a small drop of a red liquid. He blinked. Was this blood? He examined his arms and legs and felt around his face. He was covered in sores, but none of them were bleeding. What is that? He scooped it up with his finger and examined it closely. It was a lighter pinkish shade than blood, though still close in color, and it seemed to glow. This can't be blood. But...if it's not blood, what is it? He looked around, hoping to find more of it, but none was present except for the drop on his finger. Is it a body fluid at all? Was it here before we came here? That can't be...it would have been smashed against a rock or one of us, and dissolved.
"Hey, Mario, a little more help here?"
"Oh, that's right!" Wanting to show the mysterious red substance to Luigi, Mario used only his left hand to help the struggling Luigi. Soon, the two brothers rested in a small space of the rocks barely big enough for the two of them.
"We've got to help the others." Luigi began moving some rocks around with his feet.
"Wait. Luigi, I want you to look at this." The drop of strange liquid was still on his finger. "It was to my right. And it probably wasn't here before we came because it would have been smashed by the rocks."
Luigi stared at the softly glowing drop. "That isn't blood, is it? It's lighter, and it's...glowing."
"I don't know what it is either. Or how it got here."
"Well, let's worry about that later, and worry about the lives of our friends right now."
"Good point."
Luigi continued kicking rocks out of the way. Mario turned around, and since keeping the drop on his finger would slow him down, wiped it on a rock. It spread, like blood would, but didn't lose its glow. Mario had more important things to think about, though. He searched for the other heroes. "Here's Bowser," Luigi announced after a few moments. "He's unconscious."
"Thank goodness. I found O'Chunks. He isn't awake either."
They continued, Mario finding Peach. She was the only conscious one besides the brothers, so she helped Mario clear out the stones to his right. They found Mimi, also unconscious, in that pile. In addition to the scrapes that covered all of the heroes, Mario and Peach noticed what looked like a dried scar on the right side of her head. It had a red tone, like any scar would, but it seemed to be lighter than Mario and Peach would have expected. Not only that, but they thought they could make out a faint light emanating from the scar itself.
"Wait a second..." Mario looked over at the drop he had smeared on the wall. It was still there, but had lost its glow. "Peach, when I was trapped, I found a drop of a red liquid to my right that seemed to glow. It probably wasn't here before we came since it would have been disturbed by the rocks."
Peach was silent for a moment. "Are you saying that red liquid was Mimi's blood?"
"It seems like the only explanation. But why would her blood...glow?"
"I found Tippi," called Luigi. "That's all of us."
O'Chunks and Bowser had woken up by this time, so only Mimi and Tippi were still unconscious. "Oh, darn it!" cursed Bowser. "Now my shell looks like it's been eaten by a trash compactor!"
"We 'ave to find a way to git outta 'ere," noted O'Chunks. "Yeh think we can just climb up the way we fell when Mimi wakes up?"
"Well, what's down the other way?" Luigi climbed a short way down through the rocks...and screamed. "It's lava! We can't go down there!"
"Lava?" asked Mario. "Novelle was trying to kill us! We're lucky to be alive!"
"Wait. There's something else..." Luigi first looked at the lava, then all around him. "Guys, do you realize what these rocks are? They're darker than those rocks the cave was made of."
The others instantly recognized it. "Coal!" uttered Bowser. "Good! Now we just need to carry this stuff up to Tavirp and tell him we want our break."
After a few more moments, Tippi and Mimi were awake. "Mimi, can you carry us up again?" asked Peach.
"OK. Let me rest for a few minutes, though. I think I hit my head on something." She touched the place where her scar had been, and the others noticed that the scar had almost completely vanished. When Mimi was ready to help the others, they pushed their way through the rocks, climbing up through the passage while the others carried the coal rocks. They finally reached the place where the tunnel changed into a vertical shaft. Mimi, as a spider, slowly carried the others up until they emerged at the trapdoor that had almost killed them. No one was around.
"They've probably gone to bed for the night," estimated Peach. "Well, we have the coal, so let's bring it to Tavirp."
"And sue him," offered Mario.
They walked through the cave, finally emerging back in the mansion landscape. Tavirp's eyes bulged. "What!? You're-ahem, how much coal have you gathered?"
"We have enough. Now you're going to pay!" proclaimed Bowser.
"Oh, really? We'll see about-" Tavirp suddenly paused. "Wait, WHAT!? You got the 100 pounds I wanted!?" He seemed to be going crazy. "That wasn't supposed to happen!!! AAHHHH!!! YOU'VE BROKEN THE CURSE!!!" Tavirp rose into the air, and suddenly exploded. Pieces of his body flew in different directions, scattering across the room (No blood, gore, or any other M-rated stuff was present, though), and they disappeared after a few seconds.
Our heroes didn't know what to say. "What just happened?" asked Bowser.
"Something seems familiar about this..." thought Tippi. "Where have I seen..."
Mimi interrupted her. "Hey, since Tavirp's gone, we can look for the Pure Heart, right?"
"What? Oh, right. I'd almost forgotten about that. Hmm...it doesn't look like it's any closer here. It's still in the direction we entered this place. There's no doors going that way here...so let's go back to the rectangular hallway and see if we can find a door that takes us that way."
Our heroes exited through the door Tavirp had forced them to enter at gunpoint. Halfway through the top of the rectangle, there was indeed a door that seemed to go on. "Let's see..." Mario opened the door. The mansion again abruptly ended and a cave began, but this cave had a more brownish tint than the one they had worked in. They stepped into this cave.
"The Pure Heart is nearer here," announced Tippi. "Come on. Let's do this!"



-END OF CHAPTER-
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #36 on: December 16, 2007, 07:17:45 PM »
Tavirp had vanished in a bizarre explosion, and everyone had apparently gone to bed, which hopefully guaranteed the heroes' safety. It was dark outside, but of course, inside the mountain there was no real day or night. "I wonder what time it is," wondered Luigi. "I'm not tired, so it's probably...hmm...nine, ten o'clock?"
"We've got to get the Pure Heart quickly, or we'll fall asleep," urged Tippi. "It's still in this direction. Let's just keep walking..." But Tippi was wrong in one way. They would do much more then just walking as they searched for the sixth Pure Heart.








The damp cave reminded our heroes of the Floro Sapien Caverns they had traveled through during their previous adventure. There were Buzzy Beetles and Spike Tops in this cave as well, giving them a comforting, if fleeting, familiarity. There was a large wooden door at the end of this "hallway". Not seeing any other path, they entered it.
They emerged in a small room. The room contained four doors; the one they had just come out of, one a short walk in front of them, and two upside-down ones extending from the ceiling. "Upside-down doors?" questioned Mario. "We can't reach those unless we find some way to flip the place."
Tippi ventured beyond the second ground door. "There's a chamber over here with lava on the floor. I see a switch on the ceiling over the lava."
Mario followed Tippi until they both were standing at the beginning of the lava floor. The ceiling dipped down over the lava, but there was still reasonable space between the switch and the lava. Mario jumped back before he could observe for long. "The heat is making those scrapes burn. You'd better not get too close to the lava, guys."
"What about those doors?" asked Peach. "There might be something important in them."
Mario knew the situation. "In maze areas like this, you can always be sure that the switch will turn the room upside-down. Now, if only we had a way to..."
Everyone stared at Mimi. "Fine...I'll get the switch." The walk was more comforatable for her, since, as the others noticed, she was now scar-free. She hit the switch at the other end, and the room reversed itself. Our heroes fell from the floor to the...floor, which was really the ceiling. There were two doors facing them, but only the one below/above the one they had entered from could be used; the other was locked, and it looked like our heroes would need to find two keys in order to unlock it.
"I'll guess right now that the two keys we need are going to be found in these two doors," explained Mario. "Let's go in the door we can use." The other heroes followed Mario through that door.
Beyond the door, our heroes stood in another typical underground passageway. They ventured through it, defeating enemies and hitting ? Blocks along they way. After some time of walking, the path split. "Which way should we go?" unneccecarily asked Tippi.
Mario climbed the ladder down to the lower path. There was more lava at the bottom of a passageway. Mario took advantage of the conveniently placed moving platforms and reached a switch on the other side. The switch caused some rocks blocking the upper path to crumble.
"Well, there's our answer," mused Tippi. When Mario rejoined them, the heroes climbed the upper half of the ladder to reach the top path. At the end of this path, they found another door, but this one was locked.
"Let's see if I can find something." Mario flipped into 3D. A hole in the ground near them became visible, so Mario jumped down into it. The hole formed a tunnel that spiraled far below the ground (actually, they were far above ground level). It was infested with Spike Tops and Cursyas, so Mario played it safe and carefully dodged the enemies he couldn't defeat, using the Buzzy Beetle shells as weapons when he could. One time, however, a shell richocheted off a wall and came back to hit Mario when he wasn't paying attention. "That really doesn't help the pain. I've got to be more careful." Finally, the hero reached a staircase that ceased spiraling. The key lie on a pedestal too high for Mario to reach. How do I reach that?. Mario's Flip Meter had just about exhausted itself, so he flipped back into 2D to rest, and then he noticed the Flip Block that he couldn't see in 3D. He jumped onto it, and from there he could collect the key. He thought about using it on the door with two locks, but this key didn't look like it would fit. He waited until his Flip meter was fully charged, and then proceeded back upward. When he reached the others, he flipped back and showed them the key. "Let's go on." The heroes unlocked the door and proceeded.
In this new room, our heroes observed a long passageway heading away from them. Its floor and ceiling were covered in spikes, and there was a another switch next to them. Mario jumped on the switch, and more moving platforms appeared over the spikes. They were fading, though. By their looks, they would only last about 15 seconds. "Hang on. I'll do this!" Mario carefully jumped across the platforms. On the other side, there was another key. Mario could tell that this was the key they were looking for, so he grabbed it. Just then, the moving platforms disappeared. Fortunately, another switch was next to Mario, so he used it to return to the others across the spikes. "This is probably the key that unlocks that other door."
"Right," agreed Tippi. "Let's go back there."
Our heroes backtracked through that door and back through the passage until they emerged at the door that had taken them to that area. Mario inserted the key into the lock. "That's one down, one to go. The other key is probably in the unlocked door we didn't go in last time. Mimi will need to flip the room again."
"Why? Isn't the switch just on the ground?"
"Yes, but once the room flips, the switch will be on the ceiling and the lava will be on the ground, meaning if anyone else hits it, they'll be burnt to a crisp."
"Oh, right, I see now. You probably know these things without thinking by now." Mimi hit the switch again, reversing the room. The door to the right of the one they had initally entered the area from was now enterable. When Mimi rejoined the heroes, they entered this new door.
Another passageway awaited them. After fighting through some more enemies and going through another door, a new obstacle awaited our heroes. An ocean of lava lie in a huge chasm in front of them. Small platforms jutted through the lava up to a point where our heroes could use them as stepping stones. Several enemies rested on these platforms. "I'd better go first, just to test the path," announced Mario.
"Are you sure?" asked Peach. "You've been bruised pretty badly. I have a parasol, so I can see if it's safe."
"Well, OK." Mario allowed Peach to jump onto the first platform. With the help of her parasol, Peach reached the other side. "I think the rest of you can still make it across," she shouted from the other side of the pit.
"I guess I'll go next." Mario leaped across the platforms, defeating enemies when neccecary. He reached the other side as well, followed by O'Chunks, Bowser, and then Luigi.
"These platforms are starting to crumble" after O'Chunks and Bowser stepped on them! Luigi carefully stepped onto a new platform. He then heard a cracking noise. He looked down, and the platform's base was starting to break apart. The platform tilted wildly, causing Luigi to slip. He grabbed onto the platform's edge, teetering precariously over the magma far below. "HEEELP!!!"
"I'll get ya, Luigi," Mario began, but O'Chunks cut him off.
"I can do this. Yeh just watch."
"What are you doing!? You'll" break that platform!
"Yeh'll see." O'Chunks quickly jumped back across the platforms until he reached the spot where Luigi was about to tumble down through the air. He leaped from the nearest platform to the side opposite the one Luigi was hanging from. His weight balanced the platform, bringing it to a level state where Luigi could stand on it again.
"Thanks, O'Chunks. You really did save my life" even if it was only because of your weight.
"Yeh don't have to mention it. Now let's git ourselves back there and make it fast." Luigi and O'Chunks hopped off the platform just as it collapsed and fell into the lava. They jumped across the rest of the platforms, but they were so weakened by now that all except one crumbled. Only Mimi remained on the other side.
"How is she going to get across?" wondered Tippi.
None of the others needed to worry, because after a few moments, Mimi apparently figured it out. She transformed once again, and using her head-spinning-weapon maneuver, drew herself to the other side with one of those black lines. She joined the others and returned to her normal form. There was yet another door here, so our heroes continued through the cave. They came out in a small room with nothing in it except for another key.
"That's the last key!" joyfully announced Luigi. "Now we can get back to that door and hopefully find the Pure Heart."
Mario began walking to the key. "Tippi, is the Pure Heart closer here?"
"Yes. It's probably in this direction, but in another passage that we can get to from the locked door."
"I figured. Well, let's-"
He intended to finish his sentence once he had grabbed the key, but that never happened. Our heroes suddenly heard an ear-splitting "BANANA POWER!!!"
Suddenly, a piece of the scenery fell away, revealing a plain white rectangle. It was joined by many others until our heroes were now standing in a sort of white void with only a black line for an edge.
A thin black line emerged in front of them. When the line was finished, something spun around incredibly quickly, and blue-green energy beams crackled around the area it was happening. After a few seconds, the flipping stopped, and an energy-sound-wave echoed from the area. When all of this cleared, two mechanical-looking people were standing there-a humanoid one, and a smaller, floating one that hovered behind it.
"I offer you the greetings of the Republic of Banan," the small one said. "Would you like to renegotiate on our cease-banana-peel-slipping treaty?"
Our heroes were speechless.
"If not, the Banan Republic can at least offer you our freshest strawberries. Would you like to taste some?"
"Alpha, stop with that nonsense and get to the speech we practiced!" the other one commanded.
"What? A speech?"
"Yes! That speech we practiced over and over!"
"I didn't know we had a speech!"
"Gaah...looks like I'll have to do this myself." He turned toward the heroes. "I am B-A Omega, wielder of the universes' most advanced weapons technology." He demonstrated by firing a firey jet out of his hand toward the ceiling.
"And I am the ambassador of the Republic of Strawberria. Would you like to taste some of our freshest bananas?"
"ALPHA! GET TO IT!"
"Oh, right! And I am H-X Alpha, small but deadly!" He extended a laser gun from his side and also blasted it at the ceiling.
"You two practiced saying that over and over?" asked Tippi.
"Yep. We practice our activities day and night," answered B-A Omega. Then they both added, "And now we'll use our powers to destroy you!" although H-X Alpha made it sound more like "powars".
"Who are you guys?" asked Peach.
"Just your average everyday robots," responded Omega. "Your average every KILLING robots, that is!"
"What do you want!? Are you two behind this whole Hospital thing?"
"No, we aren't. But we know the guy who is. Because all three of us work for Dimentio."
"Dimentio!?" exclaimed Mario. "You guys are working for him!?"
"Absolutely positively additionally continuingly!" answered Alpha.
"That's right. And now we're going to obliterate the lot of you!"
"Yeah, you bunch of dirty, sweaty socks!"
"You guys are total weirdos!" shouted Mimi. "Why don't you just leave us alone?"
"Because then Dimentio would fire us. And we don't want that, do we, Alpha?"
"NO! WHADDYA THINK? WE'RE GONNA GRIND YA FOOLS INTO COOKIES! AND THEN WE'LL CHOW DOWN ON YA!"
"You guys scare me..."
"Anyway," continued B-A Omega, "now we'll destroy you, and get our promotion from Dimentio!"
"How did he find you guys anyway?" asked Luigi. "Who created you?"
"Why's that any of your stinkin' business? HUH? HUH? HUH?" Alpha rambled.
"After all," finished B-A Omega, "it's not going to matter once you're all piles of bones in this room."
"Not bones. COOKIES I TELL YA!"

