It'll be Halloween soon! Can you guys guess what that means?

It means that these next few chapters will be extra spooky! Prepare yourselves for plenty of scares and shivers down your spine!

(The story was going there anyway, but let's pretend that I'm doing it to be festive)! :P


Chapter 9 – Bones and Blueprints

If there had still been a moon, it would have likely hung low and large over the horizon; its gaze bright and baleful against the gnarled black treetops of Forever Forest.

Moonlight would've illuminated the sea of branches and brambles that lay across the countryside like a funeral shroud, sprawling for untold miles in every direction. A moonbeam might've caught the flocks of Swoopers that spiraled this way and that above the canopy, flapping and skreeking madly in everlasting search of prey. Any light at all would have shone kindly upon the five travelers who struggled slowly and cautiously across the forest floor.

…But the moon had vanished with the stars in this world, by some strange magic; and without it, the murky forest was left in an utterly abyssal blackness. The brambles went unseen, the Swoopers fluttered by unnoticed, and the journey was tough for Mario's group as they made their way blindly through the underbrush.

"So, like, tell me why we didn't wait until morning?" Goombella pouted as she stumbled and tripped her way through the gloom. With her tiny stature and lack of arms, the overgrown path wasn't easy for her to navigate; and there were times when she vanished entirely beneath the languid carpet of forest fog. "We set Rowf up at that super-cute little inn, and then we just high-tailed it into the woods, right there and then! What kind of sense does that make?"

Mario chose to ignore the questions, focusing instead on his own battles with the thorny twigs that kept snagging him by the overalls. He knew that Goombella was just being catty, after all. Everyone, no matter the world, knew how little time meant beneath the shadow of these trees.

Forever Forest was an immense wilderness that cut a swath across the central continent. Even back home, in Mario's own version of the Mushroom Kingdom, travelers knew to avoid the place whenever possible. It wasn't a very hostile region, aside from the odd Piranha Plant thicket or Fuzzy nest; but physical danger wasn't what kept the people away. Most folks were simply afraid of a place where time never moved.

It was midnight in Forever Forest, and had always been thus for the past thousand years or so. Nobody knew how the woods had come to be under such a spell, but Mario had heard every kind of myth about the place. In Boo society, it was believed that kind ghosts had enchanted the land in ancient times, in order to live peacefully within the darkness. Superstitious Toads, on the other hand, claimed that the woods had been cursed by the Star Spirits, simply because so many ghouls had begun to lurk within.

Whatever the history, the kingdom had essentially surrendered this land to the spirits. Several independent Boo colonies had carved out little portions of the northwestern forest to haunt, in a dreary region collectively called "Boo Woods." It was there that Lady Bow lived, a princess within the walls of her stately gothic mansion.

It was also there, as it happened, that Elvin Gadd had set up his supernatural research laboratory. (Luigi insisted that he'd recently moved shop further east, to a place called Evershade Valley; but according to Professor Frankly, no such thing had ever happened in this timeline). Either way, a trip to visit the old scientist meant a night of wandering in the dark, straight through the heart of ghost country.

As it turned out, there were no simple paths that led to E. Gadd's front door. The small party had been forced to abandon their truck, and its stubborn driver, at the nearest inn to the forest border. Now they were lost among the towering black trees, the ever-grasping undergrowth, and the pale ethereal mist that engulfed it all.

Bow herself was out in front, guiding the way as she floated effortlessly over the wild and tangled brush. Mario and Luigi followed after her, pausing often to help each other find safe passage through the thorns. Vivian came next, carefully tracing the brothers' path; and Goombella brought up the rear, trying her best to stay upright and alive.

Luigi was the one who truly knew where the professor lived, but he didn't trust his own sense of direction in the dark. He'd pointed out the general area on a tourist map, back at the inn; and Bow had offered to lead the group in that direction. Time would only tell if she was as familiar with the far reaches of the forest as she claimed to be.

"At least we've all managed to stay together," Mario mused, scanning for the shadows of obstacles against the soft light from below. The forest floor was dimly lit by clusters of pale blue bioluminescent mushrooms that grew amidst the underbrush; but their faint glow extended to only a few feet above the ground. Bow could see in the dark, being a ghost; but to the others, everything above waist-height was lost to the pitch blackness of a moonless midnight.

