Ok! Ok! Ok!

Nabbit learned he had a good power. Real cool stuff, really. He knew he was fast. He was very fast indeed. That wasn’t a problem. The real problem was that he didn’t know just how fast he was. This would have saved him a lot of time. Really would have.

Running on water! So cool. Gotta show the kids that. The kids could probably do it already. Just didn’t tell old pops about it. All sixty of’em.

Well, time to bag another one. Not bag another treasure. He already did that. Bag some people. Not literally. Just an expression. Don’t worry.

So as Nabbit ran down the water and past the Savage Sea he thought of a cool good plan to enact. He was going to get this guy to join him. For sure. Or else.

There was Diamond City in the distance. A few skyscrapers jutting out. Some pink, yellow, and red towers that were very obvious. Most importantly the big island just before the coast. Big wasn’t true. It was very small. Just one building. But it was a big building.

He ran off the water and back onto the land of this island and then he ran into the building and realized he couldn’t stop running that well because he was very good at going fast but going slow was not something he was good at and oh no he was crashing into a robot and he was tumbling against the wall and up the stairs and he kept tumbling and crashing and-- Oof-- he came to a complete stop.

Okay that was fine now he just needed to find the good doctor himself.

He opened a research lab where-- not a research lab. It was a girl with glasses sitting against a wall and reading a book. The cover of the book showed two adult men staring at each other very closely and blushing. The girl screamed at Nabbit. Nabbit left. He wasn’t going to get help if he kept doing that.

He opened a research lab where-- that was a blue robot. Not a doctor.

He opened a research lab where-- Dr. Crygor was there! Hey, Doctor, how ya doing? Remember Nabbit? Wanna help out on something cool?

“Hey Doctor,” Nabbit said. “How ya doing? Remember me? Wanna help out on something cool?”

“...Hello? And who is this?” Dr. Crygor asked. Behind him there was a glass wall protecting him from a series of explosions. Big ones. He was testing some new battle armor, looked like.

“I got a message from the Mushroom Kingdom! Or, from Bowsette, the gal who used to rule the Mushroom Kingdom. Also Bowserland. It’s a bit of a mess. Not really a big details guy so that’s okay. I got the message though.”

“Um, yes?”

“Join us! We’re going to save the world by fighting stuff,” Nabbit said. “Or, they are. I don’t care. I just like nabbing stuff. Bagging stuff. Grabbing stuff. The usual.”

“Can you... give me some more details?” Dr. Crygor asked. “I am a very busy scientist here. I am working very hard on--”

“Some new evil dude who wasn’t alive but is alive now is back and wants to come back to life even though I guess he kind of already did, once again it’s kind of a mess so ignore all the details and just focus on the fact that we want you to help out somehow and be a cool general in an army. Do you know how to fight?”

“W...Wait. What evil dude?”

“Uh, Morton Koopa or something?”

Dr. Crygor froze. “My word, that is why Mad Scienstein hasn’t contacted me in so long... the world truly is ending. I still remember the time of Morton’s great terror on the world. An era where fear was powerful and all submitted to the whims of Dark Land. A horrible place. People think current times are tough, but-- Wait, why do you want me to help?”

“I heard you were good with technology and stuff. You’re making armor, we need armor. You got a blue robot, we need blue robots. You got some teenager sulking around, we actually don’t need that sorry.”

At that moment the same teenage girl stormed into the lab, her pigtails bouncing about with each stomp. “Who the heck is this guy?” she asked Dr. Crygor.

“Penny, I’m sorry, I’m trying to... speak with him.”

Nabbit turned to the girl. “Hey. I’m Nabbit. I bag things, I grab things, I nab things. If you ever need a thief, I’m like a Hudson Hawk for a new generation. A Super generation. Here’s my card. Oops I stole the card back. Not a magic trick. Just speed. Here it is again. Ha, guess I’ll be seeing you again.”

“Grandpa...”

“Mr. Nabbit, please tell me more about this. Why is Morton Koopa alive again?”

“I dunno. I don’t even know who that is. I just delivered this message to you. You want in?”

“Well... Before Mad Scienstein disappeared, he and I were working on a large and very secret project. We had excavated a site from the former Smithy Factory and found a whole lot of old machinery that we were trying to revitalize. Pretty dangerous. Very illegal. But we were highly successful in jump-starting some of the technology. We even found a working model of Smithy himself. Controlled, of course. I’m not a madman. Well...” He laughed.

“Pretty dangerous? Very illegal? I’m in for all of this,” Nabbit said. “Come with me. Come to the Mushroom Kingdom with me. Or, uh, somewhere. I’m meeting up with a lot of people. Even though most people I talked to said no. Like Bomberman. And Wario. And Waluigi. 9-Volt and 18-Volt said no. That one was sad. Orbulon was a definite no. Princess Shokora wasn’t evil enough. Captain Syrup said huh-uh. Whatever. Very sad.”

“Did you... just ask all of my associates before me? I’m... a little hurt.”

“I was just going down a list.”

“In what order was this list?”

“Order of priority.”

Dr. Crygor steamed. Penny steamed too, but for a different reason.

“You know, we will help! But we must prepare our technology for you first, so give us some time!”

“Time’s short. Do it fast. Fast is better. Better than safe, probably.”

“Wait, ‘we?’” Penny asked.

“Yes. We are going to take down Morton Koopa together!” he exclaimed. “It will be great family bonding time. Like the time we upgraded my laser eye.”

“Didn’t that... put you out of commission for six months?”

“That doesn’t matter. We bonded.”

The girl slumped her shoulders. Dr. Crygor was really determined. Nabbit was really happy. He finally got a second person to help out. It only took eighty-five conversations to finally recruit someone worth having! Yeah!

They were right on their way to getting Seven Generals, probably. Definitely. Nabbit was proud. And he got to steal a lot of stuff.