MINIBOSS
H-X Alpha and B-A Omega

Omega flew up toward the ceiling while Alpha moved away from the heroes and began firing laser shots. Our heroes jumped over these, but they didn't notice Omega planning his attack above them. Without warning, he slammed into the ground headfirst, pinning Luigi to the ground with his spiked head.
"GAAAHH!!!" Luigi screamed. He didn't appear to be badly injured, but he was in obvious pain.
"I'll counter slam with slam!" Mario leaped into the air and gave Omega a gound pound. He jumped off Luigi and flew to the right, toward Alpha. They switched places, Omega being in front of them and Alpha being above. Omega bended his left leg backwards and fired a large energy beam from it. The blast slammed Peach against the left wall.
"We've got to be more careful," noted Mimi, but at that moment she noticed Alpha was hovering directly above her. She jumped out of the way just before she would have been fried by a laser. Seeing the opportunity, Luigi dashed below Alpha once he had turned off the beam and Super Jumped him from below.
"Let's take this to the next level." Omega produced three sharp-looking gray shurikens, smaller than the ones King Animaul had used, and tossed them into the midst of the heroes. None of them were hit, but the shurikens stuck to the surfaces they hit with a loud clank, two on the left wall and one on the floor, making them permanent hazards.
"Say hello to my little friend!" Alpha caused a glowing energy sphere to materialize. When it had grown large enough in size, Alpha sent it flying across the room. It bounced off the right wall, richocheted off the left, and grazed Mario. Even though it didn't directly hit him, he still felt some of the blast's power. He turned around, and before Alpha could do anything, jumped on the robot, dealing damage.
Meanwhile, Omega had been hovering in the upper-right corner of the room. He descended toward the center, and knives extended from his left arm. He launched them, similar to how he had thrown his shurikens, toward the left side. Our heroes ducked to avoid the projectiles, and decided it was a good idea to stay on the right side of the battlefield from now on.
"Can you stand up to this?" Alpha moved to the bottom-left corner. All kinds of laser guns and machinery sprouted from his main polygonal body. He began to glow as he charged up energy, and in a few seconds, he unleashed the most powerful laser our heroes had ever seen. Having done this several times before, most of them managed to dodge it, but O'Chunks was hit and thrown against the right wall.
"I've been chunked!" He struggled to move out of the way.
Omega took advantage of the situation and threw two more shurikens at O'Chunks. But O'Chunks still had it in him. He jumped over the assault and nailed the robot with a ground pound.
"You're getting hurt!" Alpha shouted to Omega. "Poor, innocent child! I'll take care of your abusers!" He climbed to the ceiling again and charged for another laser. Luigi quickly hit him with another Super Jump before he could fire. H-X Alpha resumed charging, though, and dealt another energy blast, narrowly missing Peach.
"I'll take care of this one." Bowser charged for Omega.
While he did, Alpha rushed to Omega's side. "You aren't torturing this prisoner anymore, enemy soldier!" He fired laser blasts in Bowser's direction. Bowser countered with his firey breath, aiming it toward Alpha. The robot was hit by the blast and weakened.
"Now who's the tortured prisoner?" Bowser dealt a powerful ground pound to Alpha, finishing him. He collapsed to the ground, crackling with electricity.
"My partner may be out, but I can still defeat you all!" proclaimed B-A Omega. He held out his right arm, which looked much like a laser cannon, and blasted Bowser.
"Waahhh!" Bowser crashed into the other wall, the one with all sorts of weapons sticking from it. "You idiot! You damaged my shell even more! You're going to pay for that!" Bowser charged for Omega.
Knowing Omega would blast him away again, Mario rushed to Bowser's side. He used his hammer and hit Omega in the chest, damaging the mechanical plate.
"Now he's got a weak spot!" Mimi aimed a sharp Rubee directly for Omega's damaged chest area, but Omega quickly swerved out of the way.
"Just because I'm damaged doesn't mean I can't fight! Now, take this!" He produced the knives from his left arm again. However, this time, his left hand began to glow until flames sprouted from the red jewel in his palm. He threw the knives, and the flames from his palm set the knives on fire as they flew, creating flaming weapons that soared toward the heroes.
"I'm trying again!" Mimi blocked a knife from impaling O'Chunks with a well-timed Rubee, then went for Omega again. This time, Omega was less prepared, and the Rubee hit his chest squarely. Omega sparked with electricity, like Alpha had.
"He's almost down!" joyfully noted Peach.
"I'll finish this guy." Mario attempted to jump on the minion again, but Omega had one last trick up his sleeve. He waited until Mario was close, and then quickly pulled out four shurikens that he aimed for Mario. Luigi, nearby, sprung into action. He grabbed Mario's leg, pulling him to the ground, and the shurikens passed harmlessly over them. "Gee, thanks, Luigi. Now I'll finish him!" He jumped on the nearby Omega, who crackled with sparks a final time, and then fell to the floor as Alpha had.
"Ooog..." moaned H-X Alpha. "They got us."
Omega stood up. "Yes, they certainly did. Maybe we were a bit overconfident..."
"You can't stand up to the heroes of prophecy," assured Tippi.
"Heroes? Maybe they really are heroes. Just like Dimentio said. We've got to do better next time. Until then, we'll be seeing you!"
"Yeah," taunted Alpha sarcastically. "And when we meet again, we'll obliterate you! We'll wipe you off the face of the planet! We'll annihilate you! WE'LL GRIND YOU INTO FISH STICKS! WE'LL BLEND YOU INTO SMOOTHIES! WE'LL GRIND YOU INTO PULPS!...batteries not included.♥" The two robots performed their more exciting version of flipping out. The whiteness fell away, one rectangle at a time, until our heroes were back in the cave.
Everyone was silent for a while. Finally Tippi mused, "That...was weird."
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #37 on: December 16, 2007, 07:23:44 PM »
"Well," finished Mario, "we can finally get this key." He picked it up.
"Oh, I ache all over!" complained Peach. "I sure hope we don't have to do any more fighting."
"Let's hope so." The seven walked out of the room. They were now back in the room with the huge lava chasm.
"This is a problem," presented Tippi. "Those platforms have broken. We can't get across!"
Mario thought. "Is there a way Mimi can carry us to the other side?"
"I don't know if I can. Can you guys hang on while I go across?"
"I'll try it out." Mario waited for Mimi to transform, then held onto her head while she moved across the pit. They landed on the other side safely.
"Now I'll have to carry the rest of you." Mimi repeated the tactic for the others, groaning slightly as she lifted Bowser and O'Chunks.
"Well, get back to the first area and flip again," started Luigi as the heroes walked back through the door. The heroes backtracked again through the tunnel, and then came out in the area with four doors. Mimi flipped the room again, and the locked door was now availible.
"I'll put this key in." Mario put the final key in the lock, and the door could now be opened. They entered it, expecting to enter another typical enemy chamber.
Which they did. This room was filled with all sorts of Beetles, Red Spike Tops, and other enemies. Our heroes were careful to avoid the enemies, except for Buzzy Beetles, which they used to defeat some of the others. Finally the passage ended with four doors, one on a platform above another, and two upside-down ones. "Do these doors lead to the same room?" asked Tippi. "They're right next to each other."
"Let's try the bottom one that's rightside up." Mario opened it, the others following. They walked into what looked like a large pipe maze. This room was much less cramped than the areas before it; the cave walls on either side were much farther away, giving the room a darker, damper vibe. "I've dealt with these before. You just have to keep trying pipes until you find the correct ones." The heroes entered a pipe that took them to their right, and were then confronted with a choice to go up or further right.
"Let's go right," suggested O'Chunks. They moved into the pipe, but it turned around and deposited them back at their starting point.
"I guess that means we go up," evaluated Mimi. They went back to the pipe split and went up. There was a switch in this small area. Mario hit it, and the pipe that had taken them back to the start shifted, now taking the heroes farther right.
"We'll go back in that pipe now," announced Mario. They traveled down through the vertical pipe and entered that pipe again. It took them to the right, as expected, but our heroes now faced a dead end.
"What now?" asked Bowser.
"I'll check." Mario went 3D, but it was apparent that going into 3D would be of no help here; the entire pipe maze lie on a thin strip of ground, with pits of nothingness on either side. He flipped back. "Nothing, guys."
"So what now?" repeated Bowser.
"We go back and go in the top door. It always works that way."
"Oh, yeah, I knew that. I was just seeing if you knew."
Mario sighed.
The heroes backtracked again through the two pipes and back to the other room. They now entered the top door. It took them to another area of the pipe maze directly above where the other door had taken them. The heroes took a pipe upwards and then were given a choice of left or right.
"I say we go left," offered Peach.
"I think we should go right," argued Tippi.
"I think we should go down!" asserted Bowser. "Wait a second..."
"Let's go right," suggested Mario. Seeing as he was the one with experience, the others respected his authority. They followed him into the pipe, which took them back to this door's starting point.
"Good advice, Mario," teased Bowser.
"Whatever. Let's go left." They did so, and there was another switch in this room. They hit the switch, and the dead end at the other path fell away, revealing a path. "Looks like we're going back there." They returned to the door the way they came, went into it, and dropped back to the bottom door in the other room. Back in the bottom path, they retraced their steps to the former dead end and walked through the open passage. After a few more pipe twists and turns, the heroes came upon a switch on a ceiling between two pipes.
"How do we hit that?" asked Bowser. "It's too narrow for Mimi to climb up."
"I can still help." Mimi tossed a Rubee at the switch, and the entire maze flipped upside-down.
"Now we're upside down again," stated Luigi.
"Actually, we're rightside up," explained Mario. "We turned the room upside down to enter the locked door."
"Oh. I should have known. I go on these adventures too!"
"So what does 'at do fer us?" asked O'Chunks. "There ain't no place we can go."
Peach remembered something. "I remember," she stated. "In the area we hit the switch that removed the dead end, there was an opening in the ceiling. We should be able to drop down it now since the place is flipped."
"More backtracking," complained Mimi. They did so through the pipes, getting lost a few times, back through the former dead end, and into more pipes. They exited through the now-availible new door, emerging in the flipped tunnel. They entered through the last door they hadn't used, and they appeared below the former area. They walked to the area where the switch had been, but this time it was trickier since the directions had been reversed. There was indeed a hole in the floor/ceiling, so our heroes dropped into it. They were now faced with yet another pipe maze. They traveled through pipes, often getting lost.
"Is this even worth it?" asked Bowser. "How will we get through this?"
Mario recognized a pipe formation he saw earlier. "Well, let's go in the pipe to the right here. It's the only one we haven't tried at this crossroads." They entered the upper pipe, and were taken to a long chamber, framed by pipes and a rocky ceiling, that went to the left. There were enemies such as Spanias, Spike Tops, and Clefts in this passage, but Mario obviously couldn't flip to 3D to avoid them. They carefully stepped through the enemies, a few of them getting hit a couple of times.
"I'm not sure how much longer I can take this beating," groaned Luigi.
"We just have to press forward," stated Mario, trying to boost his brother's confidence. "Look, this passage is ending right here." The passage ended with a pipe going downwards. Our heroes were now to the left of the area where the pipe maze had started. They entered the pipe, and emerged in a moderate-sized area with a single ? Block.
"That's got to be something that'll help us." Mario hit the block, and a Mega Star came out. "A Mega Star! Now this'll be fun!" Mario collected the Star.
Pulses of whiteness expanded from Mario until the screen was completely white. Several 8-bit replicas of Mario from Super Mario Bros. appeared on the screen. They paused for a moment, but then they all began running, leaving black trails in their wake and forming a solid black line. That line was just part of a massive 8-bit Mario that began to take form, being drawn into existence and then colored. Mario knew what to do. He ran to the right, smashing through the pipe maze and destroying everything our heroes had worked so hard to get through. When the Mega Star had run out, Mario had smashed through the last of the pipes and was now standing in a small tunnel with a door at the end. "The coast is clear, guys," he yelled to the others.
They came, and they all entered the door. There was a very small room on the other side. It wasn't a cave like the one they had just been in; it had a more mansion vibe, like the place they had been in before this cave, but with off-white walls and ceilings with sparse golden decorations. There was another door at the far end of this room, which wasn't very far away. "The Pure Heart is very close!" exclaimed Tippi. "Finally! Now let's get the Pure Heart and get back to Flipside. We need some rest, that's for sure." The heroes entered this door, unaware of what was about to happen.
They came out in a room similar to the one they had just been in, but slightly larger. There was nothing in this room either, except for Paletta. "WHAT!? You got through all those incredibly dangerous and puzzling obstacles!?"
"Yes, we did," asserted Tippi in a confident voice. "Now tell us what's going on and then give us the Pure Heart."
"I'm not sure about this..." wailed Mimi.
"What's to worry? We've got her cornered."
"You guys are so overconfident," said Paletta. "I'll have to get Larneg in here to arrest you." Instead of moving, Paletta was surrounded in a purple cloud. When the cloud had vanished, Larneg was where Paletta had been. "You're under arrest. For being such heroes so that you could get through all that stuff Dimentio and I threw at you!"
Mimi shrieked. "Hurry! Get the Pure Heart from him! Now!"
"Dimentio!?" uttered Tippi. "So Dimentio was behind this! You're another person working for him, aren't you?"
"Yes. I am. And so is Paletta. And Tavirp. And Novelle. In fact, you might even say we're all the same person. Haven't you realized you never saw more than one of us at a time?"
"What!? I don't understand..."
"You still haven't realized the truth, have you? I'm Morris, a loyal minion of Dimentio. I've been tricking you heroes the entire time, from when I first saw you as Paletta to now when I'm Larneg. You see, I have the ability to change my shape at will. And I can also do other things. Things that your friend Mimi can't."
Mimi cowered at the back of the group. "I...no! That can't be you! Where have..." She paused, now barely speaking above a whisper. "Is that you!?"
"Oh, you bet it's me. And I've found a better leader than that totally weak Count Bleck. That was a very bad choice, choosing to work for him. I guess now is when you'll regret you ever agreed to serve him." Morris left his Larneg form and emerged in what seemed to be his true form. He looked almost identical to Mimi; a square head with black lines for limbs. However, he didn't have the hair that Mimi had, he wore blue clothing, and his skin was pure black, unlike Mimi's green. The outlines that formed his eyes and body were white, contrasting with his black body. Finally, certain parts of his skin seemed to glow a light blue. He didn't stay in this form for our heroes to look at for very long, though. "TRUE MORRIS, COME FORTH!" Morris tilted his head until his neck cracked. He rotated his head until it was completely upside-down. A chiming sound played for no apparent reason, and then Morris's head grew and became moldy and wrinkly. Long, spidery legs extended from Morris's upside-down head, and as he raised his new head, his right shoulder dislocated, leaving his normal body hanging uselessly from his giant head, and before I could get any more descriptive, his transformation into a giant spider was finished. "Now we'll see what you'll say when I defeat you all and get the promotion those robots failed!"

