This is the sequal to Fallen Star. Hopefully I've written it so anyone can understand it. It's part of a series I write for fun called the "Ranga Tales". I hope you enjoy it.

“What’s wrong Jangles?” said Ranga as she moved in closer to her new pet. The piranha plant was much taller than her but it was hunched over and looked like it was in pain. She stood by its side as her other pets watched.

They were currently in a secluded part of the Garden of Delusions. It was partly covered in ice, forest and graves. It was the holding pen of Ranga’s pets. Ragu the penguin, Fluffy the phantom piranha, Shade, her master’s metallic mammal and finally the most recent addition Jangles the piranha plant that she had acquired during her travels to the Mushroom Kingdom.

“I don’t think he can talk” sighed Ted, partly relieved that Jangles was unwell.

Usually whenever he approached the piranha plant it jumped up and clamped down on his head. It doesn’t matter though because physical attacks like that can’t actually hurt a voodoo doll. It was just inconvenient.

“Hey look at this”

“What?”

“This!”

Ted went over and looked to see what exactly Ranga had noticed. On the neck of Jangles, around the bud were strange orange spikes poking through its skin.

“What does it mean?” asked Ranga

Ted rolled his eye “I don’t know, go talk to someone who knows about plants”

“Alright, I will”

“Really? Who?”

“Waluigi”

“Who?”

“This guy from the Mushroom Kingdom, he’s a bit weird looking and acting though. He breeds piranha plants so he’s gotta know what’s wrong” Ranga said as she walked off “Take care of Jangles for me while I’m gone”

Dr Shroomy pulled the white sheet back revealing the twisted and terrified faces of the deceased. Peach cringed, feeling sick from the sight of them. But luckily Mario was there to hold her and comfort her despite the gruesome things before her.

“These three people were found dead in the harbour, judging by the markings and scars they were prisoners of Bowser” informed Dr Shroomy as he gazed upon the dead forms of two Toads and a Koopa.

“Why would Bowser do this? Shouldn’t he be more focused on rebuilding his castle” said Peach.

It had been a few months since his conquest to take the Millennium Star. However his efforts were thwarted by the Mario brothers, the Wario brothers and four other dimensional travellers. In the midst of all the madness one of those travellers burnt his castle to the ground for unknown reasons.

“What was the cause of death?” asked Mario

“I’m not too sure, I’ll have to perform a few tests on them. Princess, do you mind if I stay here within the castle walls? If any unnecessary information is spread into a rumour then we could send panic throughout the town”

“Certainly, you can use the west wing of the castle” said Peach “But please be careful, it’s newly refurbished.”

A knock echoed from the front door, Waluigi and Wario turned from their plates of pasta cautiously and glared at the door. They both hated it when people disturbed them when they were eating. Waluigi was the one to answer door because he currently wasn’t swallowing a mouthful of food.

“Whadayawant?” he growled as he opened the door, he then paused as he recognised the girl standing before him “Ranga? Long time no see”

“I know, I’ve been kinda busy” she replied, looking in she waved “Hi Wario”

Wario just glared at her like she was a weirdo, trails of spaghetti dangled from his mouth. He always had a certain level of distrust towards her. She looked so strange to him with her abnormally pale skin, swirl eye and ragged red hair.

“Um…” Ranga looked back up at Waluigi “Sorry am I interrupting something?”

“Kinda, we’re not in the mood for social visits”

“I’ll be quick then because I just came to ask you a question”

“What is it?”

“Well, let’s say a piranha plant is acting odd. It’s not eating as much, it’s lethargic and it’s got orange spikes around its neck. Is it sick?”

“Oh, that just means its maturing, soon those spikes will bloom into petals. Just give it a few days”

“Thanks”

“Wait, why did you ask about a plant?” Waluigi then got it “So that’s where that flower went off to!”

“Yeah, it kinda followed me home”

“Well obviously wanted to be with you, so why stop it?”

Ranga let out a sigh of relief “Good to see you think that way. I’ll just be going now”

“Alright, see ya” Waluigi closed the door on her

“Wait… is that?” Daisy ran past Luigi and towards the street where the Wario brothers lived (or at least the manor they occupied in the Mushroom Kingdom). Luigi turned just to see a familiar red haired child leave the manor.

The yellow clad princess smiled as she dived down in a hug “Ranga!”

“Princess Daisy” she smiled as she wriggled free from the princess’s hug “Good to see you again”

“So how have you been?”

“Alright”

“Wait, none of your relatives are here with you? Are they?”

“No, I came alone”

“That’s good”

Luigi caught up to them “Daisy, you shouldn’t run off like that”

“You’re not my bodyguard” she laughed

“Oh, hey Ranga. Didn’t see you there”

“Hi Luigi” smirked Ranga “How’s everything?”

“Yeah, alright. Mario and Peach are off with Dr Shroomy”

“Wait, you mean he finally…”

“No Ranga” interrupted Luigi before she could finish her trail of thought

“Oh come on, there is so something going on with those two!”

