Chapter 40

After Morgan stopped mourning for Mr. Penguin, while the hunter stared at her in confusion, Hope suddenly sensed another serpent, she looked around for it, but she was unable to sense it clearly, so deciding to find it, she closed her eyes and focused.

With the help of all her senses, she was finally able to to pinpoint the serpent a few seconds later, and to her surprise, she found it inside the hunter, realizing the situation and the danger this creature possessed for their ally, she decided to take care of it.

She snapped her fingers and teleported the creature growing inside the hunter into her hand and immediately turned it into ash with a small flare of her cosmic flames.

The Hunter didn't even feel anything and just stared at Morgan who was rubbing her eyes with her sleeves, Thalia did notice the flare of Hope's cosmic flames and raised an eyebrow at her.

But Hope just smiled and shook her head, letting Thalia know that it wasn't something to worry about, so Thalia nodded and then want back to patting Morgan's head.

However, suddenly the girls felt something big move down towards them from high above, something invisible, Hope, Morgan, and Thalia turned their heads towards where they felt whatever was hiding moving.

Until a door suddenly opened and a bright light shined all over the area, it was here that the girls were able to see more hunters appear following one particular hunter as he walked toward them, this one however, looked older and bigger than the hunter they befriended.

The girls just stared at the group of hunters and the one leading them, as they walked up to them and stopped before the girls, the young hunter immediately began to growl and make clicking sounds.

The girls were able to understand him and knew that he was explaining things to the older hunters, of course, he also explained how Morgan defeated his fellow hunters with ease and how later the girls helped him fight off hoards of creatures.

One of the older hunters walked forwards, and the girls noticed this one is wearing a cape and seemed far more elegantly dressed, this elder hunter growled at the girls and then nodded at them.

After nodding, he took out a spear and threw it at Morgan, the little Stark caught it and then smiled at the elder, who just stared at her for a few seconds and then turned around to leave.

Soon after, the rest of the hunters turned around as well and began to walk back to what the girls now knew, was their ship, the young hunter was last, but before he left he nodded to the girls and then gave them a thumbs up.

Hope, Morgan, and Thalia smiled and returned the gesture with a smile on their faces, Morgan then said, "Take care Mr. Hunter! And try not to trick humans again, it's not nice!".

The hunter growled, nodded, and then turned around to get on the ship, soon after, the girls saw what they assume is the door, close, and then the stilled invisible ship began to fly up.

The girls could only distinguish its shape as it moved but were still able to see it leave towards the sky, until it was high up and suddenly accelerated, leaving the planet.

The girls stayed where they were while looking up towards the stars until Thalia stretched and yawned "Well, that was interesting".

Morgan nodded "Yup! We got to meet a new alien species, walked around an ancient pyramid, and learn new stuff!".

Hope hummed as she looked up at the night sky "Yeah, those plasma weapons could be useful to Neo Kyoto, a sort of automated defense system".

Morgan excitedly smiled "Oh! That sounds cool!".

Hope smiled at Morgan, Thalia suddenly piped in "We're going to have to tell everyone about the new spawns that might appear in the dungeon".

Morgan nodded "Oh that's right! We better tell Aunty Yasaka right away, so she can make an announcement, we wouldn't want anyone to get an acidic blood shower by surprise right".

Thalia nodded "Yeah, that definitely doesn't sound fun... it's a good thing no one can die in the Natural Dungeons, but getting teleported out because of that would suck".

Hope sighed "And would be painful as well, especially because the Natural Dungeon makes everything that spawns in there more powerful".

Morgan then opened the World Jump system and got ready to leave "Well then, let's go home already!".

Thalia and Hope nodded and then Morgan activated the return home tab, space and time cracked like glass around them and then shattered, soon after, reality repaired itself, but the girls were no longer in this world

-----

~A few days later~

When Hope, Morgan, and Thalia returned home, they immediately went to speak with Yasaka and let her know everything they found out about the black serpents and the hunters, Yasaka wasted no time in sending scout teams of Konoha and Suna Ninja to scan the Natural Dungeon.

As suspected two new floors opened up, one was a dark Iike cave made of some sort of black substance, this became the nest and floor of the serpents and the floor boss was the serpent queen.

