Chapter 26: Cackletta II: Machinations of the Witch
"The Dark King was useless to you?" Mario says, surprised by Cackletta's insult of the once living avatar of the Dark King's power. "Do you need your ears cleaned out? I'm certain I was very clear with what I said." The witch remarks with much sarcasm. While Mario did agree with Cackletta that Joe Dark was a disgraceful human being thanks to his lack of sanity, he couldn't accept the fact that the witch thought of him as nothing more than a puppet that could easily be discarded into the trash whenever she so pleased. But maybe that wasn't the case, perhaps Cackletta has a different reason for calling the boy what she did. "Why would you even say that?" The plumber inquires, disguising his curiosity in a tone of utter disbelief.
"Simply put, the boy was too consumed by his own insignificant emotions to ever be of lasting use to me." Cackletta responds. "His emotions got in the way then…" Alpha murmurs loud enough for the witch to hear him, and after rolling her eyes and sighing in annoyance she says in a brusque tone, "Yes, he was too consumed by rage and insanity in pursuit of his rather blindsided goal. Simply put, had he accomplished his goal of killing the new Overlord, he would have never seen any reason to go about destroying other planets for me. He was a rebellious child, and with his strength I never would've gotten him to obey. So in the end, it was better that the Overlord killed him instead of forcing me to get the job done."
She was nonchalant in her words, for she cared little about the lives of others no matter how good or bad their mindsets were. The fact that she could talk so casually about two pre-teen boys attempting to kill each other was disturbing to say the least, and as Mario winces in disgust he looks into Cackletta's eyes as she finished up and said to her, "That's disgusting." "Oh come now, it is not like you cared about the false Dark King in the first place." It was a sharp rebuttal, one that held a lot of truth in it, Mario realized. However, instead of a focus being placed on that comment, Alpha had something of his own to ask the witch. "Ok then, if you aren't trying to revive the Dark King, then what was the point of everything you've done up until now?"
"There was definitely a point to my actions, I can assure you that right now. You see, my plan is not to revive the Dark King, but to create a new one in his place." Alpha and Mario widen their eyes in shock. "You're insane. That's something you have no right to mess with. You are NOT the governor of the two elements of balance, you are trespassing on God's domain by attempting such blasphemy!" The Commander's outcry, while heard by Cackletta, go deaf on her ears as she shakes her head in defiance. "But I'm not trespassing…After all, only those under his service who acknowledge such actions can declare my actions to be blasphemous…But as I've already said, the higher-ups have no idea of what I've done in here. God himself may know, but since the time of genesis has long passed he can no longer do anything to directly interfere with the universe's affairs."
Cackletta stated what she knew, and Alpha knew that even if she was lying, it was clear that if she hadn't been stopped by higher forces up until this point, then she wasn't going to be terminated by them right here and now. But that's what he and Mario were here for, to accomplish what the so-called "higher-ups" have failed to notice and deal with. However, as previously noted, Alpha can't kill the witch until she makes the first move, though he is admittedly starting to grow tired of her words. "Actually, speaking of my plans…I have always had two goals ever since the Elemental Overlord and the Dark King both perished." Cackletta then says while rubbing her chin and glaring at the two heroes with her eyes dripping with pleasure. "…Go on." Alpha says reluctantly, with both him and Mario keeping their eyes focused on her arms, since those are what she uses to cast spells.
