I´m glad that Easter holidays exist, because I get to a) write a new chapter almost every single day, and b) celebrate my birthday without having to go to school. Won´t tell you when exactly that is, though.
Go, Chapter 4! I choose you!
"What in the world…?" Luigi said after they arrived at Blubble Lake. Nico´s robots were patrolling all over the place.
"If he can spend all these robots here, how many must be in his arsenal then?" Starlow asked.
There was no way around them without getting spotted, so they decided to fight those which were in their way. Luckily, they were walking around alone, which meant that they could deal with some of them the sneaky way. As soon as the nearest unit turned its back towards them, they quickly made their way towards it. Both Mario and Luigi had their hammers ready, and they landed them on the head of the machine. It fell over, and they kept hammering it until they were sure that it was destroyed.
"ENEMIES: SPOTTED. ENGAGING," they heard behind them. A unit stood there and drew a ray gun. It fired at them repeatedly, but Mario and Luigi had more than enough training in dodging rays against the Shroobs. While they kept it busy, Starlow and Dreambert focused on their love and fired it at the foe.
It got hit by it and collapsed on the ground, but two more robots spotted them. One of them had a gun as well, while the other one activated an energy blade. The robot with the gun fired at them, while the other one charged and tried to hit Mario with the blade. He blocked the hit with his hammer and counterattacked, but his hit was blocked as well. Luigi dealt with the other robot, and Starlow and Dreambert scooted behind the melee fighter and struck it with a beam of love.
No more robots were close, so they made their way to the east. When they heard more robots closing in, they hid behind a rock to let them pass. The four of them were about to go on, when they heard a robot where they defeated the four robots.
"DESTROYED UNITS FOUND. REPORTING IN."
"Great, now everyone knows that we´re coming this way," Dreambert said.
"Uh, guys? Is the tower supposed to be moving?" Starlow asked and looked into the distance.
The Tower of Yikk, which Bowser battled as a giant, could be seen moving into the direction of Bumpsy Plains. After it walked a few steps, it stopped and lowered itself to become a regular tower again.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Luigi said.
"TARGETS: SPOTTED. INITIALIZING CAPTURE," a robotic voice close to them announced. They had been seen.
"We got no time to worry about that for now. We have a problem right here," Mario told them.
Four more robots were standing there. One of them was a melee fighter, while the other ones wielded guns. They started firing at the heroes, who ran out of line of fire. The other one chased at Starlow and Dreambert, who narrowly avoided the blade. Mario and Luigi took one robot out by stomping on it.
"Guys? A little help here?" Dreambert yelled.
The other robots had joined the melee fighter and chased the couple as well. Starlow eventually got hit by the blade, and fainted. The robot picked her up with its other hand.
"TARGET 4: DEFEATED," the robot said, and activated thrusters built in its legs. It flew into the direction of the tower.
"Starlow!" Dreambert cried. He wasn´t able to pay attention, and he got struck by a gunshot. The other two robots ran towards him and picked him up as well. They followed the other one and left Mario and Luigi alone.
"We have to save them! Who knows what Nico could do to them," Luigi exclaimed, and they both started running.
They stopped at the tower for two reasons: Nico stood next to their unconscious friends, and the tower now blocked the passage to Bumpsy Plains. As soon as he saw them, a grin crossed his face.
"There you are. You kept me waiting, and I don´t like that. Look at what my minions brought to me," he said and pointed at his hostages. He placed a red metal ball between them.
"Come any closer, and this bomb will wipe out your friends," he warned the brothers.
He drew his ray gun from his pocket and aimed it at Dreambert. A green beam appeared from it, which woke the Pi'illo Prince up. He then adjusted the settings and created an orange beam. After he was finished, he repeated the procedure with Starlow. He picked the bomb up, and it was put into his "Jetback" by a robotic arm that came from it.
"Dreambert and Starlow! The Mario Bros. are trying to destroy all beings that aren´t human, including you. You have to stop them right now!" he commanded. "I´ll be at Bowser´s Castle, have fun with these two," Nico told Mario and Luigi, and flew away. A robot equipped with two guns took his place. It created a shield to protect itself.
"I think we have no choice. We need to knock them out in order to undo the mind-control," Mario said, as their friends hovered towards them.
"Let´s try not to hurt them badly," Luigi suggested, and they both prepared to fight them.
