Longest chapter in this story so far! There's also a small Easter Egg hidden in this chapter as well!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 10: Dusky Doomed Dale
Upon exiting the cupcake house, the Famous Combo searched for the next course. They eventually found an entrance to some sort of other village that was right behind the cupcake house, but it seemed much darker than the Bob-omb Village they were currently standing on; why would that other village be so dark?
Mario stepped closer towards the entrance. But for some reason, he felt an ominous presence coming from the other side; something was calling for him, and that only he must go after.
"What's this feeling I'm having? It feels so…familiar. Maybe I should go to the next course by myself…" Mario spoke in his thoughts.
Meanwhile, Yoshi was getting confused at why Mario was standing still on the entrance. He decides to ask him:
"Mario, what are you doing?"
The red plumber turns to his friend and replies coyly:
"Yoshi, I think you should stay here; there's something there that I must deal by myself."
Yoshi's eyes widened after the response.
"O-OK…" he replied.
With that taken care of, Mario steps towards the entrance.
This next course was Dusky Doomed Dale, a very dark and eerie village that was doomed with curses because of a bad wizard who plans to destroy the village. However, he was hiding somewhere, so he was hard to track. For some reason, Toads are the villagers of this cursed town.
Mario showed up next to the mountains located before the village. He wastes no time and checks the mission list:
Star 1: Rival a Reflection
Mario had a feeling that he knew what was going to happen; the same thing that happened twice when he ventured into Big Boo's Haunt's secret room. Would that same thing happen again? Only finding the right spot will tell.
He begins to climb the mountain and follow its path, which it leads to a mine entrance. There was a Toad next to the entrance, and upon seeing Mario, he spoke with an unusual grin:
"Hey, adventurer, the mine is totally safe. Go on ahead and take a deep look into the mirror. Nothing dangerous is gonna happen. You'll love it!" he then does a small sinister chuckle at the end of the phrase.
Mario knew there was something suspicious with that Toad; that small chuckle he did sounded so familiar to him. He decides to head into the mine anyways.
The interior of the mine was so dark and deep. Mario went down the path and indeed there was a mirror down there.
"I bet something not good is gonna happen… And I think I know what that is." Mario pondered. "Well, time for me to look into the mirror since I need that Star."
He cautiously approaches the mirror and looks at it. Suddenly, his reflection shifted to Luigi!
"Luigi?! What the?!" Mario noticed a Big Dark Boo behind him by the mirror's reflection.
The Dark Boo does the same cackle King Boo did in Super Mario 64 DS and spoke:
"Eee hee hee hee hee! You fell into my trap! We Dark Boos are never shy as our distant cousins! We are the spookiest of all the spirits! The purple Goomba brother had locked up the wimpy green mustache man and gave the key to my master. And now I'll do the same to you just to make them pleased! Since I'm consistent of many Dark Boos and we're ghosts, I can split myself into many Dark Boos and turn invisible in the mirror's reflection. You'll have to face against my clones before you defeat me. But you'll die of fright before this even happens! And then you'll be one of our cousins!"
The Big Dark Boo disappears and 5 Dark Boos showed up only in the mirror's reflection. Mario moved around the area while keeping track of the Dark Boos' reflection and once he was close enough to them, he does a ground pound to defeat them.
After taking care of the 5 Dark Boos, a new type of Boo showed up: Explosive Boos. These Boos were red and could self-destruct themselves by exploding. Mario didn't even bother trying to attack them; he just waited until these Boos explode themselves.
Another type of Boo that showed up were Electro Boos; yellow Boos that can electrocute Mario if he touches them. He had to wait for the right moment to defeat them.
Finally, the Big Dark Boo showed up. Mario does the first attack by ground pounding him from the reflection of the mirror. After the first strike, the Big Dark Boo teleports and he showed up outside of the mirror this time, making it easier for Mario to attack him. The Big Dark Boo teleports inside the mirror's reflection again and with one more hit, Mario defeated the Dark Boo.
"Augh! I can't believe I lost…" the Dark Boo curses in defeat. "But too bad! Eee hee hee! We are ghosts! We never die! And I bet you'll never get my master's key to the green mustache man's room!"
"There is no way this will happen… I will find your master and I will save my brother!" Mario replied bitterly.
"Hmm, we'll see about that… See you again! Eee hee hee!" the Dark Boo cackled before vanishing into a Power Star.
Mario looked back at the mirror, and noticed that his own reflection was back. He stepped closer to the mirror and placed his hand on the cold glass and felt another sign; a sign that he has never felt before. He shut his eyes and bowed his head. He thought that if Luigi's reflection showed up during this mirror battle, that means he's indeed one step closer of freeing his dearest brother. He just had to find that Dark Boo's 'master' somewhere around this course, since he's the one who has the key.