Up ahead, Luigi must've stumbled into a low-hanging branch, because he sputtered indignantly and tripped back into view covered in leaves. As Mario caught up to help his brother, he felt around in the shadows until his hands found the heavy limb that blocked their way. He lifted it up so that Luigi could pass; but then Mario noticed Vivian softly approaching, and he decided to hold it for her as well.

The siren smiled gratefully as she ducked beneath the limb, the movement causing strands of her pink hair to fall loosely down across her face. As she stood up and brushed her bangs hastily back into place, Mario caught sight of the Pretty Lucky badge that she'd pinned up within them, just above her left eye.

Mario smiled, remembering the matching trinket that was pinned to his hat - Vivian had elected to wear her badge like a hairclip, so he'd put his in a similar spot to humor her. Goombella had given them some sass when they'd turned up for the mission with matching accessories, but Mario hadn't let the teasing bother him. These badges meant something special – trust and a promise – and he was proud to share that bond with Vivian.

Mario was pulled from his thoughts by Luigi, who had doubled back to confront him. "We've been here before, bro," the younger twin said in a hush whisper, gesturing around at some random bits of background scenery. "You know how this forest has twists and turns, right? Well, I've spotted that same mushroom patch at least thrice."

Mario was skeptical, and he must've let it show, because Luigi spun him around to point at a lopsided mossy boulder, lingering half-visibly in a sunken glen beyond in a gap in the trees. The rock seemed to vibrate, before letting out a demented little giggle that made Mario shiver a bit. "How many laughing rocks do you think there are in these woods, Mario? Because there's either an epidemic, or we've passed that one six times."

"Luigi, dear, don't be insensitive," Bow called back, vanishing up ahead and rematerializing back within the group. Luigi gave a tiny yelp and scooted further away as she continued. "Possessing a rock is a… unique life choice, but you should never judge a spirit by what object they decide to inhabit. Someone is so much more than their body, you know."

As if suddenly recalling her place as guide, the Boo floated upwards to take a look around, her face falling into a scowl. "Anyway, I know right where we're going. But do agree, it's quite rude of Gadd to stray so far from the beaten path. We Boos made the trails and signs for a reason, you know."

Goombella trotted up to join the conversation, suspicious curiosity plain in her eyes. "I thought that the ghosts made the trails to, like, lure victims deeper into the woods? They think it's all safe, but it's totally a trap, yeah?"

Bow floated back down, looked this way and that, and then finally set off through the trees in a new direction. "Well, yes; but that's exactly my point. Visitors should keep to the trails, so that we always know where they are. Gadd has hidden himself away somewhere, instead; and that just isn't playing fair."

"B-but look on the bright side, everyone! At least the path isn't so narrow anymore," Vivian pointed out, gliding ahead and indicating the plants to either side. True enough, the twisted little path was beginning to widen out, the trees and shrubbery parting away into the darkness like the curtains on a stage. "This should make it much easier to find our way, right?"

She turned out to be right - as the roots and snags fell away, the little party was able to pick up the pace. For a few sweet minutes, they were able follow the trail through a calm and serene patch of woodland; their path lit by distant mushrooms that looked like stars, and their ears filled with the soft chirping of crickets hidden in the mist.

Before long, though, they found themselves standing at the edge of a foggy swamp – a wet and dreary pit that stretched far away beyond sight. The softly glowing fungi were few and far between, here; and the mucky ground gave no hint to where a safe path might be. Goombella took an experimental step forward, only to reel back when her foot sank into the mud with a squelch.

"This is a bit of a setback," Luigi said, a hand to his chin as he looked out across the marshes. "I'll bet that Mario and I could jump across, but platforming in the dark was never a big favorite of mine."

Lady Bow faded into view nearby, wearing a smile that hovered somewhere between sincere and sly. "I could always float out and find the safe spots, and then you could simply leap into my arms!" She turned to Vivian, who watched the Boo curiously. "You can swim through the shadows, can't you, dear? You can help me search for the islands from beneath!"

