Next chapter done!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 11: Reaching Bowser's Castle
With their course set, the heroes went down the mountain, which thankfully was a shortcut back to Doop Doop Dunes. They moved on, dealing with various Spikes, Paper Spikes and Pokeys in the area, but as they were about to proceed to the next area of the desert…
"Wait up, guys!" a voice yelled as they turned around to see a Paper Goomba approaching them and they immediately stood in their fighting stances. "Hey hey hey! Put down those dukes!"
"And why? Who are you?" Mario asked in a serious tone.
"Don't you remember? It's your ol' pal from the clink!" however, what he received were blank stares from the heroes. "See this crease?" he showed his folded portion. "You put that there! This ringing any bells? Any bells at all?"
"Hmm… No. Not at all." Mario replied, which caused the Paper Goomba to face-fault.
"WORK WITH ME HERE, GUYS! FOR GOD'S SAKE!" the Paper Goomba got back on his feet afterwards. "Ugh! The 'heroes' never remember the little people… Anyway! I heard a rumor that you're headed to Bowser's Castle. So take me with you! I'll even show you the way!"
"No way!" Captain Falcon shook his head. "You're our enemy!"
"That's right. Why would we trust you?" Samus added, crossing her arms.
"What, you don't even want to think it over?" the Paper Goomba questioned. "I'm an excellent navigator, you know."
"So am I, Fox and Link." Samus replied.
"Great! Then it's settled."
"Hey! I didn't say-!" Samus was interrupted when the Paper Goomba suddenly jumps inside Mario's pocket.
"What in the world are you doing?!" Mario panicked.
"Hitching a ride, duh! Hey! Who the heck are you?!" the Paper Goomba responded, until he saw Starlow also in Mario's pocket, causing the two to fight for space as everyone else saw Mario's pocket jiggling:
"Who the heck am I?! Who the heck are you?!"
"I'm the new navigator!"
"It's so cramped in here. Stop elbowing me!"
"How could I elbow you when I don't even HAVE elbows?"
"Then stop…shoeing me…or whatever it is you're doing."
"This is gonna be a long ride…"
Once the fighting was over, the group moved on. But then, as they were about to leave the desert, the ground below them suddenly begins to shake.
"Why is the ground shaking, chu?" Pikachu asked.
"Yikes! Look over there!" Starlow pointed to a cloud of sand at the distance. "Is that a papercraft I see?" the cloud begins to get closer and closer to the heroes.
"No, it's not that… But it's also no good!" Ness exclaimed.
"Oh no… That looks like…" Lana trailed, and once the cloud was close enough for the heroes, it revealed itself as a gigantic lizard-like dinosaur with golden scales, red horns, red claws and red crystal-like spikes running along its back and joints. "…King Dodongo!" Lana finished as King Dodongo roars at them.
"Talk about an ambush!" Donkey Kong remarked. "Alright, let's take him down!"
King Dodongo began by rolling towards the heroes, but they dodged him. He then turns around by hopping, which created a shockwave that caught the heroes by surprise, but thankfully, they managed to dodge King Dodongo's claw swipe attack. Just then, King Dodongo opens his mouth wide to charge up a fireball.
"Anyone who has explosives, throw them into his mouth NOW!" Lana demanded.
With that, the Mario Bros used Bomb Derby, the Yoshis threw each an Egg Bomb, the Links threw bombs, the Samuses fired missiles, the Foxes threw each a Smart Bomb, and the Kirbys threw bombs with their Bomb ability. All attacks went right into King Dodongo's mouth, and once they exploded, he was knocked out and tumbles on the ground.
The heroes then attacked King Dodongo, finishing off the fight with the Links leaping into the air and plunging their swords into King Dodongo's neck, as well as the Mario Bros' Dropchopper Bros Attack, with them landing right on King Dodongo's forehead. With that, King Dodongo explodes.
"Well, that takes care of that." Starlow said. "Now let's keep moving."
They took off, arriving back at Twinsy Tropics. There, they walked around, dealing with some Cheep Cheeps and Paper Piranha Plants around them, until they finally located the pipe that would take them to the Twinsy Tropics Dungeon.
Now underground, they walked a few feet away from the pipe, when the Paper Goomba popped out:
"Hey, guys! Wait up!"
"What is it?" Mario asked.
"To get to Bowser's Castle from here, you need a red medallion! Do you have something like that?"
"We do."
"Really? Let me see!" Mario then shows the Red Medallion he and his allies found back at Mount Brrr. "WOW! But, let me take a closer look at it and make sure it's not a knockoff." he then inspects the medallion closely and responds: "Hmmmm… It definitely looks like the real deal!" he then turns back and calls: "HEY! EVERYBODY! LOOK WHO'S BACK!"
"Wait, WHAT?!" the heroes flinched.
"These rats might have escaped, but they came back with something good!"
Just then, two Fire Bros came in as the heroes glared at them.
"That's the medallion for the gate to Bowser's Castle!" one of the Fire Bros exclaimed.