"I will, I didn't need your permission, Commander. Now, let us start from the beginning of this whole ordeal. As you all know, the Elemental Overlord divided his powers among seven temples in the form of the Elemental Stones, the core of his spirit that powered them all up to their fullest potentials existing within the heart of the Origin Temple. The temple was guarded by his most loyal seven bodyguards, the Genesis Samurais, and a barrier that would move the unaware to the other side of the temple. So when I said I had two goals, these were the two I had in mind after figuring all this out. One, I would find a way to circumvent all the barriers and acquire the Elemental Overlord's power for myself, or two, I figure out a way to create another Dark King. Both options would allow me to follow along towards another goal, which I'll detail later on. Either way, dealing with the barrier was far too easy, since I simply had to use my magic to open a gateway through it. However, in their prime I stood no chance against the Genesis Samurais, and their immortality ensured that I couldn't wait for them to die of old age. However, a lack of fighters from Plit would one day cause their strength to regress to a weaker state, where I could take care of them at my own behest. So to make sure that that would come to pass, I killed anyone who tried to gather all the Elemental Stones, absorbing their life force to keep prolonging my own. I knew that I'd be in danger if someone gathered all seven, so I made sure to ambush them before the seventh temple. Eventually the time came to pass where I could kill the Genesis Samurais with a flick of the wrist, but first I wanted to make certain of something. I examined the Genesis Orb from the Realm of Darkness, and came to determine that even if I were to kill them all, I would never be able to touch the orb and take the Overlord's powers. The reason for that was because of a prophecy you are already aware of, which the Overlord knew would someday come thanks to his power to see the future. However, the protection he provided on his orb was not an absolute law, and thus I tried to determine a way to take it down. My own magic wouldn't work, so I did some researched to find out of something strong enough in Plit's history to dispel the barrier. I learned of the Beanstar, whose powers would only activate upon hearing the voice of a maiden pure. There turned out to be a benefit to the Overlord's prophetic powers, for because of them he predicted such a person to one day exist. The one you refer to as Princess Peach was the only one worthy, so I had to wait even longer until the proper day arrived. What made her capable of such a feat probably had something to do with the fact that she is one of the seven Star Children, but since you probably know nothing about that I won't bore you with the details. Either way, since obviously my plan with the Beanstar failed I had to resort to one final measure to undo the seal around the Elemental Overlord's orb, and that was to wait for the time to arrive when the boy of prophecy would come to Plit. By killing him, the seal would be undone in a snap, and I would have the powers I desired. Of course, you know what happened after that…So now let us move on to the other side of my plan, which actually took a bit longer to begin than the first one. I knew all along where the Dark King's spirit was, but since I was not the one foretold to take his powers I didn't bother releasing him or restoring his body. Even though I wanted to create my own Dark King, I decided to wait and see if the other boy of prophecy would prove worthy of discarding my doubts. At the same time though, I still focused on finding an energy source of pure darkness that I could use as a catalyst to create the Dark King anew. I heard of the Dark Star, an object buried within the ruins of the old Toad Town that would perfectly suit my goals. However, because of what I heard about it I couldn't bother to go after it myself out of fear of being possessed. I didn't have a guinea pig to go after it, since Smithy was busy with his own affairs while Dimentio couldn't be trusted near such an object. So I waited for a lackey, which ended up being that traitor Fawful. What he did after that, I assume he already told you, so we shall skip past that. Then came the day where both boys of prophecy appeared, and I planted a seed of darkness harvested from the Heartless in this world into the boy destined to become the Dark King, making him into a magnet that would draw in the Dark King's spirit from afar while at the same time amplifying his more negative emotions and draining him of all his positive one to see how his actions would be affected by having his body changed like that. I placed him in the desert, since that was close to where the Dark King's prison was, and he gained his powers just as predicted. But he proved me wrong in my dreams, as a creature of unbridled rage is unworthy of having the Dark King's title. Having dug my own grave on that one, I quickly picked up my old plan and had Smithy start to work on the machine you see behind me. And now here we are, as I'm soon minutes away from the success of my creation!"