Mario didn't like the sound of that idea. Vivian had told him about her new fear of the shadowy sea below the world, and the scary presence that she had felt within it. He was about so suggest an alternative plan on the siren's behalf, but she put on a brave face and agreed before he had the chance. "If that's what's necessary to get everyone safely across, then I'll do it."

Without another word, she plunged into the darkness and out of sight. A few moments later, she emerged again several yards out in the swamp, waving to indicate that she'd found an island. Bow quickly flew out and found a safe spot of her own, so Mario knelt down to let Goombella climb onto his back. The Goomba girl looked skeptical, but eventually she sighed and hopped aboard.

Aiming for Vivian, Mario and his passenger took a flying leap across the darkness. The siren helped to steady them as they landed, and Mario turned back to watch his brother. Lady Bow encouragingly waved him on, but Luigi looked unsure about taking a jump toward the grinning ghost. In the end, trust seemed to win out. He swallowed his fear, leapt high into the air, sailed across the swamp in a perfect graceful arc…

…And landed with a wet splat, waist-deep in the pitch-black muck. As he wailed in frustration, Lady Bow burst out laughing, her twin hairbows shaking as she tumbled mirthfully through the air. Mario scowled, and nearly considered dropping Goombella when she started to snicker. He understood that Boos were pranksters by nature, but he'd expected Bow to be more of a friend than that.

At least she seemed to be apologizing now, and had floated back down to help pull Luigi out. The younger brother just glared at her, and kept trying to kick his own way to freedom. Mario was about to ask Vivian if they could island-hop over to help him, but he froze up when he noticed the pale white hand that had attached itself to Luigi's waist.

Mario squinted out across the darkness, thinking that maybe it was just a vine, or even a simple trick of the light; but no, reaching up from the foggy swamp was a dead, bony claw. Luigi seemed to notice the hand then, too; because he reached behind himself and gave it a short, sharp tug.

…In an instant, all hell broke loose. Three more white hands shot up from the mud, pulling Luigi down with a horrified yell. Goombella let out a shriek as she fell from Mario's back, and the hero spun around to find her tumbling towards a swirling cluster of skeletal parts that ripped and clawed at the edge of the island.

Instinctively, Mario dove in after her, catching the Goomba just before she slipped off the mossy platform. As he landed, he felt the cold chill of a bony claw scratch against his cheek, and he immediately spun himself in the opposite direction. Vivian was at their side in a flash, helping to pull them both upright.

Having risen to one knee, Mario looked across the swamp at his brother, who was thrashing madly against the sudden horde of indistinct skeletal shapes. Bow was right in the thick of it beside him, smacking the attackers with her fan as they tried to arise. "She's still a good friend when it counts," Mario thought, glad that the Boo had quit messing around, "but I've gotta get over there, too! My little bro needs me!"

That's when the arms grabbed him, yanking him back once more toward the abyss. As his leg was jerked out from beneath him, he heard Vivian gasp in sudden terror. Mario spun onto his back as he slid toward the darkness, kicking at the mud-covered figure that was clawing its way up his leg. As he crossed the edge of the platform, bright yellow eyes erupted like fire within the mucky shape; and a jagged black maw rattled open with a hollow roar.

He kicked himself free just as a searing fireball consumed the monster, and sent it plunging back beneath the swamp with an agonized rattling shriek. He turned to find Vivian at his side once again, brandishing her flaming fist like a torch. Mario leapt back onto the little island, and stood beside her as the sludge churned and swirled around them. Suddenly, the stench of death had become almost staggering.

There wasn't much time for any of them to catch their breath, as the gaunt figures soon began clawing their way up onto the land. They kept a healthy distance from Vivian's fire, but they steadily approached all the same. As they straightened up, the mud began to slough off of them in putrid globs, revealing their bony shells and mangled reptilian skulls.

"Dry Bones," Mario spat, the name spilling out like a curse. "I guess it figures – the first Koopas we meet on this adventure, and it has to be the mindless, dead kind." One of the skeletal reptiles lunged forward with a strangled cry, but Mario shattered it with a quick hop and kicked the pieces as far as he could back into the swamp.