Then next floor was a dense jungle and hunters spawn here, both floors were rated as difficult Rank A, because of the sheer number of enemies and the fact that they used stealth tactics.

Even shinobi had a hard time dealing with the black serpent's natural stealth in their territory, the advanced weaponry used by the hunters also prove difficult to deal with.

So the two new floors were declared off limits until they were mapped and everything was known of the two new spawns, well except for Thalia, Morgan, and Hope since they had experience with those new enemies.

So the girls spent a few days helping the scout teams mapped the two new floors and research the new spawns, of course, what really interested everyone, was the advanced technology that the hunters dropped upon defeat.

The Research and Development team was having and field day, as well as Tony, Urahara, and the scientist types of the house.

The girls though? Well, right at this moment they were having fun, visiting friends and playing with them.

------

~Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Kart Stadium~

Morgan was drifting on a tight curve while gritting her teeth and sweating, she made it and the speed boost she obtained from a perfect drift, helped passed by Mario and Luigi, however, Luigi immediately shot a green koopa shell at her.

Morgan barely dodged and got out of the way, she was also able to get an item box, just in time too, because Mario, shot her with a red koopa shell.

She used her item right away, which was a banana, and blocked the red shell just in time, she sighed in relief and began to get away from both Mario and Luigi who were glaring at her.

Suddenly the track ended and Morgan found herself in the air, she grinned and whooped, and a few seconds later, she landed back on the track, with Mario and Luigi landing behind her.

Suddenly, thunderbolts hit all of them, which made them lose control of their karts causing them to scream as they spun out of control, Morgan even waved her arms in a bit of panic, and suddenly Peach drove past them as they stopped spinning.

However, Hope appeared out of nowhere, glowing like a rainbow, and crashed into Luigi, Mario, and Morgan, sending them flying into the air screaming, Morgan suddenly yelled "Oh come on!".

-----

The race ended with Princess Peach being in first place, Hope second, Luigi third, Mario fourth, and Morgan fifth, which had the little Stark sulking in a corner of Princess Peach's room.

Peach just stared amusedly at Morgan "Come on Morgan, you don't have to sulk that much".

Morgan just sighed "That was horrible! I almost won and then I got blasted and sent flying! I even ended up last place, how is that even possible?!".

Peach just giggled while hiding her mouth behind her hand, Morgan looked so adorable sulking, and silly too, it just made the Princess of Mushroom Kingdom laugh.

Hope just sighed "Well, Mario and Luigi did say that anything can happen when you go karting in the Mushroom Kingdom, I just didn't think it was literal, you know?".

Morgan huffed and then stood up from her little sulking corner and walked up to Peach and Hope "I still think you didn't need to bump into me while you had the effect of a starman on, totally unnecessary!".

Hope just smiled "Daddy did say to always double-tap your opponent, just in case".

Morgan groaned loudly, she couldn't really defend herself now, Uncle Harry's teaching dug deep in both Morgan and Hope, so she couldn't begrudge Hope for following them through.

It just made Peach laugh even more at Morgan, the little Stark just huffed and then sat at the table both Peach and Hope were sitting by and drinking tea on, she grabbed a cup of tea and sipped it, before speaking "Where did Mario and Luigi go? I thought they were going to play with us some more".

Peach smiled and then answered Morgan's questions "Oh, they had to leave for a plumbing job, something about big flies and koopas in the sewer pipes".

Hope hummed finding that entire sentence very interesting and odd "Plumbing is a dangerous job in the Mushroom Kingdom huh? I saw them leave with some big hammers and power-ups too".

Peach nodded "Well, given that we have all sorts of monsters and things clogging the sewers, then it is no wonder plumbing is a very serious problem here".

Morgan took a bite out of a slice of cake on the table "What do they get paid with anyways? Coins?".

Peach hummed as she sipped her tea "Most of the time it is coins, though sometimes they get power-ups and items in exchange, like those cute little badges they have".

Morgan nodded "Cool, but what do we do now? Go-karting with three people isn't fun".

Hope nodded "Yeah, and given that the tracks are huge! We would probably lose sight of each other if it's just three of us".

Peach put down her cup of tea and nodded "Yeah, go-karting is more fun with more people, you both should come over when there's a circuit championship going on! There's a lot of racers, and it's fun to race against all of them".

