ZAP.

"Oh, hello, Mario!" said Merlon cheerfully as Mario and company teleported into Flipside. "How can I help you?"

"No time for small talk!" said Mario. "Can you teleport us to the throne room in the Palace of Shadow underneath Rogueport in the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"I suppose but-" started Merlon.

"Then do it!" shouted Mario.

"All right!" shouted Merlon.

ZAP.

Suddenly the heroes were in the throne room as Lord Smergenflov entered the secret room behind the throne.

"After him!" shouted Mario.

Inside the room, Lord Smergenflov had just finished putting the Chaos Heart and the other artifacts into the coffin of the Shadow Queen.

"Mario and his band of heroes is here. Stop them while I reform!" commanded the Chaos Heart.

"Do you ever stop meddling in villains' affairs?" inquired Smergenflov, turning around.

"No. Not really," said Mario calmly.

"Fine," said Smergenflov icily. All traces of humor in his voice had vanished. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!"

`He snapped his fingers, and the candles surrounding them suddenly lit up. A small flame from each of them flew towards him, and lit him on fire. His suit was purple fire, his hair was white fire, and his cloak was black fire. He had become a being of living flame.

"Hahaha!" this came from Dimentio, who boldly stepped forward. "Do not worry, friends, a simple dimensional cube will detain him!"

"Unlikely," said Smergenflov, snapping his fingers. A small band of teenage human females suddenly appeared in a cage. They looked bewildered for a moment, then their eyes locked on Dimentio.

"Y-you wouldn't!" said Dimentio, stepping back. "You're bluffing!"

"Am I?" replied Smergenflov, snapping his fingers again. The cage suddenly disappeared. "RELEASE THE FANGIRLS!" he shrieked with glee as the aforementioned fangirls charged Dimentio. Dimentio uttered a very un-masculine squeak and teleported away. He reappeared behind the casket, sneaking away. The fangirls caught on immediately and charged at him again.

Mario, ignoring Dimentio's predicament, charged at Smergenflov with a hammer. Unfortunately, the hammer melted as soon as it met Smergenflov's skin. Smergenflov smirked and knocked him backward with a sweep of his arm. Fawful was not having much more luck. His blaster was doing absolutely nothing to Smergenflov. Midbus, fed up, rolled into a ball and charged at the flaming man. Smergenflov dodged a second too late and the fire surrounding him was instantly extinguished as he was knocked against the wall. He teleported away from Midbus and staggered to his feet.

"Don't you ever give up?" he said, stomping his foot. Two large slabs of stone instantly arose from the ground. They smacked together, trapping Smergenflov. The stone then quickened, melting to form a stone Smergenflov. "It's futile. You're doomed,"

"No we aren't!" shouted Waluigi, punching Smergenflov. His punch did absolutely nothing, and Waluigi actually injured his hand.

"I beg to differ," said Smergenflov, picking up the purple plumber and throwing him into Mario.

"Psst!" a voice whispered in Mario's ear as he picked himself up. "It's me. Dimentio,"

"Dimentio?" asked Mario. "Then what's that?" he pointed to the Dimentio that was outrunning the fangirls.

"A clone," said Dimentio quietly.

"That gives me an idea!" Mario whispered his idea into Dimentio's ear. The Dimentio clone teleported to Lord Smergenflov's area. The fangirls instantly charged at it, glomping the stone villain instead of Dimentio. Smergenflov's stone armor shattered instantly. Annoyed, Smergenflov made the fangirls vanish and promptly melted. The pool of water that used to be Smergenflov suddenly rose into a watery Smergenflov, grinning happily.

"Can you handle this?" asked Smergenflov, inviting attack.

Midbus charged at the watery apparition, but went right through it. Smergenflov's arm solidified into a knife of ice which stabbed at the pig before reliquefying.

"We have had enoughing of the thing that is this!" shrieked Fawful, blasting Smergenflov and freezing him. "Huh," said Fawful. "It wasn't supposed to be on the setting of freeze,"

"Who cares?" shouted Waluigi. "I get to punch him now!" this was followed by Waluigi punching Smergenflov, shattering his ice armor.

"Smergenflov-" the Heart began.

"YES!" Smergenflov shouted. "The Heart has reformed into its original being!" he threw the lid of the casket off to find the Heart and everything else, sitting there.

"Wait, what?" asked Smergenflov.

"I can't reform," said the Chaos Heart. "Are you sure that you have the right artifacts?"

Smergenflov glanced up at the heroes. "LOOK OVER THERE!" he shouted. Naturally, they looked over there. Smergenflov teleported away.

"Hopefully we'll never see that creep again," said Luigi, taking out everything except the Heart, which Fawful welded into the casket.

Everything had gone back to normal. The Beanstar was in the Beanbean Kingdom, the Millennium Star was in the toy box, and the Dark Star was in the hold of Peach's castle. Elsewhere, Smergenflov was unhappy.

"SO CLOSE!" he shouted, blasting his curtains with fire. "I WAS SO CLOSE!"

You still can finish the plan, said Professor Smergenflov from within his mind.

"Impossible!" said Smergenflov. "Mario is simply too strong!"

But don't you know the reason that the Beanstar somehow reverted back to its original form so mysteriously when you kidnapped Peach? the Professor was smug.

"No, I don't, actually, replied Lord Smergenflov.

I swapped the real one with a fake.

"What. Did you. Say?" asked Smergenflov, furiously. His head was twitching to the left as General Smergenflov threatened to surface.

I knew that Mario would defeat you, so I hid the Beanstar in a secret room behind the secret room behind the throne room of the Palace of Shadow. said Professor Smergenflov happily.

Smergenflov was less happy. When he started to leave himself out of the loop, he got mad.

Do you know what that means? asked the Professor.

"What?" replied Smergenflov.

You can make a wish.

Smergenflov's eyes widened behind his lenses. Ten seconds later, he was in the casket's room. With a gust of wind, he blew away a fake wall. Inside was the Beanstar, now in the form of a floating green eye.

"Beanstar!" Smergenflov shouted with gusto. "I wish for you to reform! Bring about a new era of evil for all worlds!"

Nothing happened for a moment, then Smergenflov and the star were both blasted through the roof of the palace and propelled into the skies above Rogueport, where Smergenflov calmly flew. The Chaos Heart, the Beanstar, the Millennium Star, the Dark Star, and the Shadow Queen's coffin floated alongside him. The first four items flew into the last one, and the coffin changed. It quickened. It shrunk. It writhed. Soon it was in the form of a container. From the container issued a stream of smoke that quickly solidified into one being. Its hideous laughter was heard throughout Rogueport.

"I AM FREE!" the being boomed.

"I am whole."

TO BE CONTINUED…