I bet almost no one expected this so soon. But you all must know, evil villains have plans, and those plans must be protected at all costs. This was one of the most fun chapters I have written through this story.

I would have had this up sooner, but all this weekend my younger brother has been taking forever on an essay. Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. I think I can contribute it more to the fact that I decided to finally spend the 1000 Wii Points I've had left over since I bought Paper Mario back in January (The reason I even wrote this story, btw). And I got Ocarina of Time. Never played Zelda before. Ever. And all I can say is, so far it has been worth the purchase. I have not had this much fun with a game since I got Platinum seven months ago.

Enough of my ramblings; enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 33: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Mario woke up groggily. He brushed some dirt off of himself before taking a look around. Seeing that the castle was just behind him, he was reminded of where he was immediately. Python, Boone, Shelly, and Duplissa were already up and about; with Duplissa having created an illusionary fire after Boone had apparently failed.

"And you lived in the outdoors all your life…" Shelly shook her head in embarrassment for the Boomerang Bro. Mario made his presence known and greeted everyone, receiving a few "hellos" and "good mornings" from everyone. He sat down by the fire to be engulfed in the warmth. Graves woke up shortly after and sat next to him.

"Hey Mario, You wouldn't mind if I asked you somethin'?" Graves asked. "I can't help it – I've got this feeling of foreboding coming over me. Like…like this battle won't end well. Today just gives me some terrible feeling. I know it seems silly but…I just can't shake it. I was dreaming and I saw what I thought was Void but, it doesn't seem right. Void wouldn't come here right now, would he?"

"I wouldn't worry about it," Shelly said as she rubbed her hands in front of the fire. "Void was a creep, there's nothing to be spooked about. I wouldn't think that we'll see him until after we get the Mega Stars."

"And you are so terribly wrong." A voice rasped in response. Everyone was wide-eyed as they looked frantically around to find who had spoken.

"Very funny Boone," Shelly laughed nervously. "You can quit that now."

"I would but…I'm not doing that."

"Then who? Graves?"

"WRONG!" Shadow particles began swarming all around them, each individual one clumping with another until they began to amass into one large blob. The blob redefined itself and grew into a humanoid shape, with three-fingered white hands and a white sphere of a head. The head gained two depressions to represent eyes, and three slits like a mask where the mouth would be. After it finished forming, everyone watched in horror as Void hovered before them, looking at each person as if calculating what he could do to destroy each of them.

"Hello Mario and friends. It is a pleasure to meet you all once again. And I see you have a new friend. Python, is it? Obviously not your real name, is it Jonathan?"

Python stared in shock at Void. "How…how do you know who I am? That information is never disclosed from the organization!"

Void started to laugh, but this turned into a wheeze. "Fool. I am everywhere, I can get anywhere. There is nothing you can do to stop anything which I may do. And what I may do now, it's quite obvious. You shall all die here. You cannot get the Star here; you will not get the Star after this. And Bowser shall prevail. And then I shall prevail, thanks to his assistance. I don't think anything would have ever worked without him getting a hold of the Mega Stars, since I could not. Alliances are the keys to victory, remember that. That is why Dimentio assisted me. That is why Bowser assisted me."

"So what, are you just going to kill Bowser in the end, too?" Shelly asked. Void laughed at this.

"Of course not. Dimentio was a stepping stone to get my plan moving along. Bowser is an important part, as he is well aware. Without him, nothing can work. Therefore, he shall not die. Nor shall his child, or anyone else he wishes. Such are important things to do to get what you want in alliances."

"But why attack now? What are we going to do here that you couldn't take care of with Bowser later? Or have taken care of well before?"

"I had underestimated you before. But I know exactly what shall be done. It is a now or never. This is the final stand for everything I have worked for. And I shall prevail in the end, and each of you shall die painfully. Goodbye." He said finally before having a spherical blast of shadows burst forth from him, directly hitting everyone and throwing them back a few feet. Mario called everyone back, keeping only Boone with him.

"I'm ready whenever you are Mario!" He gripped his metal boomerang and pulled it from the sling on his back. The purple metal edges looked particularly deadly at the moment and Mario hoped they would be able to help. Just before Boone could throw it, a deafening boom caused everyone to wince and clutch their ears.