Hope smiled and looked intrigued "That does sound like fun, it was pretty wild with just five of us, I can't even imagine having a full race".

Morgan cheerfully nodded "Oh yeah! I really like the Items too! Even though you're bound to get hit by them as well sometimes.

Peach suddenly giggled "You did get hit by your own green koopa shell once, I haven't seen that happen in a long while".

Morgan blushed and huffed "I just miscalculated the bounce!".

Hope laughed, while Peach just smiled amusedly at Morgan, which did not make her feel any better, but she ignored it though, she wasn't going to give this victory to Peach nor the satisfaction!

Instead, she then took a bit of her slice of cake and then decided to ask again "But then what do we do now? I don't think I want to stay stuck here in the castle all day, right Peach?".

Princess Peach nodded, she definitely didn't feel like staying in the castle and much rather go have an adventure with Morgan and Hope "Yeah, I rather go have fun with you guys".

Hope sighed "I wish Daddy was here, he could kidnap you and you could hang out with us in our world".

Morgan tilted her head and began to think, meanwhile Peach decided to ask some questions "Where is your father Hope? I've only met him once when he connected this world to yours via a gate, I haven't seen him since".

Hope smiled "Oh! He's in another world right now! In fact, he's having an interstellar space adventure, he's meeting all kinds of aliens and visiting other planets!".

Peach excitedly smiled "Really? That sounds amazing! I bet it's fun, can you imagine what sort of things he must be able to see? The people he's met?".

Hope nodded "I know! He's already sent all kinds of new technologies and even weapons for Neo Kyoto to research, he has all kinds of plans and he's even bringing people with him too.

Some warrior race called the krogan, they sound like a rowdy bunch, then there's this matriarch, apparently, she's from a race known as an asari and she's powerful and wise as well!.

Oh! And the queen of a bug-like species, he's really bringing all sorts of cool things and people, plus he's planning to build a moon base on the Moon of our world as well".

Peach looked very excited and interested "Wow! A moon base and aliens? That sounds so fun and amazing, your father sure knows how to have an adventure".

Hope nodded and seemed rather proud of her father, she then took out her smartphone and began to show Peach the pictures her mothers, Kunou, Valerie, and Le Fay have taken of the planets they visited and the crew they were working with.

Peach of course loved to see the pictures, she was in awe of the planets, frozen planets, rocky planets, and even some very desolate ones too, but each one had a beauty of its own, her favorite was the crimson red planet with the red sun, it just looked very pretty to her, like a ruby.

Suddenly Morgan stood up, startling Hope and Peach, in fact, they both jumped a bit, but Morgan didn't care and just ignored that "Peach! We can kidnap you and take you to our world! That way you can meet everyone!".

Peach of course was on board right away, she showed it with a big smile on her face, one that had a hint of mischievousness, Hope, however, tilted her head "I mean, we can, but wouldn't it be a better idea to just ask permission?".

Morgan shook her head "No, Toadsworth would never let her go, or he'll try to come with us, I don't think Peach would like that".

The Princess shook her head "Definitely not, plus Toadsworth would probably have a heart attack in your world, especially with the very powerful beings that live there".

Morgan nodded in agreement, she then sighed and put away her smartphone "Well, you do have a point, but we do have to let someone know though, otherwise, panic will take over that castle.

The toads would probably go nuts with worry and have panic attacks...".

Hope's comment made Morgan and Peach sweatdrop, for Morgan because, she knew Hope was right about what she said about the toads, and Peach because she was already having an image of all the toads running around, screaming, and bumping into everything.

It wasn't a pretty sight and Peach didn't know whether to laugh or feel very worried for them, Morgan scratched her head and nodded "Well, your right, but who should we tell?

We definitely can't let Toadsworth know, he won't leave us alone if we do, the toads would probably cry or try to stop us, and I don't want to hurt the little guys".

Hope agreed with Morgan "Yeah, they already hurt themselves plenty...".

Peach's eyebrow twitched at the jab at her own palace guards "They're trying their best...".

Morgan giggled "To hurt themselves maybe, you saw what those toads did in the morning when Hope and I arrived".

