The Mario Brothers fell down for what seemed like a few minutes until they reached the new arena that they were going to fight The Ranger. The fiery bright setting of this arena with the bright red sky, the lava at the very bottom of the arena and the very hot climate contrasted to the dark and cool temperature setting of the first arena. This arena was a bit bigger than the first arena, with more room to move around. However, this new arena has the tendency, in a period of ten minutes, to lean to the right or to the left at random for one minute, which would allow someone to fall into the lava below easily.
Mario and Luigi stirred up, unfortunately getting a nasty hit on their heads on the way down. "Oh my aching head," Mario said as he stood up and rubbed his head a bit before attempting to wake Luigi up. "LUIGI WAKE UP!" Luigi suddenly opened his eyes and was now alert.
"Oh my," Luigi said as he got up to his feet, and rubbed his head a bit. "How long have I been out bro?"
"I would say for about a good ten minutes." Mario replied as he looked around the arena to find The Ranger not present.
"Ten Minutes!" exclaimed Luigi as he suddenly got into a fighter stance anticipating the presence of The Ranger. "How can I be conked out so bad, and where the HECK IS THE RANGER?!"
"You got me Luigi. I don't know where is he, which scares me a bit because he could be hiding anywhere, looking for the perfect chance to strike. Just don't keep your guard down." The Mario brothers went out in different parts of the arena to search for The Ranger. Mario went to the left side of the arena while Luigi went to the right side. As they spent more time in this arena, they felt the same effects as they did when they were at the fiery world. "Oh geez," Mario thought as he walked to the edge of the arena, sitting down for a bit while getting a bearing on his surroundings. "I hope I don't get those cramps again. Heh, maybe The ranger has them and that's why we can't find them."
Luigi has the same mindset as he realized that the hot temperatures could overcome the Mario Brothers eventually and they had to strike The Ranger now and end the battle quickly. "Man if that Ranger doesn't get here," Luigi said as a gloomy expression set upon his face. "We are going to have to usher in the retreat."
Meanwhile The Ranger had appeared from a secret alcove from below the arena, ready to strike the Mario Brothers. "Time to end this debacle and bring down these wretched tyrants." The Ranger thought as shot a grappling arrow into the ledge of the arena. The arrow didn't strike the very edge of the arena, so Luigi did not notice, still giving The Ranger the element of surprise. He then presses a button on the bow to allow him to get to the position where he placed the arrow. He then grabbed the edge of the arena with his hands and leaped high while able to get a good kick on Luigi's face. Luigi, surprised at this action, fell back a few feet onto the middle of the arena.
"YOWWW!" Luigi shouted as he got back up and saw the Ranger right in front of him, his presence giving Luigi anger. "You son of a-"Luigi was then suddenly interrupted by The Ranger.
The Ranger made used his index finger to give a no-no-no motion to Luigi as he pulled out his bow. "You mustn't curse in front of a royal setting such as this. It gives off your tyrant impression. If you want to convince me you aren't tyrants, which you won't anyway, you should start with the way you conduct yourself."
Mario then got to where his brother was as Luigi got up quickly as both were ready to face The Ranger. "TYRANT?!" Mario asked as his fists were clenched, ready to pound on The Ranger. "Look who's talking. You're allowing Bowser to do all of these horrible things to the princesses!"
"You feigning concern for the princesses won't convince me so easily." The Ranger replied." I know you all too well. Besides like I've told you, this whole rouse has been a stage just to lead you here in preparation for your downfall. Even if I can't stop you, Bowser will and bring peace to this kingdom."
"Do you honestly believe that load of crap that Bowser has been handing you?" Mario asked, causing The Ranger to cast an angry glare at Mario's direction. "You've been duped! Bowser wants you to believe that everything has been staged. BUT ITS NOT! It's been a ploy to get you to join in on his wretched scheme. This is a REAL kidnapping situation. Bowser doesn't want to save the Mushroom Kingdom or Sarasaland. HE WANTS TO ANNEX THEM INTO HIS EMPIRE!"
"SHUT UP!" The Ranger shouted, tempted to fire an arrow from his bow, but yielded until he got out one more statement. "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO MY MASTER THAT WAY! Without him, there would be no peace between the three kingdoms. It was you two that caused the discord in the first place. I will end it one way or another. Now I will give you one last chance. If you exit this world, if you exit this kingdom, if you go back to where all three of us came from, I will spare your lives. REFUSE MY REQUEST and you two DIE! Choose now because my patience is growing thin!"
