"Fawful is having the boredom", Fawful said to himself. "It is because Fawful's sandwich is lacking the revenge on the mustached brothers. But I must have patience!"

Usually, when Fawful had the boredom, someone, somewhere, would wind up on the receiving end. This time, Lubba and his Luma crew rested on Starship Mario, traveling the universe.

"Well, we haven't got any adventures to go on now, so I guess we'll bee visiting the Honeyhive Galaxy! Har har!"

The Lumas would have groaned if Lumas could groan.

"We're almost there! I need to tell Queen Bee to stop sending so many Bees around here. This allergy really stings! Har har!"

He felt rotten Star Bits pelt his face.

"Hey! It's the Observatory! Rosie's paying us a visit!"

Instead of stopping, however, the Observatory collided into Starship Mario. The resulting wreckage could hardly be considered a starship.

"Fawful will be needing all your Power Stars. They have the scrumptious energy that sings the song of Fawful!"

"Are you Rosalina's replacement pilot? Can you tell her you just busted our ship?"

Fawful ignored Lubba and entered the engine room.

"Hey! What's your problem, pal? We need those things!"

"Problem? I have not the understanding. Fawful is problemless. Fawful's evil is having the smoothness of going. No problems."

"So first this monster guy, and now you too? This is pretty rough…"

Fawful continued throwing stars outside. "At last! The moment of triumph! Fawful's days of stealing silly princess voices are over!"

"Princess? You kidnapped that princess too? That's cold. Deep-space cold, pal. You're just like that monster."

"No, when Fawful kidnaps the princess, Fawful has the thinking. Fawful has the smartness. Bowser does it because he is the king of stupid!"

Melody went ahead of the group. She turned invisible, looking for the individuals Mario had described.

"I still don't see 'em", Popple fumed from his vantage point. "So let me get this straight. They show up, and if they don't do what we want, they go kablooey, right?"

"Right". Gus motioned to the digital map in Popple's hands.

"I dunno why I trust all these gizmos." Popple scratched his head.

"Hey, with all this stuff, maybe the name 'Robbo Gang' actually makes sense now."

"Hey, I thought 'Robbo' didn't from robots. It came from-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He motioned to Ishnail, Garf, and Goose, along with a row of towering contraptions. Goose frowned at him. "Well, okay, so maybe Goose actually deserves all the credit. But you get the idea."

It was, of course, impossible to guarantee loyalty with money. Except with robots.

Popple stared up at four enormous cannon arms.

"Well, that looks impressive, I say." He flipped a digital map sideways, then upside-down, then sideways again. "How does this thing work again?"

While they continued moving, Popple noticed a mushroom symbol move left on the map.

Goose ran his daily inspection again. The Bullet Bills? All loaded. Good. The Podoboo launchers? All clean. Perfect. The electric arm? One ghost messing around at the fingers. Excellent. The spinning – wait. Hold on.

"I found something weird," he reported.

Ishnail sighed. "Fine, Mr. Wrench Guy. We'll keep it rolling while you fix it. No need for us to stop every time you 'find something weird'. Now, how rich exactly does this make us?" His voice almost shook with excitement, but he managed to keep it in. I can't believe we're gonna steal this much without that jerky-for-brains Don Pianta knowing a thing.

"Well, those Crystal Stars have to be worth a ton. We'll be the most famous thieves in the world, see?" Popple grinned.

"Well, I guess that's good too. Say, wait, wasn't that what that Mario guy used to defeat that darkness?"

"Red Mustache Guy? Yeah, sure, I heard all about that klutz a million times already. He won't be needing them."

"Wait! That guy's a hero! He saved the world! We can't-"

They were interrupted by the digital map switching to a view of Little Fungitown.

"Hey! That's Mario! And…that witch queen he supposedly saved the world from! He seems to be awfully chummy with her."

"Yeah, whatever, we ran into her before. What about her?"

Ishnail resumed walking.

"We're gonna put a stop to this. Hero, my foot. But first, Goose, fire up the super-vac. I can't believe we actually needed that. Good call."

Melody winced. Whoops.

"Wait! You don't want to fight Mario-"

The rest of her words were lost in the vacuum.

"It's just as I thought. Mario's no hero, he's chums with ghosts and witches. Guess we'll have to play the part."

Rosalina ducked again under the dragon. "Leave. Find another place to feed."

"Yeah? I used to work for Bowser Jr., on that sorry little rock, but, oh yeah, he gave me NOTHING TO EAT. He was all like, 'Sure, Gobblegut, when Mario arrives, you can eat him!' Yeah, that didn't happen. You think I'm going back out there so I can fly around another pathetic asteroid?"

He's becoming really talkative all of a sudden.

"That Mario guy must think he's such a hero beating up everyone who's minding their own business just so he can get those stars. Just ask that Rollodillo guy. The furry thing was rolling around on some ball-shaped cage when suddenly he gets walloped from behind. What does he even eat, anyway?"

Despite his constant yammering, Gobblegut dove precisely against his target again, missing by a few inches as Rosalina swerved out of the way.

"Oh yeah, and the guy had to come when I was sick and swollen up, too. What a hero. All he did was spin into my body and it popped right up."

I remember Mario talking about that. "Belly bulges", I think he said.

"Oh…oh…and what about what's-his-face Piranha with the eggshell still on his back? Mario beat up on him too. Yeah, anyways, I was given this stupid star, which I COULDN'T EAT, by the way, so that I could lure Mario in, who I also COULDN'T EAT."

"Why do you require the star?"

"Oh, well, I actually need it now. It helps catch those bunnies."

Mario's trip to Little Fungitown was relatively quiet. No one was talking. Well, technically, Peach was.

The princess stroked her arms and ran her fingers down the length of her long, flowing hair.

Hey! What are you doing?

My apologies. The last time I inhabited a body was a thousand years ago.

The Queen held out her hands and the princess laid herself to rest on them. The Queen's head then loomed over her, looking down and examining her features.

Such a fine vessel…

Excuse me? Am I just some kind of empty shell now? I'm not useless, I'll have you know. Call down another lightning bolt.

Her curiosity piqued, the Queen did so. With Peach putting her full effort into the motion, the result was a lightning bolt ten times stronger than the one Mario had seen when he last fought her. He jumped aside in shock, despite being far from the impact.

Do you remember back when you fought Mario?

That was a mere fraction of my power! It was so irritating having your soul resist me every step of the way! I could have easily crushed him if you were compliant, girl!

Well, instead of resisting you, now I'll assist you. Look at what you can do.

And I assume I must satisfy you for that to happen.

Perhaps. To use this vessel properly, you'll have to make her happy. So, no killing Mario.

The princess smiled up at the face staring down at her.