Peach sweatdropped, she really couldn't defend her loyal toads this time, this morning, when Hope and Morgan came to visit, their sudden arrival startled the toads quite badly, they just didn't expect anyone to appear out of nowhere as Hope and Morgan did.

One of them screamed and threw his lance at Morgan, who was not expecting the sudden attack and ended up kicking up the lance in mid-air out of reflex alone.

The problem with that is that she kicked it so hard, that it went through all of the floor above and the castle's rooftop as well, it caused everyone to get startled in the castle, even she herself screamed when the lance passed through her room and literally missed her face by an inch.

Chaos, pure unadulterated chaos descended upon the castle, every toad either screamed their lungs out from fright or tried to rush down to the first floor to defend the castle.

Which is all good and all that, but the poor little guys tripped running down the stairs and ended up in a pile right under the stairs, it was something simply unbelievable.

It was the sort of thing you had to be there to see, to believe and both Hope and Morgan witnessed, her loyal toads defeated themselves before even one could stop Hope and Morgan from walking around the pile of toads and walking up to her room on the third floor of the castle.

It definitely left her speechless when they came into her room and told her to call the medic, that was when she herself went downstairs to check the damage, and boy did she wish she had stayed in her room.

Because what greeted her was her entire guard squad all in pile, defeated and groaning in pain, she didn't even know what to say at that moment and just opted to call a medic to take care of them.

Even right now, the few toads that could move around were going around the castle and repairing the damage, though she was also worried they might hurt themselves with the tools they were using.

Not that she would ever tell Hope and Morgan that, they would never let her live it down, so she opted to just sigh and nod "Yeah, most of the toads are still in the hospital...".

Hope and Morgan just giggled, while Princess Peach sighed again, however, she suddenly got an idea "Oh! Why don't you guys send a message with your phones to Mario and Luigi?

Toadsworth will call them immediately as soon as he notices that I'm gone anyways, they can just let him know where I am and it would be too late for him to follow me!".

Morgan grinned and nodded "Oh ~ perfect idea! Just give me a second".

Peach nodded, while Hope just smiled since she also agreed that the idea was a good one too, Morgan quickly took out her smartphone and began to text Mario and Luigi.

When her Uncle Harry met the plumbers, he ended up becoming good friends with them, so he gave them a smartphone each, for their business and to stay in contact.

He also gave one to Peach, but the Princess of the Mushroom Kindom was very bad with technology and was having a hard time learning how to use the smartphone, though she was learning at her pace and enjoyed everything the smartphone offered, especially the ability to take photos.

Morgan quickly texted the Mario bros, letting them know of the fact that they were kidnapping Peach, and to not worry about her.

A contradiction for sure, but the Mario Brothers were used to chaotic people and thus, just answered with an okay and to have fun with Peach, they both knew they could trust Hope and Morgan to keep an eye on her and keep her safe.

With that done, Morgan smiled and nodded to both Hope and Peach, the princess smiled, then stood up and walked to her dresser to change clothes.

She wasn't going to be running around in Hope and Morgan's world with a princess dress on all day, no, this little adventure needed more comfy and casual clothes.

A few minutes later she came out wearing a small one-piece dress and a sweater on top, she even put on some boots and tied her hair in a ponytail, feeling ready she smiled and nodded to the girls "What do you think girls?".

Morgan smiled "I think you're still very pretty Peach!".

Hope nodded "You really do look beautiful in anything, even simple clothes, but are you ready?".

Peach blushed at the compliments from the girls and walked up to her nightstand, she quickly grabbed her smartphone and put it inside her sweater just in case.

She then walked up to the girls and nodded "Now I'm ready, but how are we escaping?".

Morgan hummed "Well, we can't use the portal, Toadsworth might see us and we want to avoid that, we can't leave this world from here either, our method of world jumping can get loud, so we better head outside toad town and world jump out there".

Hope nodded "Yeah, we don't want to scare the toads again, they might not survive this time...".

Morgan, Hope, and Peach sweatdropped at the same time, the three of them knew that there was a very high possibility of that happening, so it was best not to risk it.

-----

~A few minutes later~

Hope and Morgan flew Peach out of one of the windows of her room, they immediately flew high to avoid being seen, though they scared a lakitu out of his cloud on the way up, the poor lakitu fell down to the ground to his end.

