In this chapter, Mario, Luigi, and Starlow begin to question the logic of their world.


When the room was once again filled with water, Mario and Luigi started swimming around, looking for clues as to where Peach or anyone else could be. Starlow stayed in Mario's Hammer Space.

Along the way, the brothers came across different enemies, but they were easy to deal with. The brothers also found more Attack Pieces as they continued exploring, as well as blocks with coins, mushrooms, and other useful items. After a while they found a weird door-like thing.

"What's this?" Mario wondered.

Starlow came out to look at it. "It looks like this could open up and lead somewhere. But there's a gap where a piece of the door is missing. Maybe we should look for the missing piece."

"Or we could swim right through the gap," Luigi pointed out."

So they tried, but due to plot reasons, they found that the gap led nowhere. They had no other choice but to look for the missing piece of the door.

Before starting the search, they decided to take a break. Mario got two mushrooms out of his Hammer Space so he and Luigi could restore health they had lost while battling.

"Hey, do you think we should tell Bowser he can stop drinking for now?" Mario asked.

"Oh! You're right," Starlow exclaimed. "We must have been swimming in this place for half an hour; how is he still alive after drinking non-stop this whole time?"

"How are we still alive after breathing down here for so long?"

"How are we even breathing?" Luigi added.

Starlow had no answer for this, so she simply shouted for Bowser for hear, "Hey! You can stop drinking for now!"

"Finally! What have you been doing in there, weird voice?"

"Uh…trying to fix your fire power. I already told you that!"

She sure is taking a long time to do it, Bowser thought, annoyed with the fact that he couldn't leave this small part of the beach until he could breathe fire again.

Then, with a sudden urge to use the bathroom after drinking so much, Bowser walked over to a tree and…well, you know.

After a little while Mario and Luigi stood up. Because all the water drained out the moment the Bowser stopped drinking, they had to walk instead of swim.

"Where do you think the missing part of the door could be?" Luigi asked.

"Who knows," Mario answered. "We'll just have to look everywhere until we find it, I guess."

After a very long time of walking, they heard a voice call out, "I say, is that you, Master Mario?"

The voice belonged to Toadsworth. Relieved that they had found the old Toad, Mario and Luigi cheered as they hurried to him.

Fortunately, Toadsworth was unharmed. Unfortunately, he was trapped behind a wall of yellow pellet things.

"Are you okay?" Mario asked quickly.

"I'm fine. Just a bit stuck. I believe there's a switch over there." Toadsworth pointed to an area just a few feet away. "If you could hit it, I would be freed."

So the heroes found the switch, but it was out of reach. The pathway to it was too low.

"Starlow might be able to get over there," Mario mused. "But how could she hit the switch?"

"Are you saying I'm too weak?!" Starlow asked angrily.

Ignoring her, Mario continued thinking. "There's no way we can crawl through there. There must be a way…"

Luigi thought, too. Suddenly he had an idea! He got out his hammer and brought it down on Mario's head. Starlow looked shocked.

"Are you crazy?! You'll kill him!"

Mario, however, seemed unhurt by the blow. And he had shrunken down to Mini-Mario size. Luigi's plan had worked perfectly.

The red-clad hero gave his younger brother an annoyed look. "That was a good idea, but give me warning next time, okay?" The plumber's voice sounded a little bit higher pitched because he was so tiny.

Luigi rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "Sorry, I just got caught up in my idea."

With his new size, Mario could now enter the pathway to the switch and hit it with his hammer which had somehow shrunken down, too.

When the switch was hit the wall disappeared, allowing Toadsworth to walk over to the heroes.

"Freedom at last!" He looked startled as the tiny Mario walked out of the small pathway. "Master Mario…you've shrunk!"

"Yes. There was no other way to get to the switch."

"But how will you return to your normal size?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Starlow said.

"Like this." Luigi brought down the hammer on Mario head again, and he grew back to normal size.

"How does that even work?" Starlow asked, looking amazed.

"Let's just say that we're really skilled with hammers," Mario chuckled, his voice back to normal.

"Okay…"

With Toadsworth safe and on his way to where all the other Toads were, Mario and Luigi continued their search for the missing door piece.

After a little while, they realized they needed to swim to carry on.

"Starlow, could you ask Bowser to drink more water?" Mario asked the Star Sprite.

"Sure!" Starlow looked up. "Hey! We need you to drink some water!"

"Give me a minute!" Bowser growled. "I'm still releasing all the water I already drank."

"Eww! You didn't have to share that bit of information!"

"Whatever. Wait…did you say 'we'? Don't tell me I'm going to hear more voices from my body!"

