Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“This place looks a little… unorganized,” Trucy said as Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, and Trucy looked around at the town.

“Well, we heard that there was some weird stuff going on around here so we came to investigate,” Phoenix explained, pulling out a slip of paper.

Athena looked at him and asked, “Are you sure this is the right place though?”

He nodded still looking at the paper and said, “Yeah, I’m sure. This note that we got says this is the place.”

“What’s this place even called Mr. Wright?” Apollo asked.

The defense attorney read the name on the note and said, “It says this place is called Rogueport.”

“Well, that’s an accurate name by the looks of it,” Apollo stated before his gaze landed on something. “Is that a living bomb? What the heck are these things?” All of them looked at the civilians to see that Apollo was right. Strange creatures were walking around the harbor. Some looked like bombs. There was one that only had feet and another person that had a mushroom on their head.

“Eh,” Trucy said. “I think we should just ignore them for now. We need to go find the square. Does the note say who sent it Daddy? Because we might be able to find them and ask them.” Phoenix looked at the note again and shook his head to say that it didn’t say anything about who sent it.

“Well, let’s just look around then,” Athena sighed. The other three nodded their heads as they walked into the center of town. All three of them froze and both Trucy and Athena let out small gasps of shock as they saw a hanging rope with a loop.

“Isn’t that what they use to hang people? What is wrong with this place? I don’t like being here already,” Apollo commented, horrified.

“Me too,” Athena agreed. “I hope we do whatever we need to do here quickly because this town is giving off bad vibes. And honestly, it’s kinda dirty.”

“Well, let’s just continue looking around,” Phoenix said slowly. I really do hope we get this business over with quickly, he thought as they all hesitantly started walking around the square. Suddenly, the three lawyers all heard Trucy let out a shout of surprise before they heard a thump as she fell on the ground. They turned to face her with panic on their faces but soon they became confused. Trucy had fallen on the ground but she stood up and brushed herself off with slight disgust on her face. But the thing that had run into her looked to be some kind of a baby green dinosaur.

“Hey, you guys! That’s your own fault for being in my way!” the dinosaur exclaimed to all of their surprise.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were running towards me,” Trucy apologized. “What are you anyways? We aren’t from here so we are very unfamiliar with the things around here.”

The dinosaur calmed down a little and said, “I should say sorry too. But I’m something called a Yoshi! And now that I look at you, you guys really don’t look like you're from here. You can also just call me Yoshi. But I haven’t seen any other humans besides Gonzales.”

“Gonzales?” All of them repeated.

“That would be me,” a voice from behind them said with an Italian accent. They turned around to see a short man with brown hair and a brown mustache and a red shirt and hat with a ‘M’ on it along with blue overalls with yellow buttons.

“Wait, you’re Gonzales?” Athena asked.

The strange man shook his head and said, “That’s just what Yoshi calls me. My real name is Mario. But who are you?”

“I’m Phoenix Wright, defense attorney at law,” he responded.

Apollo followed up with, “I’m Apollo Justice and I’m fine! And I’m a defense attorney as well.”

“I’m Athena Cykes!” Athena exclaimed with a peace sign. “I’m also a defense attorney!”

“And I’m Trucy Wright!” the magician greeted, hitting her hat lightly with her tongue sticking out.

“Are you also a defense attorney?” Yoshi asked.

“Nah,” Trucy replied. “But I am a magician!” Mario and Yoshi then seemed to remember something.

“I heard you are not from here. Would you like to join us? We just came here to buy things but right now we are participating in a kind of tournament,” Mario explained.

“Sure. And while we’re at it, can you explain this place because we are so confused,” Phoenix asked.

Apollo then muttered under his breath, “And explain why this town gives off such bad vibes?”

“Yeah!” Yoshi replied. “On our way back to the Glitz Pit we can tell you all about this place!” None of them had no idea what a ‘Glitz Pit’ was but they followed Mario and Yoshi to some kind of blimp. While they were flying in it, Mario explained this whole thing and his whole adventure while mostly Phoenix, Athena, and Trucy explained more about themselves.

