OF: Chapter 2

Beautiful… The fangirl thought, her eyes glued to the airplane window, staring down into the Koopa Kingdom below. The black volcanoes were overflowing with sparkling lava that ran like rivers through the twisting valleys, illuminating the barren, broken ground. It's even better than I thought…

Livi felt a familiar smile creep across her face. She had never dreamed of anything as wonderful as this place. Even after exploring it in game after game after game, it was like seeing it for the very first time.

"This is going to be great…" Livi said to no one in particular, still staring out the window. "I'm going to meet Bowser… and the Koopa Troop… and… ohmygosh I'm totally gonna meet the Koopalings!!"

"Oh, really? Is-a that what you think?" Mario asked from behind her.

Livi whipped around to face him. "Of course I am!"

The interior of the plane was more like a small living room than an actual plane. Everything was fuzzy and pink, of course, as it was Peach's plane, but there was a large TV in the front for long trips, a nice soft carpeted floor, and there were even a few chairs and sofas scattered around. (Livi, for reasons unbeknownst to the others, had always wished the plane would crash so the furniture would fly everywhere) Livi was on her knees on the long bench-seat stretching from one end of the plane to another. Mario and Luigi sat in the middle of the floor playing some this-world game that Livi had never quite had the attention span to learn.

"Is that-a so?" Mario asked sarcastically, not bothering to look up from the game.

"You see if I don't!" Livi snapped, sticking her tongue out. Though he starred in the majority of the games, Mario was one of Livi's least favorite characters.

"You see if you can-a get past all the guards and-a Bowser…"

Luigi smacked his brother's arm. "Don't encourage her!" He hissed under his breath. Mario just laughed.

"Rawr…" Livi simply said, turning back to the window sulkily and trying her best to ignore them. If there was one thing she hated about meeting the Mario Brothers, it was that they were constantly reminding her how weak and inexperienced she was. Luigi would even let her play with the items, and she didn't have the hammer she wanted, and she couldn't jump (well, she could, but not like them) to save her life. She could hardly beat up the Koopa King in a video game, how on earth was she supposed to do it in real life?

The fangirl sighed heavily. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever find the adventure she really wanted.

Princess Peach picked that moment to enter the room from the drawn lacey curtains at the front of the room. "I'm back!" She cheerily announced.

Livi turned back around, raising an eyebrow. "You left?" She asked stupidly.

Peach smiled, trying not to look offended. "Yes, Livi… I've been in the front of the plane for quite some time. Daisy and I were both up there…"

"Oh…" Livi looked back out the window. "I thought there was an unusually good mood back here…"

"Oh, Daisy's not so bad…" Peach said gently.

"You kiddin'?" Livi argued. "Daisy's a little-"

"Livi!" Luigi interrupted, turning around to face her.

Livi smiled at him. "I'm just kiddin'!"

Peach laughed under her breath, covering her mouth with a gloved hand. "Anyway…" She said as she composed herself. "I just came back here to tell you all that we'll be landing soon, so you all need to get ready…"

"Yes, mother…" Livi said sarcastically, slowly forcing herself away from the window. Peach ignored her, disappearing back through the curtain.

Livi saw Luigi sit down on the couch across the room, and flung herself over into his lap, smiling stupidly with her arms tight around his waist. "I'll be your seat belt, Weegee!" She said, like the idiot she was.

Luigi blushed a bit, prying Livi's arms off of him and making her sit up in the seat beside him. A moment of silence passed, then Luigi barely caught Livi's shoulders as she tried to glomp him again. Livi huffed, sticking her nose up in the air and turning away. Luigi just sighed, shaking his head-there really wasn't any correct way to deal with Livi.

Livi stopped giving Luigi the cold shoulder as she heard Mario call her from across the room. He was in the same position Livi was previously in, looking out the window. Without turning around, he extended one finger and beckoned her over. Livi groaned at the idea of doing what Mario wanted, but she pushed herself off the couch anyway, skipping over to join him at the window.

"What?" Livi snapped, wearing a very bored expression.

Mario simply pointed out the window to the ground below. The runway that they were going to land on was visible, leading up to the Castle's front gate.

Livi squinted-she usually needed glasses to see things far away, and was totally blind without them-yet she couldn't see anything of interest that Mario could be pointing out. "What about it?"

Mario simply smiled, nodding down to the gates. "Look-a closer…"

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"This is just ridiculous…" The elderly Magikoopa grumbled under his breath.

"I know… we're advisors and leaders-not messengers…" The female agreed. "How dare he assign us a Paratroopa's job."

Kamek sighed. "Well, there's nothing to do about it… We don't want to upset Bowser…"

"Mm… you can say that again…" Kammy said, nodding in agreement.

The two Magikoopas were waiting in the doorway of the base stationed near the airplane runway. King Bowser had sent them out here to escort the visitors to his throne room. Of course, they both knew who was coming, and neither really approved of their master's ill decisions (both knowing he was only allowing it to please the Princess). So, with their dumb luck, attempting to reason with the dimwitted King got them sent down here as escorts to their rivals.