Her long-winded explanation now out of the way, Alpha can only look on at the witch in utter disbelief. The lengths of time she had to endure just to get what she wanted, the sanity she still had when anyone else would've cracked from impatience, the Commander couldn't comprehend any of it. "That's a nice explanation, but that all sounds too contrived for me to believe. Everything couldn't have gone this perfectly for you, what would've happened if something screwed up?" Mario questions, and as Cackletta leans her head back and opens her mouth prepared to laugh, she stops, realizing that she shouldn't strain her vocal cords any further when she has even more to say to the heroes. "You don't get it do you? Even failures would benefit me in the long run." The witch states in arrogance. "Let me list it all off to you, ok?"
"Starting from the earliest point when my plans could come to fruition…If Smithy managed to conquer Plit then Fawful would've easily been able to capture the Dark Star without any interference from the Star Spirits, if he failed then his death would be easy to feign so know one be able to notice when he builds the machine later on. If I got the Beanstar, then I would acquire the Overlord's powers and accomplish one of my goals, if I failed then you would all think I'm dead and I would be able to manipulate things from afar without consequence until the time arrive for my return. If Dimentio takes control of the Chaos Heart and destroys all of existence then my main goal afterwards would be accomplish, but if he fails then he can at least can draw out another clone who has exposed himself to the object's powers and along with Fawful they could recreate it and use it to power the machine behind me. If Fawful fails to get the Dark Star then I could just extract the darkness from the dark boy's body and use it instead, but if he did get the Dark Star or its data to recreate then there was nothing left to stop that part of the plan. If I manage to get rid of the boy of prophecy before he acquires the Overlord's powers then I get the powers myself, but if I fail then the next possibility can come to pass. If the new Dark King kills the new Elemental Overlord then I can eliminate him before he vanished from the world and go about the remainder of my business with ease, but if the Elemental Overlord vanquishes the Dark King then I can quickly take what I want from him and go on with the next phase of my plan. Everything else in between, before and after didn't matter so long as every member of the Apocalypse Royale was around to keep things under control when I myself couldn't get the job done. So as you can see, everything done to stop me was futile, for I would've reached the fruition of my goals, it just took longer to do so than I had originally thought it would."
There is silence for a few moments after she is done bragging about her supposedly assured triumph, but Alpha interjects this empty sound with a rebuttal to everything spoken to him. He shakes his head and brandishes one hand out in front of his body with his eyelids sealed tight, saying to the witch "Actually, you are wrong. No matter what you say, you haven't won yet." "But I have, esteemed Commander. Nothing you or that wretched plumber say or do will change the events that have unfolded, the events that are already in motion, and the events that are to come." Cackletta's words are dripping with arrogance, but they are nothing that both heroes aren't used to. Slamming his knuckles into his palm, Mario cracks them in the grip of his hand and steps forward all ready to go. "That's not true Cackletta, there is one thing we can do to stop you."
"Eheheh…" The witch's laughter at Mario's bold remark starts off light, but unable to contain herself she pulls her head back as far as she can and expresses her enjoyment over the heroes' naivety with an erupting fit of laughter. When she stops she puts her hands out in front of her body and says to them both, "Face the facts heroes. I have done everything in my power to succeed in my goals. I revived and manipulated the foolish Lord of Subspace to damage the M.S.I. Base of yours so you wouldn't try and stop me sooner, I incapacitated the new Elemental Overlord so he wouldn't be able to do anything until it was too late, I managed to get your forces split thanks to utilizing one of the laws of your organization while at the same time get rid of the two people who could've but a dent in my plans if they so desired to, and in the end the only thing that has gone wrong is that Fawful turned out to be a traitor. However, he did everything I needed him to do despite his true allegiance, and nothing he could've said or done for you will make a difference. Once again heroes, as far as things go I am the victor, and you as the failures shall soon be dead."
"Like Mario said Cackletta, you are wrong." Alpha says, unflinching in the face of the witch's resolute boast. He raises his head up high and thrusts his arm out in front of his body, transforming it into its cannon form where it is then aimed at his enemy. "Once you die, your plan is ruined. And this time, we will make sure your death is permanent. No clones nor savior will come to rescue you from us both." "Oh, and by the way Cackletta…" Mario says with a grin of resolve as he nudges his cap into place, "A friend of mine wanted me to tell you that Joe Dark's soul is waiting for you in hell!" With Alex's comment relayed to the witch, Mario flares his hands up in a veil of golden fire.