“Is that the Glitz Pit?” Trucy asked with wide eyes as she looked at a floating island.

Mario nodded and said, “It sure is!” Mario and Yoshi began explaining the Glitz Pit as they arrived at the flying island.

Chapter Text

Mia woke up with her head hurting slightly. She blinked away the blurriness before looking around at the unfamiliar room. Where… am I? This doesn’t look like anywhere in the law offices much less Los Angeles, she thought, sitting up.

“Where… am I? Wait, who are you?” a voice asked from behind her. She turned around and saw a young man who seemed to be about 23 years old and he had fluffy black hair, a blue jacket with white stripes and a tall collar, and a blue and white jumpsuit. He was also wearing a black visor that had a small symbol on it that says GYAXA. The person also had dark brown eyes and some white tape or a white bandage over the bridge of his nose. She looked around and saw that two other people were also waking up. One was a woman wearing a yellow kimono with a white lab coat and she had black hair that was in a ponytail with swirled bangs. The other was a man with brown hair, a red jacket and pants, white fingerless gloves, a yellow shirt, and a black fedora with a guitar strapped to his back.

“I’m Mia Fey. Who are all of you?” Mia responded.

The only other person who had spoken then said, “My name is Clay Terran. But wait,” he paused, looking at the woman in the kimono, “I know you.”

The woman gave them all a soft smile and said, “I would suspect so Clay. I’m Metis Cykes.”

“And I’m Jove Justice and my stage name is Jangly Justice,” the last person who had the guitar on his back introduced.

“Justice…?” Clay whispered to himself but was loud enough for Mia to hear it.

After some silence as they all mentally tried to figure out what happened, a thought suddenly entered Mia’s mind. “I think we might’ve been revived somehow. Because I know I died but I’m alive again.” The other three nodded their heads and said they had supposedly been killed also.

“I hope my little Athena is alright…” Metis said, her facial expression solemn.

“Who’s that?” Mia asked.

Metis looked at her and said, “She’s my daughter.” And the mention of that, Jove’s expression also became sad which made her curious. Metis and Clay seemed to have noticed it as well.

“Are you okay Jove?” Metis asked.

“I don’t know how long it’s been,” he responded. “But I hope my wife is okay and that my son was able to survive because I died trying to save my son from a fire.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. What were their names?” Mia asked.

He hesitated for a second before he said, “My wife’s name was Thalassa Gramarye.”

Clay’s eyes widened, “The famous magician that used to be a part of Troupe Gramarye!? Isn’t she the mother to that one girl? I think my friend said her name was Trucy… Wright?” What? Wright? Did Phoenix get married? Mia thought.

“I suppose I should’ve expected that Thalassa might’ve married someone else after I died,” Jove sighed.

“Wait, Clay. Did you say Wright?” Mia asked. Clay nodded in confirmation but she could probably guess that he knew what she was going to say.

“Not Mr. Wright’s biological daughter. He adopted Trucy when she was eight years old and when he lost his attorney’s badge and Trucy’s biological father abandoned her,” Clay explained. “At least… That’s what my friend told me.”

“Oh. That makes more sense. But if we ever find Phoenix again, I’ll ask him why he lost his badge but knowing him, he probably has gotten it back. But what’s the name of this friend you keep mentioning?” Mia asked.

He thought for a second before saying, “His name is Apollo Justice.” Justice…? She thought, looking at Jove. To her surprise, Jove looked extremely shocked at hearing the name but Mia could swear that there was a glint of relief in his eyes.

Metis seemed to notice this as well and she asked, “Do you know who Apollo is, Jove?”

He nodded, a bit too eagerly, and said, “Yeah and I’m relieved to hear that he’s alright after all this time.”

“What are you talking about?” Clay questioned.

“Apollo Justice is the son I thought I lost in the fire,” he explained.

Clay seemed shocked by this and he said, “Wait! So Trucy and ‘Pollo are half-siblings! Next time I see ‘Pollo I have to tell him!” During this, Mia had gotten up and pushed some crates out of the way to get to the door but when she tried to open it, it was locked.