BOSS
Morris

Morris pulled himself up to the ceiling. He centered his body on our heroes, and suddenly fired three sharp blue stones, identical in color to the faint blue patches on his skin, in different directions. One of them was about to hit O'Chunks, but Mimi dove in front of him and took the hit herself. "'Ey, thanks, Mimi, but aren't yeh hurt?"
"I'll be fine!"
"I guess I'll just do this from experience." Mario grabbed one of the blue stones and threw it upwards at Morris's body. Morris's right three legs lost their grip, and struggled to reattatch himself to the ceiling. Knowing what to do, Peach took another stone in her hands and hit Morris with it. The spider dropped to the floor, now vulnerable. O'Chunks attempted to give him a ground pound, but Morris blocked him with a rock that sent him across the room to the left. Mario seized the moment and hit Morris with the final stone, immobilizing him. He then gave Morris a hearty jump. Mario bounced off the spider, and Morris lost one of his legs. "We just need to do that five more times!" He ran toward the stone that had hit O'Chunks, grabbed it, and hurled it at Morris. He was weakened again, so Peach hit him this time, and he now only had four legs left.
"You think you've got me? Wait until you see this." Morris walked to the right and climbed onto the wall. He began firing stones from that position, and they were coming down like the rain. A few of the heroes were hit, but they now had excellent ammo. O'Chunks grabbed a stone, and Mimi went for it with her own Rubee. Morris was hit twice and knocked to the ground, where Mario jumped on him again. He now had three legs.
"We're doing good," congratulated Mimi. "Even if..."
"Let's go for it!" Bowser hit Morris with fire, immobilizing him once again. A jump from Luigi, and only two of his legs were left.
Morris again attached himself to the ceiling. Instead of producing more blue stones, though, he caused a wave of them to sweep the area from left to right. Everyone except Bowser managed to jump it. "Come on!" griped Bowser. "I can't get hurt any more! I'm the Koopa King!" Morris began producing yet more stones. One of them hit Bowser's shell. "Oh, for the love of..."
"We've got him now!" Mario picked up two of the stones and threw them toward Morris. He landed on the ground again. Mimi hit him with a Rubee, and Bowser jumped on him to bring him to one total leg. Morris then began producing blue stones like crazy. Several of our heroes were hit, but in the confusion Mimi managed to hit him with another Rubee and damage him herself. Morris lost his last leg.
"Thanks, Mimi," said Tippi. "Now, for him to give us-"
"I'm not sure about that," said Mimi, worried.
Morris had fallen to the ground. Instead of admitting defeat, he extended six wavy legs from his head, and instead of pulling himself back up, duplicates of his head appeared at the end of each of the legs. They began firing stones at an astonishing rate. One was about to hit Mario, but Mimi again blocked the stone from reaching its target. Mario noticed the spot where Mimi had been hit with the previous stone showed no sign of being hit at all. "I guess this is the same thing." Mario picked another stone up and Mimi attacked with a Rubee. The two stones hit one of the heads, causing it to disappear.
"You're going to have to do better than that!" Morris again produced the wave, but with duplicates of his head in all different places in the battlefield, it was harder to dodge. "You're all just about dead now, aren't you? Just give up and let Dimentio activate the Chaos Heart!"
"Never!" Mimi attacked another head with a Rubee, and it vanished. Four were left. Luigi took out another one with a Super Jump, but one of the three remaining ones caught him with a stone. He fell to the ground, weakened.
Mimi attempted to use a Rubee again, but the head she was aiming for quickly swerved out of the way and hit her with another stone. "I know that isn't going to hurt," explained Morris, "but I can still damage my old friend."
Bowser and Peach targeted two of the heads. Bowser attacked one with fire, and Peach performed a parasol attack and hit the second. Only one was left, and it summoned the stone wave again. It begin producing more blue stones, coming down like a torrent. Mimi tried to get hit by as many of the stones as she could. "Why is Mimi trying to get hit?" asked Bowser.
"I don't know myself," answered Mario, "but it looks like her injuries don't stay for long."
While Morris was distracted with Mimi and the others, Luigi crept below the head and Super Jumped it. Morris was now again only his head and his small body. The heroes thought the fight was over for real this time, but Morris again grew six legs, straight ones again this time, and pulled himself back up. He again climbed to the ceiling, but this time he fired a large and incredibly sharp stone to the ground. Fortunately, no one was hit, but the weapon was now a hazard like Omega's shurikens and knives. "It's too big to pick up," warned Mimi. "I wouldn't try!"
"I can still attack him!" Luigi walked below Morris and faked charging his Super Jump. Morris fired a stone, expecting to hit Luigi as he jumped, but Luigi abruptly stopped charging, moved to the side, and truly performed the Super Jump. Morris was clinging to the ceiling with three legs again. Since no more blue stones were present, Luigi again readied the Super Jump and knocked Morris to the ground. Mimi hit him with a Rubee and Mario jumped on him, causing him to lose a leg again.
"You think you're clever!" Morris attached himself to the left wall and began firing more large sharp stones. These couldn't be used as weapons, but Mimi had a plan. She tossed a Rubee at one of the stones just as Morris began to fire it, and it the stone was knocked backwards into Morris. He was startled enough so that Bowser could attack him with fire. Now with four of his legs, Morris began aiming for Mimi. Although her injuries were healing quickly, Mimi was still taking damage. One final blue stone hit her, and her HP was knocked to zero.
"Get her to a safe place!" Mario commanded Luigi. While Luigi thought about what place in this room could possibly be safe, Mario tried pulling one of the large stones out of the ground. He succeeded, but the stone was heavy in his hands. Mimi was right when she said this wasn't a weapon, but I don't have any other choice! He threw the stone at Morris with all of his might. It hit just as Morris was about to climb onto the ceiling. O'Chunks, nearer, jumped on him, and Mario  quickly followed before Morris could regain his footing. The spider climbed onto the ceiling with only two legs. He produced a rock wave again. Holding Mimi's hand, Luigi couldn't jump high enough to dodge the wave. He charged for the Super Jump, and the added power was fortunately enough to carry them both above the wave. Morris had began producing more stones, so Luigi briefly set Mimi down and took one of them. He threw it at the spider, and then Bowser repeated the action. Morris was on the ground again, so Mario grabbed another stone and attacked him with it. "Everyone, we've almost got him!" Mario and Bowser went for it, and Morris had lost all of his legs for the third time.
"GAAAAHHH!!!" Morris wailed. He fell to the ground. "No!!! Why have I lost? Why has the least skilled one defeated me?" He returned to his normal form, and the darker blue Pure Heart appeared. "I'll get my revenge on all of you. Especially Mimi. And next time, I won't show you any mercy!" He stomped his foot to emphasize his point, and then tripped and hit his head on one of the blue stones. "Ahh!" He stood up. An area of a softly glowing blue liquid was at the area where he had hit his head, the same color as the stones and the patches on his skin. "I'll get you all. Once I train with Dimentio some more, I'll GET YOU ALL!!!" He flipped out.

The blue Pure Heart was resting in front of our heroes, giving off light. "Well, here's Pure Heart number six," announced Tippi.
Mimi had woken up. "You beat him? You beat Morris?"
"Yes. Wait...Mimi...who exactly is he? He has the same talents you do."
"I...um...used to know him. And I guess he works for Dimentio now. But that's beside the point. Let's get the Pure Heart!"
If Mimi didn't want to give Tippi a straight answer, the others weren't going to push it, not with the injuries that covered their bodies that desperately made them want to return to Flipside that instant. Mario collected the blue Pure Heart.



