Mother of the Universe
Rosalina knew that it was a lot more quiet than usual in the observatory. She hasn't seen the baby lumas since she's been up today, but she just figured they were off playing or running around like the little ones tend to do. But now, she held a ransom note in her hand.
She remained calm, but her hands trembled softly as she read the note. It mentioned taking the babies and wanting to exchange them for Princess Peach. She expected this was from Bowser or his son, but something about this note was different. It was too specific, Bowser and Jr. would taunt or leave a joke or a pun of some kind, but this one was all business. It didn't matter, she needed them back.
She wanted to send for Mario, he was the best when it came to handling rescue missions, but he recently embarked on a quest of his own. Rosalina would have then sent for help from Princess Peach herself, but she was the reason for Mario's quest. Even if she wasn't, trading her for the babies is out of the question.
She stood outside, at the front of the observatory. Time out here looked all the same, but for her, she's only been out of bed for a few hours, it was her morning, and already, she was given bad news from the day's mailtoad. "The poor babies must be so frightened." Rosalina whispered to herself. "Looks like I have no choice but to take care of this myself." She handed the ransom note to an older, red luma. "Let us go to Rocky Edge Galaxy then." Immediately, the observatory pulled back and rocketed forward through space.
She needed to prepare herself for the trip, no doubt there'll be battles and challenges to face. And if the writer of the note took over the galaxy, then she'll have to find a way in without paying the ransom.
"What's going on?" A worried voice asked. Rosalina snapped out of her thoughts and turned to the speaker. Captain Toad was approaching, almost on tiptoes. Of course, in the stress, she had forgotten Toad was exploring a few galaxies for treasure and took to the observatory for a safe place to land for awhile.
"My apologizes, Captain Toad. I've just received a letter saying that my baby lumas were just taken from me. I must have hastened to go help them. We can drop you off a different planet on the way though."
"Baby lumas were kidnapped?!" Toad cried out. "That's terrible!" He began pacing, his small hand on his chin deep in thought.
"Captain?" Rosalina asked. "It's all right, we'll deal with it."
Then he stopped and shook his head. "I know you will, but I can't leave when there are lunas in trouble. Would you mind if...?"
She gave a warm laugh. "Of course you can join me. You have amazing courage, Young Captain."
There it was, Rocky Edge Galaxy. From here, it looked normal. The larger planets were covered in mountains and rock, some were too jutted to even safely move through. In was, by no means, a large galaxy, but it had several planets in it. Upon closer inspection tough, there were airships near the planets. Rosalina stared at the flags that carried Bowser's design and closed her eyes. She imagined her babies scared and crying for their mama. She would do anything to keep her babies safe, she decided, even if that meant trading her life to do so. But was she strong enough to take on Bowser and his minions? Only time would tell.
"They spotted us already!" Toad yelled. That was the second time he broke Rosalina's thoughts. She opened her eyes again, her already sick stomach taking a turn for the worse when she saw he was right. A little airship was floating straight for them. It was too late to back down now, they had to face them.
Again, she expected the ship to carry someone important, either one of Bowser's generals or maybe Bowser himself. But the airship carried an army of hammer bros. instead. The airship sputtered to the observatory's level, and when it did, a larger hammer brother stepped forward to meet with them. He, unlike the others, had a blue shell and helmet. And the red scarf he wore whipped to the side from the air moving through the ship. "We knew you would respond!" He declared. He spoke highly of himself, and stood with his hands on his hips. "Now hand over the princess, and we'll give you your star things back."
"I'm afraid the princess is already captured. I'm surprised that the ransom demanded her, I'd thought Bowser already had her." Rosalina replied with the same calm demeanor she always seemed to carry.
The leader of the hammer bros. hesitated, and his proud pose faltered. "Uh," He stammered. "I don't think...No...Well... You're wrong, he doesn't! So what are you gonna do about it?"
"I think the question is, what are you going to do about it? Peach isn't here, and if you're unsure if Bowser has her at all, then what are you doing here? I need my baby lumas back, trust me, you don't don't want to mess with them."
The leader's hero pose fell further into embarrassment, and he couldn't even find anything else to say. Rosalina smiled, she was breaking through his defenses already. "Take me to them, and let us leave in peace like this never even happened."
"I can't do that." He whimpered. "Kamek has them, and if he knew I messed this up, then..." More hammer brothers tried to intervene, but the leader silenced them.
"Fine then, we'll just need another form of payment." She pondered. Her eyes left the ship and went to the ground. She caught a quick glance of Toad staring up at her, like he was fully relying on her decision. Then, her cyan gaze flickered back to the hammer brother leader. "I'll pay you for entry instead. You won't have to confront Kamek, you won't have to collect the lumas. Just allow us into the galaxy, and we'll find them ourselves."
