Chapter 10: The Starship Reborn
Mario panted as he dodged the swords of these three warriors known as Darknuts. For such a strange sounding name, these monsters packed a punch, and the plumber was running out of steam. He had no idea how long he had been down in the Cave of Ordeals searching for the pieces of the Grand Star, but it felt like an eternity to him. After the first visit with the Great Fairy, the enemies had only marginally gotten tougher, the most annoying of them being the Chu that seemed to always come back together when divided, never staying dead until a lot of effort had been used.
He had gained four Grand Star pieces, and he knew that there was one more lying inside the cave. Knowing that he had to face these enemies to get it, he summoned his last reserves of strength to charge at these dark knights. One came to strike with its sword, but he leaped backwards before slamming into him with a ground-pound. The second one bashed its shield against Mario, knocking him off balance as it swung its sword against him. He fell backwards but quickly got back up to unleash a cosmic spin. It stumbled, but the third quickly struck Mario down as the second recovered.
He tried to get up, but he had used up all his energy. The monsters seemed to know this and moved quickly to strike him down for good. He rolled out of the way of several strikes but soon was kicked off by one of the monsters. The Darknuts, ready to finish him, slowly walked towards him when all heard a yell coming from above.
"Oh, yeah! Luigi time!" Mario had never felt so glad to hear the familiar voice of his brother. Green fire rained on the monsters, and the green clad plumber dropped down. "You ready to go, bro?" He took out a red mushroom with stars and tossed it towards Mario, who gladly took and ate it. Its energy flowed into him, restoring the energy the cave had taken from him. He eagerly got up, just in time to meet the attack of one of the monsters.
"What took you so long to get here?" Mario asked as he spun, taking out his opponent's shield.
"I got arrested by a bunch of monsters," he responded. "I met a guy who helped me break free and got back to you as soon as possible. When I mentioned that you'd be here, he gave me the mushroom because he thought you'd need it." His opponent lost its shield. "Have you really been down here for three days?"
Mario looked at him with a surprised look on his face. "I've been down here for THREE days?! Mama mia!" He spun around, and his opponent's armor was all but gone. He started to feel a bit of relief, but it disappeared as it took out a second sword. "I've been facing enemies in all those rooms! So many rooms and enemies…"
"That would explain why I didn't see anyone on the way down," Luigi replied as his opponent's armor disappeared. "Did you find any pieces of the Grand Star?"
"I got a piece each time I saw the Great Fairy who lives here. What about you?"
"Yeah, I found one in a treasure chest before I started on my way back. Should we try to put the pieces together?"
Mario paused for a moment as Luigi's offer was very tempting. As much as he wanted to get out of the cave, he knew that there was something worth reaching the final room for. "Let's try to reach the end of this cave first. I've already spent so much time here that we should finish it." Mario's opponent fell.
"Alright, bro. Whatever you say." The final Darknut fell, and the door to the next room opened. It was then when the brothers noticed the thin man nearby. He was wearing all white, had a strange red hat, and was grasping a letter. "Mario, who's a that?"
Mario shrugged and approached the man. "Hello?"
The man glared at Mario, as if he were intruding on something personal. "I think you are lost," he said. "It's got to be somewhere around here…" The man then went about his business as if he had never been approached by the plumber.
Mario wondered to himself for a moment, but he soon decided that this man had nothing really interesting to say. How he had gotten down here was a mystery…perhaps he had followed Luigi on the way down? Whatever the case, there was something more important to do. "Let's a go!" he exclaimed. It was time to go into the final room, hopefully, and claim his reward.
The two entered and found a room with a large spring and no other door in sight. Luigi walked closer to the spring when the Great Fairy appeared. His jaw dropped upon seeing the lovely looking stranger, though Mario was used to the sight by now.
"Welcome, Mario brothers," the Great Fairy calmly said. "You have finally come to the end of the Cave of Ordeals. Truly, you are sufficiently prepared for the trials to come. As proof of this accomplishment, please take this…"
She raised her arms, and one more Grand Star piece appeared. As it floated towards Mario, the four pieces he had already collected floated out of his possession and slowly approached the new piece. As they connected, a bright light overtook the area. It faded away quickly, leaving behind a completed Grand Star.
The Great Fairy gave Luigi a seductive look, extending her arm to playfully tug on his moustache. "If you ever have need of me again, you know where to find me…" With that, light filled the room again, taking the brothers up to the surface.
On the surface again, the brothers saw the Grand Star before them. The star floated towards what looked like a giant rock. It then started circling the rock faster and faster until it shot itself inside the rock. Once it did, the brothers felt the ground below shaking, drawing other rocks towards the giant one. Light penetrated the wall of shadow and began getting drawn into it, and the brothers were temporarily blinded.
When Mario realized he could see again, the first sight he beheld was the familiar shape of the giant starship, ready to travel through the stars. It greatly resembled Mario's head, fixed with grass along much of its surface. It contained a few islands suspended in the air. The strange thing, though, was that there were a few figures already on board. It neither lost all its passengers as he had expected nor contained all of them. Where the others were he could only guess, but there would be time to think about that later.
Mario and Luigi jumped off the ground and allowed the gravity of the Starship Mario to bring them on board. They dashed towards the top of the ship where the controls were. Floating nearby the wheel was an absurdly large purple Luma. Unlike any other Luma the brothers had ever met, this one even wore a pair of blue trousers. The Luma noticed the two brothers and smiled.
"Captain!" he said, addressing Mario. "Glad to have you back on board!"
"Hey!" Luigi exclaimed. "What about me, Lubba?"
Lubba's smile grew even brighter. "Of course! Always nice to have the first mate on board!"
"Mama mia!" Luigi complained. "Always second best in the eyes of the universe…"
Mario shot him a look telling him to shut up and asked Lubba where everyone else was. Lubba's smile fell at that. "Well, Captain, the fall to this planet took a lot of power out of the core. To preserve the life of everyone aboard, everyone went into a form of stasis until enough power came back to bring them back out of stasis. The power from the Grand Star was enough to re-form the planet and bring some of the crew back to life. Unfortunately, we don't have enough power to travel through space or bring back the rest of the crew…"
Luigi took out the piece of the Grand Star he had found earlier. "There has to be another Grand Star on this planet! We just have to find the rest of the pieces!"
Lubba nodded. "The ship is registering strong energy signatures all over this planet. There should be pieces at each spot. The closest one seems to be somewhere inside the desert. Maybe it's over there at that structure in the distance."
"Alright," Mario said, "let's a get going!" The sooner he could get back into space, the better. Whatever Bowser was planning had to be stopped.
Lubba smiled again. "Alright, you two! I know that you've got this, so I'll leave you to it. I don't know how much help I can be, but I wish you the best of luck!"
The brothers nodded and turned to hop off the ship. However, they soon realized exactly how tired they were, as their bodies quickly gave out. The Lumas on board gasped in shock and hurried to carry them into the engine room, hoping they would be able to recover quickly.