The Mario Brothers looked at each other for a second, knowing exactly what their decision was going to be. They equipped their fire flower power ups quickly, The Ranger smiling already knowing that there was going to be a fight on his hands. "HELL NO!" Both brothers yelled, getting into a fighter stance. The Ranger did the same thing as he pulled a bow and put onto the string of his bow, ready to release it.
"So it has been settled then," The Ranger replied solemnly as he got ready to release the arrow. "You two will DIE!" The Ranger then shot the arrow from his bow, inciting a quick dodge from both brothers. The Mario Brothers decided to split up for this fight, as the Ranger had a tough time dodging attacks from different directions at the same time. The Ranger, knowing this, decided to concentrate on Luigi first as he was the real one that was a threat to him. "The green one is the person that actually wants to kill me while the red one is just trying to brainwash me to join his side." The ranger thought as he leapt towards Luigi and kicked him in his torso, sending him flying a few feet away to the left side of the arena. Luigi stood up and then shot a fireball toward the Ranger's direction, emitting a simple dodge from Luigi. Meanwhile, Mario was trying to still convince The Ranger was fighting for the wrong side.
"Ranger," Mario said as he cast a fireball in front of The Ranger, intentionally trying to miss him and direct attention to the Ranger, which Mario had successfully done as now The Ranger was fully focused on him. "Think about it, if you really were fighting on the right side, wouldn't your job be to escort the princesses away from the castle due to the fact that us supposed tyrants were coming to try and stop you?!" The Ranger ran up and slammed Mario down with his foot before picking him up and throwing him in Luigi's direction, causing both of them to fall down heavily on each other with a sickening thud. Both Mario Brothers stirred for a few seconds until they got up to their feet.
"Please," The Ranger said as he drew another arrow from his bow. "My master is doing a great job in protecting the princesses from you. "
"Really and how does he ensure you of that?" Mario asked, as he stood up to his feet and walked up to the Ranger until he was a few feet away, The ranger knowing that he was close enough to strike him from his falchion. However, he humored Mario's request before he would strike him down.
"He gives me a voice communicator which allows to stay in touch and allows me to get updates on how the princesses are doing." The Ranger took the communicator from Mario and showed it to him.
"Turn in on right now." Mario said in a serious voice to The Ranger. "Show me that you can."
The Ranger paused, surprised to see such a request from Mario but he still wanted to humor him so he turned it on anyway. "Bowser, come in Bowser." The Ranger said as he waited for a reply. The Ranger was surprised that Mario had not attempted a strike yet, nor did Luigi who waited with him patiently until he got a response. "What are they doing?" The Ranger thought as he looked back at the Mario Brothers, who hadn't moved a muscle yet. "They should strike me down now when they have the chance."
Meanwhile, at Toadstool Castle, both princesses were asleep trying to rest while Bowser wasn't fixated on them. Bowser instead was fixated on preparing everything for the move to a new base stationed at the very top of Toadstool castle, with a Koopa advisor to give him status updates. "Is everything going according to my specifications?" Bowser asked, trying to sound as calm as he could as he knew victory would be impending once the Mario Brothers had found them.
"Yes," the Koopa advisor said, to which Bowser responded with a wicked grin. "The arena has been built as well as the cages that the princesses will be stuck in once the battle commences. We also have a secret gauntlet built in order to ward off any other 'surprises' that might face us as you deal with those plumbers."
"Excellent," Bowser replied as he noticed that the princesses were still asleep. "Why don't you show me then? The princesses are asleep, so they shouldn't be any threat right now to my plans."
"Yes sire." The advisor replied as he took Bowser to another Big Red Star Door. The door opened, allowing them passage up to the highest point in the tower, and from there to the arena that they were constructing. With the big slam of the door, the princesses finally stirred up.
"What the…" Peach said who was still feeling sleepy after being rudely awakened.
"Looks like that big dinosaur's gone." Daisy said as she had much more energy than Peach. "Anything on that voice communicator you got there?" Daisy then pointed to Peach, who had the voice communicator on a secret compartment in her dress.
"Oh yeah," Peach said as grabbed the voice communicator. "Give me one second." Peach pressed a button that turned on the communicator, and then another button to playback previously recorded conversations.
"Bowser, come in Bowser" The voice communicator echoed.
"Who is that?" Peach asked as she didn't know whose voice that was. "I haven't heard that voice before ever."
"That could be The Ranger." Daisy said as she urged Peach to press the communicate button in order to speak with them. "Hurry and turn in on."
Peach turned on the communicator button. "Hello is this The Ranger." Peach asked, wanting to confirm the Ranger's identity.
The voice communicator finally erupted Peach's statement from The Ranger's own. Mario froze on the spot more, with The Ranger now in even more surprise. "Why is making that gesture. It's as almost that he's stunned to have her speak?" The Ranger thought in even more confusion. He then addressed himself to Peach. "Ah yes, this is The Ranger. Can I get an identity conformation?"