He stammered once more, clearly undecided of what to do. "We mustn't allow it, we need the princess here. You'll just going to have to wait until you can bring her yourself."
"I told you I'm not leaving without the babies. I'll give you three thousand star bits."
His jaw hit the deck. "Three thousand? You have three thousand star bits?"
She nodded. "And they're all here. I'll give them to you now if you want them."
Then the other hammer brothers chimed in. They were excited, that was a lot of money up here amongst the planets. "Come on, Boss!" The nearest begged. "She doesn't have the princess, and that is a lot of money!"
The leader sighed. "Fine!" He yelled. "It's a deal, but we are not offering you any hints or any help beyond this."
Rosalina was perfectly fine with this. She gave a single wave of the wand she held in her hands, and the star shower began. It was like they were all coming from the observatory itself. They sparkled a billion colors so bright, it struck both awe and blindness in the hammer bro army. Quickly, their ship was filling up until they were literally swimming in it. But the laughter and smiling faces soon dropped when the airship's propellers sputtered. It slowly began floating in its own direction, and the stunned yells grew quieter until the airship was out of sight.
With eyes that threatened to fall out his head, Toad glanced up at Rosalina, but she just nodded, her work was finished. "Now let's go look for those lumas."
They landed on the biggest planet first. For a place called the Rocky Edge Galaxy, this one wasn't all rock, it actually had grassy fields and snowy mountains. The air was comfortable and smooth, but not a breeze stirred. And the atmosphere was a bright blue, but it didn't go on long enough to look like Mushroom Kingdom's sky. The stars and planets of outer space could still be clearly seen.
Captain Toad still insisted he'll join Rosalina's side, and so now he stood in the center of the plains with her. She spent a lot of time just looking in every direction, awed. This was amazing! She had seen this place from the comfort of home, but she had never been here before.
"What's that?" She heard Toad ask. She spun to see him breathing in. She followed him, taking a whiff of the air. For some reason she smelled... Popcorn? Was she mistaken? Then, Toad pointed and began jogging in that direction. He beckoned her to follow him, and she ran with him. Now she could see it, there was an old carnival here? It wasn't what she expected to see.
It was indeed an old carnival, with rides and everything, but they all looked like they may be a little too worn to be entirely safe to use. There were empty game stalls, ticket booths, a merry-go-round with prancing ponies, a ferris wheel, and the like. The roads were made of cracked stone, and plants had been growing between them, and in some areas, a lot of the roads couldn't be seen through them at all. There was even a haunted house at the far end. It was like any other, old, black, and falling apart.
They never did find any popcorn, but the scent had led them to a small, red and white stall that had a popcorn maker in it. It was empty, but the smell was stronger here, and there were stashed bags of good kernels. Someone was here. A calmness found Rosalina, she knew they were looking in the right place, but she was thankful to find even a small clue. "Sure this is involved with the missing lunas." She thought aloud. "We need to look around for more clues."
Toad agreed and went to examine some of the nearby rides. Rosalina moved to do the same, but then stopped dead in her tracks. "Mama!" A tiny voice cried. It came from the ferris wheel. Rosalina ran for it, her heart beginning to race. And sure enough, a worried luma sat, shaking in the lowest seat.
"Luma! Are you all right?"
"Mama!" It cried again, then flew off the ride and into Rosalina's arms. "It was so scary! I was stuck in a cage, but I snuck out with some of my friends."
"Others escaped? Do you know where they are?"
"We were trying to hide on another planet, the one with the spear rocks, in the maze. But we were split up, there were monsters looking for us, so a few of us had no choice but to hide here."
Rosalina hugged the baby star in her arms. "It's all right, Little One, we'll find them."
"So they're still here." Toad remarked. "I'm going to look for them." Then he cut off towards the game stalls.
The baby luma flew out of Rosalina's grasp. "We should look too." It stated, Rosalina agreed, and they went to check the old rides.
Voices calling for missing lumas split the still air. And the air was so still, there was no need to yell, so it didn't take them long for the hiding lumas to respond. They flew out of their hiding places and happily shook off their fears. There was one behind the merry-go-round, one under the desk of a game stall, one in the seat of the tower ride, and one on the ground of the ticket booth. Five babies in total, now all they had to do was look for the group in the jagged maze.
"You found them for us!" An evil voice cried out. The lumas screamed at the sight of the speaker, a lakitu. There were a few of those, but with them were goombas, koopas, a few dry bones, and a few more hammer bros.