Goombella was waddling back and forth, trying to dodge the attackers as they came. "I totally know what this is," she said, trying to hide behind Mario's legs, "but I didn't think it was really true. See, there's this rumor that the Empress dumped all the Koopas she killed here in mass graves. Y'know, after the whole genocide thing."

That sounded plausible, and Mario wanted to pity these Koopas; but they were hardly innocent victims anymore. These things were wights – soulless husks with no morality or capacity for reason. Mario, Goombella, and Vivian stood surrounded by a sea of yellow fire-eyes that saw them as nothing more than prey.

…And poor Luigi was still out there, battling the horde without even a platform to stand on! "We have to get over to Luigi and Bow," Mario urged, turning to look at Vivian, who had shifted herself to stand against him back-to-back. "Take us through the shadows, Viv! The five of us need to all stick together!"

Vivian glanced at the ground, and then scanned the shrinking circle of encroaching skeletal hunger. She nodded in quick decision, hugging Mario and Goombella tightly as they all vanished beneath the island together.

Down here in the empty abyss, they could see every single Dry Bones that lay submerged beneath the sludge. There were hundreds of them – so many thousands of bones had been packed beneath the swamp, that the view of the world from beneath was just a rotten white smear. Many of them were shifting, rattling, trying to pull themselves back together through the clustered bodies of their fellows…

And this was only one of the mass graves, if Goombella's rumor was true. "Did Empress Toadstool really do all this? Why would she go so far, to kill so many members of a species like this?" In the cold silence of the shadowy void, he could sense that Vivian was asking herself the same thing.

A moment later, they shot back up into reality, landing on another island further across the swamp. Luigi was nearby, having apparently clawed his way nearly to safety with Bow's help. Mario ran forward to grab his brother's flailing hand, as Vivian's fireball took out a Dry Bones that tried to swipe at him from the side.

Soon, they were all together on the same island; but that only meant that the skeletal monsters had a more focused target. They had to keep moving, and fast, or this adventure was going to have a very sudden and nasty ending.

The group took to their island-hopping strategy again, leaping from rock to rock through the darkness; only this time, an army of the dead was nipping at their heels. Bow and Vivian would fly or swim to a safe spot, and the brothers would leap across the thrashing sea of screaming bones in a mad dash for safety.

From one island to the next; from Vivian's side to Bow's and back again. Mario and Luigi crisscrossed back and forth, each taking their own separate path. Goombella hopped between the brothers whenever they happened to meet, since neither was able to carry her for very long. Occasionally, Mario would arrive on an island to find a shrieking skeleton waiting there to greet him; so he would either land on them, or bash their skulls in with a swift punch before continuing on his way.

They'd hoped to reach the other side of the swamp, but eventually they just ran out of islands. After a few minutes of this nightmarish chase, the five heroes once again found themselves sharing the same rock. Neither Bow nor Vivian could locate any more platforms within safe jumping distance, so this really was the end of the line. "I guess we'll just have to fight our way back the way we came."

…Looking out into the blackness, Mario already knew that it wasn't going to be that easy. The crickets from earlier had been drowned out by a cacophony of rattling bones, and the pale glowing mushrooms had been outshone by a thousand mindlessly hungry yellow eyes.

They were trapped – outnumbered in the darkness with nowhere to run. Soon the undead beasts would wash over the little island like a jabbering wave, and there'd be nothing of the heroes left behind. "Not without a fight, they won't," Mario thought, steeling himself for the battle to come. "We'll show these boneheads a real bad time, before everything's said and done."

A minute later, the first of the Dry Bones made landfall. It lunged at Luigi, who leapt backwards and kicked the monster apart with his flailing legs. The next went for Goombella, but Vivian caught it in the air with a fireball. The next few all came together; and the party went in to retaliate as one. After that, they all came as a wave; and the world became a senseless blur of fire, bone, and fear.

Suddenly, everything went blindingly white; and the world vanished with all the subtlety of a Bob-omb's blast. For just one awful instant, Mario thought that he was in the Overthere – that his game was over at last. But then he heard the frantic jabbering of the monsters; and behind them, from somewhere quite nearby, the low and thundering roar of some gigantic unseen machine.