“The door’s locked,” she announced. “And I assume this is a storage room so all I think we can do is wait for someone to come by and open it and then we can escape and see where we are.” She returned to the other three as they nodded.

Chapter Text

Apollo, Phoenix, Athena, and Trucy waited in the lobby of the Glitz Pit until they could go inside to watch Mario’s tournament. It was really crowded making the four of them having to stand off to the side. Apollo and Phoenix were just standing while Athena and Trucy were on the ground with Trucy showing Athena some of her new card tricks.

“Seriously, when is the tournament going to start? Or did we come here for nothing?” Apollo muttered.

Phoenix sighed and said, “Apollo, be patient. I’m sure it will start soon.” And just as he finished, a Toad (as Mario told them) came and said that people could start entering the room. Finally, he thought as Athena and Trucy stood up and they entered the Tournament room.

After it, Mario had managed to become champion of the Glitz Pit. The four of them were invited into the champions room.

“Wow Mario!” Trucy exclaimed. “I can’t believe you became champion!”

“Yeah, Gonzales is awesome!” Yoshi agreed. Apollo was just sitting silently on the ground. He thought about the strange Crystal Star that Mario had used to defeat the previous champion. The four of them may have explained to Mario most of their lives but not all of the details like the UR-1 Incident and the HAT-2 Incident. Stars have always made me sad ever since he died, Apollo thought sadly.

He didn’t realize that Mario and the others had noticed him becoming a little sadder until Mario said, “Are you okay Apollo?”

“What?” he responded before remembering what he said and continuing, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Oh, okay,” Yoshi said and the lawyer avoided the skeptical gazes of Phoenix, Athena, and Trucy and neither Mario nor Yoshi noticed that he wasn’t telling the truth. They seemed to be talking about ghosts in the vent but then they heard a commotion coming from right outside the room. What made Apollo the most curious though was that there were footsteps that came from humans, and they were running.

“Let’s see what’s going on,” Athena said and they all poked their heads out the door and saw a few security guards chasing something.

“Wait!” Yoshi exclaimed, making a security guard stop. “What’s going on?”

“Four humans just ran out of the storage room. We’re chasing them down now but we weren’t able to get a good look at them so we can’t describe them to you. All we know is that two of them are female and the other two are male,” the security guard explained. Well that doesn’t help, Apollo thought but then they all were suddenly helping chase down the strangers.

They ended up outside and they all looked around at the surrounding town.

“Aw. I really wanted to meet them and ask what they are doing here,” Trucy said. Apollo then looked over as something flashed in the corner of his eye and he turned towards it and saw a pale yellow scarf disappear behind the hotdog stand. He told the others about it and they investigated it but found nothing. The blimp then suddenly took off.

The six of them watched it leave and Phoenix said, “I’m guessing those are the people we were chasing. I hope we sometime run into them and ask what they were doing here. But we have other things to do.” They nodded in agreement and went back inside the Glitz Pit.

Chapter Text

Clay had opened one of the windows and felt the wind blow past his face. Even though the four of them were extremely confused of where they were and what the heck was going on, they were slowly figuring things out. Jove was playing music on his guitar, Mia was eating a hot dog she bought, and Metis was just listening to the music. They all sat and stood in the blimp in silence with the only sound being from Jove’s guitar.

Eventually, once Mia finished her hot dog, she said, “I have to tell you guys something.”

“Oh? And what may that be?” Metis replied. Jove looked up at her, softly strumming the guitar strings and Clay turned around to face her.

“Before we went on the blimp and I had just bought my hot dog,” Mia began, “I saw Phoenix come out of that big building. I didn’t recognize the other three that were with him though.”

“Can you describe them?” Clay asked.

The defense attorney thought for a second before she said, “One of them had brown hair and a blue magicians garb, another one also had brown hair but he was wearing a red suit and had two locks of hair sticking upwards, and the last one had a yellow suit with orange hair in a side ponytail with a robot around her neck and a crescent moon earring.”