PURE HEART GET!
-END OF CHAPTER-

The sixth Pure Heart now belonged to the heroes of prophecy. Dimentio had pulled out the big guns for this adventure, but our heroes had still prevailed. Morris and the two robots, two of Dimentio's minions, were defeated here. But with the bodily injuries that covered our heroes, could they be sure they would survive whatever Dimentio had planned next? And was Mimi trying to hide something from the others? Whatever came next, it was imminent that something big was going to happen...
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #38 on: December 16, 2007, 07:24:50 PM »
"All three of you have failed!" accused Dimentio. "I don't understand this! We set them up with traps in the mansion, the coal mine, the rock tunnel, the obstacles in the cave, and both of you! And yet they still got their filthy hands on the Pure Heart!"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Dimentio!" apologized H-X Alpha. "Please don't spank me in front of the class!"
Dimentio noticed a tiny blue scar on Morris's head. "They're stronger than I thought," Morris explained. "I don't understand either. Mimi was the least powerful one of us all. How did she defeat me?"
"I'm sure the others helped," replied Dimentio. "That's because they have the element of teamwork. And that is exactly what I intend to destroy."
"This is what you were were talking about earlier?" asked Count Bleck.
"Yes. It's now time to put the backup plan I mentioned into action. Count Bleck, I have an assignment for you."
"Count Bleck is pleased, Master Dimentio. What shall I do?"
"I will explain it in detail once we get to the dimension of the seventh Pure Heart. But for now, the other minions should know that I have been planning to turn the heroes against each other."
"That's great!" agreed B-A Omega. "You weaken their friendship, and they aren't working together anymore. They'll be helpless!"
"Exactly. If physical attacks don't defeat them, perhaps an emotional strategy is the ticket. Emotions can hold more power than the strongest physical weapon."
Count Bleck could definitely agree with that. "You are correct!"
Dimentio continued. "Now, I'm sure you're aware Mimi has been trying to keep her past a secret from the others. If the heroes are still alive once Count Bleck is finished with his phase of the plan, I'll drop in and give the heroes a little talk, as I hinted at earlier. They'll never agree on what to do after that, so my strategy will hopefully be able to break up some of the group, if not all of them. Once they're seperated, it'll be a toddler's task to kill them or bring them into my command."
"Excellent plan," agreed the count. "But...what if it doesn't work? What if they still agree to travel together? What if..."
"If that's so, there's another phase of my plan that will bring them to certain destruction. You, Morris, have a part in that plan, but for now let's focus on what Bleck and I will do. Once I instruct Bleck, I will return here and bring Morris with me. Alpha and Omega, you take some time off and think about how you can improve your performance next time."
"Yes, Master Dimentio!"
"Now, Count Bleck, come with me. The heroes will be putty in our hands." Dimentio vanished and Bleck flipped out. Morris and the two robots were left.
"Hmm," thought Omega. "How can we do better next time? We couldn't beat them even with all of our weapons."
"We should use BANANAS!" shouted Alpha. "I keep telling you, but you won't listen! Without bananas, we don't stand a chance!"
"You should use a spreading weapon," suggested Morris. "Have a laser or something that will attack multiple targets at once. That'll solve the problem of having to take them on one at a time."
"Good idea. I'll see if I can work on something like that." The robots flipped out.
"Well, there's no one to talk to now. Guess I'll go and see what Dimentio and Bleck are doing. They won't mind." Morris flipped out as well.



"You're sure they're finished? Absolutely sure?"
"Absolutely. I have experimented with Pixls for many years. There are many different types that can be created. You can grant them different kinds of skills, and it is even possible to change their physical properties. You could even make a sentient doll as I have heard of some doing."
"Good, then. Don't they have personalities of their own, though? How will you make them loyal to me?"
"I still haven't figured that part out. I must make sure they'll always remain loyal to you."
"Well, here's hoping you find a way. Do they have names yet?"
"I think I'll call one Mimi. It's a nice pun on the fact that they can mimic others, don't you think?"
"Whatever."
"I'm not sure about the other two. Maybe I'll give them similar names."
"I have to go now. Whatever happens, make sure that these three are always used for the purposes of the Tribe of Darkness, and for no other reason. Is that clear?"
"Yes."
"I hope you understand. With the king's son being so rebellious lately, it's hard to tell what could happen."



Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, O'Chunks, Mimi, and Tippi walked out of the pale blue door atop Flipside Tower. They descended via the elevator and found one perfectly healthy Nastasia standing by the elevator. "Dimentio didn't come, like he said he wouldn't, did he?" asked Tippi.
"No, he didn't. I'm getting worried about why he wants to keep us alive, though. Wasn't he just trying to kill us? I think he's planning something."
Merlon was outside. "Oh, my! You've all been terribly injured. What happened?"
Tippi explained what had happened in the mountains. "We really need to take a rest at the inn."
"I see. Before you do, I'd like to tell you about a new passage I've read in the Light Prognosticus. I'm afraid it doesn't give us much of a clearer picture of what will happen, but it's certainly food for thought. Here it is...'The one who plans to wield the Chaos Heart will craft his plans in such a way as to almost destroy the heroes. But if the heroes join together and fight as one unit, they will defeat the enemy.'"
"One unit?" questioned Bowser. "Forget it! I'm not fighting as 'one unit' with these guys!"
"That's probably what the Prognosticus is talking about!" realized Luigi. "We have to agree to put aside our differences and fight as one if we want to defeat Dimentio. We can't all be pursuing our own interests. We have to put our own desires aside and fight for the good of all dimensions."
"Well, put, Luigi," congratulated Merlon. "Indeed, your chances of succeeding will increase if you all agree on what you are struggling for. I urge all of you to think about exactly what you are fighting for. Think as one mind while still having your individual feelings."
Nastasia stepped forward. "You have six heroes now, right? I'd like to join you guys now."
"A good choice, Nastasia. Are you done thinking about your past?"
"Yes. I've decided that, even though I may have done something wrong, I don't really know what Blumiere knew about the situation, and it happened in the past. I've gotten over it now."
"I see. Well, heroes, it seems you have a new arrival. That brings the total to seven, doesn't it? The Light Prognosticus said there would be nine...who are the other two, I wonder?"
"I have no clue..." wondered Tippi. "Who else could join us? Maybe Count Bleck, if he's freed from Dimentio's mind control...but another hero? Who could it be...?"
"Well, let's worry about that later. For now, you'd better get yourselves to the inn."
"Right!"

-Nastasia has joined the party!-

Our heroes walked to the inn, paid the fee, and rested for the night.

They woke up fully healed. "Oh yeah!" cheered Bowser. "My shell's so perfect and so much better than all of your shells!"
"We don't have shells," replied Mario.
"Shut up."
Mario sighed. "So now we've got to go back to Flopside for the Heart Pillar," announced Mario. They walked out of the inn and took the path to Flopside. Once there, they climbed to the second floor, flipped through the gate, and flipped again to reach a pipe. In this pipe, they flipped yet again, finding a heart pillar to the left. Mario placed the blue Pure Heart in the pillar. The patterns appeared again, the darker blue door was drawn atop Flipside Tower, and the gateway to the dimension of the second-to-last Pure Heart was completed. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, O'Chunks, Mimi, Nastasia, and Tippi returned to Flipside Tower and entered the door, not knowing what to expect in the dimension their quest took them next.
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #39 on: December 24, 2007, 09:09:54 PM »
Six Pure Hearts were now in the hands of our seven heroes. Only two remained, and then the heroes of prophecy would be ready to stop Dimentio. Could they find these two before Dimentio pulled off his plan to activate the Chaos Heart? How did he plan to do this in the first place? And why did he want to keep Bleck's minions alive, after wanting to kill them for so long? Our heroes thought about these mysteries again. They didn't really know any more than when this quest had begun. Something, though, told them that something major was about to happen. Something told them that they would encounter things in this dimension stranger than anything they'd seen so far. And something told them Dimentio's next plan would be his most potent yet. Were they ready to face the chellenges ahead? Could they fight as one and defeat Dimentio and his minions? Only time would tell.








A line was drawn.

Joining this line were several others, forming all kinds of shapes of rocks scattered on the ground. The ground itself was colored a moderate tan. Several trees appeared, being colored a deep pine green. In the distance, some small mountains were visible, all made of tan rocks. The sky was in afternoon, but it wouldn't be too long of a time before sunset approached. Finally, some bushes and weeds were added for decoration. The blue door was drawn into existence, and our heroes stepped into the dimension that would take them to the seventh Pure Heart.

"It's not far from sunset," mused Mario. "We might have to travel in the dark, since we really just got up, and we won't be tired."
"The sky is making me feel like it's late afternoon anyway," stated Peach.
Tippi felt for the Pure Heart. "I think it's..."
"It's what?" asked O'Chunks, after Tippi had been silent for some time.
"Well, I hate to say this, but although I can tell that the Pure Heart is in that direction," with the sun at the left, "I can barely feel it. We're going to have to do a lot of walking."
"Well, at least this time there's no crazy mansion traps or obstacles to wreck my oh-so-perfect shell, right?" pointed out Bowser.
Nastasia looked around. "This place is out in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully Dimentio won't be able to pull off another complex plan like you guys described."
"The last place we visited was pretty much in the middle of nowhere," countered Luigi. "But Dimentio managed to pull off his most complicated plan yet."
"I hope he doesn't manage," wailed Mimi.
"Well, we'll worry about Dimentio later," assured Tippi. "We might as well start walking, because the Pure Heart is very, very far away. At least I'm glad it's in the opposite direction of those larger mountains. I've had enough mountains for one adventure."
"Let's get started then," asserted Mario.
Our heroes began traveling through the rocky landscape. It was similar to the areas they'd already traveled in; jumps, ? Blocks, pitfalls, trampolines, enemies, etc. However, after entering a door or two, our heroes encountered strange platforms spaced over a huge pit. They were made of a green circle in the center and three red circles on each side, forming a line. Some of them occaisonally rotated around the green center. "I've dealt with these before," pointed out Mario. "...and Luigi. We have to careful, or else we'll be tossed into the abyss."
"Can you show us how to cross them safely?" suggested Mimi.
"Sure. Here's how it's done." Mario jumped onto the first platform, which didn't rotate, and it tilted slightly in the direction he was standing on it. He jumped briefly on the other side to balance it out, then jumped to the next platform. It was about to begin spinning, so Mario performed a high jump. The platform finished spinning by the time Mario landed on it again, so he jumped off that platform and onto the next. He continued doing this until he was on the other side of the valley.
"I'll go next." Luigi began hopping across the platforms. He was followed by Peach, Nastasia, Mimi, and O'Chunks. Only Bowser remained on the other side, Tippi having crossed the canyon earlier. Bowser jumped onto the first platform, but since he was rather unexperienced with this sort of platforming, he landed on the first spinning platform as it began rotating. He was almost thrown off, but managed to grab onto one edge of the platform.
"WHAAAA!!!" he shouted, being spun around in circles by the platform. When it finally stopped, Bowser tried to pull himself onto the top, but his dizziness prevented him from doing it too quickly, and the platform began rotating again. However, this time Bowser had an idea. He jumped out of the platform as it carried him upwards, and the momentum was enough to send him through the air all the way to the other side where the other heroes were waiting. "Oh yeah! I'm so much more physically coordinated than all of you!"
The heroes continued walking until they came to the next area. There was another huge pit, with some stationary stone platforms spanning it. There was another occasionally spinning platform below these stone ones. It provided some, but not enough, help to get high enough to reach the stone platforms. Mario tried jumping from this platform to the one above with a running start, but it still wasn't enough. "Hmm..." Mario flipped into 3D, and two Flip Blocks above the rotating platform became visible. However, the platform itself was paper-thin, meaning he couldn't jump on it to hit the blocks. Mario still knew what to do, though. He went back to 2D, jumped on the platform when it wasn't spinning, and then hit one the blocks, repeating the process for the next one. There was now a convenient platform for our heroes to use. However, once they had stepped onto the high stone platform, dozens of Cheep-Cheeps began flying around them! "Oh, no!" uttered Mario. "These flying fish are quite-"
"-dangerous!" finished Nastasia after being smacked in the face with one.
"Hurry!" urged Luigi. "We've got to get to the other side as fast as we can!" Our heroes made a mad dash for the other side. After a few seconds of running, they came across more of the unsafe platforms.
"Oh, give me a break!" groaned Peach. "This and Cheep-Cheeps?"
"Wait," started Mario. "I have an idea." He jumped onto the spinning platform. He allowed it to spin him in circles, then let go when the platform carried him up. He dove through the air, knocking out several fish, and landed on the other side. "Quick! Before more of them come!" The other followed the example Mario had set before, and they all came out safely on the other side. The fish attack continued, however. Our heroes were continually taking damage.
"'Ere! The door!" exclaimed O'Chunks. Our heroes rushed into it, safe from the flying Cheep-Cheeps.