The Dry Bones shrieked and fell over themselves, falling to pieces as they tried desperately to escape from this new onslaught of light. The horde was in a senseless panic, and some had even begun to burn, or crack, or flake into dust as they tried to flee. Mario leapt skyward in an effort to escape the stampede, bouncing off a few skulls as the monsters spilled off the little island in droves, clattering apart and vanishing again beneath the muck.

As the battlefield cleared, Mario tried to make some sense of this new twist. The light was coming from every direction, and it wasn't easy to see past the glare; but as his vision adjusted, he began to spot the tall mechanical pillars that seemed to have risen telescopically from out of the swamp. "They must have made the machinery noises I heard. Mama Mia, what are these things?"

Perched atop each tower was a tremendous, beak-like turret; an ominous thing which swiveled this way and that on great steel hinges, thrumming with electric power as it cast a harsh gaze across the marshland. The "jaws" of these watchful beasts were filled with bright bulbs and refracting lenses – calculated light arrays that were focused into violent beams by the beak's own funneling shape. This was a type of machine that Mario had never seen before, but he recognized the design in an instant.

These floodlights – or perhaps they were Fluddlights – could only have been designed by one man. The party had come into this forest in search of Professor E. Gadd; but it seemed that the old man had found them, instead.

As Mario turned to check on his friends - who were mercifully unhurt, if a bit shaken - the bright beams dimmed slightly before spiraling in to focus on the little group like a titanic web of looming searchlights. High above, from somewhere inside one of the gaping mechanical mouths, a loudspeaker stuttered into life.

"Oho! There you young'uns are," a voice crackled down from on high, the words alive with welcoming cheer. "What're you all doing playing in the backyard, for? I was starting to think you'd gotten yourselves into trouble! Ah, well; no matter – I'll raise a path to get you out of this bog."

With that, the hydraulic thrum kicked up again; and the five heroes watched as a series of grimy metal platforms began to shudder their way up out of the mud. A few were littered with stray skeletal bits, but those soon flew back into the sludge as the platforms whirred, spun, and locked themselves together into a sleek runway bridge that led out across the mire.

"Step lively now," the voice urged once more, tiny guiding lights flickering to life in rows along the new bridge. "The hour is late, and there's plenty for us to talk about."

Mario glanced at his brother, who returned his gaze with a look of reluctant resolve. The girls soon drifted up to join them; and together, with a shared sigh, they all set off once more into the unknown.


Luigi shivered pitifully as he tugged the thin fleece blanket tighter around his shoulders. He'd spent half the night chilled, wet, and muddy; and he'd nearly been ripped apart by a hungry undead swarm. Now, as he sat with his brother in E. Gadd's living space, he could practically feel the stress cold setting in.

Mario sat next to him on the little sofa, busying himself by thumbing through screenshots taken from the professor's security footage. Half-curiously, Luigi glanced over his shoulder to take a look at what was happening in the images, but couldn't make out much more than a few blurry shapes. "We already know who the thief is, kind of. The big mystery is what they took, and why."

Part of him wanted to get on with the reveal, but a bigger part was content to snuggle up in the blanket and try to keep warm for just a little bit longer. They'd only been inside for a short while; and after a night in the dark and slimy forest, the snug warmth was an experience he wanted to savor.

They'd arrived about an hour earlier, shambling in from the foggy woods like moths drawn to the lantern in E. Gadd's window. The old man had helpfully guided them through the last leg of their journey, but somehow they'd still ended up waiting for nearly fifteen minutes on the porch before the little scientist had shown up to let them inside.

To the untrained eye, the professor seemed to live in a sorry little garden shed at the base of a towering hill. In truth, the shed and the hill alike were only the surface layer of the old man's labyrinthine laboratory. Elvin Gadd had spent years boring tunnels beneath the forest; ratways and burrows that led to test chambers, libraries, greenhouses, and storage rooms - plus one very spooky art gallery that Luigi knew quite well.