Clay thought for a moment before connecting the descriptions to names and he said, “I’m pretty sure that was Trucy, Apollo, and Athena. I think Trucy was the one wearing the magician outfit, ‘Pollo was the one with the red suit, and I think Athena was the one in the yellow suit. I know that because I have met Apollo and he’s described the other two to me before.”

“So they are in this strange place as well? I really do wonder how long it’s been since each of us died,” Metis responded.

“Yeah. I think it’s been quite a few years though,” Jove agreed. “But I’ve been wondering about this for a little while now. When you guys woke up, did some part of you also hurt? Because when I woke up, the back of my head hurt.”

“My chest hurt,” Clay said.

Mia nodded and said, “The side of my head also hurt.”

“And my stomach hurt but I also hurt a little bit everywhere else but it wasn’t as strong and only lasted for a few seconds,” Metis admitted.

“I think those might’ve been the places where we were attacked with a weapon, getting us killed,” Mia guessed, “But how did you guys die? I was killed by a blow to the side of my head by a ‘The Thinker’ clock.” The astronaut told her that he was stabbed in the chest by a knife, Metis said that she was pretty sure she was impaled in the stomach by a katana she owned, and Jove said that he was hit in the back of the head with something but he didn’t know what.

“I wonder if there is anyone else we know that ended up in this strange land,” the musician wondered aloud. The other three nodded their heads in agreement. I hope soon I get to see ‘Pollo again. He must’ve been absolutely devastated when he learned I died, Clay thought, looking out the window again. A smile then appeared on his face as he thought, I also can’t wait to see his reaction when I tell him and Trucy that they’re half-siblings.

Chapter Text

After they had learned that it was just a Boo that was in the vent, Athena and the others were just waiting in the champions’ room.

“I’ve been wondering something,” Mario said in his Italian accent.

The four of them looked at him with curiosity and Athena asked, “What is it?”

“I was just curious about that one cake that was brought into the room,” Mario continued. “Rawk Hawk said that was sent to poison me but when I came back the cake was gone.” They all exchanged glances with each other.

After a bit of silence, Phoenix spoke up with a nervous smile and his hand on the back of his head saying, “I… may have been the one to eat it.”

“What!?” Yoshi exclaimed. “But you were perfectly fine! You would’ve had some kind of reaction because of the poison!”

“Oh, we forgot to tell you something. Before Daddy became a defense attorney, he ate glass that had poison on it and he survived. He also got hit in the back of the head with a fire extinguisher which caused him to only have amnesia for a little bit and he also got hit by a car and went to the hospital with only a sprained ankle!” Trucy exclaimed, making Mario and Yoshi’s faces absolutely shocked. Athena was also quite surprised.

“Yeah…” Phoenix confirmed sheepishly. What the…? Why was I never told this! This seems like something that would be extremely important to mention! Athena thought.

“Um, okay,” Athena replied. “But I’m going to admit something that I’ve noticed. That Grubba guy is acting a little suspicious and weird and I get bad vibes from him like he’s something more… sinister. I think we should go talk to him.” They all nodded in agreement before they left the champions room to go talk to Grubba. But when they got to one of the tournament doors, they noticed that there weren't any guards and the door was locked.

Before anyone could say anything though, Trucy made a lockpick appear and she said, “Ta-da! Now we can get through!” They then unlocked the door and entered the quiet tournament room.

“Ah, welcome you guys!” Grubba greeted, filling up the uneasy silence.

“Heya dude! We wanted to talk to you!” Yoshi exclaimed back.

The Spike looked curious and said, “Oh? What do you need to talk to me about?” Mario and Yoshi began talking to him with the occasional comment from Trucy but the other three just stood in silence. Then, one sentence that Grubba said, Athena saw that Mario didn’t catch all of it so he asked Grubba to repeat it.

“Okay champion!” Grubba agreed. “The only Crystal Star I’ve seen is the one on-”

“Gotcha!”

They all jumped as Apollo suddenly spoke up but Athena, Trucy, and Phoenix immediately knew what had just happened.