Soon, he snapped out of his inner thoughts and turned around to get the Star.
Star 2: Craft a Star
This Star has to be made by a blacksmith Toad by giving him the exact materials he needs. Mario went into the village to first search for the Blacksmith so that he could give him the materials he needed. Once he found the Blacksmith, he spoke:
"Hi there! I am the local Blacksmith! I have absolved a special schooling and I am one of the rare Blacksmiths that can craft Power Stars. If you want me to craft one for you, just bring me one piece of gold, one diamond crystal and a blooming Power Flower."
Having the exact materials needed, Mario set off to find them. He first found the piece of gold bar atop the church next to where the Blacksmith was. Next, he went to the mountains and went inside the same mine he entered in the first mission to find a diamond crystal next to the mirror arena.
For the Power Flower, Mario exited the mines and followed the upper path of the mountains, where there were boulders rolling downhills. He found a Toad nearby and decides to ask him about the Power Flower.
"Oh, yes! This path leads to the only place in the Mushroom Kingdom that is capable of growing the Power Flower and we store them into blocks." The Toad explained.
Mario was astonished at that; he never knew that Power Flowers bloomed in this dark and eerie area. The Toad continued:
"But because of the curse that the wizard cast on us, we have to deal with wild monkeys around here, so we advise tourists not to go up here. If you choose to go up there anyway, don't bother with the monkeys. They are way too agile to be caught and even if you did, you wouldn't gain anything from it."
Mario remembered the bad memories he had with the monkey in Tall, Tall Mountain; it would always steal his cap when he was not looking, and every time he tried to catch the monkey, it would run away very quickly. He just hoped that this monkey wouldn't bother him.
He climbed to the top of the mountains, ignoring the monkey on the way and dodging the rolling boulders. Once at the top, he saw the Power Flower on the ground. Now he had all of the materials he needed.
Without wasting time, Mario went back to the Blacksmith and showed him the materials.
"I see you've collected all the necessary pieces. Now, allow me to craft a Star for you." The Toad said.
Turning around to his stove, he ignites it and carefully placed the gold bar, the Power Flower and the diamond crystal respectively into the fire. After some minutes of crafting, the Power Star was all ready to be collected.
Star 3: The Haunted Church
The church of the village was somehow haunted by ghosts. Unknown to Mario, this was actually a 8 red coin mission. As the mission suggests, he made his way to the entrance of the church, where a Toad was standing by.
"The church is currently being haunted by ghosts, because that damned wizard cursed us." The Toad said. "I recommend you don't enter it. If you want to talk to god anyway, you can go to the top of the church though. If you want to help the church out or beg for forgiveness, you can also leave gold, coins or other valuable belongings at the top of the church's tower."
"Oh… So that's why I found a gold bar at the top of the church… Oops." Mario said in his thoughts.
He goes inside the opening on the church and prepared for what he'll encounter.
Just after entering it he already heard Boo laughs. The church seriously doesn't feel like a safe place anymore. Mario spotted a Boo floating nearby right above his head. He tries to jump to it, but it was too high to reach.
"How am I going to reach the higher Boos?" he questioned to himself.
Just then, he noticed a green block with a green 'L' printed on it at his left.
"So the transformation caps are back? Thank god!" Mario exclaimed as he goes under the block and breaks it, and a green cap came out of it.
Mario picks up the cap, removed his regular one on his head and puts the green cap on. Eventually, his whole body glowed into rainbow lights and his silhouette shifted to Luigi's. Once the rainbow lights faded, Mario was now Luigi.
"Many years passed and my brother is still the best jumper around!" *Mario beamed. As with Yoshi, Mario still kept his original voice even when transformed.
He uses Luigi's amazing jumping ability to reach the Boo and immediately ground pounds it, revealing the first red coin.
"Oh, so this is a red coin mission. Very different than the others for sure." *Mario remarked.
He continues forward and defeats another Boo with the second red coin. He jumps up a platform and finds the other Boo with the third red coin. He found three more Boos with the red coins at the ceiling part.
Only two more remained, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then, *Mario stared at the wall behind the priest's balcony.
"I'm having a feeling that this is a fake wall…" he pondered. He looked at his left and found a question mark block. "Yes! I should use my brother's vanish ability to pass through this wall!"
He goes to the block and hits it, and a Power Flower came out. He grabs it and eventually, his whole body became transparent just like with the Vanish Cap ability. With that, *Mario ran towards the wall and goes through it as expected.
On the other side was a hidden room with couches, a round table and an organ, where a giant Boo was standing in front of it. The room was filled with Boos, hinting that this was the Boos from the outside's source.
"My Bro would seriously not like this…" *Mario thought.