"I was positively giddy when I heard you were coming," the professor had said as he'd led the group ever downward through the tunnel maze. After a short pause, he had turned back to scrutinize the group with a soft "tsk" and a shake of his spotted old head. "Hmm. Not quite was I was expecting, though. Instead of seasoned vets, I've been sent a soggy gaggle of plumbers and ghosts! Is this ol' Frankly's idea of a housewarming gift? He always was an odd feller, that Goomba… "

"That's ex-plumber to you," Luigi had wanted to say, intending to correct the little man on his all-too-common error. (After all, the Mario Bros. hadn't plumbed a drain in years). Instead of saying that, however, he'd just sneezed and watched a bit of caked swamp mud spill out of his pants.

Luigi had kept his eye on Bow for the entire trip down. It wasn't because she frightened him, although he would've felt perfectly justified if she did. (Her little swampy prank had nearly gotten them all killed by zombies, after all). No, he was trying to gauge her reaction to the professor. Hadn't she signed up for this mission in order to meet him?

"Oh, I'm not going to start any drama," she'd confessed earlier, laughing the idea off with a wave of her fan. "I simply want to get the measure of the man; learn how he lives and thinks, you see. After all, this version of Gadd isn't the one who's caused my Boos so much trouble back home…"

Whatever she was learning, it wasn't showing on her face. Bow had stayed silent and passive the entire trip down, listening to the professor's quips and snide remarks with an absentminded smile. Once, she'd caught Luigi watching and gave a subtle knowing wink. He remembered shivering then, and only half from the cold.

That had all been a while ago, and now they'd gotten themselves a bit more settled in. Luigi had shed his muddy overalls and snuggled up with a blanket, while Vivian and Goombella had gone off to take showers. Once they got back, and once the professor returned from his lab, it would be time for answers at last.

Mario sighed, letting the security tablet fall to the cushion. He'd been looking at the surveillance images since they'd arrived, but Luigi guessed that it hadn't amounted to much. "I was hoping to get a good look at that hooded guy, but no such luck. Somehow, in every shot, he's always standing in the shadows…"

A few minutes later, Goombella got back from her shower, smelling as minty-fresh as a mushroom ever could. Vivian came in hesitantly a little while later, her pink hair still wrapped up in a fluffy white towel. Luigi liked to think that he was pretty perceptive, and he certainly didn't miss the shy glances that the siren was giving to Mario as she sat down, one eye hidden behind the towel's hanging fringe.

It took another ten minutes for Gadd to arrive; but when he did, he was eager to guide the group further into the bowels of his facility. Along the way, he explained that the thieves had only stolen one thing – a failed invention that had never left the prototype stage. He hadn't touched the thing in years, but it was too important to truly throw away.

"I kept it stashed away in one of my storage facilities," the professor was saying, shuffling down the corridor as the party travelled ever deeper beneath the surface. "Out of sight, out of mind, eh? At least, that's what I thought before it was stolen. Anyway, it's just at the end of this hallway here…"

Bow rejoined the group at some point during the walk, having gone off to "explore" by herself. As she phased through the tunnel wall and fell in line with the others, Luigi couldn't help but be cautiously curious about her findings. "So, uh, see anything interesting?" he asked, and to his surprise the ghost actually looked a little bit guilty.

"…Perhaps I've been a bit too harsh on the old man. In fact, it seems that Gadd is quite enamored of my counterpart in this world." She glanced this way and that, before floating nearer to continue in a gossipy whisper. "Get this – he has a portrait of her, hanging right above his fireplace! The detail is simply impeccable; I felt like I was looking into a mirror!"

Briefly, Luigi considered telling her what E. Gadd's "portraits" meant; but he quickly thought better of it. If she'd been pacified by the discovery of the painting, then let it stay that way. "Besides, if I egged her on with hurtful info, then I'd be no better than she is."

At the end of the hallway, a simple sliding door led into the storage facility. Luigi had been expecting a cramped little closet, with some boxes and maybe a pile of odd gadgets in the corner. Instead, he found himself walking into a gargantuan hall that could easily pass for an aircraft hangar. Beside him, he heard Mario utter a quiet "Mama Mia," as Vivian tried to stifle a gasp.

