It didn't take the duo very long to reach Top-Hat Tower. Mario was slowly getting to understand Cappy's most basic abilities. His partner had been able to destroy crates that blocked the path, and it was he who managed to activate the bridge leading to the tower.
Dashing across the bridge, Mario was surprised to see three small, yellow Goombas waiting for him. Seeing his appearance, they jumped in shock and dashed towards him.
"What odd little fellows!" exclaimed Cappy from above him. "They seem to know you! And... not like you..."
These Goombas were nowhere as tough as the regular ones - it was written in their sickly color and minuscule size. Without a second thought, the plumber leaped into the air, sailing over the tiny creatures as they chased him in fury. Landing on a slightly higher ledge, he started towards the door of Top-Hat Tower, the small Goombas unable to reach the raised area. Too bad they can't jump like I can.
Running up to the door, Mario attempted to open it, but it didn't budge an inch. Pushing against it with all his might, he tried again, but to no avail. Pausing for a moment, he turned to stare at the Micro-Goombas. They had stopped their pursuit and had taken to wandering aimlessly around. Yes, top-notch minions indeed. Cappy then spoke up from atop his head. "So... you kind of missed the giant golden hat emblazoned on the door?"
"No, why?" Mario replied. "Isn't it just, like, the kingdom's symbol or something?"
Cappy sighed. "Oh come on. Are you kidding me? Here's a hint: Hat."
"So... what does it mean?" he asked.
He then felt a slight movement on his head. Cappy had just attempted to slam his face into his hair. "Just... Hat. Hat! HAT! HOW DENSE ARE YOU?!" When Mario didn't react, Cappy flew off his head and slammed into the door, opening it. "HAT. You're welcome."
"Ohhhh... I get it now!"
The hat returned to his head, sighing. "Please tell me you won't do that kind of thing for the rest of our journey."
Ignoring the sassy hat's comment, Mario hurried into the structure.
Top-Hat Tower looked serene and formal on the outside, but the inside was... a slightly different story. The entire area was made up of tall, pale platforms, so high that no man could dream of climbing them. At the very top, he could just make out a second door. The floor... was more like a pool. Smaller platforms bobbed about on the water's surface, but as the plumber landed on them, they quickly sank. On a grassy surface nearby, a frog or two hopped about.
Mario stared up at the door, wondering how on earth they would get there. Cappy could fly, but he wasn't very strong. He was quite good at platforming - in fact, he was famous for it - but he couldn't jump from the water, and the platforms were insanely tall. That was when his partner interrupted, again. "How to get up there... I know! Try throwing me at that frog over there!"
Taking off his hat, he faced it - and its new pair of magenta eyes. "Cappy, are you alright? That's a weird idea. Why would throwing you at a frog do anything? Wouldn't it just... hurt the frog?"
"This may sound weird, okay? But trust me. It won't hurt the frog. It won't hurt anyone. Well, it may be a little painful. I'm sure the frog'll be fine, though. Just... do it, alright? Alright? Hello? You listeni- Ah."
Grabbing Cappy, Mario knelt down next to one of the green amphibians. He was about to place the hat on its head when it jumped off, seemingly trying to escape his clutches. Dashing after the creature, he found himself struggling to keep up with it. The hat in his hands then gave him a look and spoke up, annoyed. "I said 'try throwing me', not 'try gently placing me'."
Taking his advice, although a bit reluctantly, he grabbed the cap and flung it at one of the frogs. As soon as Cappy landed on it, his expression changed to one of determination. Staring down at the frog, he focused all his energy onto it. At once, Mario felt his body go limp. He watched himself float up from the floor and he plunged... into the animal.
He could feel some kind of fluid around him. Past his right were images of... frogspawn? Tadpoles? Baby frogs...? The images spun around him, blurring his vision, blurring his thoughts, blurring his memories...
• • •
Mario woke up in the same room, only it was... a lot bigger. He could hear the water sloshing around in its pool, the frogs next to him, his cap's weight on his head, the ground under his four legs... Wait, what? He tried to ask Cappy something, but only heard a frog croaking. Raising his hands, he looked down on them... were they... webbed?! He remembered something... he was in Top-Hat Tower, then Cappy told him to throw his cap at the frog, and...
He let out a surprised croak - he was the frog!
His friend let out a chuckle from his tiny head. "Neat, huh? Here in Bonneton, we call this 'capturing'. I promise it'll go a lot smoother next time. The first ride is always the weirdest. But on the bright side, you're a frog now! We should be able to get to those higher platforms while you're like this."
The frog shook its head. I'll never get used to this, he thought. Shaking the rest of his body out, he quickly dashed into the water. The frog's body moved quite gracefully in the dihydrogen monoxide. Mario wished he had been able to see it in action. Hopping onto one of the floating platforms, he was relieved that he couldn't sink in it - the frog was much lighter than he used to be. He sprang forward, and landed rather awkwardly on one of the higher platforms - the frog's body would take some time getting used to.
Avoiding the Micro-Goombas that dashed at him from every side - and stomping on a few when he had to, he slowly leaped from platform to platform to reach the second door, also with a hat symbol on it. Looking towards Cappy as well as his amphibian eyes would allow, he attempted to ask "what now?" but only ended up croaking some more.
The hat looked down at him. "Er... you can't open that door while you're a frog. Come to think of it, you can't do much while you're a frog. Well, that's a problem... I can't free you from a capture by myself. You'll need to... release your own spirit, somehow. Just... argh! Just jump out of it or something!"
Somehow, Cappy's advice actually worked, as Mario hopped out of the frog quite easily, his cap still on his head. Slamming the door open with his partner, he quickly rushed out, leaving the frog behind to stagger about.