"This is Princess Toadstool, or-"Peach said before being interrupted by Mario's uttering of her nickname.
"Peach…" Mario said as he tried so hard to block off the tears in his eyes, finally being able to hear the princess speak, confirming to Mario that she was alive and well. Luigi, who had finally gotten the courage to come close to the presence of the Ranger, was stunned to hear Peach's voice. Mario, knowing that Luigi was close behind and seeing the tears in his eyes, knew what to do order to get The Ranger to finally know whose side he was working for. Mario got to his knees with Luigi doing the same, confusing The Ranger even more.
"Why are they doing this?" The ranger thought, confused of what to do at this point. He then addressed his voice communicator. "Can you confirm that the other princess is with you?"
"Princess Daisy?" Peach asked.
"Yes."
"She's right here with me." Peach then handed the voice communicator to Daisy, who took it and pressed the communicate button.
"Hello Ranger," Daisy said, getting Luigi to emit even more tears from his face. "My name is-" Daisy said before being interrupted by Luigi.
"D-Daisy." Luigi said now having tears in his eyes.
Confused by what was going around him, The Ranger took a deep breath trying to process that new information in before speaking back into the communicator. "What the HELL is going on around here?" The Ranger asked, getting stressed that the situation was becoming more complicated than he initially thought.
"I guess you need to know what is really going on here Ranger." Daisy replied before taking a deep breath before continuing, ready to reveal everything to the ranger what Bowser has done to them ever since he showed his face the first time he stepped into the Mushroom Kingdom. "Well, I don't know what you heard about Bowser, but he's the real villain here. Ever since he showed up, he has been nothing been trouble for both the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland. When he kidnapped us the first time, he had taken us to his castle in the territory he calls the Darklands. We had been stranded there for a few days before Mario and Luigi had saved us from his wrath and threw him into a lava pit. They then carried us back to the castle without any incentive for money, or fame. They wanted to help mostly for their taste of adventure. Then the war on our castle broke out a day ago. I assume you knew this was going to happen?"
The Ranger felt silent and motionless. "Could this all be true? Have I been working for the wrong side this all time?" The Ranger swallowed heavily before continuing to speak. "H-He told me that it was just a staged kidnapping. And all this talk of kidnapping, he said he wanted to help the kingdoms, not ruin them. He said he was a benevolent human ruler just trying to build a relationship between the humans and the Koopas."
Daisy fell silent for a second, now realizing the extent of the brainwashing that Bowser has done for him. "You have it wrong Ranger." Daisy said as she pressed the communicator to her lips, wanting the message to come out as clearly as she could. "Bowser is no human. He's a big Koopa that looks like he merged with a dinosaur. That human façade you saw was just a disguise you saw."
The Ranger gripped the voice communicator, the inner rage increasing knowing how he had been cheated and lied to this whole time. The Ranger was breathing heavily in anger as a few tears were streaming down his face. "How could I have been so stupid?" The ranger thought.
"Look it's not your fault. You couldn't have known the true evil that Bowser was until-" Daisy then froze in fear as Bowser came out of the Big Red Star Door.
"Excellent," Bowser said as he was devilishly grinning. "The arena's completed and now all I have to do is move those princesses to-" Bowser suddenly was cut off when he looked at the princesses, seeing that they had the voice communicator to The Ranger. "HEY GIVE THAT BACK YOU WRETCHED WHORES!" Bowser was furious as he charged up to the cages that held the princesses. He snatched the voice communicator from the princesses, his sharp claws cutting both the arms of the princesses. The Princesses screamed in pain, which was heard through the voice communicator.
Mario and Luigi and the Ranger were all enraged by the screams. "Hello is this thing on?" Bowser asked, hopeful that the Ranger didn't hear anything that just happened a few seconds ago.
"Oh yeah, this FUCKING thing is on Bowser." The Ranger viciously replied as Bowser knew that he was caught in his ploy.
"Ranger, um this isn't what it looks like."
"Oh really, WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE THEN?!"
"Um…" Bowser froze before thinking of what to do next. Bowser then shut off the communicator before destroying it completely, knowing he couldn't say anything to bring him back into his side. "Well, he played his part enough already." Bowser thought as he shifted his attention back to the Princesses. "You owe me one new apprentice. "Bowser said as he unlocked both Princess Peach and Princess Daisy's cages. He then grabbed them with much resistance as bowser dragged them to his new arena.
"Where are you taking us?" Daisy asked, demanding to know where she and her best friend were going.