The scenery had begun to have increasingly few trees, and it seemed more rocky. The ground became more reddish as well. The sky edged closer to sunset, faint hints of sunset orange appearing in the clouds. "It seems like it's getting drier," noted Mimi.
"It's rockier too," added Mario. "Given that we're walking away from the mountains back there, we might be walking toward a desert."
"A desert?" asked Tippi.
"Yes. It's getting rockier and drier, and mountains tend to block rain and moisture, so they sometimes have deserts on one side. And I guess the Pure Heart just happens to be in the direction we'd rather not travel."
"A desert," repeated Nastasia. "I'm too fond of those. I hope it's a small one."
"I'm not fond of walking through harsh stretches of land either," agreed Bowser. "Let's hurry up and get this over with."
"Over with?" came a familiar voice out of nowhere. "Why not pause and savor the show?"
"What was that voice?" asked Luigi.
Tippi was about to say who she knew it was, but a thin black line in the air interrupted her. Moments later, her suspicion was confirmed as Count Bleck flipped in before them, accompanied by his "Champion of Destruction" theme music. "Yes, pause and savor the show, for your game's end draws near!"
"Count Bleck!" shouted Tippi. "I mean, Blumiere! What have you become? Why are you here?"
"Count Bleck is here to bring about your deaths. And even if Count Bleck fails, his master will take care of you all, once and for good."
"Blumiere..." Tippi returned to her true form. "Blumiere...why have you turned against us? Why do you serve Dimentio? What happened to the Blumiere I once knew? I had thought you were going to remain my loving husband when you ended your plan to destroy all worlds. And now this?"
Bleck pulled his hand up to the brim of his hat. "Who is this 'Blumiere' you speak of? I am Count Bleck, servant of Dimentio, and I shall destroy you all here and now!"
"Oh...Blumiere..."
"Why are you working for him?" questioned Mario. "How did he force you to serve him?"
The count continued his contemplative pose. "Dimentio has kept many secrets you heroes do not know. Terrible secrets. Secrets that, if you learned the truth behind them, might cause you to no longer agree to work together as heroes."
"That's impossible! We all know we have to work together!"
"Do you, now? There are secrets in this world. You cannot deny that. And Count Bleck is aware of them. He knows Dimentio's true identity. That is the reason why Count Bleck has agreed to serve him. Because of who Dimentio truly is."
"Who is he, then?" asked Luigi.
"That is a secret that must be kept for now. You may learn it eventually, but you have no business learning the world's secrets right now. Count Bleck is not here to lecture you on the untold. He is here to end your games."
"You're not serving him because of any 'true identity' nonsense!" shouted Nastasia. "You're serving him because Dimentio hypnotized you! With a power that can match even mine..."
"Enough chatter! Now is when Count Bleck will take your games away like the wind at night. Your games end...NOW!" The count waved his staff. Instead of fighting them directly, Bleck caused the ground to begin shaking until the area was experiencing a major earthquake.
"Blumiere!" urged Timpani. "Please! Stop working for Dimentio! Have you forgotten even me? Please-AAAHH!!!" An explosion of magma erupted next to her. She quickly jumped out of the way and reverted to Tippi.
"Silence, foolish girl," declared Bleck. "Resistance means nothing in the monocled gaze...of Count Bleck!" He flashed his staff again. Bolts of lightning dropped onto the heroes like...well, lightning.
"We can't fight him like this," warned Mario. "We've got to escape!"
"You can't escape!" countered Bleck. "I will leave you with one last surprise. And then you shall be destroyed...because of Count Bleck!" With another wave of his staff, the ground began shaking even harder. "You won't be living for much longer. And even if you somehow survive, Dimentio will give you just a small preview of the secrets I know. Everyone wants to know the world's secrets. But once they do, they regret they ever cared. The secrets I know are too great and terrible for anyone to bear...but don't let that stop you from trying to learn them! BLEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! BLECK!" And with that, Count Bleck flipped out.
The fire columns and lightning had ceased, but the earthquake continued. "We've got to get out of here!" advised Luigi.
Suddenly, an explosion occured in the ground. More boiling hot lava burst from the ground, and after a few seconds, the ground itself began splitting apart. Lava was visible below the ground, and the gap grew ever wider as the ground began sliding into itself, splashing into the lava. Tippi urged the others. "This hole will engulf as all! Quick, let's get out of here!"
"I'll second that!" Nastasia began running in the direction of the Pure Heart as fast as she could, and the others followed suit. However, the disappearing ground was catching up with them.
"Climb this mountain!" yelled Mimi. "We can avoid the lava!" The other heroes followed her up the slope of a nearby mountain. The upward climb slowed the spreading magma crater, but didn't stop it. As the heroes climbed farther, huge pieces of the mountain broke off and tumbled into the lava. One of them carried Peach.
"AAIIEE!!!" Peach fell toward the lava.
"Peach!" uttered Mario. She was too far below to be helped. "Find safe ground!"
Peach obeyed, using her parasol to float to the side so she'd land on a safe patch of land. It wasn't safe for long, though. Peach tried to climb the mountain as she avoided the spreading magma, but the mountain was crumbling apart as well. "Get off the mountain, everyone!" Peach commanded to the others.
"We're safe up here!" argued Tippi. "Try to get up!"
"No! You have to come down! Or else..." She looked back at the spreading lava. The other heroes understood. They hurried down the mountainside as fast as they could toward Peach. They jumped off the mountain just as the entire thing collapsed into the lava, creating a gigantic splash of burning lava. A tiny drop of lava hit the side of Luigi's face.
"AAHH!!!" He touched the spot where he had been hit by the lava drop. It burned.
"Is there anything I can do?" asked Mario.
"I don't know! What do you treat lava burns with?"
"Um...I'm not sure."
As Luigi's pain gradually subsided, an eerie silence hung over the area. The lava had stopped spreading, and now a gigantic crater of lava resided in the area our heroes had escaped from. "So what now?" asked O'Chunks. "The Pure Heart's somewhere out 'ere, innit?"
"Yes," agreed Tippi. "Somewhere in that desert." It had drawn closer to sunset, and the sky was now a dull purplish-bluish. Very few clouds were visible in the sky. In the direction of the Pure Heart, a vast desert of red stones stretched to the horizon with no end in sight.
"We have to go through there?" asked Mimi.
"Yes. We must do it. To find the Pure Heart...to rescue all dimensions from destruction...and...to save my husband."



-END OF CHAPTER-
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #40 on: January 08, 2008, 06:14:41 PM »
The vast expanse of nothing stretched before our heroes. How big was this desert? How long would it take them to cross it? Our heroes held back for a few minutes, not wanting to cross the arid terrain. But eventually they realized they were delaying the inevitable. They remembered they had to cross the desert, or they'd never find the Pure Heart. The common goal of finding the Pure Heart helped our heroes bind together and start crossing the vast, barren terrain. But would it be a common goal for long?








There was nothing but red rocks in every direction our heroes could see, stretching to the horizon as the sun set. The sky had reduced to a dull bluish-purplish, with no clouds visible, so the sun stood out like a giant fireball in the sky. Without anything to interfere with its light, the sun was brighter than our heroes had ever seen it. They tried to face away from it for the sake of their eyes. "How close is the Pure Heart, Tippi?" asked Mario.
"It's...closer, but it's still far away." She sighed. "At least we know the Pure Heart is somewhere in this direction."
"I sure hope the desert doesn't stretch all the way there," added Luigi.
"It's not likely," assured Mario. "We're in the rain shadow of the mountains, so the landscape should become less dry as soon as we hit another air current."
"Spare us all the science stuff, OK?" asked Bowser. "As long as I know we're getting out of this desert sometime, I'm good."
The heroes continued walking. The sun slowly sank toward the horizon as the sky darkened. As the heroes continued their march, they sometimes lost awareness of what they were doing. They had been traveling for hours. Was the Pure Heart any nearer?

A sudden shine on the ground brought our heroes back to full consciousness. "Huh?" uttered Peach. "What time is it? The sun's set."
"I hadn't realized that," added Mimi. "What have we been doing since we got to this desert? I think I was half-conscious."
"What's that shine?" inquired Nastasia. It was a large area of shine, barely visible but very present in the dim red post-sunset light.
Mario walked up to it and heard a noise as water splashed under his foot. "Water! It's a lake!"
"Yeh gotta..." O'Chunks ran up to him and stepped in the water. "It's true!"
Our heroes hadn't eaten or drank anything for quite a while, so they scrambled to the body of water and satisfied their thirst. "Stop shoving, Mario!" accused Bowser.
"I'm way over here!" Mario's voice came from the other side of the group.
"Oh. Whatever. Who is this, then?"?
"Me?" asked Nastasia. "You keep shoving. Stop it."
"Why, you! Get out of the Koopa King's space, RIGHT NOW!" Nastasia fled.

Once they were satisfied, our heroes continued. They were fully conscious now, and since they weren't in any bad conditions, they started reverting to their normal emotions again. "How long do we have to DO this??" complained Bowser.
"Be patient." Tippi was going to continue, but Bowser cut her off.
"Well, I'm SICK of being patient! I'm SICK of traveling through all these wacko areas! And I'm SICK of following you guys everywhere!"
There was some silence before another familiar voice came. "Indeed, Bowser. You're sick of being with those heroes, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I sure am, voice from nowhere."
A sudden rectangular flash appeared before our heroes, and when it was gone, none other than Dimentio was floating in front of the group. "Oh, you don't have to be so rude, Bowser. It's just Dimentio, your favorite villain."
"What do you want? Spit it out or get out of my face. And just so you know, I'M the #1 villain around here."
"My, you're quite irritated, aren't you? Your fury, it burns with the intensity of a sudden and unexpected forest fire that grows in magnitude with every passing minute! And you've got quite the nerve to speak to me in that manner. Do you know who I am? I am Dimentio! Soon enough, I will be ruler of all dimensions. And I will not tolerate that manner of speech in my empire."
"Well, guess what, funny guy? You're not going to build an empire. And as long as you aren't ruling anything, I can do what I want to you. And even if you were ruling something, no matter how big, you can't tell the Koopa King what to do."
"You continue to amaze me, Bowser, with your persistence. But I did not come here to comment on your behavior. I came here for a much larger purpose."
"And what is that?" asked Tippi.
"Why, I have come here merely to let you know something. That is, if this cranky Bowser will pause long enough to let me speak."
"Go ahead," approved Bowser. "I'm totally interested in whatever nonsense you have to say."
"Thank you, Bowser. Now, heroes, I assume you have heard of the Tribe of Darkness?"
"Why do you need to know?" asked Tippi.
"I'm going to assume you have. They split from the Tribe of Ancients after the Pixl Uprising. The person who founded it took the Dark Prognosticus to make sure nothing of that magnitude happened ever again."
"Wait," interrupted Mario. "Didn't the Tribe of Darkness steal the Dark Prognosticus to increase their dark magic?"
"I was just getting to that, but no, that is not the reason they took it. That was a rumor started by someone in the Tribe of Ancients. Now, I'm sure you know that the creation of new Pixls and others like them was outlawed after the uprising?" He didn't wait for them to answer before he continued. "Well, a magician of the Ancients knew of a passage in the Light Prognosticus that stated that its author, Merlumina, would help fulfill a prophecy that was not in his favor. This magician was very selfish and considered himself above the law. He had illegally created three Pixls, and they were no ordinary Pixls. He was helped by an evil witch to create three Pixls that could do nearly anything because they could copy the shape of others. So he devised a plan to kill Merlumina with the help of these Pixls. Rumors of the plan reached Merlumina, though, and she was quite upset since she was preparing to hide a Pure Heart in the Yold Desert. She moved to another area to hide and created a spell that would put a curse on anyone who tried to kill her. Afraid that her killers would come at any moment, she had an entire village sing a lullaby for her for her to fall asleep for the 1,500 years needed to keep the Pure Heart. I'll describe what happened when the Pixls reached the area they were preparing, one quote at a time, and giving few details for that nice sweet abandoned memory style."



"You're both ready? 'Cause I sure am."
"Yeah...I guess."
"Is something wrong, Mimi?"
"No, just...well, let's go."
"I'll lead. Because I'm the smartest, the prettiest, and-"
"Whoa! What are all these people doing here?"
"They look like they're leaving..."
"Some are staying around, though."
"We'll have to be sneaky at this."

"She's asleep. Do you have the knife?"
"Yes. It's right here."
"OK. Ready and..."

"Whoa! Is this an earthquake or something?"
"Whaaa! The room's spinning!"
"Whew. It's over n-wha? Why is everything upside-down?"
"ACK!"

"What...what happened?"
"Morris! Your voice is so creepy!"
"So is yours, smart one!"
"Shut up! Stop acting-"
"YOU!"
"Oh..."
"Merlumina! She's been killed! You three creepy spider things are obviously-"
"RUN!"

"Wait. We can still change to our original shape, right?"
"I think so. Care to try it out, smart one?"
"Why don't you try it first?"
"Hey!"
"Oh, it's you. Want to apologize for what you did to us?"
"Apologize? Why would I do that? You succeeded!"
"You were just trying to get rid of us."
"What!? You can still change back to your original form. The curse is just a minor side effect."
"I don't care! You used us for your own selfish purposes. We quit!"



