For the Greater Good
The door banged open. Freezing air filled the cargo room. Half a dozen koopas stampeded in and shoved their shelled bodies against the cage, bringing its bumping and rolling to a stop. Daisy steadied herself as they righted it, but Peach flopped to the bottom, her blonde hair matted with blood.
Grasping the bars, Daisy clenched her teeth. "Get us out! Get us out, you idiotic turtles! Can't you see Princess Peach Toadstool is hurt?"
The airship lurched again, its wooden frame creaking and popping against the howling winds. The cage slid along the tilting floor towards the doorway, dragging the koopas with it as they struggled to keep it steady. Dark shapes of mountains and a deep navy sky swung past Daisy's limited view as the movement of the ship fuelled her growing nausea. "Get me out!" Her voice rose to a shriek over the noise as she banged the palms of her hands against the caging. "Get me out!"
Surrounding her with their croaky chatter the koopas dragged the cage through the door and staggered with it out onto the open deck. The wind hit Daisy like a brick, flinging her off her feet. She screamed and threw her weight back and forth in a futile attempt to shake the cage free of its carriers.
A clawed hand reached in and grabbed her hair, yanking it back through the bars until she sat down with a bump. "Quiet," rasped the koopa soldier, pulling it harder, "if you want to stay unhurt."
Feeling her roots tearing, Daisy strained her watering eyes to the right. The reptile had pushed his face up against the bars so close to hers it was almost touching. Only then did she become aware of the scores of crew on the deck, straining against ropes and sails, trying to keep the airship under control. Her survival and Peach's relied on her co-operation, and in defeat, Daisy nodded.
The soldier let go of her hair and this time she kept still, allowing her captors to carry the cage towards one of the masts. She cradled the unconscious Peach her arms as they hoisted it a few feet off the ground, threaded ropes between the bars and lashed it firmly to the mast.
Their job completed, the team dispersed to join the efforts of their fellow crew members on the decks.
"Wait!" Daisy stood up.
The koopa who'd spoken before, turned around. "You are safer, now."
"What about Princess Peach?"
Leaning sideways against the wind, the koopa came back and peered at Peach's bloodstained hair and swollen face. "I will tell His Greatness," he said, "but for now we can do nothing." And with that he turned and staggered back to his post, soon becoming indistinguishable from his green-shelled colleagues as they fought against the storm.
With a sigh, Daisy did her best to make sure Peach stayed warm. She wrapped her friend's cloak tighter around her body and pulled the hood up over her dishevelled blonde hair. Then she leaned back against the bars of her prison and stared out at the poop deck, her arms crossed over her queasy stomach. Bowser's spiky silhouette paced against the early pre-dawn sky, flickers of flame escaping his mouth as he roared orders to his struggling crew.
The doctor said it would make him better. The doctor said...
Miles felt all cold and sweaty as he mashed the controls with his thumbs. Getting Mario onto the airship had been easy. He just made him jump up from the ground and latch onto one of the ropes that had been hanging down. It only took one button push and the little sprite climbed up and disappeared into one of those cannon holes in the ship's side all by itself. Since then he'd taken Mario through four of the lower decks. They had been okay, not too hard. But this engine room level was much harder than the rest. Dodging steaming pistons and furnaces was one thing, but now it seemed like everything was turning upside down. One minute Mario would be running left to right through the level and the next he'd fall upwards towards the ceiling and then sideways onto spikes or into walls of fire. It meant Miles had to keep stopping and going back to the last save point to try again. There were plenty of 1-UPs to help him along the way but he seemed to be losing more lives than he was gaining.
"Aargh!" he grunted with frustration as Mario's bank of extra lives dropped down to two.
"Miles, turn it off."
"But Mum, the doctor said it would make Luke better if..."
"Miles..."
Game Paused
With a huff, Miles closed up the console and stared ahead. This waiting room was different from the others. It had plants and carpet and a drinks machine where Mum didn't have to pay. The chairs were soft and bouncy, not like the hard plastic ones in the rest of the hospital. When all of Luke's machines started beeping a nurse had brought them here and told them to stay and wait for news. Mum sat in her chair, her head resting back against the wall with her eyes closed. Miles thought she looked tired.
"But I have to play it," he said. "I have to tell Luke that Mario got on Bowser's ship and he's going to rescue the Princesses. Then he's going to find Tatanga and..." he put his hand over his mouth. He'd nearly told Mum that Luke was in the game. "Anyway I have to tell him. When all the doctors and nurses come out of his room."
Mum turned her head and looked at him. "Come here..." She leaned over and gave him a tight hug. "I know you just want to help. I wish I could help, too."
He squirmed in her arms and cuddled the console to his chest. Mario had to find Luke before it was too late. He had to keep playing. The doctor had said so. Keeping very still, Miles opened it up again and turned the sound almost to nothing. He glanced up, expecting Mum to stop him. But she didn't say anything, so he wriggled until he was more comfy, and pressed the button to continue.