He goes near each Boo to see the ones hiding the two last coins and found that the ones were on the far left and far right. Once the two last coins were collected, a Power Star showed up at the middle of the table.
Star 4: Free the Wizard
When Mario arrived back at the town, he noticed that some Toads were gathered around a lonely Toad that was tied on top of a wooden platform with Bob-ombs at the bottom. Mario wondered what was going on and approached the group. He heard them speaking:
"Ooh, I can't watch…"
"But it has to be done, mate. This is the only way we can find peace again."
"None of us really wants to hurt the wizard, but we can't deal with all those catastrophes happening lately…"
"We'll finally be free of all those curses!"
He decides to speak with the Toad that was tied with ropes on his arms and legs atop the platform and he spoke:
"Hey you! You look like a nice, reasonable person… These people think I'm a bad wizard that wants to destroy this village… But I'm not! I might be a wizard, but all these Boos, the gold that went missing and the angry monkeys are not my fault. They even think I was responsible for that meteor that crashed into the Mushroom Kingdom earlier! I'm actually a good person!"
"Are you saying that you have a request to me?" Mario guessed.
"Yes. Can you get me my wand? It should be laying in my house on a cupboard. I just need it to get out of here! I'll do some magic for you in return! And also help you track down the real wizard!"
"Umm, sure. I'll get the wand for you."
As Mario was walking away from the Toads, he thought for a second: why would that Toad have a wand? He seemed pretty suspicious just like the first Toad he encountered at the mine entrance. But he had no other choice; if he was going to save the village from destruction, he'll have to accept that Toad's request.
So he went into that Toad's house and finds the wand over a cupboard. He grabs it and went back outside. He approaches the tied Toad and offers the wand to him, saying:
"Here's your wand."
"HEHEHEHEH!" but suddenly, the Toad laughed in a very familiar voice!
"That voice… KAMEK?!" Mario gasped.
"You actually fell for it! Now that I have my wand back, I can finally take over this village!"
Then, the Toad morphed into Kamek, who flies away with his broom. He stops for a second and shouted from afar:
"With the power of the Star my power is unlimited! You will pay for what you have done to my Dark Boos in the mine!"
Mario's eyes suddenly widened after those last words Kamek said to him. "Wait… You don't mean…!"
"That's right, Mario!" Kamek said as he pulls out a golden key from his robe. The key had Luigi's cap and symbol on its handle just like Mario's key had. "I am the one guarding the key to your brother's room!" he places the key back into his robe and remained silent for a bit before finally completing: "I'll come again and get that Star back! I can sense a very old dark magic in this key… So this key might give me enough power to take over this village!" after saying that, he flees the scene.
"Dark magic…? What dark magic? I don't remember Yoshi saying to me that there was some odd magic in my key before he freed me. Then why would Luigi's key possess some kind of magic?" Mario pondered in confusion, but then he gasps in shock. "Unless…!"
He remembers about an event that happened a long time ago, during the era of the Chaos Heart. Both Prognosticus said that Luigi was the only one able to serve as a vessel for the Chaos Heart. When that adventure ended, Mario thought it was all over, but he was far from wrong; for some reason, this dark magic still somehow flows into Luigi's veins, but it was sleeping, which is the reason of why it never had its effect again. If this is true, than Kamek's magic would be devastating! He HAD to stop Kamek at once!
Mario quickly grabs the Star Kamek left behind, unaware of three people coming after him…
Star 5: Escape the Prison
As soon as Mario grabbed the Star, three pink Bob-omb guards carrying spears came to him and said to him:
"Stop right there! You are arrested for the following crimes: 1. Stealing gold that was meant to be offered to the gods. 2. Freeing the wizard that was imprisoned and with that, putting our village into huge danger. Your punishment is a lifelong prison sentence."
The scene goes black and shifted to the inside of the village's prison, where Mario was locked in a cell and a Bob-omb guard was guarding it.
"Great, they all think it was my fault! Now I'll never be able to free my brother and save Peach!" Mario whimpered. Everything seemed hopeless for him, until a voice called for him from behind:
"Hey! You there!" it came from a Monty Mole.
Mario turns around and approaches the Monty Mole, who gets shocked at seeing Mario and says:
"Yo! Aren't you the legendary Mario? What did you do to end up in a prison like this?"
"It's a long story… But what are you doing here?" Mario asked.
"What am I doing here? Well the food is free, the drinks are free, I get to sleep indoors… Oh yeah and you can get out of here at any time, if you are a good digger."
"So…that means you only come here just for fun?"
"Yeah… But at least I can get you out of here. You wouldn't fit into a molehole, but luckily for you, we've already dug a hole into the wall behind that box for that wizard that got imprisoned here earlier."