“Mr. Grubba,” Apollo began with a smug smile. “Can you tell me why your hand was twitching when you were talking about how you’ve only seen one Crystal Star?”

“Wha-What? How do you know that? I knew you humans were trouble,” Grubba stuttered but spat the word ‘humans’ like it was a piece of rotten food.

“So you admit to it?” Athena challenged. “There is no use trying to hide anything from us once Apollo catches a lie.” She then folded her arms with a confident smile and continued, “And I knew I heard some discord in your voice and heart.”

“What does that even mean? You people are weird,” Grubba grumbled.

“So, have you seen a real Crystal Star or not?” Apollo asked. Grubba didn’t respond but from the look on his face, she knew that he was about to tell another lie.

“And one more thing,” Phoenix said. “Even if you manage to get past Apollo’s perception and even Athena’s hearing, there’s nothing you can do to hide from me.” The psychologist noticed him put his hand in his pocket and she guessed he grabbed his magatama, ready to see any psyche-locks.

Grubba growled but then smirked and said, “Well, it was nice knowing you guys, but unfortunately I can’t let you tell anyone else.” He then made a weird machine appear from below the stage. They looked at the top of it and saw something.

“Is that the real Crystal Star!” Trucy gasped. Grubba then entered the machine and a light flashed and suddenly, Grubba now looked different.

“Uh oh,” Yoshi said. Grubba now looked much angrier, stronger, and bigger than before but if he got Athena, Apollo, Phoenix, and Trucy involved into this fight, it could end very badly.

Chapter Text

“This town definitely looks like the kind of place people would get mugged and robbed in,” Mia pointed out as the four of them walked around the town. The other three couldn’t help but agree.

“I highly doubt it but…” Metis began, “What if the Phantom is here? It just seems like the kind of place the Phantom would hide before striking.”

The scientist had noticed that Clay had also paled a little and he said, “Y-Yeah. If you see a detective with orange sunglasses and a white suit who has a really weird definition of justice, then stay clear from him.”

Jove looked confused as he asked, “And why should we look out for this person if they’re a detective?”

“Well, they may not look like that so you also should look out for a suspicious person who is wearing a Japanese Noh mask and a jacket that looks like Clay’s,” Metis explained.

“Wait. You haven’t even told us why we should look out for this person,” Mia said.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Clay apologized. “That person is known as the Phantom. He killed both me and Metis though when he killed me he was disguised as a detective known as Detective Bobby Fulbright.” Mia and Jove nodded their heads in understanding.

“Well, let’s just try and figure out how we get out of this town,” Jove sighed.

Metis nodded and said, “Yeah. Or at the very least figure out what this town is called.” They agreed on both statements and began asking the strange townsfolk what the town was called. The four of them eventually learned that the town is called Rogueport.

“Definitely matches with the vibe of this town,” Mia said. As they were walking around they found out that there was a central part, an east side, and a west side. The blimp that they had rode apparently was located in the west side and that there was also a train on the same side of town. They also decided to not ask the townsfolk what kind of creatures they were because they didn’t want to be rude even though all four of them were very curious.

“This place definitely screams criminal town,” Clay stated. “But at least it seems like the crimes that would be committed here would be actually normal crimes.”

“What do you mean?” Jove asked.

“Well, the cases that ‘Pollo and the other people at the Wright Anything Agency have done were really crazy. Like one time ‘Pollo did a case with a yokai and he also told me that one time Mr. Wright defended an orca. And then there are quite a few other cases that he’s told me about but not as absurd as those ones,” the astronaut explained.

“Those ones definitely seem crazy enough,” Mia sighed. Yeah, those cases do sound pretty strange, Metis thought. Then, as they were walking on the east side of town, they came across this strange green pipe. Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pipe like this before. It’s so big and why is it green? She thought as they all inspected the pipe.

Clay then smiled and said, “How about we go through it and see where it takes us!”

“It’ll probably take us to the sewers Clay,” Jove began before he shrugged and continued, “But I guess we won’t know until we go though.” They all nodded in agreement and Clay jumped in there first before the other three followed close behind him.