Kammy nodded up to the sky, peering over her cat-eye glasses. "Think that's them?"

Kamek followed her gaze to the pink plane in the sky, recognizing it as Peach's. "That's them alright…"

Kammy sighed, stepping outside of the base. "Well… here we go…"

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Livi screamed bloody murder, throwing herself around the room in a spastic fashion at the sight of Kamek, the second of her top five fandoms. She ranted on and on about everything that popped into her mind concerning the Magikoopa, but it was mostly mindless screaming.

As the fangirl pounced on Luigi, he desperately trying to calm her down, Peach rushed back into the room. She looked at Livi a moment, then asked Mario, "What's going on?!"

Mario pointed out the window. Peach come over, looking down and seeing Kamek and Kammy. It didn't take long for her to connect the dots, casting a worried glance over her shoulder at Livi, who was now about to strangle Luigi, she was hugging him so tight.

"We're going to keep a very close eye on her…" Peach said to Mario, barely making herself heard over Livi's nonstop screaming. Mario nodded, looking very worried himself. It was already very difficult to take care of Livi, even between the two heroes and princesses, but the fangirl had always much preferred the Koopa Kingdom to the Mushroom in her rantings. If they set her loose in that castle, there was no telling what would happen.

Suddenly, however, it was too late to consider any of that.

The plane landed on the long runway, coming to a stop just in front of one of the bases that kept watch here. The two Magikoopas could be seen approaching the plane, talking between themselves-neither looking very happy.

On the plus side, though there were no troops with them, so it looked like Bowser was going to keep his promise of peace.

On the negative side, Luigi had lost his grip on Livi just as the plane door lowered down so the staircase on the inside of it was touching the ground. Livi flung herself outside before the stairs hit the ground, none of the others being quite quick enough to catch her.

Before they knew what was happening, Kamek hit the ground, Kammy recoiling in shock as he irritably tried to push Livi off, which was proving very difficult since Livi was hugging him so his arms were pinned to his sides.

Luigi jumped off the stairs, running over to help Kamek. Peach scurried off, Mario and Daisy quickly following her. Luigi grabbed Livi, yanking her off of the Magikoopa. She ignored him, still screaming, and trying desperately to re-glomp her fandom.

"Livi, stop that!" Luigi snapped, still trying to keep a hold on Livi.

"OHMYGOSHIT'SKAMEKHE'SSOCUTEANDAMAZINGANDOHMYGOSHICAN'TBELIEVEIT'SREALLYHIM," was the closest thing to a response Luigi got.

"I'm very sorry, Kamek…" Peach said sweetly, as Mario helped him up. "Livi's a tricky one to handle… we had no idea she would do something like this, honest!"

Kamek waved her off, shaking his head to clear it up a bit. "I'm alright, Peach… It's fine…"

Livi screamed again at the sound of his voice, lunging forward, Luigi now barely able to hang on. Daisy smacked her upside the head. "Will you knock it off and behave like a civilized human?!" she snapped.

Livi growled, forgetting Kamek entirely, and pushed Luigi off, flinging herself at Daisy. Somehow, Daisy wasn't the least bit surprised, and the two wound up rolling across the dirt floor, beating on each other, clawing with their nails and tearing each other's hair out.

"Oh no…" Peach moaned. "Ladies, stop it! Stop that this instant!" The pink princess scurried off to separate them as Daisy quickly overwhelmed Livi.

"Sorry 'bout-a that, Kamek…" Mario said. "Livi's a little… ah…"

"Insane?" Kammy offered.

"You realize she's dead if she pulls that kind of stunt in front of King Bowser, yes?" Kamek reminded them.

"Oh, yeah…" Kammy agreed. "He's not going to put up with any of this nonsense…"

"Don't worry; we'll keep her under control." Luigi assured them. "Everything should be fine now…"

Suddenly, Luigi was hit square in the back by the fangirl as she took shelter from Daisy. He would have toppled over forwards had he not been so used to it by now. "Luigi! Daisy's going to kill me!" she wailed.

"No, she's not…" Luigi assured her, pulling Livi away from his back and taking her into his arms. "If anyone's going to kill you, it'll be Bowser, if you keep behaving like this…"

"Nooooooooooo…" Livi moaned, slumping to the ground as she fell limp under Luigi's grip. "I don't want Bowser to eat me!"

"Then you better stop tackling things…"

"I can't help it! Kamek's just soooooo cuuuuuuuute…" Livi sighed dreamily. She suddenly perked up, glaring at Luigi. "And it's not tackling! It's glomping! There's a difference!"

"I don't see much of one…" Kamek growled, brushing off his robes.

Livi smiled at him. "Glomping is done with endearment, of course!"

"Death by endearment?" Kammy mused, utterly dumbfounded-like Livi was speaking a foreign language.

"Yes, that's it exactly!" Livi chirped, then suddenly turning away with her nose in the air. "Not that I'd ever agree with her, though…"