"Oops...looks like I'm out of time. Count Bleck's new training session ends in just a few minutes. Well, I'm off for now, but remember what I told you. And Bowser, maybe a nicer attitude would do you good. Until next time, hereos...ciao!" Dimentio disappeared to wherever Count Bleck was training.
"Yeah? You can't boss me around. If you hadn't disappeared, why, I'd..." Bowser was the only one speaking as the others all looked at Mimi. She was sitting down and crying.
Tippi floated toward her. "Mimi...if you tell me Dimentio was lying, I'll believe you."
She sobbed. "No...it's true. I...that really happened."
Nastasia walked up to her. "You all right?"
"Me? Why do you care?"
"Because we're fellow minions. Well, ex-minions, anyway. And I want you to stop crying."
"Why? None of you care. Not after you know what I did. That I..." She was crying too hard to finish her sentence.
Mario grabbed her hand. "Mimi, I don't want to see you cry either. That was the past. You can't change it. What matters it what's happening now. You can't change the past, so you might as well focus on the future."
"What?"
"You were hiding a skeleton in the closet ever since Bleck was defeated so that we wouldn't know what you did. But look at the other minions. O'Chunks committed a pretty big crime, and so did Nastasia. But they've moved on. They regret what they've done, but they don't let it bog them down."
"Are you...are you forgiving me?"
"Why not? You're a hero now, aren't you? You're helping us stop Dimentio from destroying all of existence. Your heart is in the right place. And heroes don't mind each other's wrongdoings."
"Well, I sure do."
Our heroes turned toward the voice. "What?" asked Mario.
"You heard me," asserted Bowser. "I sure mind that I now know I'm being forced to travel with a murderer among the rest of you wimps. And the Koopa King doesn't associate himself with people he doesn't like."
"What are you saying, Bowser?" asked Peach.
"I'm saying that, the whole time we've been on this stinking adventure, I haven't been having fun. And I've been traveling with people who don't appreciate me and constantly criticize my every move."
"But that's because you're doing something bad all the time!" argued Luigi. "You're a hero, but you're still a villain."
"Exactly. And villains don't travel with heroes. Especially not with heroes who're going to kill me in my sleep."
"Bowser, she's not..."
"There you go again, trying to change my mind! Who do you guys think you are? First you treated me like we were old pals in the fortress. Then you got all upset because I fried Kara, and made me wait for Mario to solve that stupid puzzle. And THEN you got all defensive about Paletta and dragged me through that whole stupid cave. And I'm still here, being held against my will. Why have I been traveling with you idiots anyway? You're just dragging me to one dumb place after another, criticizing me for everything I do, and making me travel with this murderer freak. Well, guess what? Let's see how you like it if I'm not here!"
"Bowser..." started Mario, but Bowser cut him off.
"Goodbye, heroes. It's been nice knowing you jerks. See ya." Bowser began walking in the direction of the Pure Heart.
"Bowser, it's late!" cautioned Tippi. "You can't just leave! You'll get lost!"
"So what? Anywhere is better than this stupid little group."
"Bowser, we're heroes! What are you going to do when you're by yourself?"
"Yeah, so what if you're heroes? I'm better than all of you. I'LL find the Pure Hearts. I'LL save the world. And I'LL be the world's most famous hero, and Princess Peach will like ME, and people will swarm ME for autographs." He continued walking away.
"BOWSER!" called Nastasia, but it was too late. Bowser had officially left the party.
A long silence ensued before Peach spoke. "He's gone. Even his love for me wasn't enough to make him stay."
"I knew it would happen sometime," agreed Luigi. "Bowser's been clashing with us for a long time."
"There's something I don't get, though. Bowser said one of the reasons he was leaving was because Mimi killed Merlumina. Bowser's evil. Why would he care who killed who?"
"Bowser isn't truly evil," sighed Mario. "He's just misguided. And he'd prefer not to hang out with people like us."
"So what now? Do we look for him? Or should we just look for the Pure Hearts without him?"
"Well, we're going in the same direction. We might as well continue, and if we don't find him tonight, we'll just make camp wherever we can."

The heroes, minus Bowser, had made camp at the base of a large mountain in their way. "This desert's trapped between two mountain ranges," observed Mario. "No wonder it was so large and dry."
"Well, as long as we're resting," started Luigi, "we might as well talk about what Dimentio told us like you suggested."
"Oh, right." Mario paused. "Well, everyone, do you think Dimentio was telling the truth? I mean, about the things other than how Mimi was cursed?"
"He sure made the Ancients sound corrupt," noted Peach. "I don't think one of the Ancient magicians would really try to kill Merlumina."
"That isn't true," agreed Mimi. "The very first thing I remember...someone in the room where we were created was telling another person to use us for the Tribe of Darkness."
"Someone?" asked Nastasia. "Do you have any idea who it was?"
"I'm not sure, but it was probably Amtakan. We spent most of our time with him. We didn't really know what he wanted us for, but I'm pretty sure he was either part of the Tribe of Darkness or working with them. He's the one who sent us to kill Merlumina."
"So Dimentio was lying when he said this magician was part of the Ancients," noted Mario. "He must have figured there was enough truth in his story for us to believe all of it."
"Speaking of which," continued Nastasia, "why did he tell us that in the first place? And how does he know all that stuff?"
"To break us up," answered Peach with sudden realization. "He was hoping that if we knew Mimi's backstory, we'd refuse to let her travel with us, and we'd be broken up. That's probably why he wanted to keep Bleck's minions alive for now."
"And that would leave us as easy targets," agreed Luigi. "Well, he did partially succeed."
"Yeh can bet on 'at," finished O'Chunks. "I 'ope Bowser ain't lost somewhere in 'ese mountains."
"So is what he said about the Tribe of Darkness true?" continued Mario. "About how the founder escaped with the Dark Prognosticus after the Pixl Uprising? And speaking of the Prognosticus, what was Merlumina going to do that Amtakan didn't want her to do?"
"He said the prophecy wasn't in Amtakan's favor..." mused Mimi. "Even I don't know what he wanted her dead for. What did Merlumina do that would be in disfavor of the Tribe of Darkness?"
"She did change me into a human," offered Nastasia. "And I eventually became a hero. Maybe that was written in the Light Prognosticus?"
Mario suddenly remembered a passage in the Light Prognosticus he thought he understood the meaning of now, but Luigi spoke before he could announce it. "What was the Tribe of Darkness trying to accomplish anyway? Were they really that evil?"
"Count Bleck...I mean, Blumiere must have been a rebel," noted Mario. "He loved Timpani, but his father disapproved because the Tribe of Darkness wanted to keep the royal bloodline. What kind of conspiracy did they have? Or was it a conspiracy at all? And who was this Amtakan guy?"
"Blumiere didn't tell me much of anything about the Tribe of Darkness," replied Tippi. "I wonder what he knew that he didn't tell me."
"Is it possible that Amtakan was Blumiere's father?" suggested Nastasia. "It would make sense, since we know Amtakan was involved with the Tribe of Darkness in some way or another, and he seems powerful."
"That can't be true," countered Mimi. "Remember when I said two people were talking in the room we were created in? One of them said 'with the king's son being so rebellious'. That's Bleck's father, since Count Bleck was the prince of the Tribe of Darkness."
A pause allowed Mario to say what he had been thinking about. "Remember when Merlon told us about a passage in the Light Prognosticus he read? It was after we defeated King Animaul. It said 'Of three lost friends, only one will survive the chaos that will ensue upon the Chaos Heart's reemergence.'"
Mimi gasped. "The three lost friends! I didn't know what had happened to either of the other two when I joined Bleck. He offered for all three of us to join him, but Morris backed out, and Margaret probably thought she was too good to join him."
"And then Dimentio apparently found Morris. So Margaret is still out there somewhere?"
"I think so. But until now I hadn't heard from either of them. I don't know if she's even still alive. Only one of us will live..."
"I'm wondering about that passage," began Peach. "I know we talked about this before, but it seems to say that Dimentio will reactivate the Chaos Heart. And how's he going to do it in the first place?"
"There's a lot we don't know," agreed Tippi. "Let's just hope Dimentio will give us some more answers. Remember the passage Merlon told us about after we defeated Radnamok X? It said that Dimentio will reveal his deepest secret once we collect all of the Pure Hearts again."
"Yes," agreed Mario. "We don't know everything, but we can make educated guesses and make use of the information we have."
Luigi yawned. "It's getting real late. I'm going to bed now."
"I'll join yeh." O'Chunks lied down on a rock.
"These rocks are pathetic excuses for pillows," started Nastasia, "but they'll have to do."
There was a few minutes of silence before Mario spoke again. "You know, when you're out in places you've never seen before, out in the middle of nowhere, looking up at the stars like this...it really gives you a chance to think. About your situation. About life. Maybe I should stay out at night more often. I don't contemplate things over very often."
"Like what those giant glass corkscrews are doing above us?" suggested Luigi.
"Giant glass corkscrews?" Mario looked in the direction of the mountains, away from the desert, and indeed, he could barely make out two glass corkscrews floating in the air above them, high above the nearest mountain, resembling screws without the head. The left one seemed to be upright, forming a short vertical line, but the one on the right was angled at about 45 degrees slightly to the right of our heroes. They hovered in the air, not moving whatsoever. "Weird. What are they doing there?"
"Well, you've seen stranger things on some of your adventures, right?" asked Mimi.
"Indeed, I have." He paused. "Well, unless those corkscrews somehow fall and crash into us, have a good night, everyone."
"I will." Luigi began snoring.
Mario yawned as well. "First thing tomorrow, let's look for Bowser." Mario then drifted into sleep, joined by the others moments later.



-END OF CHAPTER-
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #41 on: January 17, 2008, 04:02:44 PM »
I think this is one of the longer fanfics this forum has seen. If you guys are still reading it, could you tell me? I'd be glad to know. ;)



Bowser was gone, fed up with how he was being treated. He was off somewhere in this new mountain range, possibly lost. Would he rejoin the group and become a hero again? If not, who were the last three heroes described in the Light Prognosticus? Hoping to find Bowser, our heroes set out for the Pure Heart when the sun rose. What would they find on the other side of the mountains? Besides the glass corkscrews, that is...








The sky was a dull light blue and seemed to have a slight tanish tone as well. The rocks of the mountains started growing less red and became more on the tan side, similar to the rocks of when they had first entered this dimension, but a bit more gray. These mountains weren't like the ones they'd traveled through in the previous dimension; they weren't as high, and sloped more gradually. And, of course, there were the glass corkscrews, floating high above them, reflecting the morning sun's light in all sorts of twisty directions. "What are those things?" wondered Peach.
"Well, unless we can reach them," began Nastasia, "I don't think we can find out."
A large valley confronted our heroes after a few minutes. There was a large platform with a green top and orange bottom floating above the ground slightly before the pit began. Several standard and upside-down Bullet Bill cannons were arrayed across the pit. To someone who's played decent amounts of Mario games, it would be apparent that the platform would start moving across the pit when our heroes jumped on it, and they would have to dodge the masses of Bullet Bills that came their way. Mario jumped onto it first, and the others climbed on before it was out of reach. The first Bullet Bill attack came almost immediately. "Jump!" shouted Mario as the wave approached them. They all dodged the first few rounds of ammunition. However, when they came nearer, it was evident they'd have to jump between two cannons, one standard and one upside-down, at the same time while avoiding more fire. They did this successfully, but it was clear the next few trials wouldn't be so easy. Toward the middle, the heroes vaulted over a tall line of Bullets, but Peach jumped too soon and was hit by a Bullet on her descent. It exploded, sending her flying back over the chasm. "PEACH!" Mario shouted.
Fortunately, Peach wasn't going to die. She floated back to the moving platform with her parasol, narrowly missing the next Bill assault. "I'm fine, Mario." They continued until the platform had almost reached the other side. They were relieved, but there was still one more cannon standing between them and the other side, and this one had the most firepower yet.
"If only Bowser was here!" wished Luigi. "He could get rid of these bullets lickety-split!" Luigi readied his Super Jump and sailed over the bullets. The others dodged the bullets as well, with relative success. Nastasia wasn't used to platforming like this, since her only other platforming experience had been at the rotating platforms. A Bullet Bill managed to hit her at the rear end of the platform. Fortunately, Mario quickly grabbed her hand and made sure she didn't leave the platform. Soon enough, the ride stopped and our heroes could jump onto solid ground. They continued fighting through enemies and obstacles until they came to an uprise. It was gradual enough to be climbed, but avoiding enemies was more difficult on a slope. When they reached the top, the ground leveled out. They were standing on a small peak, and a large glass corkscrew was floating in the air a few feet away. They'd fall if they tried to touch it, so they just stared. Looking at it close-up didn't give our heroes any indication of what it might be. It just hovered, perfectly still.
"What is it?" Mimi stared at it thoughtfully.
Tippi floated until she was next to it. "I don't feel anything out of the ordinary. It's just a normal glass corkscrew."
"Just your garden variety floating, inexplicable glass corkscrew, huh?" added Luigi. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."
"Well, it must have some signifigance," pointed out Mario. "It can't be natural, can it?"
"Is there something inside it?" Peach looked closely, but saw nothing besides the glass and a reflection of her own face. "This is really weird."
"The Pure Heart is getting closer," felt Tippi. "We'll have to just keep our questions to ourselves if we can't figure it out."
The six heroes treaded down the nearby slope and continued their journey. In the direction of the Pure Heart and slightly to the left, our heroes observed a large mountain, much taller than the ones around it. It didn't have a true peak; it had a large plateau at the top rather than the relatively sharp peak that characterized the other mountains. "That's a strange mountain," noticed Mario.
"What isn't strange around here?" asked Luigi.
"It's got a flat top," added Nastasia. "Could it be a volcano?"
"Oh, don't tell me the Pure Heart is inside the volcano!" wailed Mimi.
"We'll see," assured Tippi. "Come on."
A few minutes later along their trail, our heroes encountered another large uprise. They couldn't climb it, but they enter a door that led into the bowels of the mountain. "Should we go in there?" worried Luigi.
"It'll be fine," assured O'Chunks. "'Ow about we go in?"
"We have lots of cave experience," weighed Mario. "We'll safe, especially since I don't see Dimentio or Morris or anyone who would try to stop us."
Our heroes ducked into the cave. After traveling down a short passage, our heroes came to a large field of spikes. It was too large for anyone to cross except Peach, and at that, two large white spikes were attached to the ceiling above. "What do we do here, Mario?" asked Mimi.
"Just a minute! I'm figuring it out." Mario thought for a few seconds, and then jumped out over the spikes, angling himself back to safe ground at the apex of his jump. He had guessed correctly; the spike was one of those loose spikes that would fall when someone came near. He jumped onto the safe end of the spike, now embedded in the spike bed on the ground, and the second spike repeated the performance. Mario jumped from that spike to safe ground on the other side. "Just do what I did." The others followed Mario's example and jumped over the spike field. Once they were all on the other side, they continued through the cave, defeating enemies, scoring points and Leveling Up until they found a door that took them out of the cave. They emerged outside in the mountains again, but the rocks were grayer still in this region, and yet another strange glass decoration was visible. There were no corkscrews anywhere, but the ground contained several glass formations with three pointy ends pointing straight up and slightly to the left and right, almost like some kind of glass plant.
"More glass?" Luigi bent down and touched one of the "plants". "Ouch! These are pretty sharp."
Tippi observed the formations. "There's nothing special about these, either. They're just glass formations. There's no kind of power in them."
"Does that mean they're natural?" mused Peach. "No, that can't be right. If they were some kind of plant, they'd be growing, so they'd come in different sizes. But they're all identical."
Luigi kicked one of the glass formations. Part of one of the tips broke off. "It looks like they're not indestructable, either."
"If they're not natural, did someone put them here?" wondered Mario.
"'Ey, look over 'ere," announced O'Chunks, pointing to one of the "plants". It was melted and warped.
"That one looks like it's been under intense heat," noted Mario. "But what heat source is there here? And why is that one burned and none of the others?"
"Oh! Oh!" Peach had figured it out. "Remember how Bowser went this way? I think he scorched one of these glass things to see what would happen."
Tippi's voice grew excited. "You think so? Well, that's good news! At least we know Bowser came this way."
"And that means he should be somewhere in the direction of the Pure Heart," finished Mario. "I wonder what he'll do if we catch up to him."
"Speaking of catching up to him," stated Mimi, "we've got to hurry and find the next Pure Heart, or he could find it before us!"
"That's right. It's a race now. A race we can't afford to lose. Come on, we've got to get there fast!"
The heroes, moving more quickly, defeated enemies and dodged the spiky glass objects on their way to the Pure Heart. The enemies in this area were a bit strange-looking, but they were very, very dangerous. They resembled huge bats, with large fanged teeth and wings, but were teal blue. Our heroes were hit several times as they traveled. The tall mountain in the background drew closer and closer. They could now clearly tell it was a volcano, and the landscape around showed it. Bubbling hot springs had appeared on the ground, occaisonally emitting steam. It was a perilous place to be.
Soon enough, our heroes encountered a bridge that spanned a large canyon. They could observe a town on the other side. The heroes couldn't help thinking something was familiar about the landscape. Where had they seen this area before? Or maybe they had just heard about it? This question didn't stay in their minds for long, though. If Bowser had entered the town, there was no telling what might have happened. And hopefully he hadn't gotten his claws on the Pure Heart before our heroes had even gotten there!