Mario saw William shoot off with a sonic boom towards Void, having apparently just awoken from the attack. Void seemed surprised, but didn't bother at all to move. William had apparently dropped everything, taking in the appearance of the Bullet Bill that he was. "I'm coming for YOU! This old timer is going to teach you how we did it in the OLDEN days!"

Void seemed to make what could only be described as a smirk. "Bring it, geezer." He stayed completely motionless as he saw the Bullet Bill approach him in almost slow-motion. William narrowed his eyes and charged even harder as he came closer to Void. A split-second later, he hit Void.

At least, that's what should have happened. Instead, William blew right through Void's body without any damage to either of them. "Wha-?"

"Too slow." Void turned around and shot a beam of complete dark energy at William. The Bullet could only watch as he was hit and rendered unconscious instantly. His body fell from the sky and crash landed into the ground, kicking up tons of dust as a result.

"William!" Shelly screamed. Duplissa was staring in fright at both the fallen body of William, and Void.

Void began to pull his arms back. "There's an interesting thing about ones who hold unlimited power. Those who believe that it can be used for the greater good are fools. They are corrupted sooner or later. Those who use it for evil from the start have a chance at reaching their aspirations sooner. Such as what I am doing now. Allow me to demonstrate." He pulled his arms back in front of him in a clap of his hands, unleashing another wave of dark energy towards everyone. This time, however, Mario noticed how it seemed to move in an altered two-dimensional plane. Making sure he did it just right, he jumped over the wave as it came. Shelly made sure everyone else did so as well.

"Very well done. You avoided an attack. I suppose you can learn things. But can you take this?" Void's hands glowed purple before he slashed forward in an "x" pattern, sending forth two waves in the same pattern, growing in size as it came closer. Mario ran and ducked out of the way of the central point of the cross while the others tried their best to stay out of the way. Duplissa and Boone were unluckily hit, but only suffered minor burns where contact was made.

"Mario! We need a plan of action here! This guy isn't going to be giving us any kind of fairness, and we need to strike back at some point here!" Mario nodded and pointed to Boone. The Boomerang Bro. understood exactly Mario's orders, and he through his boomerang directly at Void.

Void remained motionless once again, letting the boomerang pass harmlessly through him, carrying only a few bits of his shadow body, but this did not seem to do anything. "Conventional weapons and attacks are useless against me. You expect a mere toy to bring damage upon myself?"

"Eh, I tried at least."

Void began a coughing fit before he began to charge another cross attack in his hands. Before he used it though, a glint in the sky shone through the darkness as Boone's new metal boomerang began its way back. Void did not see this and continued his attack, sending forth the "x" shape once again. Everyone was far more prepared for it and ran out of its way before it could harm them.

"Why do you keep running from the inevitable? Pain and death will only come sooner to you. You only prolong it. Not that it shall matter once I am done."

The Boomerang was close now, closing a distance of a hundred feet in a matter of seconds. "What?" Void turned his head in time to see the jagged object slam into him, knocking loose his head from his body and onto the ground. The shadows making up his body dissipated and his hands fell to the ground.

Mario approached the parts of Void cautiously, fearing for the worst. Boone grabbed his boomerang and joined up with him, as well as the others who stayed a safe distance behind. Graves decided to be the brave one and hopped up alongside Mario. Drawing his sword, he pushed Mario back. "Hold on matey. Let me 'andle this. If he's still breathin', I'll give him a quick slash from Ol' Reliable."

Mario tried to stop the Goonie, but was too late. As Graves cautiously approached Void's head, his trembling began to completely take him over. The eye sockets of the head were apparently closed. Graves was seriously beginning to be overtaken by fear as he raised his sword for a final blow. "Come on Graves! Don't wait for him to come back from the dead and kill us!" Shelly yelled.

Graves nodded, and taking an uneasy breath, swung his sword at Void's head. Within a few moments, chaos was all over. The eyes opened, and Void reformed without any hesitation, dealing a heavy punch to Grave's face as he did so. The Goonie sailed backwards into the ground, skidding along towards the lava without any signs of stopping in time. Mario and the others could only watch in horror as they saw Graves slip over the edge and disappear from view.