The three girls winced and felt a bit bad, but they ignored the now surely dead monster and continued on, eventually, they made it to the outside of Toad Town and landed on a little hill.

Once the girls were on the ground they smiled at each other and then high-fived in celebration of being out of the castle, Morgan quickly started the World Jump System and clicked on the return home tab.

Space and time cracked like glass around them and then shattered, reality fixed itself right after and the girls were gone from the Mushroom Kindom.

-----

In the basement of the Potter household, lay Godzilla, who was resting and being lazy, he really liked this world a lot, not only because Morgan is here, but because the primal energy of this world was higher than his.

It made him feel comfortable and so Godzilla spent most of his time sleeping and resting, however, today he got a bit of a surprise when reality shattered in front of him and then repaired itself, leaving Hope, Morgan, and an unknown woman in front him.

Morgan of course sensed her friend right away and turned around instantly to face him, the little Stark then jumped and hugged Godzilla on his snout, which made him grunt a bit, she was tickling his nose and it was feeling weird to him.

But, he didn't do anything and just let Morgan latch on to his snout like a koala, however, he suddenly heard a frightened squeak, which drew his attention.

Godzilla turned his head towards who had let out the squeak, and that's when he noticed the unknown woman gaping at him and looking very much afraid, something Godzilla was already used to, so he quickly ignored her and back to focusing on not sneezing because Morgan was still tickling his nose

-----

Hope walked up to Peach's side and spoke to her when she heard her squeak and pale in fright "It's okay Peach, that's just Godzilla, a family friend and Morgan's personal summon, as you can see, she really likes him".

Peach nodded and nervously laughed "He's so big...".

Morgan hopped off Godzilla's snout -which caused him to huff in relief- and brightly smiled at Peach "That's because he's a titan! He's a very powerful manifestation of the planet's will and he's very strong too!".

Peach stared at Godzilla, while the titan stared back at her, Peach suddenly nodded and said "Now I see why you both didn't take Bowser seriously".

Hope smiled "That's nothing, Daddy is bigger in his dragon form, we're just to used to very powerful and big beings".

Morgan nodded "Yup! Even our dragon forms are a bit smaller than Godzilla too, so yeah, Bowser just looked silly to us".

Peach giggled a bit but inwardly felt bad for the Koopa King, he just didn't stand a chance with Hope and Morgan, she still remembers the beating Morgan gave him when she saw him the first time.

Hope suddenly grabbed Peach's hand and began to pull her away "Let's go into the house and see who's around! I'm sure you would like to meet more of our family".

Peach nodded "Yes, of course, I've only met your father, when he came over to make a gate connecting our world to yours".

Hope smiled and nodded, after waving goodbye to the lazy titan, the girls headed up to the house, along the way, Peach was very impressed with how big and vast the basement of the Potter household is.

It was beautiful as well, so she could understand why Godzilla was content to just lay down on the ground and sleep, she would have tried to do the same as well if she wasn't with Morgan and Hope.

-----

The trio headed up to the Potter household to look for whoever was around, however to their surprise, they found Himiko fighting and stabbing some kind of massive purple monster coming from the kitchen.

Both Hope and Morgan jumped a bit and immediately jumped in to fight the thing attacking and causing nothing but destruction to the kitchen, meanwhile Peach just stood there utterly stunned and completely confused.

What Peach saw next, was a battle of epic proportions the likes she's never seen before, it was war and it was messy, there were screams, spells, techniques, and even chairs flying all over the place, at some point Morgan even used the kitchen sink as a weapon.

Peach had never seen such carnage before and it had her completely horrified and amazed at the same time, the battle ended with Himiko stabbing the creature through the chest and ripping its heart out with a yell.

The creature roared, dropped to the ground, and gasped once before dying, it soon turned into some kind of purple goop, Hope and Morgan cheered in victory, while Himiko dropped to the ground back first and huffing for air.

Suddenly, from under the purple goop, burst out Ereshkigal, completely covered in purple goop and gasping for air, Hope ran to her mother and helped her out of the purple goo "Mommy, did you try to cook again?".

Ereshkigal sighed and nodded "I just wanted to make some grape jello for you and Morgan...".