-END OF CHAPTER-
« Last Edit: January 17, 2008, 04:05:46 PM by Reading »
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

« Reply #42 on: January 17, 2008, 06:33:41 PM »
Awesome as ever my friend! How can you write so much in one sitting?

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« Reply #43 on: January 17, 2008, 07:36:10 PM »
Awesome as ever my friend! How can you write so much in one sitting?

Thanks. ;)

Actually, it usually takes me more than one sitting to finish a chapter. I usually work on them at school if I've finished my work and don't feel like talking (or, in this week's case, in the spare silent time after I finish my exams). If I've been working on a chapter and don't have it done by Friday, I usually finish it on the computer over the weekend (this is what I did with 5-3) which is why I usually post a new chapter on Friday or Saturday. I finished 6-3 faster than most chapters, though, which is why I had it ready today.

I think you'll all like 6-4; it's got a good balance of plot, action, and fighting. I'll have it ready this weekend if all goes according to plan. ;)
« Last Edit: January 17, 2008, 07:39:11 PM by Reading »
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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« Reply #44 on: January 21, 2008, 07:21:25 PM »
A town had appeared before our heroes. As they crossed the bridge, they couldn't tell exactly what kind of town it was, but they could tell it had probably been there for a long time. What would they find here? Where was the Pure Heart? What had happened when Bowser entered the town? Our heroes entered, having a deep feeling that something was about to happen...








The town seemed normal. There were no destroyed buildings, panicking people, or flaming grass. And, there was no Bowser around to be causing any of these things. The air around the town, while still somewhat dry, was more humid than that of the desert and mountains, and several clumps of grass were growing among the grayish-tan dirt. "Where's Bowser?" wondered Peach. "Did he not come here?"
"Let's ask around town," suggested Nastasia. "We might be able to find out where he is."
As they came closer to the buildings, they could observe citizens that looked remarkably like the people of Flipside and Flopside. When they reached the space between the first two buildings, though, they were surprised in a whole new way. A person who looked almost exactly like Merlon, except for the red cloak and different designs, was standing there! "Are you the heroes that Bowser said would come here?"
Our heroes said nothing for a few seconds, but Tippi finally answered, "Yes, I suppose we are."
"Then you're the heroes of the Light Prognosticus? In that case, let's not stand out here. You may come to my house. I will explain everything there. I think I will be able to inform you of a few things." The group followed him to one of the houses. Once they were comfortable, the wizard continued. "I would like to introduce myself. My name is Merlrock. I am a descendent of the Ancients, just like the Merlon you know. You are the heroes searching for the Pure Hearts, correct?"
"That's right," agreed O'Chunks.
"And you've already collected them before?"
"Four of us," explained Luigi. "Well, not four of us standing here, but three standing here and...Bowser."
"That's what I thought. Hmm...where should I start? I guess I should tell you this is one of the dimensions the Ancients settled in. That is why the people here look the way they do."
"I guessed that," explained Mario. "We've recently been to another dimension of this sort."
"Oh, you have, now?" Merlrock looked inquisitive. "How about this, then: you explain to me everything that's happened to you on this adventure. Bowser gave me some of the details, so since I know plenty about the time of the Ancients, I may be able to answer some of the questions you might have."
Our heroes described everything that had occured from Dimentio's hypnosis of Bleck until now, from fighting the tentacled Monster Blooper to freeing the prisoners of the X Faction to the evening when Bowser decided he was quitting. And for some background information, they threw in all the details of their previous quest as well.
"You truly are the heroes, aren't you? I know much of the Light Prognosticus, so that is how I knew who you all were. Knowing Bowser, he might not always be a reliable source of information, but I guess he was telling the truth. Before we go on, something strikes me as familiar about the fourth dimension you visited. You said you met a sentient rag doll named Kara?"
"That's correct," stated Luigi. "She was kind of-"
"I assume you know that the Ancients created many Pixls and used the method to create other sorts of beings as well."
"Yes," answered Mario.
"I have heard from a girl in this town that her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother had an Animaul, as you call them, that she was great friends with. Perhaps the Kara you met in that dimension is the same Animaul that once befriended a girl in this very town?"
Our heroes suddenly realized why the landscape had seemed familiar. "This is it!" exclaimed Luigi. "Kara told us she was friends with a girl in another dimension and that there was a bridge on the edge of their town that lead into an area inhabited by monsters and a volcano. This is the dimension she previously lived in!"
"They once crossed the bridge to find out what was on the other side," added Peach. "When we're done with this adventure, we've got to tell her we know what's there. And beyond."
"The Animaul invasion you mentioned..." continued Merlrock. "It was caused by Dimentio, correct?"
"Yes," answered Tippi.
"So Dimentio revealed to you the past of the shape-shifter Mimi?"
"Yeah, after a crackpot story about the Ancients," replied Mimi. "Do you know how he knoews all this stuff?"
Merlrock assumed a contemplative pose. "I am afraid I do not know the source of his knowledge. I have never heard of a person called Dimentio until now, so I don't think he was around in the time of the Ancients. But I brought him up because I may be able to tell you something about him. You explained that he has a plan to reactivate the Chaos Heart?"
"Yes," answered Tippi. She was growing tired of having to answer Merlrock's obvious questions.
"And he's trying to end the games of Count Bleck's former minions?"
"Yes..."
"Hmm...I think I might know what is going on here. Do you know exactly what the Chaos Heart is?"
"It's an artifact that contains a tremendous amount of destructive energy. That's what I gather, anyway."
"That is correct. I am well knowledgable in ancient artifacts such as that. The Chaos Heart was deactivated after you and Bleck wed, correct?"
"Yes. Well, I thought it had been destroyed, but I guess it somehow still exists if Dimentio's planning to reactivate it."
"That Chaos Heart was called into existence by the union of Peach and Bowser, as predicted in the Dark Prognosticus, but I don't believe there is a way to fully destroy it. Even if it is deavtivated, it can be reactivated again."
"So how does Dimentio plan to do this? We don't know why he hasn't done it already."
"Hmm...well, heroes, consider this. What did O'Chunks do in his past?"
"He ate a device someone was going to use to create a Pixl."
"That means he has plenty of power stored inside him, right?"
"I guess, if you think about it that way."
"And Nastasia found an orb that granted her the powers of hypnosis?"
"Yes!"
"That means she contains power as well. And Mimi..."
"Her blood glows," noted Mario. "I noticed it a while ago."
"You did?" asked Mimi. "When?"
"When we crashed in the rock tunnel, I saw a drop of your blood while you were unconcious. But I didn't ask you about it."
"Yes. Since Mimi is a special kind of Pixl, she has a strange kind of blood. I'm not sure exactly what its main function is, but it allows her body to heal itself unnaturally quickly."
"Morris's blood is blue," added Mimi. "It's even more potent than mine. But what does this have to with the Chaos Heart?"
"Well, think about it. All three of the minions have large amounts of power stored in their bodies. If they were killed, that energy would be released..."
In a flash, our heroes understood why Dimentio aimed to kill Bleck's minions and how he planned to reactivate the Chaos Heart. Tippi finished, "...and the combined power from the Pixl device, the orb, and Mimi's blood just might be enough to reactivate the Chaos Heart!"
"It all makes sense now," reflected Luigi. "Well, actually, it doesn't. We've just figured out Dimentio's plan. We don't know how he knows these things. We have the how, but not the why."
"Yeah," agreed Mario. "Remember the Light Prognosticus? Dimentio will reveal his deepest secret once we collect all of the-" He paused. Nastasia was shaking. "What's wrong, Nastasia?"
"Well...well, you know that passage in the Light Prognosticus we were talking about? Only one out of Mimi, Morris, and Margaret will live after the Chaos Heart reemerges? If the Chaos Heart reemerges...then Dimentio will kill us!"
Everyone froze. "Dimentio will succed with his plan?" squeaked Mimi after a few moments of silence. "To kill us? That means I'm not the one that will survive?"
"It sounds unfortunate..." sighed Merlrock, "but we must continue to hope for the best. Just do your best, heroes. Since you're the heroes of the Light Prognosticus, you'll surely be able to succeed in one way or another."
"Wait," began Mimi. "Can you tell us anything about the Amtakan person I mentioned earlier?"
"The name sounded familiar, but I don't think I've heard about anyone with that name before. Not many details about the Tribe of Darkness are known."
"Is what Dimentio said true? About the Tribe of Darkness?"
"The person who founded it did steal it after the Pixl Uprising, but I'm not sure if he truly stole it to prevent another such incident from happening again. The Tribe of Darkness was a shady group. I don't know the true motive that person had."
"One more question," continued Mario. "What are those giant glass corkscrews in the mountains? And the things that look like plants?"
"We once placed lights in them so they'd glow at night. Remember how Count Bleck destroyed his own dimension after stealing the Dark Prognosticus? Most of the dimension was obliterated, but some people managed to escape. We planned for them to use this town as a refuge, so we created the glowing glass formations to guide them to the town."
"I see. That makes sense. So the lights were removed when they were no longer needed."
"Is that all you need to know?"
"Oh, one more thing," stated Peach. "Do you know where Bowser is now? We can't let him find the rest of the Pure Hearts before we do."
"Ah, yes, I had almost forgotten about that. I'm afraid he's left the town. He asked to go through the passage between the two close mountains on the other side of town, and I assume that's where he believed the Pure Heart was. The passage between them leads to an area where some of our dangerous experiments was tested. We normally don't allow anyone to go there, but Bowser was...persuasive, if you know what I mean."
"We have to go there and find him," announced Mario.
"I'm afraid that's going to be impossible. We gave Bowser the key to unlock the gate that blocks the exit. Once he unlocked the door, he went to the nearby volcano and tossed the key into the crater. I assume he didn't want the rest of you to follow him."
"The volcano!" exclaimed O'Chunks. "'Ey, I'm not too fond o' places like that."
"Is the Pure Heart in the area beyond the town?" asked Mario. "How close is it, Tippi?"
"It's quite close. Too close, I think, to be in the volcano. It's probably in the area Bowser went to. We'll have to somehow get that key if we want the Pure Heart."
"You will descend into the volcano?" asked Merlrock. "It's not as dangerous as you might think, actually. The volcano has been dormant for several years. Burning lava still exists inside it, but there is plenty of solid ground to stand on, and you don't have to worry about the volcano erupting."
"Then let's do it," proclaimed Mario.
"Go into the volcano!?" exclaimed Luigi. "Are you sure about this?"
"Positive. It's not like it's going to erupt or anything. We just need to find the key and get back out. I've been inside a volcano before, so it won't be anything I haven't already seen."
"Well...OK, I guess. But we'd better be careful."
"Wait," halted Merlrock. "I just remembered, I have one last thing to give you. It's an old hammer I've had for a while. It isn't exactly top-quality, but I'm afraid it's the most I can do." He handed Mario the large wooden hammer.
"Thanks! I've used these things before, so I know the basics. Even if it isn't the best, I can still smash pretty much anything with it."
"You're welcome. I'll wish you luck, hereoes of prophecy," announced Merlrock. "You can accomplish this task. Just set your mind to it."