Chapter Text

All of them stared at Grubba in both fear and shock. Trucy tried to keep a brave face on but she was trembling.

“Hah! So long as this machine keeps working, I’ll be rough and tough with no exceptions! Now time for all of your guys' powers to be sucked up by my machine!” Grubba said with a sneer.

“Oh no you don’t!” Yoshi exclaimed. “Come on Gonzales! Let’s take this guy down!” Mario nodded and began the fight with a jump and then what he called a ground pound. Yoshi then fluttered to above Grubba before doing a repeating ground pound on the buffed Spike’s head. Grubba seemed to boost himself before Mario and Yoshi attacked him again.

“You know I love a good fight Gonzales! You ain’t gonna do much and no matter how hard you try, this will be your last fight!” Grubba growled before he boosted himself again and backed up before jumping. All of them managed to get out of the way but Trucy saw that Apollo didn’t get away fast enough and ended up getting hit.

She gasped and ran over to him, shouting, “Polly!” The lawyer had been hit off the stage and both Phoenix and Athena ran over to them as well.

“One down, 5 more to go,” Grubba said triumphantly. From behind her, she heard Mario use his jump attack again before Yoshi also ground pounded on the Spike again as well.

Trucy was shaking the still Apollo with tears slowly starting to form in her eyes as she loudly whispered, “Polly? Polly, are you okay? Please wake up.” Please don’t die Polly. I don’t want to lose you. I was already worried when you got blown up in the courtroom that one time but this is much worse, the magician thought as she continued to gently shake the lawyer.

“Time to show me some better moves Gonzales!” Grubba exclaimed from behind them. “Because this battle is just getting started!” She faintly heard Grubba stomp which seemed louder but didn’t care as she was worried about her friend.

“Come on Gonzales! He seems to have boosted his defense now but we can still win!” Yoshi encouraged.

“Yeah! And avenge Mr. Justice!” Mario agreed. They then heard Mario attack the powered-up Spike with his hammer this time and heard Yoshi swallow Grubba before he spit him out.

“Argh!” Grubba growled. “It’s not over till it’s over ‘cause that’s the way it goes Gonzales!” Trucy noticed that the Spike’s voice sounded like he was out of breath which made her breathe a sigh of relief. She then heard Mario and Yoshi use the attacks they had used before with the hammer and swallowing Grubba before he was spat out.

A thump was then heard which was followed by the Spike shouting, “YAAARGH!” Trucy was still shaking Apollo but the magician heard Athena and Phoenix begin shouting triumphantly. Trucy stopped her shaking as she looked back up to the stage as well and saw that Mario and Yoshi had truly defeated Grubba.

“You did it Mario!” Athena exclaimed but didn’t run onto the stage. Phoenix stayed with them as well.

“How did I lose to such a weakling?” Grubba asked faintly. “Great fight Gonzales. Great… fight. Urrrrgh.”

A voice then suddenly exclaimed, “Mr. Champion!” They all looked over to see the one to have spoken was Jolene. She then continued saying, “...No, I mean… Mario. Please allow me to offer my thanks for defeating Grubba. I have to apologize. I’m sorry to have gotten you involved in all of this but I had to learn the truth of this arena.”

“Jolene…” Yoshi said.

“I need to tell you something Mario. I once had a little brother named Mush. He would’ve done anything for me. Because our family was poor, he became a fighter here. But then one day he went missing and I suspected foul play and got hired as the manager to secretly investigate but while I looked for my brother, I saw Mr. Grubba transform,” Jolene explained.

She sighed and continued, “I almost gave up hope when I saw what I was up against. But then… you appeared and so I decided to secretly guide you.”

Mario’s eyes widened slightly as he said, “So you were our X buddy?”

“Yes, that is correct,” the Toad confirmed. “When I saw you fight, I knew you were the only person to be able to challenge Grubba.” She then jumped onto the stage and walked over to Grubba before saying, “Now, sir… No! Not ‘sir’! Grubba! Give me answers right now! What did you do to my little brother? You know exactly who I’m talking about and that was the first champion: Prince Mush!”