Himiko groaned "That was grape jello? Damn it Ereshikal! We told you not to cook!".

Ereshikal just nervously laughed "Oh Himiko! There you are I haven't seen you in a long while, you must have been really busy huh?...".

Himiko huffed and just tiredly lay on the floor "Damn it... I just got back home and I'm welcomed by one of your abominations...".

Morgan however giggled and began to hop from foot to foot in excitement "That was fun!".

Himiko just groaned and opted to just lay there in the purple goop, while regretting her life choices, Peach just stood there for a second until she suddenly said "What did I just witness?...".

-----

A few minutes later, Peach, Hope, Morgan, Himiko, and Ereshikal sat in the living room, while a very beautiful and tall maid Hela, cleaned the mess in the kitchen, but Peach was still rather curious at what happened.

Hope must have noticed, because she suddenly began to explain "Mommy is a Mesopotamian Goddess, the Queen of the Underworld but... she can't cook, every time she tries to, her food turns into monsters that have divine energy within it".

Peach sweatdropped, while Ereshkigal blushed in embarrassment, Morgan suddenly giggled "The funny thing about all of this, is that the monsters are always very powerful and wild! Even Uncle Harry is cautious about them!".

Ereshkigal groaned "My beloved is wary of my own cooking... I'm a failure as a woman!".

Ereshkigal began to sulk and lay her head in Hope's lap, while the phoenix force patted her head trying to console her "It's alright Mommy, Daddy doesn't care that your cooking tries to kill him".

Hope's comment didn't help poor Ereshkigal at all, in fact, she winced as if being stabbed in the chest by her daughter's words, leaving her shedding tears of defeat, Peach didn't even know how to react to this and just watched on for a few seconds until she suddenly said, "But how?".

Himiko who was leaning back on her seat sighed "No one knows, but it happens once in a while, we all try to stop her from coming into the kitchen, but as you can see, we don't always succeed...".

Peach took the answer as legitimate as can be and just nodded, Morgan then turned to Peach "Oh! That's right! This is Himiko Toga! She's like a sister to Uncle Harry so she's our Aunt! and a very good cook! She wants to be a chef someday!".

Himiko widely smiled showing off her fangs "Nice to meet ya!... Who are you again?".

Peach just giggled and shook her head in amusement "We haven't met yet, but I'm Peach by the way".

Himiko hummed and looked up to the ceiling lost in thought for a few seconds, she then nodded when she seemed to have remembered something "Ah! your that princess Hope and Morgan befriended, in the Mushroom Kingdom right?".

Peach nodded "That's right, I see the girls spoke about me".

Himiko nodded with a very soft and caring smile on her face "Of course they did, both of them like to speak about the people they care about, and you're a good friend to them".

Peach smiled and seemed very happy about what she heard, Hope then looked up towards Himiko "What are you up to now of days Miko-chan? We haven't seen you in the house for a while".

Himiko smiled at Hope and then answered her question "I've been traveling all over Japan and learning all kinds of recipes, I wanted to cook something for everyone.

But, as all you guys saw I had to fight for my life when I walked into the kitchen, I didn't expect that kind of welcome actually, I went to the bathroom first and walked right into that".

Morgan giggled, while Hope sighed and looked down at Ereshkigal who was once again sulking, the poor goddess then decided to apologize "I'm sorry... it just looked so easy to make, that I wanted to try it, so the girls would have a snack".

Himiko huffed, but then fondly smiled at Ereshkigal "It's alright Eris, it was a nice warm-up, but next time don't try cooking without letting someone keep an eye on you, okay?".

Ereshkigal nodded, Hope then looked over to Peach "Sorry about this, but our home is always chaotic, like you just saw there's usually something going on".

Peach just shook her head, sure, she was completely taken by surprise and left stunned, but she had to admit that the entire thing was funny, and at the very least interesting.

She never heard of food becoming monsters of incredible power, but it certainly was an interesting sight to see.

The girl stayed in the living room for a while and had a conversation with Himiko and Ereshkigal, Peach was glad to get to know them, one because she was Hope's mother, and the other because she was very interesting.

Princess Peach was certainly already having fun with this visit and she couldn't wait to see more and meet more people.