The mountains in the direction of the volcano were less steep than the ones at the other side of town, so the group could traverse them fairly easily. They faced more of the vicious bat creatures and almost impaled their feet on the glass "plants" several times. It took several minutes, but they eventually reached the peak of the volcano. Tippi looked down into the crater. "Just as Merlrock said. This doesn't look dangerous. Let's go." Our heroes jumped into the hole, landing in an enclosed area of solidified lava. The lava wasn't hot enough to hurt the heroes, but it was still rather warm.
"We've got to be careful as we go further down," cautioned Mario. "The place will only get hotter."
"Speaking of going down," noticed Peach, "shouldn't the key be right here? Bowser threw it into the crater."
Nastasia looked around. "I don't see it anywhere. Wait a minute...maybe it was carried further into the volcano by that lava stream?" She pointed, and our heroes observed a small river of magma heading down a path deeper into the volcano's belly.
"But it couldn't have landed there. It would have fallen somewhere in the center of this room. Wait...maybe Bowser jumped into the crater and tossed the key into the river of magma? Just so we wouldn't find it?"
"That seems like the most likely explanation." Mario sighed. "Well, I guess our only choice is to proceed. Come on."
Our heroes treaded down a passageway next to the lava flow. Creatures such as Red Spike Tops had settled into the volcano, as well as orange versions of the monster bats that were camoflagued against the glowing walls of the volcano, putting Mario's new hammer to good use. The passageway ended with a tunnel going down. Our heroes jumped into it, careful to avoid the magma falls, and landed in a large chamber. The falls emptied into a large pool of lava that continued to flow deeper into the volcano. Several rock platforms formed a path between our heroes and the other side of the chamber. "This'll be easy, 'ey?" asked O'Chunks.
"Wait." Mario jumped onto the first platform, testing it. It began to sink into the lava under his weight. He jumped back to safety, and the platform rose. "These platforms will sink when we step on them. We should go across one at a time." Mario began jumping across them. He was about to jump to one of the platforms when a Lava Bubble suddenly sprouted from the lava in front of him, plummeting back into the pool in a few seconds. "And watch out for those, guys!"
Once Mario had reached the other side, the others joined him one at a time, once again following the example Mario had showed them. Another passageway, riddled with Red Spike Tops hanging from the ceiling, continued from the other side. At the end of this passageway, our heroes discovered a moderate-sized room. There was another field of lava next to them with a small moving platform that could carry them to the other side. On the safe ground opposite where our heroes were standing, a single ? Block hovered. Our heroes again jumped onto the platform one at a time, being carried to the other side. Mario hit the ? Block, and a Fire Flower appeared. "Gee, it's been a while since I've seen one of these." He collected it. His hat and shirt suddenly switched to white, and his overalls turned red.
"You look cool in that outfit," admired Mimi, "but what use does a Fire Flower have in a volcano?"
"Well, let's see." At the right side of the chamber, Mario could see a cracked wall. "This rock looks weak. I could probably break it with some fireballs." He blasted the wall with a few fireballs, and it cracked open, revealing another passageway. Our heroes walked down this tunnel, dodging more enemies and traps, although Mario was hit and lost his Fire Flower ability.
The path ended at a dead end. "What now?" asked Luigi.
"I'll see if there's anything in 3D." Mario flipped, and steps on the wall became visible. Mario climbed the staircase into another room. There were lots of Firebars in this room that could still hurt him in 3D, so he flipped back into 2D to be safe and jumped among the firebars, expertly dodging them. Mario avoided lava traps and Lava Bubbles in this room as well. It was then he realized he was traveling in an exact remake of World 1-4 in the original Super Mario Bros., except without Bowser. On the bridge where Bowser should have stood, Mario found a blue switch instead of an axe. He hit it. Nothing visibly happened, but Mario was certain a new path had opened for the others. He backtracked through the volcano-style World 1-4, dodging firebars and Lava Bubbles again. When he reached the beginning of the area, he flipped into 3D again and jumped down into the corridor where the others were waiting. Flipping back to 2D, he explained that he had found a switch that had apparently opened this passage in the floor. The group of six descended further into the volcano, landing in yet another corridor, this one going to the left.
"How long's this 'ere lava river?" wondered O'Chunks. It had been visible down the path ever since our heroes entered the volcano.
"I don't know," began Mario, "but we've got to keep following it if we want to find Bowser."
The corridor made a turn back to the right, eventually leading into another large room. The lava river widened here, forming a large lake of firey magma our heroes couldn't get across. A huge magma-fall blocked access to the other side. "How do we get across?" asked Tippi.
"We need to find out some way to shut off the falls," reasoned Luigi. He looked up. "Hey, let's see what happens if I hit this block." Luigi Super Jumped a Brick Block. It shattered, dropping a red trampoline. "Time for Luigi to see some action!" Before anyone could stop him, he took the trampoline to a high ledge. After some more enemy dodging, he found the source of the lava falls. If I can block that river somehow, I can probably stop the falls... Luigi noticed some conveniently placed pushable blocks in the area. He pushed them, one by one, over the lava river. With the blocks preventing it from flowing into the falls, this magma river was forced to flow in a different direction. Luigi returned to the group. "The falls are gone, but how do we get across?"
"I know." Peach floated across the river and hit a switch on the other side, creating a bridge that allowed the others to cross as well. After exiting this room and winding through another downward corridor, our heroes found what seemed to be the bottommost chamber of the volcano's interior. The lava river emptied out into a lake, where the lava collected and remained still.
"There's the key!" joyfully uttered Nastasia. It had drifted all the way into the innermost depths of the volcano, now floating in the middle of the magma lake. It was moderate-sized, glowing bright yellow.
"How do we get it?" worried Mario. "It's in the lava."
"Hmm..." Mimi thought. "Maybe if I attach myself to the ceiling, I could reach down and grab the key without getting myself fried."
"I guess you can try. Be careful."
Mimi transformed into a giant spider and pulled herself up to the ceiling. Slowly, she extended one of her legs toward the key. Once making contact, she quickly pulled her leg up and claimed the key. Moving back to safe ground, she dropped the key. "So you probably need me to get out of this place?"
"Probably. But be careful. The lava is even harder to avoid going up."
Our heroes backtracked through all of the volcano interior, having Mimi climb up the vertical chambers when nessecary. They reversed their course through corridors, over lava lakes, and enemy-infested rooms. They finally emerged back in the room they had entered when they had jumped into the crater. "Mimi, you'll have to help us one last time," noted Luigi. Mimi helped the others exit the crater and reverted to her normal form once they were all safely out.
"So now we go back to the town and unlock that gate," mused Tippi. A thought hit her. "I hope Bowser hasn't already found the Pure Heart!"
"Whether he has or not," pointed out Peach, "him going into the area where dangerous experiments were tested can't be a good thing. I'm sure that's where the Pure Heart is, so we've got to get there fast."

Our heroes headed back to the town, continually dodging enemies and sharp glass formations. They eventually arrived back at the edge of town. "So we head to the far side of town?" reviewed Luigi.
"That's right," answered Mario. "And we put this key in the gate. Merlrock said some dangerous experiments were tested there. What kind of experiements are they, though?"
"Hopefully nothing that would benefit Bowser," hoped Nastasia.
The heroes finally reached the huge, silver gate. Mario inserted the key, and the gate's two halves split, revealing a pathway between the two mountains. "Let's go!" announced Mario. The walk between the mountains was rather uneventful, but the mountains soon ended and our heroes found themselves standing before a vast, wide-open plain. For the most part, it was barren, although clumps of grass sprouted up every now and then, much like in the town.
"There isn't much of anything here," pointed out Peach. "Where are Bowser and the Pure Heart?"
"The Pure Heart is very, very close," revealed Tippi. "It's got to be here. Let's just proceed, and hope nothing goes wrong."
Our heroes walked out into the open plain. Before they got very far, though, a voice startled them. "Thought you'd just walk up and take the Pure Heart? Bwa ha ha ha!" Our heroes looked, and none other than Bowser was standing next to them. "Honestly, I'm amazed you managed to find this place. You chased down that key I threw into the volcano just so you could get here? You fools! Once I find the Pure Heart, it will be mine, and I'll save the world and all that crud. And you'll be all but forgotten!"
"What?" asked Tippi. "You haven't found the Pure Heart? After all the hours since we entered the town?"
"Nope. Why? It's not like I can sense where it is like you can. But mark my words, I'll be finding it soon. Now go away and let the Koopa King save the universe."
"Come on, Bowser!" wailed Mimi. "You don't really think you can just do this by yourself, do you?"
"Oh, it's you again. That little green freak. Well, I'll have you know that I can do this by myself. And I don't even need a super mustache to do it. Watch, I'll get rid of you all right now!" Bowser suddenly aimed a huge yellow blast of fire at the group. They all jumped to side, slightly singed.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Mario. "That's not the fire-breathing I remember!"
"Of course it isn't. I found this cool little device in this plain. I didn't know what else to do with it, so I ate it...and now look at me! I've got powers that can eradicate you all!" Bowser raised his arm, and a lightning bolt came crashing down on Mario. He staggered, injured. "And that's not all. Wait 'till you see what else I've got. All dimensions will bow before the great Bowser, King of the Koopas! BWA HA HA HA HA!!!"

MINIBOSS
Bowser

Bowser leaped into the air far above our heroes. "He's Ground Pounding!" exclaimed Mario. Even though he had been injured, he summoned the energy to move away from Bowser's shadow. Bowser landed on the ground with a loud crash.
"You little heroes think you can beat me?" Bowser spun around and expelled more fiery breath, shielding himself with the fire.
"I'll pound a bit o' sense into 'im!" O'Chunks jumped into the air and landed directly on Bowser.
"Get off me, tubby!" Bowser and O'Chunks became entagled in a wrestling match.
"Hey, break it up!" Luigi Super Jumped horizontally into the mess, seperating the two fighters. Without warning, Bowser then jumped through the air and aimed for Luigi. Luigi quickly dove to the side while Bowser crashed down next to him.
Mario figured it was time to use his new weapon in battle. Having recovered from the intial shock (literally) of the lightning bolt, he crept up to Bowser and delivered a well-placed hammer strike. "Gah! You and your hammers!" Bowser stood up. "But I've got something even better!" He held up his hand, and a black spiked ball materialized in his palm. He hurled it into the air, and it came crashing down on Mimi.
"AAAHH!!!" Mimi fell to the ground, in obvious pain.
"Mimi! You OK?" Nastasia rushed to help her fellow minion.
"I'll be fine in a few minutes. Can you shield me? I mean..."
Meanwhile, Mario had been delivering more hammer blows while avoiding Bowser's flames. "Gah! How do you keep doing that? Well, I did expect you to get a few good hits in. But you'll never be able to stand up to this!" Bowser again rasied his hand, and a glowing circle of energy extended outwards from him. Mario jumped the wave, but it hit Peach, throwing her back.
"You're hurting Peach!" accused Mario. "You don't care about your 'lovely wife' anymore?" Please say no...
"Oh, I don't need to worry about that. Once I become the greatest hero of all the universes, Peach will like me anyway."
"Hero, my foot!" Luigi readied his Super Jump and nailed Bowser's stomach, knocking him over. Mario then responded with a Ground Pound of his own.
"Ouch!" Bowser pulled himself back up. "But all of your efforts are in vain! Take this!" Bowser used his newfound power to heal a considerable amount of his health. "What now?"
"This!" A sharp red stone richocheted on the right side of Bowser's head.
"You little..." Bowser aimed a fire blast for Mimi, but she quickly jumped the assault and aimed another Rubee for Bowser. "That does it!" He ran for Mimi, but Mario took advantage of Bowser's distraction and performed another hammer strike. Bowser's replenished health was probably negated by now.
"Not so high and mighty now, are you?" taunted Mario.
"We'll see about that!" Bowser pounded the ground again, creating a shockwave along the ground. He repeated the maneuver several times, forcing our heroes to repeatedly jump over the waves. Bowser took advantage of our heroes' preoccupation with dodging the shockwaves and nailed O'Chunks with a spinning energy punch. O'Chunks flew a few feet, harmed somewhat.
"Catch it, Luigi!" Luigi was on the opposite side of Bowser from where Mario was standing. Mario tossed his hammer at Bowser's head with pinpoint accuracy. As the hammer bounced, Luigi caught it and delivered his own hammer swing.
"Aghh..." Bowser was nearly defeated. But his energy wasn't gone just yet. He produced more spiky balls, aiming them into the air and causing them to crash all around. Some of our heroes were hit, but Luigi, holding Mario's hammer, came up with a plan. He stood at the point where of the maces was going to land and smashed it with the hammer. It bounced toward Bowser, nailing him perfectly and putting him out of commission.
We went to see them for the first time in 5 years because they were going away for 3 years.

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