Chapter 3: Mario, a Hero Through and Through

On the hills outside of Toad Town, the heroes have successfully evacuated every last citizen along with Princess Peach. In the process Mallow has joined up with them, and once Mario has made certain that Peach will be kept safe he goes over to the cloud Prince and thanks him for his assistance. "Not a problem Mario. So…The Axem Rangers are the ones causing trouble around here?" Mallow says with the back of his right hand leaning against his hip. "Correct. From the sounds of things Smithy has come back to life." Luigi replies. The Nimbusian rubs the back of his head, his eyelids slanted with his mouth in a scowl as he grumbles to himself and thinks about this disconcerting bit of news.

"You got to be kidding me. Mario, this would make him the third villain you've fought and killed that has come back to life now. Do you go easy on them or something, or do you keep forgetting to check and make sure that you weren't fighting copies of their true selves?" Mallow brings a good point to the table here, and Fawful and Cackletta's return a few months back is good evidence towards it. Speaking of the crazy followed of the witch, an idea immediately pops into Mario's head upon thinking about him. "Cackletta was dealt with by Alex in the Origin Temple, but Fawful escaped our battle and hasn't been seen since. Do any of you think that he might have had a hand in Smithy's return?"

"It is possible bro. The incident with the Dark Star showed that despite his craziness he had a clever mind buried within it. Even so, how would he know of his existence? Smithy's act was pretty self-contained within the kingdom, so Peach saw no reason for news to spread to the other kingdoms about the attack. Unless Fawful was in the area incognito at the time, there is no way he should've known. Plus, the only way to Smithy's realm was through Exor's mouth, and the sword was destroyed when you, Mallow and the others defeated Smithy." Luigi remarks as a rebuttal to Mario's question.

"That is actually true Luigi." The brother of the man in green states, part of his mind deep in thought as he rubs his chin and looks towards the ground. Driad, the only one in the group having nary a clue as to what is being discussed, gets impatient over the fact that his existence is being ignored and promptly exclaims "Hey! Mind telling me just who this Smithy guy is?" The heroes turn to the exasperated Crayzee Dayzee, but Mallow is the only one to offer him a brief explanation. "Smithy is a war machine from another dimension who builds machines himself to conquer worlds and fill them with nothing but weapons. He created the living sword Exor to not only bring his creations into this world, but to shatter the Star Road into seven pieces and make it so people's wishes couldn't make it to Star Haven, thus putting the Star Spirits out of commission until Geno helped us gather all the parts."

"And what about the Axem Rangers?" Driad then asks, nodding his head after Mallow's explanation to show that he understood it. "They are Smithy's elite fighting squadron of teenage robots with attitude. And I got be honest, despite their goofy behavior they are actually incredibly competent fighters. We almost lost to them when we confronted them at Barrel Volcano, and not even Smithy posed as much of a threat to our lives as they did." "And Alex is fighting upgraded versions of them right now?" The Crayzee Dayzee breaks into concern for his friend and master, but Mallow nervously waves his hands in front of his face and tries to ease his tension. "I didn't mean to worry you Driad, I'm just pointing out that they were troublesome for us back then. Don't tell me that you think that Alex can't win…"

As Mallow and Driad continue to converse, Mario stands at the Cliffside looking out towards Toad Town. He tilts his head up and notices two specks in the sky. With the coloring of the first one he recognizes it as Axem Red. With that information planted in his mind he easily deduces that the other one must be the young Overlord. But looking at this scene unfold leaves him feeling uneasy, a chill rushing down his spine and a sharp sensation piercing his brain and forcing his legs to move all on their own. Luigi turns and notices his brother leaving the area, holding one arm out to call to him in vain. "Mario! Where are you going?" The other two heroes turn and look at the plumber as he runs across the fields of green to get back to Toad Town, but he doesn't stop for even a second…

Fast forward back to present time, where Axem Red is getting ready to carry off the orb that Alex is trapped in, the young Overlord currently having his eyelids closed to avoid seeing what shall occur next. But Mario leaps into the air outside of the Ranger's field of vision and thrusts his legs forward, the soles of his boots connecting with the side of Red's head and as a shocked expression instantly appears on his face he is sent flying through the wall of a nearby house, Mario spinning his body around and kneeling down on the ground upon landing and grabbing the front of his cap with one hand while the other lays on the ground. "Mario!" The other Rangers state in surprise while pulling their axes out ready to fight him.