"Then the time for mincing words is over." Cackletta notes, accepting all that has been said with her arms folded into his cloak and a callous grin on her face. The two heroes air on the side of caution as everything goes quiet. Suddenly, the witch's arms are flung up, both Mario and Alpha somersaulting forward as lightning bolts come crashing down from the sky above. They strike the ground in a flash as the heroes get on their knees and thrust their right arms out. An ion beam from the Commander and a flame beam from Mario are sent at Cackletta, who waves her hands in front of her hands and from the tip of her fingers comes magical energy that swirls into a small barrier on both sides that absorb the impact of the attack and cause them to explode.
But before she is scarred by the detonations the witch leaps backwards with her cloths flowing out to follow her movement. She thrusts her hands out with sparks in the palms, and two separate rows of lightning head out rapidly towards the heroes. Each strikes the ground diagonally, and as the two heroes leap into the air to avoid one strike they are forced to bring up their defenses to stop the next one in sequence. Alpha uses his shield while Mario deflects with his cape, and when their arms are back into position they look at the witch as she lands on the front pillar of the machine. She takes one of her fingers out, the time glowing brightly with a streak of fire as she etches across the air.
After a foreign seal has been drawn a dragon's head surrounded by the crackling flames emerges and makes its way towards the two heroes. Opening its mouth up wide to roar, Alpha notices that the spell is big enough to devour the both of them. However, Mario was more than capable of handling it with his powers, and quickly folds his arms above his head. As he turns to look at the Commander, the Goomba notices that he hasn't set his palms on fire as the bottom of them collide together in front of his body. With an approving nod Alpha takes advantage of his ally's distraction to charge forward at the witch, his body narrowly flying near the swerving body of the fire dragon as he inches closer.
Mario pulls his arms back to his side, the sudden jerking motion creating a powerful vacuum that pulls the fires apart from the dragon's form and brings them into the center of the plumber's palm, compression it all into the form of a fireball of medium size. The density is great, almost too much for Mario to handle, but he keeps it together, concentrating with all of his might as he shifts his eyes around to get a lock onto Cackletta. Before the dragon is absorbed completely, Alpha managed to take his sword out with his left hand and draw some of the fire into his blade, swinging it out at the witch before it dispels.
She raises her arms to block the incoming attack, but then the Commander rushes in while her guard is up and slams his right fist into her face. Bones are heard cracking as the head is forcibly turned towards the ground, the metal of Alpha's fist grinding against her skin but failing to draw any blood. Unrelenting in his assault, the Commander converts his other arm into a fist and slams it into her gut, the rest of her body following in recoil as his two attacks have successfully pushed her back. What was odd to Alpha though was that Cackletta was not grunting or showing any signs of pain. With his other arm quickly converted to its cannon form, Alpha presses the barrel into the witch's gut and fires a short burst of energy, smoking rising from the struck spot as Cackletta skids back approximately twenty feet, nearly causing her to fall off the edge of the pillar she is on.
Once on the ground the Commander turns his arm back to normal and opens the palm, the hands quickly detaching from the rest of the arms and flying straight towards Cackletta. The witch, after being battered around a bit by Alpha, slyly moves her left hand up and snaps her fingers. A pitch black hole pops up in front of her body, much to the Commander's vexation. But he has already commanded his hands to clamp down as they enter the hole, and he knew exactly what the witch was planning to do with them. From Mario's point of view he sees nothing of interest happening during Alpha the Cackletta's scuffle, as he himself moves his body slowly to the left in order to get a better shot in that won't harm his ally. The fireball is about to reach its limit and will thus harm him if he keeps it any longer, so as the plumber prepares to thrust his arms out the other hole opens up behind him and Alpha's arms fly out, their finger clasping down onto the plumber's shoulders so suddenly that his focus is broken long enough for his aim to shifted.