"Whew, good thing we got it back! That was a close one!" the other added. "They could've done some major damage with this! Let's…not let the boss know about this little mix-up…"
Then, the Fire Bros walked towards the medallion and were about to carry it away until Starlow yelled at the Paper Goomba:
"NOW HOLD ON RIGHT THERE! What do you think you're doing?! You're a total backstabber!"
"Ha ha ha ha! I'm not a backstabber—I'm a master strategist!" the Paper Goomba smirked. "And this was all part of my master plan! With this little coup, Bowser's sure to forgive all of my past mistakes. Heck, I might even get a promotion to Lead Minion! Consider yourself outsmarted!"
"How… How DARE you!"
"You know, I've already saw that coming from the beginning." Samus rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately, we're not going to let you take this medallion."
She then fires a missile at the Fire Bros, but they countered it by shooting a fireball at it, which caused it to explode.
"Ha! You think you can stop us with just a missile?" one of the Fire Bros teased… only for him and his brother to get knocked onto the air by both Foxes' Fox Illusion. "GAH!"
"Didn't see that coming, did you?" Paper Fox teased back.
"Hey, Falcon! Could you do the honors?" Fox smirked.
"Leave it to me." Captain Falcon smirked back before walking towards the Paper Goomba.
"Oh…uh, hi…" the Paper Goomba sweatdropped as Captain Falcon grinned… and Falcon Punched him away. "YAAAAAAAAAARGH!" the Paper Goomba yelled before slamming into a wall. "Ow…" he groaned as the Fire Bros looked on and sweatdropped.
"Umm… I think we should get the heck out of here before we're next!" one of them panicked before running off.
"Good riddance to those cowards." Starlow remarked. "Alright, let's not waste any more time. Let's head for the gate with Bowser's face on it!"
Everyone nodded and moved on.
Some minutes later…
"Here we are again." Starlow said once the heroes found the gate.
They then proceeded to use the medallion on the door, causing it to lower down… revealing more passage up ahead.
"…Aw, man! I thought for sure that would open up a direct path to Bowser's Castle!" Starlow muttered.
"What else would you be expecting?" Alice questioned. "I saw that one coming since at the beginning!"
"Welp, looks like we'll have to walk some more."
They once again moved on while dealing with some Ant Troopers. After a LOT of walking, they finally came upon a pipe up ahead, and Starlow was sure that it'll take them to Bowser's Castle.
"Aha! There it is!" Starlow exclaimed as they started to approach the pipe, until Mario stopped them:
"Hold up. I'm having a strange feeling about what is lying ahead."
"Eh, don't overthink it! If you didn't feel at least a little strange about what lies ahead… well, that would be pretty strange in and of itself, right?" Starlow replied as everyone, except for Mario, continued to approach the pipe.
"Uh… what?" Mario was left confused as he watched the rest of the gang go inside the pipe.
"I don't see anything in here…" Kirby looked around the pipe's interior, but because it was dark, no one could see a thing.
"See? I told Mario he was overthinking things." Starlow said. "There was nothing to worry about at all!"
"Still, you can't just take things like that into consideration." Link stated. "Because I'm having a feeling that something is going to jump right at us…"
"Don't make me nervous!" Starlow scoffed.
"I'm being serious, Starlow."
"Uh, g-guys… I think I just felt something scaly…" Luigi stuttered.
"But… I didn't feel you touching me…" Yoshi said.
"No! Not you, Yoshi! It's something else!"
"Luigi, what did you-…?"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a voice suddenly yelled, interrupting Alice.
"AAAAAAHHHH!" the heroes jumped in startle.
"What is going on in there, guys?" Mario, who was standing outside the pipe the whole time, asked.
"Visitors beyond this point need a pass!" the same voice that jumpscared the heroes spoke from inside the pipe.
"After all, past this point lies… Bowser's Castle!" another voice added. "Which I'm sure you knew!"
"Hey! Who said we need a pass? And who are you both, anyway?!" Starlow growled. "We can't see anything past that bushy hair of yours!"
"Yeah! Now get out of our way, Jiggly!" Jigglypuff hissed.
Cue tons of fighting sounds from inside the pipe, which only caused a big question mark to appear above Mario's head, who now has absolutely no idea what the heck was going on inside.
"How come a balloon is that strong?"
"How rude, Jiggly!"
"Oh yeah? Then that's what you all will get for trying to sneak through here without a pass!"
*Fighting noises*
"Ack! 3D me! You okay?"
"Ow! That's my tail!"
"Oh, now you asked for it! Giant Punch!"
"Ah! My cap flew off!"
"You nearly squished me, chu!"
"Stop messing my hair!"
"Argh! Where's my sword?!"
"Hey, don't touch my mustache!"
"Falcon Dive! YES!"
"Was that really necessary?"
"Dang it, I can't see anything in here!"
"Okay, now you've gone and made me mad! SUPERNOVA SPARKLE!"
And with that attack, everyone was launched off the pipe, smoldering and coughing out smoke. At this moment, Mario, having heard all of the fighting that happened inside the pipe, was now looking dumbfounded.
