Chapter 11
Koopa Jr.'s Robot Reactor
As Mario catapulted through Space, he could make out that he was heading towards a couple of small moons. One of them looked like the hollow sphere's he was now getting used to, whilst the other had some weird kind of contraption sitting on it, almost as if it was waiting for something.
He landed on the hollow moon. Eveything was quiet... too quiet. Heading in a northernly direction, Mario noticed a launch star trapped inside a dome-shaped cage. Behind the cage were a couple of armoured Goombas (traitors to the Mushroom Kingdom, they are mushroom-shaped creatures with only feet and no arms). The guards rushed over to bash Mario with their headgear, but they were easily out-manouvered by a couple of very simple jumps to their heads. However this did not have the usual effect, as Goombas didn't normally wear head-armour. Mario decided to see if spinning them would work. They approached him yet again with their heads thrust forward and both of them were met by the force of Mario's spinning fists. The Goombas toppled over quickly and wiggled their feet about in a vain attempt to stand upright... it was almost as funny as watching a Koopa Troopa fall onto the back of its shell.
After dispatching the Goombas, Mario continued to explore the moon... until he came across a Bullet Bill blaster. Much like his experience in Good Egg Galaxy, the blasters fired a homing Bill towards him. Mario ran back the way he came. A thought occurred to him, if he could lure the Bullet Bill into the dome-cage, maybe it'll be destroyed. Mario ran with just a short distance between him and the large bullet, but it was enough for him to suddenly turn at a right-angle and cause Bill to fly straight into the dome. The dome and Bill exploded in a fantastic display of light, fire and debris, leaving the launch star to float freely again.
Mario leapt into the star and flew towards the larger of the two moons. As he landed, he was immediately greeted by a small Koopa airship. Dancing atop of it was one of Koopa's children, Koopa Jr..
'Wahahaha! You made it!' he chuckled. 'But I won't even need my dad's help to take care of you! Go at him Megaleg! Stomp him with the power of your Grand Star!'
And with that, Koopa Jr. flew away on the ship leaving Mario to deal with the weird contraption which was now named as Megaleg. It was spider-like in appearance, but it only had three legs, and was about fifty feet tall!
Megaleg headed towards Mario and attempted to squash him under its huge feet. Not wanting to become linguine anytime soon, Mario ran up one of Megaleg's legs. Just as he was running up it, a loud alarm sounded and he was attacked by more Bullet Bills.
Ah! Will there never be an end-a to these-a Bullet Bills-eh?! he thought.
After making light work of the bullets, he headed further up the large leg until he reach its head. Once again, Mario was ambushed by another set of Bullet Bills.
'Ah! Mamma-mia!' he cursed.
At the very top of Megaleg's head was another dome-cage, which was holding the Grand Star, but that itself was surrounded by a wire fence.
'Not-a problem! It's-a like cooking pasta!'
Mario headed towards the fence with a Bullet Bill on his tail and performed the usual trick. The fence was destroyed in one shot... but it wasn't over yet. The explosion had triggered another alarm and the dome-cage was surrounded by another wire fence, and this one was rotating around it. Mario lured another Bullet Bill towards the fence, but it only destroyed a section of it. And with it rotating, this was going to be difficult. He tried in vain to lure the bullets in, but they either homed into each other or the destroyed sections were quickly replaced.
There was only one thing for it; he had to jump over the fence.
Mario stood at the base of the head, near to the top of one of the legs, and ran towards the top. As expected, a Bullet Bill was following him. He jumped, leapt and then hurled himself over the wire fence. The bullet came crashing down into the dome-cage and destroyed it with a mighty expolsion, freeing the Grand Star. This caused Megaleg to overheat and shut down before exploding itself.
Mario was battered and exhusted after the battle. He took the Grand Star and headed back to the Observatory.