The fireball is flung out; its size expanding now that it was no longer being contained within the cusp of Mario's palms. On the other side of the battle the Commander quickly pulls his arms out of the hole after letting go of his ally and brings them back into place, swiftly turning his body around as he hears the fireball get closer and bringing his shield up in front of his face to absorb the brunt of the impact from the massive orb of flames. The blazing field that arrives after the collision fails to penetrate around the edges of the barrier But in the defense of one attack comes vulnerability to another, as two lightning bolts speed straight from the tips of Cackletta's fingers and hit the Commander straight in the back, his body wincing in pain from the sudden sharpness thrusting itself through his spine.
Alpha was the first of the two heroes to take any lasting damage during this battle, but the Goomba came into this battle knowing full well that neither he nor his ally were going to come out unscathed. Now was the time for retaliation, as the Commander recovers from the strike and flips his body around with the cannon setup ready to fire. The ionic blast shot at the witch is dodged with a quick dip into one of her magic holes, the bottom of the beam just nearly grazing the attachments on her head. Unwilling to let her escape, Alpha keeps his arm the way it is and charges through the air towards the hole with his wings outspread momentarily, retracting them as he dives through the hole to follow Cackletta.
The witch re-appears suddenly a few feet away from Mario, quickly snapping her fingers to change the exit of the hole she went through so Alpha slams headfirst into the ground below her. Now with the Commander briefly knocked unconscious she focuses her attention on the plumber, who has set his fists on fire ready to engage Cackletta in physical combat. Unfortunately for him as he rushes towards her he is quick to discover that the witch is not a fan of such a style of fighting, for she uses her magic to create a lightning based seal in front of her that blocks Mario's swiftly thrust punch. It was a defensive spell specifically designed to work when it was hit, and the electricity quickly spreads out to bind the plumber's body in three rings.
With his legs pressed together along with his arms put against his body, Mario right away tries to escape by moving his arms against the solidified electricity to try and break it apart. While his struggles are made clear the witch readies another spell, her hands being set on fire as if to mock the fighting-style that the plumber has adopted. Even with his slight resistance to flames, Mario knew he'd be fried to the bare bone in his current condition, so he increases his strength beyond the levels he normally has and puts his elbows to work in trying to break the rings. They begin to stretch apart, unable to keep the plumber's might at bay.
When the lightning rings finally break around the arms, the ones on the legs follow suit, much to Cackletta's pupil-shrunk surprise. Mario then moves a few feet forward and hits the witch with a powerful left hook, and though he does neglect to ignite his knuckles as he deals this blow he doesn't fail to do so when he thrusts his other fist straight into her chest. The blow releases a shockwave of fire before she is sent flying away a few feet, her arms held out but still set on fire. She has enough consciousness within her to cast the spell though, and as a small flurry of flames begin to collapse behind the plumber to drag him in for the aftermath, Mario hurriedly charges forth to avoid the ensuing medium-sized explosion.
Once he has caught up to Cackletta's hurtling body he holds his arms out straight and presses his legs together, spinning his body around rapidly like a tornado to deliver a flurry of blows to the witch, continuing to push her along through the air with each repeated strike until she grows tired of taking damage and brings her hands out in front of her body, grabbing Mario by the head to stop his motions almost immediately. Before he is given time to react she casts a spell on him, a veil of black, purple and blue energy surrounds his body for two seconds, vanishing just as he starts to feel his body's mass increasing tenfold.
