1: Shocking Discovery
The sun shone brightly over the tree lined horizon. The soft calls of the birds complimented the soothing swaying of the grass in the breeze. The peaceful atmosphere could be easily enjoyed by anyone who had gone outside that day.
Except for the troops of the Koopa King himself.
Bowser commanded his troops to employ haste in the development of his newest scheme. The heat escaping from the boiling lava sea surrounding the castle made his demeanor appear even more intense. The troops lugging heavy equipment around in the high temperature presented itself more as a test of stamina than an evil plan, though the amount of work being done could be considered the real evil component.
"You there, with the wires!" He pointed at a slower-than-usual goomba, carrying colorful coils on his head. "Move faster, I don't got all day!"
"Yes, your Grouchiness!" he exclaimed before running off.
Kamek approached Bowser on his levitating broomstick.
"Your Inventiveness, the machine's major components are in place. All that's left to install are few connections and some accessories," he reported.
"Excellent," he replied, "this thing should be done by the time that crimson clad crud gets here."
Kamek nodded then took on a look of perplexion.
"Your Surliness, if I may?"
"What now?"
"How did you come up with designs for such a... complex device? Since you usually leave all the creating to us, I'd never think for you to do it yourself."
"I'm Bowser, baby! I've got one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen!"
"Yeah, and plans that mirror it," Kamek muttered.
"That, and that fool Fawful left all his tech behind, so I got a few ideas," he said as he took out a blueprint.
The device in question was a sort of energy bond. Energy absorbed from a source could be used to bind a subject to another on levels beyond that of a physical realm. There was no need for an energy source if one of the subjects generates sufficient energy. In this case, the subject was a glass-bound Princess Peach with her fists up against the wall of her container.
"Mario's going to give you such a beating when he gets here!" she fumed.
Bowser's face lit up at this.
"On the contrary, Princess." He walked up to the glass.
"You see, the wish power that this baby is gonna drain from you will make a magical bond between you and me that's near unbreakable," he explained. "So whatever happens to me is gonna happen to you, too, so Mario can't lay a finger on me if he wants to keep you safe!"
Bowser cackles loudly as Peach gazes into the fiery horizon.
"Please hurry, Mario..." she whispers hopefully.
As if on cue, the portly plumber hops on top of the balcony, followed by his lanky brother and their Star Sprite companion, all taking a battle stance.
"Bowser!" Mario starts. "Hand over the Princess and we won't stomp you as hard as last time!"
Bowser started to chuckle at his enemy's demand.
"Your determination shines through as always, Mario, but that's not gonna happen."
"Bowser, " Starlow chimes in, "it's only been like 2 weeks since you tried to kidnap the Princess. Dontcha think you should give it a rest for a bit?"
That all too familiar voice brought Bowser back memories of their previous endeavor. Chippy was the little voice inside that always told him the best set of actions to take, despite not always taking them due to him feeling like she was out of her place. After all, it was his body. The body she helped restore fire-breathing abilities to. The body she promised to fix up while in its state of disrepair. The body she promised to make so great that he could even beat Mario with. She made him so hopeful and confident, making him lose the feeling of being invaded and gain a sense of security with her presence, a deep trust in her. His memory-restoring, crust-cleaning, pain-stopping (and sometimes starting), sassy, talkative minion. Sure he didn't beat Mario afterwards, but the way she made him feel overpowered the weight of the losses. As Bowser reminisced, he just stared at her with a warm, albeit small smile.
"Bowser?" Starlow questioned. "You there?"
"Huh?" he snapped out of his trance with a small, almost unnoticeable blush. He then donned an evil grin. "The only stomping that's gonna happen here is the kind my troops will deliver on you!" He pointed his finger at the group. "Attack!"
A hoard of Goombas, Para-Koopas, and Bob-ombs rushed into the Bros. Mario and Luigi, being familiar with the troops tactics of rushing the enemy handled them effectively. Stomping the Goombas and lobbing the Bob-ombs at the Para-Koopas made swift work. Bowser made his way over to the machine in the racket of the battle. He attached a headband to his forehead and pressed a few buttons on the interface. Soon, pink energy began emanating out of Peach and into the wires attached to her container. Peach let out a gasp and started to panic.
