Peach's Potion

Characters (c) to Nintendo

"So I take the elevator, ride up two floors, turn left, and then enter the second door on the right." Peach recited the instructions TEC gave her.

"Very good, Princess Peach. I will give you further instructions once you reach the laboratory."

Peach nodded back and stepped outside the computer room, mumbling what to do next. She stepped inside the small elevator and pressed the switch that would take her to the second floor. TEC warned her this was going to be a dangerous mission. She wasn't worried about it earlier, but fear slowly crept through her as the elevator swiftly rose higher through the dark X-Naut fortress. Suppose she was caught and taken to Sir Grodus. They might even punish her for escaping from her room. She tried not to think about it, but the terrible thoughts of what these fiends considered "punishment" kept recurring in her mind. Then the elevator came to a halt. Sweat trickling down her cheeks and her heart pounding furiously, she waited anxiously for the elevator doors to open and leave her exposed to any X-naut troops in the area, if any. She waited, every second anticipating the doors to fly open, but they strangely refused. Was it just a mechanical difficulty? Had she accidentally pressed the "Stop" button? Had she-

Peach jumped back when the elevator doors suddenly shot open. Before leaving, she quickly peeked both ways to make sure no one was coming. The coast was clear. She sneaked out and headed straight for the door to the lab. Right away she found it since it had a bright green lamp over it just like TEC said. The doors flew open and she rushed in. As soon as she stepped inside, a blast of odor from all the strange chemicals sitting on the soiled worktop tied her face into a knot. Along with the chemicals sat an assortment of flasks, test tubes, and stirring rods all stained from heavy use. In the back of the stuffy, dimly lit laboratory was a large machine with a conveyor belt and several controls supposedly used for mixing potions together without making a big mess. Although the stench of the chemicals was already beginning to make her sick, she did have to admire the fascinating technology of the X-nauts.

"All right, I'm in the lab. What do I do next, TEC?" Peach asked after exploring the lab and examining the different chemical knick-knacks.

"You are going to make a potion that will turn you invisible." TEC replied. "First, set each potion on the table into the machine."

"Okay. In what order?"

TEC paused. "I am unsure of the order. But there should be several notes around the room left by the X-nauts. You will have to obtain the information from them."

Pinned crumpled pieces of paper decorated the walls. Those had to be what TEC was talking about. She looked at the first one, but the writing was so messy that it was unreadable. She looked at the next one and saw the same illegible handwriting as if it had been scribbled on by someone in a very big hurry. And again with the next one after that. She passed through several slips of paper with scribbled instructions written on them before finally coming to one with barely readable handwriting. It read:

Do NOT put the blue potion in the far left slot of the machine!

"I think I'm going to need more information than this to make sure I make the right potion." Peach mumbled to herself. But as much as she searched, there were no other slips with readable instructions. Only the one she had just read, and even that writing was atrocious.

"How do these X-nauts read each others writing? It's just scribbled ink!" she cried.

Then her heartbeat began to race when she suddenly heard very heavy footsteps outside the lab. She immediately sealed her mouth shut, realizing that the volume of her voice could easily draw someone's attention. She hid behind the table and tried to be as still as possible. The steps slowly came closer and closer to the door. Then they stopped. Beads of sweat rolled down Peach's cheeks and puddled on the floor from her trying her hardest not to move a single muscle or make the slightest sound.

"Please don't open the door! Please!" she whispered ever so softly, her heart pounding so hard she thought it would burst through her chest. Out of the few missions TEC had sent her out on, she had never come this close to actually being caught.

But the lone patrolling trooper suspected nothing and retreated to his post. Peach breathed a deep sigh of relief when she heard the footsteps begin to slowly walk away. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and sat back down on the floor, head tilted back in relief.

"Princess Peach. Please. You must hurry!" TEC urged.

...

After a few spills and mix-ups, the potions were ready to be mixed, and Peach pressed the tattered red "START" button to commence the potion-making process. She watched with anticipation as the machine dispensed each potion into the beaker. Then came the heating process. The potion was heated for approximately thirty seconds before being carried further on the conveyor belt. It advanced down the belt, proceeded down through a few hatches to be checked for sanitation, and finally out a small door where it stopped. Peach lifted the potion to her lips, looked at it curiously, sniffed it, and then set it down. Naturally, she was hesitant to drink it. Suppose the effects were permanent and she would never be normal again. Or worse, perhaps she made it incorrectly and something terrible would happen if she drank it. She shuddered at the thought. But realizing she had little choice and to fulfill TEC's wishes, Peach summoned her courage, took a deep breath, and drank the odd-colored potion, every last drop.

Peach drained the beaker and promptly returned it to the belt. Her face twisted into a sour knot after tasting it. She quickly forced it down into her stomach and then stood back. Several seconds became several minutes, and Peach felt the potion begin to bubble. Instantly her heart began to race in anticipation for the imminent transformation, but the excitement was short lived. Her stomach grumbled a few times but nothing else. Puzzled, Peach peeked inside the beaker and made sure not a drop remained. The beaker was clean. Perhaps the potion was a dud she thought. Her body wasn't transparent as it should have been, and she looked the same as she did before.

"I suppose it's possible..." she paused then finally deduced. She was wrong. In moments, the entire base would lie in ruins.

"...But I guess I'll have to try again." she continued. There was still plenty of potion leftover to make another. Peach glanced down at her dirty, soiled gloves and sighed. This potion-making task was no easy work. But it had to be done.