"Oops…I shouldn't have let that slip." Starlow looked embarrassed. For Bowser to hear she said, "Uh, when I said 'we', I meant…me and my spilt-personality!"

"Whoa," Bowser said. "You have a split-personality?! …what does that even mean?"

Starlow groaned at the Koopa's stupidity. "It means sometimes I act like different person, okay? Now please go drink more water!"

Mario chuckled as water started to rain down on them all. "That was a good save. How did you come up with that excuse?"

"I don't know…it just kind of popped into my head so I said it."

"Well, wherever it came from, at least Bowser doesn't know me and Mario are down here," Luigi commented as he swam upward. "Come on, you two; I think I see an Attack Piece."

As the brothers swam up, they saw that there was indeed an Attack Piece ahead of them. Luigi reached up and hit the block, and the final Attack Piece they needed for a new attack came flying out. Now they could use Fire Flower power in battle.

Mario smiled. "Between this new attack and the one we got in that other place where we woke up, we should be all set for whatever comes our way!"


"I can't believe this," Star growled. "We were the Mushroom Kingdom's last hope and we blew it."

"Come on, Star," Dawn coaxed, "it could be worse; our games could have ended in that fight. I'd say we're lucky to be prisoners."

"Yeah, I guess."

The two had fought off the brainwashed minions as long as they could, but even with Star's ability to turn into a Latias, they couldn't hold out forever. They had been outnumbered and had no hope of winning. Finally they surrendered to save their games.

At least they hadn't been locked in a room and were allowed to roam around the castle still. But of course they couldn't leave; a groups of Paratroopas patrolled the skies so Star couldn't fly away in her Latias form, leaving them with no way to escape at the time being.

At the moment, the girls were in Kamek's library, keeping themselves busy by reading and talking to each other.

"I wonder why we're allowed to go around freely," Dawn said before sneezing from some dust. "You'd think they would worry about you trying to pull another attack."

"Meh. I guess they figure we'll behave if we don't want to get hurt. We'll try to lay low for a couple of days, and soon I'll have worked out a plan to save our butts and whole kingdom!"

Dawn sighed. "Star, I want to save the kingdom, too, but shouldn't we wait for Mario and Luigi to save the day like always?"

The pink-haired girl looked up from the book she was reading. "Dawn…do you even know where they are? I mean, you said yourself you couldn't find anyone in the castle after you left to find a meeting room or whatever."

"Even so, I know they're alright. And I know they'll save everyone. You'll see."

"Okay… But just in case, I'm still working on a plan."

"Forget about your plan; you'll just make things worse if you screw up." Dawn walked to the door and put her hand on the doorknob. "I have a plan of my own. It might not help us get away, we'll learn what's going on."

"Oh? What's your plan?"

The girl smiled. "I'll do what I do best; blend in and quietly learn what I can."

Star laughed. "Ah, I see. The old invisible waitresses trick, huh?"

"Something like that."

Dawn left the room, closing the door behind her, walked down the hallways looking for signs of life. Her best bet was to try and get close to the first person she found so she could see what she could get out of them.

Up ahead, a Boo was floating towards her. Dawn loved to hang out with the shy little ghosts, but she didn't feel happy about meeting one now. Her ghostly friends were most likely brainwashed like the rest of Bowser's army.

Upon seeing the girl, however, the Boo perked up and said, "Dawn! I'd heard you were here, but wasn't sure if it was true."

Dawn was, of course, overjoyed. "You remember me?"

"Of course." The Boo floated around the girl playfully. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Weren't you brainwashed like the other minions?"

"Oh, that." The Boo made a face. "No, we ghosts can't be brainwashed, so you still have a friend in us."

Dawn smiled. "Thanks."

"So what are you doing here, anyway? It's not safe for you to be here with that Beanish nut-job running around."

"Let's just say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dawn said with a shrug. "And Star tried to save me so she's here, too."

The Boo looked alarmed. "Oh no! Um…don't worry, Dawn! I'll gather the others and we'll help you two to escape!"

"Can you really do that? I wouldn't want to cause trouble for you..."

"Yes, it's no problem. Just give us some time and we'll figure out the best way to get you two out unseen."

Dawn gave a soft sigh of relief. "That would be awesome." She paused a moment. "By the way, do you have any idea as to what Fawful's evil plan is?"

The Boo shook its head, or rather, its body. "I'm afraid not. Do you want me to ask around and tell you later?"

"Sure, if you can."

"Okay, me and my friends will get to work right away! You and Star just keep out of trouble for now."

"We can do that. Thank you."

The Boo floated away and Dawn went back to the library to fill Star in on the new plan.