The weight on his organs is excruciating, but he endures it until Cackletta lets go, where his body then rapidly descends towards the ground, the hard impact with the floor breaking the spell of gravity but leaving Mario injured as he lays face-first on the cracks created from his fall. He is an open target for attack, and with the witch swinging her arms out overhead and her cloak flailing in the gentle, melancholic breeze of this realm she summons a gigantic lightning bolt to smite the plumber. Suddenly, moving in for defense as a blur of gold is Alpha, who summons half of a shield from both arms and clashes them together, the fusion of the halves creating a dome shaped barrier of energy above his head that takes the most of the brunt from the witch's spell as it cascades downward.
Most of the electricity moves past the edges of the barrier and falls down around Mario as smaller lightning bolts, but so long as his ally was safe from harm nothing else mattered to the Commander. When the lightning finally leaves the air Alpha decides to strike back, putting one half of his shield back into his arm and recreating the full shield on the other arm before launching it out like a discus towards the witch. Cackletta brings her up to guard, the edge of the shield colliding with them and ricocheting into the air, where Alpha then charges forth and converts his right arm into something similar to his cannon form, only with a smaller barrel at the helm of his harm and two iron cylinders pumping into his limb.
Needles rapid-fire out of the barrel, impaling themselves into Cackletta's arms in a matter of seconds. The pumps were used to compress energy down, and without the boundary of the barrel to keep them down they explode. Her arms swung out in pain, she is clocked in the jaw by Alpha's left elbow, sending her flying away as he quickly turns his other arm back to normal and catches the shield while it falls, retracting it into him as he flaps his winds out wide and propels his body in an curved arc so he gets behind the witch. With a twirl of the body his foot connects with Cackletta's back and sends her back towards where she once was. The Commander speeds to the predetermined location as a bolt of light, backhanding the witch with a spiral turn to send her towards the ground.
With his cannon arm held above his still body as if he was ready to toss a baseball, Alpha thrusts it out down towards the ground and fires a beam that catches up to the witch before she hits the floor. From his point of view the Commander can't tell, but the energy from his attack isn't spreading wide on the ground. He turns his head, using his eye patch to try and sense the witch's energy signature. There is nothing to be found, and with a tilt of the head he notices a hole opening up above Mario, who is has just gotten back on his feet from the previous spell. "WATCH OUT!" Alpha exclaims as loudly as he can muster, and as the plumber looks up and sees the light piercing through the whole, his eyes widen and he quickly backflips out of the way of the beam as it comes down.
Though he feels that he is safe, Cackletta quickly reappears behind the beam and casts a spell that fires five dark orb-shaped bullets at the plumber. Each shot bigger than the next, they collide with the unaware Mario and sending him skidding along the ground farther and father until the final shot bursts on his gut and sends him flying. Alpha stops his beam and flies down to catch his ally mid-air, the palm of his left hand acting as a cushion to catch him and allow him to put his legs down onto the ground after turning his head to nod and thank the Commander for the quick rescue.
Now that they stood staring at Cackletta, the witch walks so she is standing in the shadow of the machine, her hands clapping slowly as the hole she made seals up. With their bodies turned towards her, the two heroes raise their eyebrows wondering why she is congratulating them. "I don't know how I feel about garnering praise from you of all people…" Alpha says in a scorn-filled tone. "You don't think it is deserved? I'm surprised to see the two of you faring as well as you are, though admittedly you wouldn't be alive still if it wasn't for the Star Spirits powers." As she makes her point with truth and arrogance present in her voice, she looks to be struggling slightly with her movements, signifying that she is in fact taking damage thus far.
"But it doesn't matter how strong you are, you cannot deliver a permanent death to someone like me." She says, folding her arms into her cloak and glaring at the two heroes with her grin ever-present. "And why is that?" Mario questions. "Remember when you killed me down to my soul Mario? Remember when Alex claimed that he finished me off at the Origin Temple? It is a question you have both been wondering about, I can tell, the mystery behind my revivals you wish to know. I can reveal all I know to you simply because you will die anyways. Whether you kill me or not is irrelevant to my affairs…Now then, where should I begin?"
Next Time: The Second Life