“Prince…?” Phoenix whispered. Trucy and Athena were also a little confused and shocked.

“Urrrgh. Prince Mush had… discovered my… power-sucking machine. So I… urgh… had him disappear. And now… he isn’t around these… ooorgh… parts no more,” Grubba admitted.

Everyone was a bit shocked by this and Jolene then exclaimed, “No! But… I suspected as much. Oh… Poor, sweet Mush.” Trucy could hear a bit of a sob in her voice once she finished that last sentence.

“Boy, I thought she was a little mean but she was just worried for her brother,” Yoshi said, his facial expression softening.

Athena nodded and said, “I know how that feels. To be worried about someone you care about I mean. Because there was this guy I know who was like an older brother to me and he ended up having himself get arrested to protect me.”

“You never mentioned that,” Mario said. Athena just shrugged. They all then saw the Crystal Star start to lift out of the bowl thing at the top of the machine as it began to spin faster. A Toad then popped out of the Star and Trucy saw that he looked like Jolene.

The Toad looked around and said, “Am… I back in the Glitz Pit?”

“Mush!” Jolene exclaimed, running over to him.

“Is… that really you Sis?” Mush asked before saying, “What are you doing here? I… I was just…”

“There, there, Mush. It’s okay. It’s finally over,” the older Toad comforted.

Apollo finally woke up and he said weakly, “So… that’s what Crystal Stars can do…?” Trucy helped the lawyer to his feet and all four of them walked back over to the stage.

“The Crystal Star is yours now Mario,” Jolene said. The machine began to make a whirring sound before falling onto the ground.

“You’re sure we’re okay with taking it?” Yoshi asked. Mario and the other four also looked at her curiously.

“It’s better that you have it so nothing like this would ever happen again,” Jolene explained. Yoshi then told Mario to go grab the Star and so the two did but was also joined by Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, and Trucy so all of them together grabbed the Crystal Star as they finally solved the dark secret to the Glitz Pit.

Chapter Text

When they got through to the other end of the strange pipe, they did indeed end up in the sewers. But it looked more like just some kind of underground place than actual sewers because there wasn’t that much water.

“Looks like it was the sewers after all. Though they don’t look like sewers in my opinion,” Jove pointed out. The others nodded their heads in agreement as they began walking around. Eventually, after some walking around, they realized that they were lost.

Mia sighed and said, “I’m pretty sure we just got ourselves lost.”

“Don’t worry!” Clay exclaimed. “I can find the way out!”

“Can you?” Mia asked, looking like she was about to sigh again. The astronaut told them he would with a lot of confidence in his voice and facial expression. Clay began leading the way but Jove had a feeling that they were getting even more lost than they already were.

They then ran into an unfamiliar doorway that had a strange type of aura coming from it and Metis said, “I wonder what’s in there. Is anyone else getting a weird feeling from that room?”

“I am,” Jove said and the other two told them that they felt the same way.

“Well,” Metis said, walking a bit closer to the door, “Let’s go in there and see what it is.” All four of them then walked through the doorway and went down a short tunnel before they got to the other end.

“What is this place?” Clay asked with awe in his voice. The room was nothing like they had seen before. In the center of the room was some kind of platform that seemed to have some kind of design etched into it and a pedestal in the middle of it. There were also a couple of pillars but they all were broken. On both sides of the room were ledge type things with bars on one side with a spring behind each one. But the strangest part was what was in the back of the room.

They walked down the steps and towards the strange door and Mia said, “This door looks really cool.” Jove, Clay, and Metis couldn’t help but agree. It was a giant red door with an archway around it. Both the archway and the door had some strange designs on them but the ones that were on the door were gold designs though it seemed the gold has been slightly faded over time. In fact, the whole room and all of the sewers look like some kind of ruins, Jove thought.

“Are these stars?” the musician asked as he walked over to the door and traced his fingers along the star shaped designs.

“By the looks of it, that does seem to be the case,” Mia said. “But I wonder why there are seven stars specifically?”