"Oh no!" Toad exclaimed, his shaky response adding to the lumas' high pitched reactions. "Don't tell me we have to fight you guys!"
"If it comes to that." A goomba answered. "Or you can hand us the lumas and we'll be on our way."
"Never!" Rosalina snapped her wand out and pointed it to them. "Mario may not be here to help us, but that doesn't mean I'll let you do what you want!" She aimed for the lakitues first, shooting star bits from the wand, and all their clouds suddenly dissipated, dropping them stunned to the ground. "Now's our chance." She called to her group.
She and the lumas charged first, Toad hesitated, but followed after them. The enemy were shocked from Rosalina's attack, but they grouped up together in response to the heroes' approach.
The hammer bros. stood back behind the line and threw hammers, and the koopas and goombas took the lead. The lumas helped their mama by body slamming into every weak enemy who came near. Rosalina took this chance to attack the hammer bros.. She stunned them with more star bits and then hit them with magic from the wand.
Toad faced off with the goombas, he jumped up and bounced atop their heads, using the best strategy to defeat them. But Toad was too focused on his jumps, and he missed the dry bones that were coming nearer. He had smooshed the goombas through a line, but then he realized that he was fixing to land right on top of the creatures themselves. He screamed, and they raised some of their own bones, ready to clobber him. He was lucky though, as he had broken his own balance, and he fell clumsily out of the way.
The captain landed on the grass covered stone and covered his head, that fall had only bought him a few seconds of time. Then, the dry bones exploded! Toad looked up, the baby lumas have saved him. "Come on, they're finished, we need to get out of here!" One said.
Then Rosalina showed, grabbing his arm and fleeing the scene before more enemies heard the fight and came looking for them. "We need to go to the jagged planet next?" She asked the children.
"Yep, that's where the group went, they're hiding in a cave!"
After Rosalina had launched all of them to a tight spot in the jagged maze, they finally had the chance to catch their breath from the fight. No one would come looking for them here. "I don't like this." Toad whimpered. There was no atmosphere here, only jagged rocks so tight, it'll drive anyone mad by being here for too long. The rock ground was wavy and hard to stand on, let alone walk. And indeed, it was quite a maze, the pointed rocks made up the walls, as some would have been impossible to go through. But this is where they needed to be.
"Do you know where they are?" Rosalina asked.
The lumas seemed unsure. "In a cave somewhere." One answered. "Maybe this way?" They floated ahead.
"Watch your step." Rosalina warned the captain behind her, and he took a nervous step forward.
They haven't been walking very long, but already their feet were beginning to hurt. And then, they came to a fork of two possibilities. The lumas stopped and began discussing among themselves. Rosalina was patient and allowed them to talk.
But Toad was growing uncomfortable. "Now what?"
"Wait," Rosalina whispered to him. "They'll find the way."
"Do we need to split up?" Toad asked, still worrying.
"No, that'll be too dangerous here." She answered. Then she closed her eyes and focused on her thoughts. "I can feel them. I can sense the group's aura..." Then, she lifted her wand and pointed down the path to the right.
As soon as she did, the lumas stopped talking and followed where she was pointing. "Are they this way?" She asked.
The lumas shrugged and nodded, then going on ahead.
More painful steps ensued, but again, this wasn't a very large planet, and they came to a cave at the end of the path. At once, Rosalina heard the cries of the group inside at the sound of her voice. "Lumas, we're here!"
They all flew out, and greeted her happily, chirping and squeaking to her. But there were only about ten of them here, she knew this wasn't everyone. They told her that the rest were still captured, and were being held in the haunted house at the carnival. But when they escaped, they took the key for the cage with them, and on the key ring was the key to unlock the front door.
Toad sighed. "Of course they're in the haunted house!" He complained.
They came again to the carnival, and it was just as quiet since the last time they were here. Rosalina had expected Kamek's army to spread through here after the attack. They came up to the looming house's steps "If you want," Rosalina suggested. "You can wait out here and we'll come and get you once we have the others."
But Toad shook his head. "No," He whimpered, hanging his head. "I'll probably get attacked out here, I'd rather be with you."
She patted him on the head, and they went in. She had no idea where they'll be in here, but surprisingly, they were in the main hall right behind the door. It was a large chamber, black as it was on the outside, and filled with cobwebs and broken boards. There was a red carpet at their feet, and it traveled through the room and went up the stairs and through the balcony at the other end of the room.
There was a cage in the middle of the floor, and it was chocked full of baby lumas! They all began to squeak pitifully at the sight of their mama. Kamek was here too, and he huffed at them when the door first opened. "There you are... Where is Princess Peach?" He asked, his raspy voice turning confused.