• • •
As soon as he stepped onto the roof of Top-Hat Tower, Mario's ears were assaulted by some kind of annoying jazz music, blended in with the sound of an airship's motor. Several Bonneters floated about nearby, huddled together for comfort and safety.
"My, those must be the monster's underlings, right?" asked Cappy. "We gotta get them. There's a spiral ramp up over there." Following Cappy's directions, the plumber quickly made it to the roof, where a small, circular platform waited for him - directly at the peak of Top-Hat Tower. The screechy jazz was much louder, and it gave him even more of a headache the closer he got.
The second he stepped onto the platform, the airship made a U-turn and stopped just in front of him. He took a few steps forward and glared at its inhabitants, Cappy giving them the stink-eye as well. Now that Mario could see the four on the airship, it was safe to say that he was not expecting Bowser to hire some bunny band. The four on the ship looked... semi-threatening at most. If Mario had a say in anything, the carving of a face on the bow of the airship looked a lot more dangerous.
Their first member, who also happened to be the shortest, stepped up right to the edge of the airship. Dressed in a tacky emerald suit, he possessed an commandeering air about him, and at first glance Mario could tell that he was the leader.
The member to his left was the brute of the gang. He was taller and slightly more muscular, and had a nasty grin on his face that looked way too big for him - mainly because of his oversized mouth.
Near the back of the airship, a tall, gangly rabbit sneered at Mario from behind the others. While the others were dressed formally, this one was dressed in overalls - and nothing more, other than a hat.
The only girl amongst the gang smirked at him. If it weren't for the look on her face - and the overdone purple eyeshadow, she may have looked quite pretty, with her blond hair and violet attire.
Facing him, the bunny band let out a chorus of evil laughter. The green bunny, who happened to be the leader after all, spoke up first. "Heh heh! Da boss warned me dere'd be a fella widda mustache coming along!"
Mario raised an eyebrow. "And by boss, you mean giant ugly turtle, right?"
The blonde pitched in. "Who do you think you are to be insulting our boss?"
"Who do you think YOU are, bunny band? I've seen Micro-Goombas stronger than you... combined!"
"Heh. You have a lot of bottle to speak up like dat," cackled the rabbit in green. "Guess we oughta introduce ourselves. We're da wedding planners for dat happy couple. Dat turtle and de princess."
"Since when were THEY a happy couple?" whispered Cappy to his friend, who let out a snort of laughter.
The same bunny looked down at them, annoyed. "Dey call us... da Broodals! I'm Topper, dat girl is Harriet, da one in blue is Spewart, and da tall one is Rango."
Harriet flashed them an evil smile. "We got that tiara we needed, so we don't have any more business in these parts."
Topper flashed her a sideways glance, and turned back to the plumber. "Of course, roughin' up goody-two-shoes meddlers was in da contract... so I guess we still got a little work to do!" The other three gave him a quick nod as he hopped off the airship, screeching some kind of battle cry. Mario braced himself for an attack, but all Topper did was summon... two more hats. The airship flew off in another direction, towards an island in the far distance.
Cappy bounced on Mario's head to get his attention. "Hey... that Topper guy has hats. You usually attack the monster's friends by jumping on them, right? Well... jumping on hats doesn't work. I can tell you that."
Seeing that Topper was far too slow to be of any threat to him, the plumber ignored him and looked upwards to Cappy again. "So... how do I take this guy down?"
"Well... it's pretty easy. You can remove other enemies' hats by throwing me at them. I'm pretty sure I'm a strong cap, so if their hat is weak enough, I can knock it off. This guy should be a joke. But... if their hat is strong enough, I won't be able to remove it. This is some pretty good info I'm giving you here, so... go ahead, abuse it. I'll sit here and be used as a weapon."
Mario flung Cappy at the green Broodal repeatedly, as instructed. When the bunny's hats were all removed, he sat there on the floor, dazed - revealing his bright violet hair. Dodging Topper's hats, which were sliding around across the floor, Mario leapt and stomped on his head, momentarily stunning him. A quick repetition of his actions knocked out the rabbit, who lay sprawled on the floor.
After Topper's defeat, a single, metal rod slid out of the corner. On top of the rod, a few sparks of electricity gathered, travelling across a long wire that stretched into the far unknown. In the direction that the wire was headed towards, a faraway island shone under a sky much bluer than Bonneton's.
Cappy bounced on his head excitedly. "Yes! That's what I was talking about earlier - that Spark Pylon! It'll lead us to the next kingdom. We'll definitely find the airship there - go capture it, quick!"
Tossing his cap at the electricity sparks, Mario felt himself slip into the consciousness of the... electricity. Cappy was right - this went a lot smoother. Slowly charging up energy, he zoomed off across the ocean to the unknown.
And thus our two heroes began their new Odyssey...
A/N
Yay. Now we get to meet a gang of bunnies. No, not the Rabbids. Different game.
And the Topper fight... I need to somehow hype it up. Oh, who am I kidding. I can't hype that up if I had three days and a firework show.
Don't kill me for Topper's accent - the original game had it.
Yay. Hopefully I can make the next kingdom better. Oh, and cue that cheesy ending.
On a side note, this chapter is 2,164 words.
That's... puny. Honestly puny. For a video-game-fanfiction-wannabe-novel, that is.
The average novel is around 80,000 words. If I ever want this to get to that level, I'll need to write 40 chapters. Considering the whole of Bonneton was shoved into two chapters...
This is the longest author's note I've ever had. Don't worry. Future notes will be LONGER. Or shorter. Depends.