“Yeah, I’m wondering that too,” Clay agreed thoughtfully, still staring at the giant door in amazement. Metis then sat down on the edge of the more elevated part with a sigh.

“I think we should take a break,” the robotic scientist admitted. The others all agreed with her as they sat down. Jove got his guitar out and started playing it, singing softly. They all sat there in silence for a little bit with the only sound being the guitar and Jove’s singing as they all rested their legs.

Eventually, they felt rested enough so they decided to continue trying to get out of the maze of these sewers. They tried to stop Clay from leading the way but were unsuccessful.

“Hey look! There’s a door!” the astronaut exclaimed and they all followed him to where he was running towards. There was, in fact, a door and behind it was a small room with a single pipe that seemed to be a faded brown color. Next to the pipe was a sign with something on it so Jove walked over to it to read what was on it.

“To Twilight Town,” he read. The name brought slight chills to his body and when he looked at the other’s expressions they felt the same way.

“Well,” Metis said slowly. “Maybe we should check out the other end of the pipe, just in case.” The other three gave reluctant nods as they all entered the faded brown pipe and Jove was unaware that he accidentally left his guitar at the strange giant door.

Chapter Text

Once they got back to Rogueport, they followed Mario and Yoshi into the sewers but Mario hadn't explained to them where they were going.

“We’re going to be placing the star back so it can give us the next location,” was all Yoshi had said but that didn't make Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, and Trucy any less confused. Phoenix was glad that Apollo had seemed to fully recover from getting hit by Grubba.

Eventually, though, they got to a strange room with a door that seemed to be right under the center of the town above.

“This place looks like… ruins. And what’s with the giant door?” Apollo asked.

“That door is the Thousand Year Door!” Mario explained.

“Woah!” Trucy said, amazed, “So it’s existed for a thousand years!? That’s a really long time!”

“Yeah but continue watching,” Yoshi said. They then watched as Mario got on the platform in the middle of the room and held up the Crystal Star that they got most recently. Phoenix looked down with amazement as he saw the patterns in the floor lit up with a blue color. Eventually, the map that Mario had out glowed a white light for a second before it went back to normal.

“Oooh, what’s on the map?” Trucy asked, looking over Mario’s shoulder. Mario showed it to all of them so they could see the location of the next Crystal Star as well. It seemed it was in a strange and gloomy forest.

“Where is that place?” Athena asked.

Mario shrugged and said, “I’m not sure but we can look for it.” They all nodded but then Phoenix saw something out of the corner of his eye so he turned towards it and walked to it as well.

“Is this… a guitar?” Phoenix asked, crouching in front of it. It was quite obvious that it was a guitar. He heard the others come over and look at it.

To his surprise, he heard Apollo say, “It is but I feel like I’ve vaguely seen it before but a long time ago.” He gingerly picked it up and started strumming the strings even though Phoenix knows he doesn’t know how to play the instrument.

“It even sounds a little familiar,” Apollo muttered. They all gave him curious looks and he just gently set the guitar down and the lawyer said, “I think we should leave it here so the owner can find it because I don’t think anyone would just abandon a guitar as nice as this.”

“Wow Apollo,” Phoenix said, “I never thought you’d care about instruments. But for some reason, you look good holding a guitar and how holding it looks right for you.”

“It really does but I think we should focus on getting to the new area with the Crystal Star,” Athena pointed out and the others all agreed. Apollo fully set the guitar back on the ground and they left the room with the Thousand Year Door.

They eventually found a door with a pipe on the other side with a sign next to it that said To Twilight Town. They voted that they should let Mario and Yoshi go into the pipe first. When they came back they asked what was on the other side of the pipe.

“We need something with our names on it,” Yoshi said, clearly holding back a sigh.

Trucy thought for a second before saying with a thoughtful expression, “The four of us all have things with our names on it but I don’t think it’d be smart if we went without you as you know this whole place better than us so we’ll stick with you till we get something with your name on it.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Phoenix said. Everyone else nodded with agreement. And then they all followed Mario and Yoshi back to the main part of Rogueport.