Enraged, Shelly faced Void such killing intent ready upon her face. "Duplissa, if you please." The Duplighost wasted no time in filling out Shelly's request, knowing very well things wouldn't be pleasant otherwise. Taking a crayon out, she began to draw boulder after boulder, until at least fifteen or so had been created. Shelly picked one up and began tossing it lightly up and down in a threatening gesture towards Void.

"…Blast." He said as Shelly rapidly threw boulder after boulder in succession, leaving little possibility of avoidance for Void. Firing off a shadow pulse in a vain attempt to stop the boulders, Void could only watch as he was nailed repeatedly by them. When the onslaught was finished, he remained in the air, gasping for breath. His head and hands showed signs of large cracks in them, and it was even visible to see that a sizable chunk had been removed from his head, as well as missing one of the fingers on his right hand.

"So I see that you have actually managed to bring me to this poor of a state. Very well then, I am left with no choice. You all die here." Void pointed a finger at the space in front of Mario and the others, where a miniature black hole opened up.

"Duplissa!" Shelly cried as she began to madly clutch at the ground to escape the pull of gravity. Duplissa was already swept up, but was going around in such a way that it could have been likened to a whirlpool or tornado, giving her more than enough time to be set to work to save everyone. Drawing around the black hole as best as she could, Duplissa managed to seal it off from the outer world in a near-transparent box. But it was evident it would not hold long as several cracks began to form in it. Void was distracted by this development, and was actually amazed at the ingenuity of Duplissa.

"You demonstrate quite a prowess for being able to react well in emergencies. I admire that. It seems you are a worthier adversary than I thought, instead of a weakest link for this little motley crew. Sad that you have to die."

As Void spoke, he did not notice Mario dashing towards him in preparation for a jump. Leaping up with all his might, Mario landed perfectly atop Void's head, sending more cracks throughout it. Jumping off, he did the same to Void's hands. "Stop Mario! You have no idea what power you are messing with!" Mario only smirked as he finished, performing several back flips on his way back to the others.

Void was about to do another cross attack, but was shocked to see his hands begin to crumble before his very eyes. Slowly at first, the white substance they were made up of began to blow away like sand, but it was long before they began to break apart in sizable fragments that fell useless to the ground. "No! What have you done to me! I could not have lost so much so soon! That's impossible!"

"Not for the great Mario! Anything is possible for him!" Shelly gloated. Void snarled at her as the last of his hands faded away into nothingness. The shadows that were his arms dissolved into the air, leaving him without his main way of attacking. Sighing, he began to shake his head.

"Fools. That is what you are for even attempting to stop me. Even removing my arms, something I never thought possible, you have not held me back any more than I would be with them." His chest began to glow purple as his energies began to gather and concentrate all at once.

High above, the resulting beam attack was caught on camera by the same surveillance equipment that had been following Mario and his partners since they had left Koopolis.

"Yo, L! Get in here and check this out!" Bowser Jr. called down to his partner.

A sound from below signaled Mr. L's approach. Metal clanking of his shoes on the ladder below were heard before a loud bang resonated in the room Bowser Jr. was in. "Ouch," was all Jr. heard from Mr. L before the trapdoor was opened and the Green Thunder climbed in, clutching his head in pain. "Why was that locked?"

"Oh, it was? Sorry, didn't know…I guess." Bowser Jr. shrugged indifferently before swiveling in his chair back to the screens. "Check this out, man. Some dude's gone and taken the fight early on our targets! Who does he think he is?"

Mr. L walked up to the screens and squinted at what he saw. "What in the world is that thing? You ever seen anything like it?"

"Nope, never. Papa never had anything like that in his army or a part of his plan. Truthfully, it looks something like what Dimentio had around, when he was around. Just a bit deadlier, of course."

"It hasn't killed anyone yet, has it? Because, that's our job. Your dad said so."

Jr. typed on a keyboard in front of him. "Doesn't look it. Two are completely unconscious from what this shows. The others seem injured in multiple ways, but are far from down and out. One of the unconscious ones very nearly died, too. He fell into our moat."

"Well, why isn't he dead?"

"Get this, it looks like one of them went and grabbed him after he fell. Probably a Monty Mole or something. Jeez, Mario always seems to get all sorts of characters with him on these adventures of his, doesn't he?"

"You're telling me. So are we going to do anything about that thing?"