"You'll learn soon enough." Bowser replied, cackling menacingly as he went back through the Big Red Star Door he came out of, bringing the princesses with him.
Meanwhile, back at the lava arena, The Ranger was enraged beyond belief. "So this is how you use me?" The ranger asked himself at a low growl before throwing the voice communicator to the ground. "WELL HERE'S WHAT I THINK OF YOU!" The ranger yelling to no one in particular as he destroyed the voice communicator with the falchion, surprising the Mario Brothers as they didn't know that he had that weapon or that he was enraged by being betrayed. Afterward, The Ranger looked back at the Mario Brothers. "I'm so sorry that I mistook you for the villains that I've been trying to stop. I was at his bloody side the while time and I didn't realize it. Some hero I am." The ranger sighed as he stood up and stared at the surrounding area in front of him, trying to find peace within himself. The Ranger hated criminals just as any person, but Bowser gave him a new sense of hatred that wouldn't let him go. It wasn't bowser being a criminal that angered The Ranger, it was the fact that Bowser allowed himself to control him that troubled him.
The Mario Brothers went to The Ranger in an attempt to comfort him. "Hey come on man," Mario replied as he nudged him in the elbow, to which The Ranger flinched a bit. "You didn't know that Bowser was a villain to begin with. Besides, with the three of us working together we could-" Mario was then cut off by a sudden shaking of the arena, indicating that the platform was ready to lean. Unfortunately for the three of them, the arena was going to lean in such a way that the three of them would be at the bottom, meeting an inevitable fate with the lava.
"Mario, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Luigi yelled as the three of them climbed up to the top of the arena. "Where's the damn exit to this place!" Luigi was searching around, but couldn't seem to find it.
"Follow me Mario Brothers." The Ranger said as he directed them to a warp pipe that would take them back to the basement of Toadstool Castle. All of a sudden, a few Koopa troops came out of the pipe to block their way.
"Not so fast Mario Brothers and now ex-Ranger." One of the Koopa troops said, angering The Ranger even more. "You aren't going anywhere unless you come to surrender to us." The Mario Brothers thought of what they could do, using their fire flower power up would cause them to get heat exhaustion even more, which is why they didn't bother to use it at the fire world the previous time there.
The Ranger then drew his sword and slashed one of the Koopa dead, taunting the other ones to come after them. Instantly, the Koopa troops went after them at the ever tilting arena, causing Mario and Luigi to worry about the fate of their new ally. "JUST GO! Do whatever you can to stop that bloody maniac!" The ranger ordered as he continued his fight with the few Koopa troops that were trying to kill him. "By the way take this." The Ranger threw another key in Luigi's direction. "This is the key to the attic of Toadstool castle. It will allow to finish up the paintings there as well as save the princesses. NOW GO!"
"But YOU'LL DIE!" Mario yelled as he attempted to run up to him in order to help battle the Koopas.
"JUST DO IT!" The Ranger responded as he continued his fight with the Koopas. Seeing how it was pointless to argue with him, Mario and Luigi retreated back to the warp pipe, ending up back at the basement of Toadstool Castle just in front of the Big Red Star Door they entered.
"We have to go back for him Mario." Luigi said as he tried to go back through the Big Red Star Door.
"Forget it Luigi." Mario said, angry at himself for not trying to save The Ranger. "We shouldn't let his sacrifice go in vain. Now let's go off that villain so that we can honor our comrade." Luigi silently nodded as they went back to the main hall of the castle, silent yet determined to continue on with the mission.
Meanwhile, The Ranger was still fighting off the Koopa troops, who were determined to off the ex-apprentice while dealing with the Mario Brothers. "Once we are done offing you sorry as-, we're going to capture the Mario Brothers and show them the same undignified fate that we are going to give you by tossing you into the lava." One of the Koopa troops said as the rest of them chuckled with them.
"I don't think so." The Ranger replied as he quickly took out an electric arrow, and shooting it at one of the Koopas causing a chain reaction to the other Koopas around him, killing them instantly as their heartbeats ceased , causing them to plunge into the lava below. The Ranger had little time to smile at his own success as the arena tilted too much for him to handle and he was falling down greatly into what could have been the fate for him. "Only got one shot at this." The Ranger thought as he shot a grappling arrow at the tallest point of the arena. It took a while for the arrow to reach the top point, and at that time the Ranger's cape was being singed from being in contact with the lava. The Ranger pressed the button, and he was able to reel himself into the top point of the arena, and fall down into the alcove that he was at previously. "I'll kill you for this Bowser." The ranger thought as exhaustion was taking over him. "Soon enough I will." The Ranger then collapsed into a sleep into his alcove as his body needed the rest from what he has just done.