"So they did imprisoned the wizard here… That's the reason for my second accusation!" Mario said in his thoughts. "Well, thanks for the help."
"No problem! Anything for the legendary Mario himself!" the Monty Mole replied.
Mario punches the box to reveal the hole and goes inside. He follows the tunnel, which it ended with a hole underneath it. The next part of the area involved stealth, since there were boxes and a guard walking by. Mario snuck behind the boxes until he saw an open spot for him to run past the guard without being seen.
The path up ahead was being guarded by two guards, so Mario had to take the steps on the left. He sneaks behind the barrel to avoid another guard. He jumps out of the high platform he was standing and finds another hole on the ground.
After emerging out of the short tunnel, Mario had another guard to avoid before finally getting out. The exit was at the far right, so he waited for the guard to move to the left and then he sprints towards the light.
As a reward for escaping the prison, a Star was standing right at the outside. But there was no time to rest; he still got one more important work to do. And that is…
Star 6: Save the Village
…defeat Kamek and save the village. For Mario's luck, shortly after he escaped the prison, Kamek had returned to the village and started to cause chaos by burning everyone's houses.
"HEHEHEHEHEHEH! You fools are all DOOMED!" Kamek cackled.
"Not if I tried to stop you, Kamek!" Mario shouted from the roof of a house.
"Mario?! I thought they arrested you!" Kamek yelled.
"They did, but I managed to escape. And now I'm here to defeat you and most of all: save my brother!"
"Oh yeah? Let's see if you can catch me!"
"Oh that will be easy!"
Kamek charges after Mario, preparing to attack him with his magic. But before he was able to, Mario did his long jump at him and managed to knock Kamek on the floor, who was screaming in defeat.
"OW! That hurts! How could I lose even with the dark magic the key had?!" Kamek lamented.
"You've been so annoying to me over the years, Kamek. But even that, I always found a way to beat you. You know that I never give up, no matter what. Now give me that key." Mario said in a cold tone.
"Fine… You win this time. Take this stupid key and leave! But remember that I'll get you next time!"
After those words, Kamek disappears and the key to Luigi's door appeared.
Filled with happiness, Mario grabs the key and leaves as the village returns to normal.
"What an adventure this course had! I kinda of had fun, actually. But now, to save my brother!" Mario exclaimed.
Once he was back at Bob-omb Village, he found Yoshi standing there. He had been waiting for Mario for hours, so he was glad that he showed up.
"Finally you're back, Mario! What took you so long?" he asked.
"My, it was a long adventure back there…" Mario said, wiping the sweat out of his forehead with his long red sleeve. "But it was worth it, because look what I got!" he showed Yoshi the key.
"All right! The key to Luigi's door!" Yoshi cheered. "Let's hurry to the castle courtyard and free him!"
"Okey-dokey!"
They hurried back to the castle courtyard and Mario inserts the key in the keyhole of the green 'L' door, unlocks it and goes inside. Sounds of drumrolls came in, and…
"Yeheey!" Luigi does a series of frontflips as he came out of the door. Once he landed on the floor, he takes off his cap and tosses it upwards and it lands back on his head. "Luigi!" he saluted.
"You're free too!" Yoshi beamed in happiness.
"Luigi!" Mario gave a hug to his brother, glad that he was free at long last.
"Mario!" Luigi returned the hug.
Yoshi watched both brothers sharing their happy hug together. Soon, they pulled out of the hug.
"Big Bro! I was so worried that I'll never get out of that scary dark room! I thought I would never be able to get out!" Luigi said while crying tears of joy.
"It's OK, Luigi. I did all of the work just to save you. I was worried about you too." Mario patted his shoulder.
"Th-Thanks, Mario…" Luigi replied nervously.
"Brotherly love… As always!" Yoshi chirped.
"Well, looks like the only one remaining is Wario…" Mario looked at the yellow 'W' door that was still sealed.
"Hmm, that's strange… The castle courtyard seems so quiet! Did something happen when I was still trapped?" Luigi asked.
Mario and Yoshi then realized that neither Luigi nor Wario knew about the events that happened earlier.
"Yes, a lot of things happened around here. I and Yoshi will explain everything to you." Mario said.
"Right. And Mario, please tell me also what happened back at that course you went by yourself. I wanna know everything!" Yoshi added.
They all gathered together to start the explanations.
To be continued…
The Dusky Doomed Dale was one of my favorite courses in the game! I loved how you obtain Stars in a different manner because it tells a story!
And since this course is considered a ghost level (and it's the only one in this game) and that you free Luigi from a ghost level in Super Mario 64 DS, of course I had to choose this course as the one where you find the key to Luigi's door!
All right! Luigi is finally freed! Next chapter coming soon! Please review.