Before he could even get Mario going, the console rumbled and little sprite flew across the screen, landing in a heap between two power-up boxes.
Alarms sounded, steam hissed. The airship shook so hard, Mario thought it was going to break apart. He braced himself against the boxes, keeping out of sight while the koopa crew struggled to stoke the engine room's furnaces.
He clenched his fists at his own stupidity. He was no use to the princesses here. With the ship rocking about and just two 1-UP mushrooms in his pocket there was no way he could escape the engine room, let alone get past the koopas without being seen. If he distracted them now, the ship would never make it to its destination - if it wasn't already too late.
He should have stayed in Toad Town. Luigi would have known exactly where the airship was headed because he'd been to the mountain himself. He could have pinpointed it on the map. They could have taken the warp pipes together and arrived ahead of Bowser. At least then Luke would have had a better chance. But no, instead he'd decided to go alone, because he thought waiting for Luigi to regain his right mind over Mr. L was too much of a gamble. Why couldn't he have believed in his brother's strength for once? Mario pursed his lips. He'd let everyone down.
Another crash and a jolt dislodged him from his corner and tossed him across the floor, the golden power-up boxes tumbling after him like a pair of dice. He slammed against a hot pipe, twisting away as it burnt his shoulder, but not before one of them smashed into his side. It splintered apart with a loud crack, to reveal a glowing fireflower.
His cover blown, Mario snatched the flower up and crushed the flame-coloured petals in his fist. Feeling the heat of its power coursing up his arm, he rolled onto his back, ready to jump up and face his enemies. It was too late. He looked up from where he lay, straight into the eyes of three red-shelled koopas.
They stared at him. He stared back, puzzled. Even as the airship pitched and rolled it would only take a single kick from one of them to disarm him of his fire power. Impossible as it was to read their faces, Mario guessed his death wasn't their priority right now. Suspicious, he felt involuntary flames forming around his knuckles.
Miles jabbed at the controls to release the fireball, but nothing happened. Instead the koopas closed in on Mario, a speech bubble appearing above their heads.
"The en - uhh - the eng - ins... are falling..." The words were hard to read. He tried whispering them to himself a few times but they didn't seem to make sense. He huffed. He wished he could read as well as Luke.
"The engines are failing, Mario." His mum stroked his hair.
Startled by her voice, Miles looked up at her. With a smile he turned his attention back to the console and cleared the speech bubble to see what the next line was. These words were easier. "You - have - your- fire," he read aloud.
The koopa that had spoken pointed at Mario's flaming fist. He didn't have to say any more.
Mario stood up, his eyes still fixed on theirs, his fireball primed in defence. "Where?"
They glanced at one another, and then one beckoned. Mario followed them to the rows of furnaces in the centre of the engine room, where more koopas staggered about the rocking floor, doing their best to shovel in piles of dark, flat fuel pellets. Hampered by the turbulence, they'd allowed four of the fires to die out. As he approached them they chattered in alarm and drew back, their shovels raised.
Mario positioned himself in front of one of the burners, and glanced at his wary audience. He knew how they felt. Their very presence raised his hackles too. His unease made the fireball grow even bigger and hotter in his hand, and he needed as much fire as he could muster. Mario held onto the flames for as long as he could, until he felt like he would explode.
Per le principesse, he muttered. Then with a throwing motion he cast his fire into the furnace. Its deafening roar and wall of heat sent the crew backwards while bathing the engine-room in a flash of orange light.
As the dying embers re-ignited, the koopa at Mario's side wasted no time with his orders. The stokers found their feet and stepped forward to keep the flames going, while Mario moved onto the next furnace.
A power meter appeared at the side of the screen, its level hovering dangerously low. Miles hit the button again, and the Mario sprite threw a fireball into the second furnace. The shaking and rumbling in the console lessened and the power meter level shot up, only to drift back down again.
"Oh, I get it..."
To stop the airship rocking and throwing Mario all over the place, Miles needed to get as many fireballs into the furnaces as possible. If he was too slow, the meter dropped and the shaking got worse. But the more furnaces he kept going at once the more koopas got busy with shovelling, and fewer seemed interested in attacking Mario. Miles guessed he had to make the meter reach the very top before Mario could go on to the next level and find the princesses. He spammed the fireballs as fast as he could, sending the power meter higher and higher.
The sudden upward lurch left Daisy's stomach behind. The giant propellor at the top of mast turned faster. She could feel the rhythm of the mechanical wings evening out, easing the bumpiness of the ship's movement. The Koopas on deck cheered, then renewed their efforts at their controls. Ahead of her, Bowser stopped to look up at the propellor. A second burst of power shuddered through the ship, the pitch of its engines rising. Obviously satisfied that his crew were regaining control, he stomped his way across the decks towards her.