"She's not here, Mario's already on a quest to save her, we came to rescue the babies ourselves."
Kamek cackled. "You came alone? Without Mario? This is going to be so easy!"
"I don't think so." Rosalina responded. "We can do this, we don't need Mario to help us with every problem."
Her complete confidence made Kamek flinch. "Wha-? Fine! I'll just need to show you how wrong you are!" Then he smirked and waved his arms to something unseen behind him. High laughter responded and boos everywhere suddenly appeared, laughing, and lapping their tongues out of their mouths. Toad screamed and covered his face, shaking from head to toe. "Attack them!" Kamek ordered.
But then the main door the heroes came in clicked and opened again. Interrupting the attack. For some reason, Wario and Waluigi were here, and they looked around the room and ran for Kamek. "What are you two bumbleheads doing here!?" Kamek yelled, obviously angry for the rude interruption.
"Kamek!" Wario exclaimed. "We just came to tell you..." He glanced nervously over at Waluigi, but he just punched him in the shoulder.
"Tell me what?!" Kamek continued to yell.
"To tell you how we lost the princess..."
Kamek's eyes popped open so large, they could be seen through the shades he wore. "What do you mean, 'lost the princess'? What princess?"
"The Princess Peaches, Sir!" Waluigi answered this time. "We took her to surprise Bowser, but that Mario beat us up again!"
"You had the princess? I didn't know! Why-"
The distraction gave Rosalina enough time to act. She twirled the wand around her and yelled. "Star Power!" Then, she leapt gracefully out of the way, and there, right where she was standing, a large power star formed. It grew bigger and bigger and sparkled like the sun. The boo line behind Kamek covered their faces, screeching and turning transparent.
"No!" Kamek yelled, turning to the boos and waving his arms. "Don't leave me! Attack! Attack them now!" Then he slapped the ashamed Wario and Waluigi. "Look at what you buffoons did! We've lost already!"
Rosalina pointed her wand at them next. "See, I told you we didn't need Mario here. Surrender, or you're next."
Wario and Waluigi responded by holding their arms up, and Kamek shook his head, sighing pitifully. Rosalina gave the key ring to Captain Toad. "Here Captain, let them out." Toad took the keys, still looking for the ghosts, but running over to the cage.
"You cannot defeat me!" Kamek yelled, changing his mind on the surrender and holding up his own wand. Rosalina responded and shot a magical burst at his feet. Kamek leapt out of the way, and Wario and Waluigi ran to the back of the room.
Now the lumas were free, and they flew out in great numbers, singing and celebrating. When Toad was done with his task, he watched as Kamek teleported back to his starting position, returning a bolt back to Rosalina. Then, it was Toad's turn, he gathered some hidden courage and jumped for the wand in Kamek's hand. Kamek was too busy with Rosalina to see him coming, and his wand was knocked from his grasp, sliding across the room.
Now that the threat was gone, the lumas grabbed the wand and lifted Kamek in the air. He kicked his feet and struggled. "Let me down!" He yelled.
The lumas obeyed, throwing him at the rail of the balcony. He sailed through the air and slammed into the landing. The floor there was weak, and it collasped in a cloud of dust, bringing screams to Wario and Waluigi.
"Let's go!" Rosalina called, beckoning the lumas to follow, and they picked up Toad on their way out.
They had foiled the enemy's plan and had returned safely home with all the baby lumas. Now the observatory was back to how it should be, with flying star children laughing and playing. Rosalina smiled and chuckled cheerfully. For a long while there, she thought that she would have to rely on Mario's help, but here she did it. She helped her children by herself. Well, she did have a little bit of help. She looked down at Toad and thanked him.
He was pleased about the mission as well. "Glad I stayed." He answered. "I even managed to show a bit of bravery, huh?"
"Yes, Captain, you were very brave." She laughed again.
"I need to tell the others down at the Mushroom Kingdom about what happened!" He exclaimed, giving her a farewell for now and retreating to his parked ship.
Rosalina allowed him to go, and she returned to watching the children play. She'll never this place to change. The lumas were her world, and she wouldn't give any of it up for anything.
Author's Note: Whew, I really had to spill this one out to meet my deadline! Hopefully it doesn't looked rushed. I cleaned it up the best I can. Thanks for reading, tell me, did you enjoy it? I had fun writing it, even though I'm completely exhausted now. This was a 180 Writing Prompt story, based on "Planet for Sale". But it ended up more about buying their way into a galaxy rather than buying a planet. I kinda wished it matched the prompt a little more. Ah well, who cares? It was inspired and it turned into a pretty sweet little mission! See you around!