Part One

Chapter 1 The Hooded Figure

It was a beautiful day in the Koopa Kingdom. To some, that statement may be a little hard to believe. The Koopa Kingdom is located within a valley, and that valley is notorious for containing at least eighteen active volcanoes. Because of this, it is difficult for people to imagine this realm having a day where the sky isn't overloaded with sulfurous gases and ominous black clouds. But this day was one of the most gorgeous days not just in the Koopa Kingdom, but in all of the Mushroom World.

This day, where sunbeams were streaming down and drenching people in a heavenly light, was the day that Roy Koopa had decided to take a walk around a quaint little town. Roy was especially enjoying the walk because it was a real stress reliever. With six biological siblings and one adopted sibling, life at home could get pretty chaotic. He had no idea how Bowser was able to handle running a kingdom and raising a gaggle of children all at the same time. He could kind of see why he took a vacation to the Beanbean Kingdom recently.

Anyway, Roy was taking a stroll through a small town. He was starting to feel a little hungry when he noticed a duo of female koopas sitting on a bench. At the sight of them, Roy let out a whistle.

"Whoa ho ho, hello there," he said to himself. Turning to the side, he noticed his reflection in a store window. He admired himself for a brief second, then licked his hand. Grinning devilishly to himself, he took his hand and rubbed it over his bald, pink head. With his head now glistening like a star, he waltzed over to the conversing women.

"Hello there ladies," he said casually.

The two women glanced up at Roy.

"How are you doing today?" he asked.

"Uhh...we're doing alright," said one.

"Yeah, we're just hanging out," said the other.

Roy gave a chuckle and took a seat on the bench.

"That's cool," he said. Turning to the first lady he added, "Say, why don't you and I grab a quick bite? I hear that there's a restaurant nearby that sells really good hamburgers."

It was after he said this that Roy heard somebody clearing their throat behind him. Turning around, he saw another koopa standing within two inches of the bench. The first thing that Roy noticed was that this guy had very scrawny muscles. Roy thought that he could take this guy in a fight with his dominant arm tied behind his back.

"Mind if I step in?" asked the guy.

"Oh sure, not at all," said Roy as he got up from the bench, his voice coated with a condescending tone. "You trying to ask this girl out too?"

"Something like that," said the guy. Then he and the girl shared a kiss. Roy's mouth dropped open in shock.

"You ready for lunch, babe?" asked the guy.

"You betcha," said the girl. With their arms interlocked, the two of them walked off down the street. Roy, still recovering from the shock, was determined to regain his edge.

"Okay then. How about you and me go out for hamburgers?" He asked while turning to the other girl. Her snout wrinkled up, as if she got a whiff of a foul smelling odor.

"Uhh...no thanks," she said. With that, she put her purse over her shoulder and started walking away. Roy, not willing to accept another failure, followed her.

"What?" said Roy. "Well then how about hot dogs? Sushi? Steak?"

The girl refused to turn around.

"Come on, there's gotta be something that you like," Roy said. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he yelled out, "I HEAR THE SUSHI PLACE HAS GREAT VEGETARIAN OPTIONS!" This made the girl pick up the pace. Realizing that he was dealing with a lost cause, Roy let out an exasperated sigh. Then, he heard somebody chuckling to his left.

"Not having much luck with the ladies today, huh?"

Roy turned and he saw a figure leaning against the wall of an antique shop. If Roy had to guess, even though he was exponentially bad at guessing, he would say that the figure was human. The reason he thought that was because koopas didn't usually wear clothing, and when they did it wasn't to the same extreme as the amount of clothing that this person was wearing. They were wearing a pair of black combat boots, faded blue jeans, and a black hoodie. The hood was pulled up, so Roy couldn't see the person's face.

Roy didn't even stop to consider why a human was in the Koopa Kingdom. Instead, he just jumped right to interacting with them.

"Tell me about it," he said.

The person smiled.

"So tell me, do you wear some sort of chick repellent or do you just not have any game whatsoever?" they asked.

Roy glared.

"Don't be smart with me," Roy said. "This is just an unlucky day for me. Normally, I am so irresistible that girls of all ages are drawn to me like lights are drawn to a moth."

The person put their hand over their mouth. Roy was not sure why.

"Say, do you want a piece of advice?" they asked.

"Not really," Roy said in response.

"Well too bad, I'm giving it to you anyway," they said. "See that girl?"

The person pointed across the street, and Roy looked to see a koopa girl gazing at a necklace in a shop window. She had on a long cyan scarf.

"If you want to get a conversation going with her, just tell her that her scarf really brings out her eyes," said the human. "After that, she'll be like putty in your hands."

Roy smiled as he turned back to the person.