Starlow and Dreambert flew up high and started spinning. They then came down at the brothers at high velocity. They didn´t know that they could become that fast, and got hit by them. The couple then scooted back and waited for them to attack. Mario and Luigi equipped their hammers and jumped at the two, but they dodged the hammer strikes after the brothers landed in front of them. Starlow used her Star Sprite levitation abilities and put Mario´s cap in front of his eyes, which momentarily blinded him. Dreambert distracted Luigi by charging at him every now and then.
While Mario was blinded, Starlow levitated the hammer out of his hand. When the plumber got the cap out of his face, she hit him with his own hammer and sent him onto the ground. She then threw the hammer back at him, right on his head. He didn´t get knocked out by her counterattack, but now he was hurt and angry. He picked his hammer up and charged at the Star Sprite.
In the meantime, Luigi was busy keeping Dreambert away from him. The Pi'illo Prince wouldn´t stop charging at him, and whenever Luigi tried to knock him away with his hammer, he dodged out of the way. It continued in this manner, until Luigi got a lucky hit on him. Dreambert was sent flying away and landed a few feet away from Starlow.
She noticed her injured boyfriend and became furious, but that way she didn´t pay attention on Mario, who hit her with his hammer. She landed on the ground as well, but managed to roll away as Luigi tried to hit her. Dreambert got up again and hovered up high into the air. Starlow followed him, and together they created a love beam. It followed Luigi, who ran away from it. Mario picked up a rock that was lying on the ground, and threw it at Dreambert.
He got hit by it, and couldn´t concentrate on keeping the beam up. It disappeared, and they tried to dive into the brothers again. This time they were prepared, and used their hammers to smack them into the wall of the tower. The impact caused their friends to faint.
The robot noticed the unconscious pair and deactivated its shield. It aimed at Mario and Luigi and fired at them. They didn´t get hit, but because the robot could fire at both of them at the same time, they weren´t able to get close to it.
Luigi then had an idea. He took a green shell and threw it on the ground, still dodging the rays fired by the machine. He continued to evade the shots and ran towards the shell again. He kicked it towards the robot, which got hit by it. This irritated it for a brief moment, enough to let Mario kick the shell back. Each time they kicked the shell into the robot, they closed in on it.
When they were close enough, Luigi kicked the shell so hard that it flew off the ground and hit the head of the robot. They then got their hammers and crushed the robot´s head between them, making it collapse on the ground. It tried to shoot at them one last time, but the system shut down before it could do that. It then exploded into little fragments.
Mario and Luigi panted, but were able to relax again. They got two 1-Up Mushrooms and reanimated Starlow and Dreambert. When they woke up, they were confused and didn´t know what happened to them.
"Mario? Luigi? What happened? And why does my body hurt so much?" Starlow asked them.
"You got defeated by the robots, and Nico then mind-controlled you. He ordered you to fight us, so we had to knock you guys out. I didn´t know you could fight like that," Luigi explained.
"Like what?" Dreambert asked.
"We´ll explain what you did later on. We should heal ourselves for now, and then find another way to Bowser´s Castle," Mario suggested.
"Great idea. In the south-west should be a passage to Dimble Wood, we could go through there," Starlow said. They all ate a Mushroom, and then made their way back to where they came from.
After defeating several robots and walking towards the desired location, they arrived at the pathway that connected Blubble Lake and Dimble Wood. As they were about to leave the lake, Nicbot stepped into sight.
"Well, it appears that you had the courage to beat your own friends. How did it feel? I hope that it was a horrible experience for you," he said. They just starred at him, full of anger.
"And you know what is horrible as well? The fact that you are trying to stop us. You have no chance, so why are you even trying? It doesn´t matter, because you will see for yourself," he continued.
He transformed his hand into his energy launcher again and flew up high, using thrusters built into his legs and back.
"But I think that you should take the long way around to your failure," he told them, and destroyed the path with a salvo of missiles. "Ahahaha, have fun, losers," he taunted them and flew away.
"That thing is even worse than Nico…" Luigi said.
"Maybe. But for now, we have only one option left: Cavi Cape, Plack Peach, Dimble Wood, Bumpsy Plains and then Bowser´s Castle," Starlow replied.
"Sigh…this guy is already at the very top on my list of people and things I never want to see again," Dreambert said.
Together, they wandered south and entered Cavi Cape.
Mario and Luigi had to beat up their friends? Oh man, what a mean guy I am…
So, they need to take the path Bowser had to go in order to reach his castle. Little do they know, that someone they don´t know yet will be waiting for them…
You know how this goes: Review if you want to, and stay tuned for the next chapter.