Swallowing back her fear, Daisy laid Peach's head down and rose to her feet as the monster approached. He stopped in front of the cage and turned his head to bring a red-gold eye in for a closer look; first down at Peach's limp body, then into Daisy's face. Wisps of smoke escaped from his smut-lined nostrils, his bushy red eyebrows and mane flowed backwards over his horns, which, like every ivory spike that protruded from his thick green shell, had been reinforced at the base with iron rings. As if his natural armour were not enough, Bowser sported metal-studded bands around his more vulnerable arms and neck, leaving only his soft looking muzzle deceptively unprotected. But the mouth, with its teeth and all of its fire more than made up for it, as Daisy's poor soldiers had discovered to their cost.
He pulled his head away from her, and clacked his claws. Within moments, a team of koopas and winged parakoopas surrounded the cage.
"Remove the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom," he said.
Two parakoopas fluttered upwards to Daisy's eye level, then lunged forward and thrust their claws into the cage. Daisy shrieked and leapt backwards. It was a mistake. Cords snaked around her waist from behind while more koopas reached in and grabbed her arms, pulling them outwards and tying ropes to each of her wrists. Her screams and struggles did nothing to stop them from securing her waist through the bars to the mast, and fastening her hands up over her head to the ring at the top of the cage. Then the locking mechanism under its base sprung open and the floor fell out from under her, swinging back on a hinge. Peach's body slid out onto the deck; Daisy struggled for breath as her bonds took her weight.
"Careful with her, she's hurt!" Barely able to force her words out, Daisy kicked her legs in an effort to find a foothold somewhere. Bowser scooped Peach up with one hand and studied her, as her head lolled backwards and her arms dangled between his great claws.
"Don't hold her like that! You'll kill her!" Desperate now, Daisy wrestled against her ropes, only to feel them tighten. They cut into her wrists and constricted her waist. Her head began to pound; her hands burned.
The Koopa King angled his head, bringing his eye in as close as he could to Daisy. "Are you comfortable? Or do you prefer your cage locked?"
Anger numbed the pain. Daisy grabbed at the cords from which her hands hung and pulled herself up to ease the pressure under her ribs. "Is this how you treat Princess Peach?" she said between gasps. "Do you... really think she'll agree... to... unify your kingdoms... if you... keep her like this?"
Bowser bared his teeth. "Princess Peach has learned to live in captivity. So will you."
"You'll... never... take... Sarasaland..." Daisy's arms trembled until she lost her grip, the ropes around her waist taking the strain once more.
"I have no intention." The Koopa King clacked his claws again and watched the soldiers lift the cage floor and lock it back into place. "Better, now?"
With her legs now able to support her weight, Daisy straighened her back and took a deep breath, a film of sweat forming on her forehead despite the cold wind. She needed to bargain her way out of this, and she needed to think fast. "What are you going to do with her, Bowser?" she said, her voice calm and controlled. "She's hurt. She needs to heal. Surely she's no use to you in that condition. She needs attending to by one of her kind."
Bowser raised his bushy eyebrows. "No need for that," he said, turning to go.
"What? What is she to you?"
Bowser stopped, and looked back over his spiky shell. "Bait." And with that, he lumbered back towards his position on the poop deck, his prize princess draped limp like a cloak over the crook of his elbow.
Bait? For whom? Mario? Daisy stamped her feet and pulled against her bonds. "What are you going to do to her?" she shouted after him. But Bowser didn't answer. After reaching his post he dropped Peach on the deck, where another koopa dragged her to the side, out of the way. Daisy rested her head against her suspended forearms, the dread of what the beast had in store for them both rising like bile in her stomach.
She guessed it wouldn't be long before she'd find out. The mountain range drew closer, its nearest peaks moving against those more distant as the airship approached. The unmistakeable shapes of castle turrets appeared, perched on top of one of the tallest mountains; the castle Luigi had talked about. Daisy swallowed. He'd been here. He'd tried to tell everyone, and nobody had believed him because one small part of his story didn't match hers...
The airship banked - now she could see the plateaux between the peaks, one of them a shimmering lake reflecting back the deep blues of the morning twilight sky. The tune of the propellors changed - now a controlled, lower pitch - and Daisy guessed that they were preparing to land. Koopas heaved at sails and mechanical wings, easing the ship into its final descent. Daisy whimpered as she watched the masts of a second airship rise alongside them, its sails furled up, its propellor still.
Touchdown was no more than a gentle bump. She gazed across at the other ship's decks, silent and empty. When she looked around to her other side, a gagging reflex seized her throat at the sight. That shiny metal hull, those huge laser blasters, that glass domed cockpit - the spaceship Pagosu was unmistakeable.
Barely aware of her own screams, Daisy fought against her ropes with every ounce of strength she possessed.