"Hold your weapons men!" Red calls out to them from inside the rubble that remains of the wall he crashed through. A red streak leaps out of the pile and crashes through the roof of the house, the leader landing in front of his allies and drawing his own axe to the grasp of his right arm that is currently held behind himself. After two spins he points the tip of the blade at Mario with an annoyed expression on his face. "What are you doing here Mario? This wasn't part of the agreement." He asks. "Everyone has been evacuated from the town; your threat holds no water now. The better question is…" Mario tilts his head over his left shoulder, Alex opening his eyelids up slowly until he recognizes his savior, at which point they thrust open the rest of the way and he moves his body forward to press his hands against the side of the orb. The plumber turns his head back and looks at the Rangers with an angered glare. "What have you done to Alex?"

"That's none of your business! …Because honestly, we don't know ourselves. Master Smithy gave us the weapon to use to incapacitate the Overlord so we could bring him back without a struggle, but we don't know just how or why it worked against him." Axem Green replies. "Why do you even care in the first place Mario? We told you already that you aren't our target, and it is not like you can free the Overlord from his confinement by fighting us." Axem Black then adds-on to his partner's sentence. "Honestly Mario, I bet if the boy were any other person you wouldn't even care about his safety. But because he is the Elemental Overlord, one of if not THE most powerful good guy in the entire universe, you feel the need to be Mr. Goodie-two-shoes like you always are just to save his life."

Mario winces at what was just said to him. Despite the charade they had of being a tightly-knit group, the Axem Rangers knew nothing about bonds between friends, and as the plumber clenches his fingers together into the shape of a fist as he finds himself determined to let them know just exactly what was on his mind. "You think that is the reason why I'm doing this? I couldn't care less about the title that Alex currently has, I'm doing what I've always done, and that is follow my instincts to do the right thing. Even if he was powerless and I was in the same situation he is now, he would do the same thing that I'm doing here and now. It is not because he is the Elemental Overlord that we are friends, but it is because he has proven himself time and time again to be a kind; caring individual who is willing to put others needs before his own. I've put my trust in him, and he has done the same for me. I'm not going to betray that trust by letting you take him away to be experimented on by Smithy. So if you think you will be able to succeed in your goals…"

Mario closes his eyelids as a pillar of holy light comes down from the sky and covers him completely. Holographic projections of the planet's seven Star Spirits surround it, the energy splitting apart and vanishing not long afterwards. Floating in the air in the center of where the light once shone is the plumber in a new garb. The colors on his clothes have changed the red becoming golden while the blue has become silver. He has a cape attached to his back, and upon seeing his eyelids thrust open the Rangers see that the eyes themselves have become golden in color too. Mario turns his attention towards the rather unnerved Rangers, and waves his right hand out in front of himself while he finishes his earlier sentence. "Come and get me…"

"Very well Mario, we will do just that since you've forced our hand! Axem Rangers, show him whose boss!" With his declaration the Rangers rush forward one after the other, Red staying behind at first to see how the first phase of the battle unfolds. Mario backhands Yellow in the face when he approaches and spins his body around so he rises up and punts the stunned machine into the ground. He then slams two hands together to keep Black's axe at bay, pulling the weapon closer but off to the side of his body so he can get a better shot at the Ranger himself. He then let's go and swiftly follows through with a punched to the face, which shatters the left lens of his sunglasses and makes him let go of his weapon as he is sent back.

Mario grabs the staff of the weapon before it falls and spins it around his body effortlessly, deflecting some incoming slashes from the front and back by both Pink and Green before he holds the weapon horizontally in one hand and thrusts it back, the bottom tip of the staff slamming into Green's gut and stunning him, where he then proceeds to move it forward and swing the blade up at a ninety degree angle to knock Pink's weapon out of her hand when she makes another attempt at hitting him. With its job done the plumber drops the weapon, twisting his body to the right and holding the respective hand out to launch a fireball that knocks Green away, moving his body back to the proper position and combining both of his hands into a fist before slamming them both down on top of Pink's head to get her to join her comrade Yellow in the ground below.

At this point Red rushes in and uses his axe to deliver a clean blow right across Mario's chest while the hero is busy recovering from his last attack. Though no blood is drawn from the skin the tip of the blade ended up being only a millimeter away from touching it. In the moment that the plumber expresses surprise over this damage despite how minimal it is, Black recovers from the earlier attack and nudges his sunglasses to use his "Spritz Bomb" attack, a rain of bombs falling from the sky towards Mario like they did against Alex earlier on. Red speeds out of the way and moves across the ground like a streak to pick up and carry Yellow and Pink out of the way while the plumber looks up to see the bombardment approaching.