The sliding door entered onto an iron mesh balcony, hanging by chains above a massive concrete bowl the size of a small arena. The sides of the bowl were sheer and smooth, sloping from the natural cave ceiling, down to a wide floor level cluttered with inactive power generators and dormant devices meant for purposes unknown. Many of the machines had large, grid-like panels that reminded Luigi of solar cells; but such a thing made no sense for an underground lab in a sunless world.

Up above, the mesh balcony encircled the bowl in a giant loop, with five or six offshoot catwalks extending toward the center like spokes on a bicycle wheel. There in the middle, suspended high above the strange machines on the floor, the spokes made a second ring around the largest and most imposing thing in the entire lab.

It was an immense sphere of crystal-clear glass, as wide as a building, which rested on a tangled nest of silver-blue wires and cables. These silvery wires snaked across the entire bowl like creeping vines, feeding themselves into every generator and machine. Strangest of all, every "solar cell" in the lab had been situated to face directly towards this monstrous thing.

…But it was easy to see that something had gone wrong in this place. To start with, one side of the gigantic sphere had been utterly shattered; a jagged and gaping hole blasted into the side with tiny cracks webbing out across the orb in every direction. The floor was haphazardly coated in glass shards; and a large patch of the machines had been toppled, as if their silver wires had been yanked harshly up and away.

Thieves had been here; but it looked like a hurricane had, instead. "What in the world was in that sphere, that was worth so much effort to steal?" Luigi asked himself, hoping that the professor would soon explain.

The inventor led them down from the balcony via an iron stairway that swayed and shook with every step, and gathered them around a rusty old table on the lower floor. He hobbled over to a nearby cabinet, and soon returned with a tube of paper that turned out to be blueprints. The old man never made a big spectacle of his inventions, often preferring to let the creations speak for themselves. This time, however, there was no choice but to delve into the plans.

"Okay, let's cut to the chase," Goombella said, breaking the tense silence. "Like, what's the deal with the smashed-up party ball? What was the prize inside?"

Sighing softly, E. Gadd unrolled the tube of blueprints onto the table. Luigi leaned in to look at the top sheet, which was either a sketch of the machine, or a child's drawing of an explosion. In the picture, silver wires were flowing into the back of a great golden starburst – a brilliant spiky thing that reminded Luigi of a Christmas tree star, but taken way too far.

"What we have here," the inventor began, pausing to make sure that everyone got a look at the drawing, "is an old, scrapped invention of mine that I made twenty years ago, shortly after the world went dark."

"It looks so bright and shiny," Vivian noted, idly tracing the drawing's spiky outline with her finger. "If you made it after the sky went dark, then is it supposed to be, um, some kind of Star? An artificial one, that is?"

That made a lot of sense, actually. Luigi was about to say so himself, when the professor answered. "That's pretty close, girlie; but not quite! No, this machine isn't an artificial Star - but that's a neat idea! I should've thought of that back then, instead..."

Mumbling to himself, Gadd flipped through a few pages of equations and formulas that Luigi barely had time to read, let alone try to understand. Finally, the old man settled on a page with a few more drawings and diagrams. One of them showed the spiky machine encased in a glass sphere, giving off energy. Another showed some kind of light beam falling upon a poorly-drawn forest. Parts of the forest picture had been erased; but to Luigi, it almost looked like the sketched trees were being engulfed by the light.

"When the stars died, this world lost its primary power source," the professor continued, passing the drawings around. "The stars in the sky used to grant wishes; and granted wishes made Power Stars, which fell to the planet's surface to be used by us for fuel." It was true, Luigi knew. Shooting Star Summit was one such place where the stars fell, back home; and he knew that Toads often went out to collect the fallen stars for local distribution.

"But that system broke down, you see. No stars means no fuel, which means a one-way backslide into the Dark Ages!" As he spoke, Gadd flipped through pages and dramatically pointed at various bits of scribble. "In my hubris, I believed that I could generate all of the missing power by myself. I thought that I could play Star Spirit, and save the world."

"So, how did it work?" Mario asked, picking up a sheet and squinting at it sideways. "Something tells me this thing is more than just a generator."

E. Gadd nodded, snatching the sheet back and returning it to the pile. "Have you ever heard the phrase, 'we are all stardust?' Well, son, that's the big idea behind my invention. You see, I devised a way to convert physical matter into pure Star power!"