"Help!" she shouted in the direction of the fight, hoping to get the attention of the Bros. Mario and Luigi stopped for a second upon hearing the distressed voice. They finished off the last of the troops and started making their way over to the container. Before they got too far, however, Kamek blocked their path with his fully charged wand in the air.
"I call this one," he began, "Spell No. 2!"
He cast magical energy upon the Bros. which seemed to do nothing at all. He let out a chuckle and flew off. The brothers shrugged it off and prepared to continue toward the machine, but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.
"Mario!" Luigi cried. "I can't walk anywhere!"
"Me either! That nasty old wizard put our legs to sleep!"
They fell to the ground with a thud, unable to do anything about Peach's weakening calls for help.
"Starlow! It's up to you now!" Mario shouted.
"Find a way to bust the Princess outta that thing she's in!" Luigi followed up.
"Already on it!" she replied, carrying a lit Bob-omb toward the machine. She tossed it at the glass when the fuse reached its end. The explosion created a sufficiently sized hole in the glass for the Princess to exit from, or rather fall out of, having been drained of her energies to the point of exhaustion. Starlow picked her up by the arm to lead her away from the machine, but Bowser wouldn't allow his rightfully kidnapped prize to leave so easily. He tapped a few more commands into the interface and the machine hummed much louder. The draining force accelerated, sucking Peach and Starlow back into the container. The gravitation was almost too much to resist for one Star Sprite, so, in an act of selflessness, Starlow shoved Peach away from the machine with all her might and allowed herself to become victim to the greedy device.
"WHAT?!" Bowser exclaimed. "PUT HER BACK!"
Right then, electricity began flying out of the container giving Starlow and Bowser a brief moment of electrocution. After a few seconds, the electricity stopped and the machine's humming came to a halt. Starlow and Bowser fell in a daze after basically experiencing the rush of being a live wire. Flames erupted from the casing of the contraption and its components began to fall out.
"No no no no no!" the Bros. said simultaneously as they hobbled over to their friends with half-asleep legs. Mario picked up the Princess, still unconscious.
"She's still breathing," Mario sighed in relief. Luigi stepped over burning fragments to the machine to see if Starlow was alright when she and Bowser stirred from their literal power nap.
"Oh jeez," she moaned, "what just happened?" She picked herself off the ground.
"Not sure," Luigi stated, "but I think we won."
"Quick, let's get outta here while Bowser's still drowsy," Mario suggested. They agreed by following him down the balcony. As Starlow started flying after them, she felt a sharp yank that halted her movement.
"Oof!"
"What's wrong, Starlow?" Mario questioned with concern in his face.
"I can't seem to move any further, and I don't know why," she explained. She tried to distance herself from the machine again, but she was once again halted by some odd yanking force. As she pulled back, a glowing, rope-like emanance illuminated from her body. She studied the object's golden glow along its length, which led from her body, transitioned to a bright orange, and ended at…
"Bowser?" she looked at his awakening body. "Why is the other end of this weird tether attached to him?" Bowser opened his eyes and glanced at the odd connection between him and Starlow before it faded into transparency again. He stood up and looked at the machine in its flaming, discombobulated state.
His eyes grew wide with distress as he put two and two together.
"You gotta be kidding me!" he shouted. "INSTEAD OF THE PRINCESS, I GOT STUCK WITH MISS CHATTERBOX?! DANG IT!"
"Bowser, you have to fix this!" Starlow told him.
"Yeah, or we'll just have to stomp some answers out of you!" Mario added.
"You can't hurt me, Mario, not this time," Bowser grinned. "This machine was designed to create a powerful magical bond between two people, so basically if I get hurt, so does big mouth over here."
"Mario we gotta do something!" Luigi panicked. "We can't just leave her in his clutches like this!"
"It's ok guys, I'll find a way out of this," Starlow reassured them. "Just go take Peach back home so she can rest."
"But-" Luigi tried.
"There isn't much you can do right now but play by his rules. I can manage, just go take care of Peach," She told them.
They nodded and leapt off the balcony and onto the path back to Peach's Castle. Starlow watched them go and let out a sigh. She turned to Bowser, who was grumbling with his arms crossed.
"I almost had control over the whole kingdom but some kind folks just had to stop by."
"Alright, Bowser," Starlow started. "How do we fix this?"
Alrighty this is the first thing I've ever written so tell me how it is and I'll try to iron out the bugs best I can.
Have a nice day, folks