Daisy asked “What exactly are they seeing the doctor about?”

“I don’t know, Mario got a call from Peach this morning. I think it was about checking something out. But she didn’t wanna be alone”

“How odd…”

“I know!” said Ranga “Let’s go see what they’re up to now!” before running down the street

Luigi chased after her, mainly because she usually has some mischievous motive in her actions. He cried out to her “Ranga! Stop!”

“And off she goes again” sighed Daisy with a smile

Mario waited outside the door of the chamber Dr Shroomy was using. Autopsies and anything where blood was involved always made Peach cringe. So he volunteered to wait for the results of the autopsy while Peach organised the new decorating scheme of the rebuilt wing of her castle.

“What’s up?” cheered an all too familiar voice

He looked around to see no one

“Over here!”

“Ranga! What are you doing there!? Get inside right now before you kill yourself!” snapped Mario

Ranga was currently hanging upside down at a window. Her feet were clutching the frame of the window outside, a shoe in each hand. Mario quickly ran over and grabbed her, pulling her inside.

“Aw come on, relax” she smiled

He panted “How can you be so calm?”

“Well, I had total control of what I was doing” informed Ranga as she put her shoes back on “So what’s going on?”

“Um… just waiting for Dr Shroomy to finish what he was doing”

“What’s he doing?”

“I’m not sure if I should be telling you, you’re not even from this world”

“So what? Well, if you won’t tell me, will you tell them?” Ranga pointed behind Mario. He turned to face Luigi and Daisy.

“Tell us what?” said Luigi

“Ranga, you’re crazy” said Daisy “How could you just climb up the side of the castle like that?”

Ranga laughed “It’s not that hard to be honest”

“Mario” said Dr Shroomy as he walked out of the wing. He was dressed in scrubs that were now stained with blood “Oh… I didn’t realise you had people with you”

Luigi, Daisy and Ranga looked at Mario, the three of them smirked “Now tell us what’s going on”

“Not now, we need to wait for Peach” he replied

Peach, Mario, Daisy, Luigi and Ranga listened to Dr Shroomy’s findings. All of these discoveries were in incredible medical detail which made it perplexing at times to his listeners. He also explained to the newcomers about the murders and how the bodies were found.

“So that’s it?” said Daisy as she raised an eyebrow

“Yes, I can only gather they were killed by a neurotoxin but it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before” Dr Shroomy then paused and thought about what he had said “There was a case of this venom before, but the patient survived and I was able to extract fangs from their body. But in this case, I can’t find anything”

Mario intervened “Who was this patient?”

“I cannot release that, patient confidentiality”

“Well surely if you found fangs in the other patient then there must be fangs in this one” said Luigi

“That’s the problem” said the doctor “There are no fangs”

Ranga raised her hand and asked “How deep have you looked?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, did you go through the whole body, gizzards and all or did you stop at the outer layers”

“You’re suggesting I become a butcher and cut those poor people open like slabs of meat. I only took the bare minimum of their flesh for testing out of respect for the dead!”

“If cutting the corpses of those people open will save the lives of others then I don’t see why not”

All eyes turned to Ranga, she obviously knew something.

“What’s going on? Did you have something to do with this!?” asked Mario

She shook her head “No, I’m just saying this sort of thing sounds like a freaky biological experiment. It’s artificially made so we need to know what it is we’re up against”

“Are you suggesting the Mushroom Kingdom is at war?” said Peach

“No, I’m suggesting someone’s planning a massacre. The question I pose to you all is, how many lives are you willing to sacrifice?”

“None, I want to avoid all death! It’s a horrible thing!” the princess looked at Dr Shroomy “Doctor, please further your tests”

“I… I’m sorry your highness” he replied “I cannot cut those poor people open”

Daisy bluntly added “It’s not like they can feel anything… they’re dead”

“But still, I cannot ignore their faces, they were happy townspeople once”

“Isn’t there someone else who can do it? Someone who isn’t afraid of blood and guts”

Ranga jumped up and down waving her arms wildly “I know! I know!”

“OW!” Luigi nursed his cheek “Watch it Ranga”

She replied with an evil grin “Sorry”

‘She reminds me so much of Wench’ Luigi trembled. Ranga’s older cousin loathed him for some reason. This usually resulted in her attacking him by ‘accident’.

Daisy said to Ranga “Who do you know?”

“I know someone who’s very thorough with going through carcasses, they get a real kick outta dissecting stuff and ripping out what’s inside. They’re also good at finding details no one else notices” replied the outlander

“Really? We need this person here”

Mario muttered “Sounds like a murderer”

“Alright, let me get a phone so I can call her” Ranga smiled as she walked over to a nearby telephone decorated with love hearts and pink swirls. She quickly dialled the number.

“Wait, did Ranga say ‘her’!?” exclaimed Mario and Luigi