Before the startled group could get a word in edgewise, the old man had launched into a practiced spiel. "Stars are made of hydrogen, helium, and magic – three of the most basic elements in our universe. The machine I built could break down mundane matter into these elements, mix 'em together, and create Star power! Some of that power would then be fed back into the machine, enhancing the mixture and creating even better, purer star stuff!" The scientist paused and looked up with a smug little smile. "Not to toot my own horn, but it's total genius!"

With that, he flipped to the very last page, finally revealing the name of the thing in big, blocky lettering. "I called it the Stellar Transmutation/Amplification Reactor, or S.T.A.R., for short. Pretty catchy, eh kids?"

Nobody seemed to know quite what to say. Eventually, Luigi asked what he guessed everybody was thinking. "Why did you give it up, then? If you wanted to change the world, then what happened?"

"I totally know why," Goombella answered, hopping up and down on her stool. "See, the professor figured out how, like, utterly devastating the reactor would be to the environment," She nodded her head at the tree drawing, which was sticking out from the pile. "Turning the land into stardust sounds cool, but it's super destructive. Imagine how much deforestation would happen after only a few years! The project was obviously stopped because it was killing the planet."

E. Gadd stared at her for a second, but then turned away with a pitying shake of his head. "Oh no, that isn't it at all. I'm a scientist – progress is my only concern, not a silly little thing like the environment!"

He began to roll the blueprints back up, pausing to point at a few equations on a particular sheet. "I abandoned the reactor because it wasn't efficient! It takes so much power to run, that even turning it on would take, say, a whole pile of Power Stars!"

Goombella just gave him a deadpan look. "So, wait. You built a thing to make Star power, because the stars are gone. But in order to turn it on, you need Star power? Uh, what?"

"Yes, that's right. Hence the project's failure," the professor snarked back, putting the blueprints back on the shelf. "Unless you know somebody with a secret stash of Stars around here, this big machine is never getting turned on."

As he came back to the table and sat down, a fretful look crossed his face. "But somebody out there decided to steal it, so I fear that someone has succeeded where I failed. Imagine the horror – this thief might activate the reactor, get it to work, and take all the credit for my invention!" He put his head in his hands, looking utterly despondent. "Oh, I can't think of a worse outcome than that!"

Luigi could, though. If the Empress now had an "infinite power" machine, then how was she planning to use it? What could require so much energy that it meant turning the world into stardust? "We need to rescue Peach, and high-tail it out of here. This is getting way too intense for me."

Mario, by what was probably a much more valiant thought process, had evidently come to the same conclusion. "That settles it; we have to get the S.T.A.R. back, before the Empress figures out how to use it. If we can't, then there's no way it ends well for this world."

Goombella eagerly nodded, cheering something chipper about adventure and glory. Vivian softly nodded, too, as she scooted slightly closer to Mario's side. Bow, who had been silent throughout the meeting, finally drifted down and gave her agreement as well. Luigi nodded last, and just like that the pact was sealed.

They were all stardust, just basic human elements and a bit of magic; but Luigi knew that he, his brother, and all their friends would fight 'til the end of the world before they let themselves be broken.


Eh, now might be a good time to skim Chapter 7 again. There are a few bits that might seem more interesting now. :P

I'm excited for the Nintendo Switch, how about you? It's seems like a really neat idea. Plus, portable Skyrim. What a time to be alive.

As always, have a great day! Tell me what you think!

Review Corner –

Jakeroo123 – The storm has passed, but I hope you're still doing alright!

But yeah, Gadd has never met the Bros. before, in case it wasn't evident from this chapter. As for Toadsworth, I guess I never really thought about it before. Maybe he's bumming around the Empress' palace somewhere, wondering how everything went so wrong.

As for Kamek… Well, you'll see. :P

Lewot – Yeah, I'll admit to jumping a few hoops here and there, when it comes to making my headcanons fit. It comes with the territory of being both a Mario fan and a lore geek, I guess.

Interesting theories, as always. You were right about it being a new invention, too!

Skeletons popped out!

-Sight