The plumber plucks his cape from his back and swings it above himself with both hands, a heavy gust of wind being blow that sends the bombs higher up into the air after they hover in place for a few seconds upon being caught up in the gale. Mario did this to give himself enough time to destroy them before they hit the ground, and after reattaching his cape he summons fireballs in both of his hands and rapid-fires ten of them at the bombs. They all move right through the explosives and set them off, the multiple miniature detonations filling the sky before they fade out and become a large cloud of black smoke that lurks above Toad Town and is noticed by the heroes on the hills nearby.

Now that his defense had proven successful Mario brings his arms down and calmly blocks a punch attempt from both sides by Yellow and Black. He then pulls his arms in and thrusts them back out after covering the palms with a veil of golden fire, knocking the two soldiers away with ease. He then turns around and kicks Pink away as she approaches, keeping his momentum up to deal with Green as well. He then stops and thrusts one fist up, the knuckles colliding right with Black's jaw as he makes a return trip to attack once more. The Rangers drops his axe as Mario rises into the air as a follow-up to his punch, a series of flaming coins rising out of Black's head until the tenth one, where the plumber uses his other fist to send him away with a punch to the chest.

In the brief moment that Mario has he lifts one arm up and tosses a fireball into the air, bringing the limb down onto Green's head to stun him temporarily before rapid-firing both of his fists out in front of his body in an attempt to dent the metal plating on his chest. By the time he has finished up there is a couple knuckles shaped grooves in a couple locations, but nothing thick enough for Mario to bother with a follow-up to what he just did. So with that the plumber pulls his right fist back as far as he can and after two flashes of light appear behind it he thrusts it out faster than one can bat an eyelash at, the force of the blow being strong enough to send Green flying through three houses at a whopping thousand MPH.

Though the plumber briefly grimaces at the damage he is causing, he knew that now was not the time to loom on the issue, and he puts his arms out beside himself and starts spinning around wildly to turn his body into a miniature, glowing tornado of punches that knocks away Pink, Yellow and Black in rapid succession. However, Red rushes towards him and places the blunt edge of his axe into the "tornado", which causes Mario's left arm to slam into it and make the move halt instantaneously, with the added recoil sending a spike of pain through the muscles and nerve-endings in the arm and very nearly breaking the wrist bones in the hand. Not wanting to risk a counterattack, Red follows up his previous move by pulling his axe back and proceeding to swing it in an upward arc, only for Mario to recover quickly enough for the attack to only cut off part of his cape.

Disappointed by his failure, Red follows up by activating "Vigor Up" to regain the power boost he lost after he had fought the young Overlord. He then draws his axe and brandishes it out, Mario pulling his gut back to avoid being punctured by the tip. The plumber then flies back, moving his arms diagonally to send out five fireballs into the air, flipping his body around and using his feet to block two slashes from Axem Red. But with his increased strength the force of the blows pushes his feet in and sends the plumber through the air for a few feet before he holds his hands out to stop himself. Upon recovering he sees the leader rushing towards him again, but now that Mario is prepared he throws his left arm out and catches the axe by the portion of the staff right below the blade.

He then puts his other hand right in the mid-section, pressing against the staff while Red does the same to resist the plumber's efforts to break his axe. But Mario's determination to prevail is strong than the machine's, and the axe's staff splits in two, allowing Mario to pull both halves out of the grasp of its owner and toss them away. Despite the loss of his weapon, it turns out Red only did that as a distraction while the rest of his group set up attacks to take the plumber down. Pink winks her right eye with her axe held out in front of her, causing a storm of pink petals to rush towards Mario. These sharp little objects cut up the plumber's clothes as he raises his arms in front of his face to protect it, but in the end they too are also a distraction.

As the plumber pulls his arms away with the attack coming to an end, a shimmering blue wave of static energy flies through the air, summoned forth by Axem Green. When it hits and vanishes, Mario is left paralyzed in the position he is currently in. This is followed up by Yellow using his axe to summon a giant thunderbolt that crashes down on top of Mario and sends him into the ground, where he is left helpless as Black casts "Spritz Bomb" once more knowing full well that it won't be reflected back. The bombardment of bombs impacts with various locations on the ground, the majority of them targeting Mario to ensure his defeat. The sounds of the explosions fills the skies until they stop, at which point a heavy cloud of smoke covers the ground while the gathered Axem Rangers look on in curiosity.