"*cough cough*… *gasp*" Starlow coughed. "Sorry for the collateral damage, guys. I guess Supernova Sparkle isn't the best attack for tight spaces."
"Thanks a lot…" Samus groaned.
"You never told us you had this ability in the first place!" Donkey Kong argued.
"Mario… You okay?" Luigi noticed Mario's dumbfounded stare and waved a hand in front of him.
"Guys, what just happened in there?" Mario blinked a few times before asking.
"You don't want to know…" Paper Mario sweatdropped.
Then, Larry and Ludwig, who were the ones attacking the heroes, came out of the pipe, leading to the heroes glaring at them.
"Now you're gonna get it!" Larry growled.
"Yeah!" Ludwig nodded.
"Hey… You're a real shrimp. It was so dark in there, I had no idea." Starlow remarked.
"SHUT IT!" Larry yelled. "Don't make us show you what we can really do!" he then turns to Ludwig. "Ludwig, are you ready? It's time to get this started for reals!"
"Ready when you are, Larry!" Ludwig replied. The two Koopalings stand in their fighting stances, as the heroes did the same. "It's pummeling time!"
Larry and Ludwig started by retreating into their shells and spinning around in circles towards the heroes, but they jumped over them, and Fox took a perfect opportunity to reflect Ludwig's shell right into Larry's shell.
"OW!" they both yelled, popping out of their shells.
"What the heck was that, brother?!" Larry growled.
"It wasn't my fault! It's that fox guy who caused it!" Ludwig retorted.
"Alright, let's go for something different!"
Larry and Ludwig then pull out their wands, with Larry firing a magic fireball at the paper heroes, but they dodged it, and Paper Samus fires a Charge Shot at Larry, only for him to duck under it.
"Ha ha! Nice try!" he teased, only to get hit by the Links' Remote Bomb. "GAH!"
"Do you think you can match this?" Ludwig mocked before cloning himself into three and each clone fires magic fireballs at the heroes, but they dodged them and the Kirbys even managed to swallow some of them, turning into their Fire Kirby forms. "WHAT?!" one of Ludwig's clones flinched.
"Burn!" both Fire Kirbys yelled before dashing through all of the Ludwigs by turning into fireballs. With that, the Kirbys passed through the fake Ludwigs and hurt the real one, causing his clones to vanish.
"Grr! How do they keep doing that?!" Ludwig complained.
"We're gonna have to do something about this!" Larry told.
They both rushed away before coming back with a huge bomb being carried by Shy Guys, starting a chase sequence. During this sequence, the paper heroes folded themselves into boomerangs and their 3D selves kept tossing them at the Shy Guys carrying the bomb. This resulted in just one Shy Guy holding the bomb, and because of that, the bomb tumbled down, exploding right into Larry and Ludwig.
"Time to end this!" Mario hollered as he pulls out a giant cannonball. "Cannonball Chuck!"
The Mario Bros run a few feet away from the two Koopalings before Luigi jumps on top of the cannonball and Mario starts spinning it around. With great force, Mario tosses the cannonball towards Larry and Ludwig, with Luigi lining it up just right before it smashes right in the Koopalings' faces, knocking them out instantly.
"Ow… Ugh… Man, that hurt!" Ludwig groaned. "Roy and Wendy were right… you're not as wimpy as you look…"
"Whatever! We'll be passing through now!" Starlow exclaimed.
"Oof! This was all part of the plan! Don't think you can just waltz up to Bowser's Castle!" Larry retorted. "Or, you know…DO think that. Because, like I said, losing was totally our plan…" they both left.
"That was part of their plan? I don't see any problem with it." Yoshi shrugged.
"Who knows?" Starlow spoke. "Anyway, we're almost there. We should proceed with caution…"
They wasted no time in going through the pipe to finally reach Bowser's Castle. However, they were completely unaware that Bidimentio was following them the whole time.
"Hmm, not bad. Not bad at all. You really know how to put up a fight, it seems…" he spoke. "Unfortunately for you, I've been following you this whole time ever since you arrived at Mount Brrr, and now that you revealed the Mushroom Kingdom's deepest secret, I now know what Calamity Ganon was talking about! I originally planned on taking over two worlds, but three is much better! Ah ha ha! Ciao!" he vanishes.
Back at that unknown place…
"Oh dear…"
"What is it?"
"I'm suddenly having a feeling that some evil has discovered the entrance to our universe…"
"What?! Oh no! This is bad!"
"*sigh* and I originally planned to leave only when the others are in danger, but now, it looks like we have no choice but to leave soon."
"If you say so…"
"But still, let's not reveal ourselves yet, so we have to remain hidden from everyone in that universe."
"Right!"
To be continued…
I never knew the path to reach Bowser's Castle would be so darn long in the original game! Because of that, I decided to skip most of it.
I bet some of you know who those mysterious people are at the end, but they won't show up until the heroes clear Bowser's Castle.
Coming up next is Bowser's Castle! Until then! Please review!