"Hey, thanks for the help," he said. "You know, I probably could've been able to…"

Roy didn't get to finish his sentence because something hit him in the back of the head unexpectedly. Roy turned around to see what it was, and on the ground lay a red ball, covered in white spikes. The ball uncurled itself, revealing a spiny.

"What the…" Roy said.

In the street, Roy caught a glimpse of a group of goombas, koopas, and koopa troopas running frantically. Above them all sat a lakitu on a cloud. The Lakitu looked angrier than a wasp that had just had its nest invaded and trashed, and he was hurling spinies in every direction one can imagine. He was throwing them eastward, westward, northward, southward, sideways, sphereways, inwards, outwards, and somehow, for some reason, he had even managed to throw them upside down.

"Dude, it was a joke!" cried one of the koopas from the crowd.

"No one makes fun of my glasses," screeched the lakitu at the top of his lungs. "You hear? NO ONE!"

The lakitu jumped, and when he did a collection of lightning bolts was hurled in every which way. At this, the person grabbed a hold of Roy's hand and dragged him toward a manhole.

"Looks like it's cloudy with a chance of temper tantrum," they said as they started pulling the cover of the manhole up. "We had better take cover."

"Woah, woah," said Roy. "You want me to go into the sewer? No thanks."

"Uh, sorry Mr. Big Shot," said the person, "but I'm afraid that you have no other choice. Underground is really our safest option."

"Oh, come on," said Roy. "This is my first time wearing my new cologne! I smell amazing! And if I were to go in there, then I'll come out smelling like a sewer, obviously."

The person rolled their eyes. How could somebody be this ridiculously dumb?

"Well, if you get zapped by one of those lightning bolts, then you are going to end up smelling like Kentucky fried Koopa," they said. "Now come on, the more time we spend out here, the more likely we are to get zapped." With that, they dived into the manhole. Roy was still hesitant, but upon hearing another thundercrack, he held his nose and dove into the sewer.

It stunk to high heavens in there. Roy was ninety five percent certain that he was going to lose his lunch once he entered. In addition to that, it was dark, so dark that Roy was having trouble seeing his hand right in front of him.

"Hey...uh...random dude," said Roy, "are you sure that this was a good idea? I mean, there isn't even any light in this place…"

As soon as Roy said the word "place," the whole sewer lit up. After his eyes adjusted to the light, Roy got a chance to take in his surroundings. He had to admit, the sewer looked a bit...cozy. Somehow, somebody had managed to turn it into a cute little home. There was a bed with a floral pattern comforter, a couch that Roy felt the sudden urge to sit on, a mini fridge, and even a little waste basket.

"Woah," said Roy.

"I know," said the person. "It isn't exactly a castle or a bungalow, but it's my home, and I love it. Except for the smell." They laughed, and Roy couldn't help but join in.

"Yeah," he said, "The smell can pretty much go die in a hole."

The person removed the hoodie, and when they did, Roy just stared, dumbfounded. They had the most beautiful and luxurious hair that he had ever seen. It was red near the roots, but as you went down it started to turn orange. And then, all the way down near the tips, the hair was a beautiful yellow color. Roy stared at their hair for a solid minute before it occurred to him that he had better say something.

"Oh, um, I'm Roy," he said.

"I know," said the person.

"You know?" asked Roy. "Oh, I guess word of my awesomeness must travel pretty quickly around these parts, eh?"

"No, actually, I just know that you live with Bowser," the person replied.

"Oh," said Roy. "Well that doesn't make me look nearly as good."

The human laughed and extended her hand toward Roy.

"I'm Celia," she said.

Roy took her hand and gave it a generous shake.

"It's very nice to meet you, Celia," he said.

Roy looked down at Celia's hand, and that was when he noticed something. Her hand looked very similar to his hand. It had a yellow skin tone, and claws that served as the fingernails. In fact, if one were to compare Roy's hand to Celia's, they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference aside from size. Roy looked into Celia's face, and it was then that he noticed that her skin, just like her hands, was yellow, the same color as most koopas. Her eyes were also a beautiful, glistening cherry red.

"What is it?" asked Celia, noticing Roy's concern.

"It's just...your skin looks a lot like koopa skin," he said. "And your eyes look a lot like koopa eyes. And your hair...I don't think anybody but a koopa could have hair like that."

"Okay," said Celia.

"But the problem is that you look so much like a human," said Roy. "You wear clothes, you have a regular nose, and…" Roy looked at his back, where his tail and shell were. Then he took a look at Celia's back…"And a shell! You don't have a shell, either!"

Celia looked at her back and smiled.

"Huh, no I guess I don't," she said.

"So, which are you?" asked Roy. "Are you human or are you koopa?

Celia's smile spread even wider.

"Actually, I'm both," she said. "I'm a half human, half koopa hybrid!"