Suddenly a medium-sized fireball is shot through the clouds, zooming past the stunned expressions of the Rangers as a golden streak speeds by them not long after that. Moving past even the fireball he just tossed is Mario, who heads up to a massive fireball whose energy he had been building up at certain intervals during the battle. Before it is complete the plumber rises above the orb and pulls out his hammer, whose head now has a golden tint to it, and brings it right down on top of the orb. The force of the blow sends it hurtling towards the unknowing Rangers, where it also absorbs the energy of the previously fired orb and grows even larger.

Red is the first to look up and see the attack coming towards his group, but instead of warning them he swings his axe and summons a blue ring around himself to activate his "Valor Up" Technique. The power of this ability goes into effect just a second before the orb consumes all of the Rangers in its burning grasp. After that it keeps soaring downward until it collides with the ground, a wide pillar of fire with a height of thirty yards erupts into the sky, with Mario just out of its range. The plumber puts his hammer away and heads back to the ground, one of his knees planting itself into the ground as he begins to pant from the attacks taking their toll on him.

Alex leans against the orb that is behind the plumber as he turns his head around and gives him a weak thumbs-up. "Nice display Mario, shame it went to waste." Mario quickly turns his head towards the fading smoke as he hears a familiar voice call out to him. Axem Red's figure appears as a shadow until he leaps out in a flash of red and lands a few feet away from his opponent completely unharmed. "Did you forget that I have a resistance against fire based attacks? Add the defense boost given to me by my Valor Up skill and I came out of your move unharmed…A pity about my comrades though…" Red says the last part of his sentence in a melancholy tone, but stops reminiscing so he can look over at the orb that the young Overlord is trapped in.

Moving towards it, Axem Red does little to pay attention to Mario, his goal being the only thing ingrained into his cybernetic mind. But the plumber isn't about the let the mechanical man succeed, and with great resilience towards the pain in his body he grabs performs a breakdance maneuver on the ground to trip the ranger up. Mario squints his eyelids in pain, but after Red has fallen on his back the plumber kicks himself back and stands up, following his move up by leaping into the air and bringing his right fist down towards Red's face. The knuckles slam right into the metal plating, the bones behind them cracking and sending a sharp sensation of pain through the appropriate nerves.

Mario put all of his strength into that blow, but not even that was capable of denting the defense-boosted Axem Red. The plumber's eyelids become heavy, his body giving out and collapsing backwards off of the Ranger, who quickly gets on his feet and looks at his opponent as he reverts to his normal form. "Sheesh Mario, just what the heck are you made of? …I know my original goal was to capture the Elemental Overlord, but I really can't risk you getting up again, and without my axe I won't be able to do that myself…However." Red looks behind his back towards the Blade that is still hovering in place where they left it. Vanishing in a streak of color, the Axem Ranger eventually makes it all the way back to the ship, specifically near the controls on the back of the axe-blade head.

"I don't have any against Toad Town, I really don't…But Mario" Axem Red mutters to himself as he moves his hand towards a single button that will ultimately decide the innocent town's fate below. "I have plenty against YOU." Just before he can perform this action though, a loud, booming voice calls to him from beyond the clouds above. "You might want to reconsider what you are about to do there, Axem Red." Turning his head around to see who spoke his name, a massive shadow covers the Blade in its entirety. The leader goes wide-eyed as he is greeted by the presence of a battleship whose size vastly dwarves that of the one he is on. There is a large runway in the front used to launch vehicles, an abundance of high-tech weaponry attached to a series of pods on the bottom side of this long road of metal. There is a massive glass dome in the back of this ship where most of the action goes on inside. Attached to the back of this dome is a long red cloth that moves about in the breeze, its form resembling that of a creature's tail. Any further details explained would just ruin the magnificence of this multi-functional aircraft. Deep inside the confines, a being sits on a chair at the top of a multi-layered pedestal, looking down at his troops as they work to keep this machine afloat. He is Alpha, the Goomba Commander of the secret organization known as the M.S.I.. As the vehicle stops right above the Blade, he lets out a brief, cocky sounding laugh through the gaps of his smirk…

Next Time: Priority, Capture Axem Re