Peach grabbed two flasks from the worktop, the horrid chemical taste still stuck to her tongue, when a very sharp pain began to pound her stomach. A pain so sharp she threw the two flasks down and dropped on her knees. The glass shattered and bright potion splattered all over the floor. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and clenched her garments as the pain rapidly grew. Suddenly, the pain ceased and she felt fine again. Peach breathed a soft sigh of relief and sprang back up on her feet the instant the pain stopped. But the event was far from over.

The instant she stood back up, a strange sensation began to brew inside her body. Peach looked confused and a little frightened. She hadn't any idea what was happening to her, but it was beginning to make her feel uneasy. The strange feeling slowly grew more intense until Peach felt herself sprout a little bit taller. A couple inches and then she grew a bit taller again. Her stomach bubbled a bit, and then it began. Peach lost her balance when her head suddenly shot up several feet. Her dress ballooned from the sudden jolt of power and whipped several bits of equipment over before sprawling back across the floor. Slumped against the machine, Peach brushed the hair off her face and glanced down at herself. A soft gasp of fright escaped her lips. She was getting bigger. Much bigger very quickly. She bounced back up on her feet and yelped in pain to smash her head against the ceiling. Her fingers fumbled for another potion to stop her growth, but the tiny flask shattered from even the softest pressure between her fingertips. She frantically tried to press the tiny button operating the exit door, but her massive finger pushed all the switches on the control panel at once and jammed the system. Her efforts to escape grew more frantic. Troops dove away when a massive gloved fist punched the door across the hall, but it was already too late. Peach moaned and watched as the tiny exit shrank too small for her to fit. A loud intruder alarm began blaring inside the lab only to be muffled by mounds of dress fabric. She tried squeezing into whatever diminishing space was left, but it was no use. Her efforts were in vain as long as she continued to grow, continuously pressing harder against the laboratory walls. A sickening grumble bubbled inside her body from the potion's explosive reaction.

"T-TEC! Help!" Peach stammered in horror.

Mere seconds passed before there was twice as much of Peach as there was lab. Uncomfortably small became crushingly tiny. Peach squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the worst of it. The walls cracked violently from the inflating pressure but did not break. Tears squeezed out of Peach's eyes from the intense pain of being squished into a room smaller than her own mass. She thought for sure she was doomed before a powerful explosion of growth surged through her whole body. The walls gave up their resistance and shattered in an instant. With tremendous rebound, Peach's massive head launched through the base and smashed through ceiling after ceiling with obliterating impact. Any unlucky troops standing in her way as she burst through the upper floors were sent flying off their feet and onto their backs. Chaos ensued. Hundreds of tiny troops fled to the elevators to escape the massive pink wall sweeping through the base. Locks of yellow hair as thick as cables clogged the elevator shafts. Dozens of troops tried climbing her dress only to be scraped off like ants whenever the giant pink gown brushed against the fortress walls. Peach grunted in discomfort from being sandwiched between the walls as she grew.

Sir Grodus leaped upon hearing the thunderous racket and immediately headed straight for the lab. A group of troops followed him after being angrily summoned. With a mechanical beep, the door shot open. Sir Grodus stopped. Inches away from the door fluttered Peach's royal garments, a pink dress embroidered with intricacies once unnoticeable now magnified to unbelievable size. Grodus rubbed his spectacles in disbelief at the wall of frill looming above him. The troops abandoned their leader at once, but Grodus stood his ground. A gape of sheer amazement flashed on his face at Peach's size but soon melted into a frown of dismay as he witnessed her rapid growth crush everything standing in her way. He stood back and watched in silent awe as the giant princess continued growing larger, flooding the base with a sea of pink fabric. Troops suffocating from Peach's sweetly intoxicating scent madly scrambled for cover as walls crumbled like pebbles to provide more space for her hastening growth.

"My base..." Grodus whimpered.

...

Peach's massive head slowly rose higher over the surface of the moon followed by her neck and then her shoulders. Soon she could see for miles over the crater-strewn surface. Her dress fluffed out unscathed but mildly dirty. Another sudden explosion of growth sent her shooting up further into the heavens. Imperceptible X-nauts screamed ever louder as giant pink shoes plowed through the fortress walls with ease simply from continuous expansion. Troops dangling from her dress clung tighter to the swelling fabric for dear life, screaming as they helplessly elevated up, a few feet first, then several miles. Sir Grodus looked straight up and around the tower of pink fabric to see Peach's colossal face, lips slightly parted and eyes glazed with astonishment.

"Peach, you treacherous, disobedient girl! What were you doing in the lab? Answer my question!" Sir Grodus hollered, blood rising to his face. But Peach could not hear him. The X-nauts were much too small to be heard, let alone obeyed.

Peach's cheeks blushed pinker than her dress as the curve of the moon appeared before her. A tiny, unrecognizable heap of broken machinary beneath her feet represented the remaining fragments of the base. Her eyes darted from side to side, querying how much longer she would grow. The moon was becoming quite small now. Her dress enveloped it and drooped around the sides like a curtain.

"Peach, the hall is vacant. Now's your chance!"

...

"I'm sorry I kept you trapped in the elevator, but there were X-nauts nearby and I did not want them to catch you." TEC explained. Peach snapped out of her small daze when the elevator doors suddenly beeped and shot open.

Peach peered around the door before stepping out. She looked around and noticed the fortress was still in one piece. Nothing was destroyed and everything was functioning properly. She slowly walked down the corridor, her shoes clicking and her dress ruffling behind her.

"You will follow this corridor until you reach a door with a green lamp over it." TEC instructed.

Peach passed several doors with dim red lights glowing over them. Soon she found the door TEC told her to enter. The bright green lamp flickered a bit.

"I guess this is it." Peach said. The doors opened and she stepped inside the lab, the thoughts of growing infinitely larger still fresh in her mind. A faint smile lit her pink lips as the doors shut behind her.