"Nah, let's let it go ahead and do as it pleases. If we're lucky, it'll end up killing all of them, and we won't have to do squat. Then we can go to Papa and he'll give us the credit, and then things will be smooth sailing from there."

"I need more boulders, Duplissa!" Shelly called to the Duplighost. Duplissa nodded, and hurried to fill out the demand of her friend. Shelly was currently throwing the boulders nonstop at Void, but he now moved like a ghost, strafing between the constant barrage of boulders to avoid further damage to his head.

Mario was busy trying to figure out a way to get at the shadow entity since their current tactic was failing them. Before he could think further, a noise behind him caught his attention. Looking behind, he saw the ground rise up in a spot before Python crawled out, dragging a bloodied and unconscious Graves with him. "Reporting for duty once again. And all are accounted for." Python saluted Mario with a grin and then laid Graves upon the ground. "Is there anything I can be of assistance for?"

"Well, saving Graves was just about good enough." Boone commented. Shelly took a pause and motioned for Boone to give another try with his boomerang, as well as Duplissa to go ahead and try to think of any other ideas she may have.

"There is something you can do," she said as her ideas started to flow. "Just tell me, can you dig through rock?"

Void had noticed the evident lack of attacks as of recent. "What's wrong, lost the will to fight? Or just run out of clever ideas to attack me with? You can't win, you'll lose no matter what happens, whether directly by my hand, or by my little present. Have you all forgotten about it?"

Mario was shocked as he remembered the black hole Void had placed, and he looked over to the shield they had put around it. Despite being invisible, there were cracks all around where Duplissa had created the box. It was obviously not going to hold for much longer. Mario called for his partners to get ready for a final assault, knowing that this was the last chance they had before the black hole would be unleashed once more. If they could take out Void, then it was possible that the black hole would go away with him.

"Don't even try it; I'll just avoid all of your attacks without any problem." Void taunted.

Mario motioned for everyone to begin, and was followed by a flurry of boulders, a boomerang, and his own hammer. Void managed to wheeze out a laugh as he began to do exactly as before and move deftly between the objects, making sure that his fragile head was completely untouched.

"I don't know why you continue. It makes no sense that you fight for a lost cause, when in the end you shall all fail. And these pathetic attempts at trying to hit me are beginning to bore me. Strange that you continue this even when you know it doesn't work. I suppose it shows the limits of each of your intelligence, especially you, Shy Gal."

Shelly smirked at his comment. "Then you'll be presently surprised with what we have for you. Now Python!"

Void twisted to look around as he heard an explosion from behind him. As it turns out, one of the boulders that had just passed him had burst apart, revealing Python from within. The Monty Mole began a free-fall towards Void, the latter of which could do nothing but watch in silent terror as he realized his imminent doom.

"You, my friend, have failed at not being seen!" Python cried out in triumph. Void tried to get out of the way, but was struck head-on by the falling Monty Mole. Python fell straight to the ground, but instead of slamming into it, he immediately burrowed through and made his way back to Mario and the others.

Void was knocked forward from the attack, the force of which managed to dislodge his head from his body, once again causing the shadows to dispel. Void's head flew forward until it impacted into the ground, creating a small crater where it lay unmoving.

Mario slowly walked towards Void, making sure to be wary in case that he somehow woke up once again. The head wriggled for a moment until it could get a good look at Mario.

"You bested me," he spat. "I never believed it possible but, you managed to defeat me. And so quickly…you must be proud. My plans never saw this happening, but I suppose I should always expect the unexpected. So what are you to do now Mario? Knowing the kindred spirit you are, I'd expect nothing more than for you to leave me here to die, am I correct? Pathetic. This is why you continue to fight. You never have the guts to kill your enemy. Exactly what you are doing right now. And then you'll just go on and – wait, what are you doing?" Mario's head was down, hiding his face as he pulled out his hammer. Pulling back for a moment, he keeled forward as he prepared to smash what was left of Void. "I never meant for you to actually – grahhh!"

The hammer crushed Void's already broken head, sending cracks all throughout it and breaking off several more pieces.

Void began coughing uncontrollably, not sure what was to become of him now. "No…I can feel my powers slipping. I'm dying by my own self…Mario, let your game be pleasant, for I shall be sure to come for you in your Game Over." He was silenced by a sudden sucking sound that seemed to come from him. He screamed, realizing that the irony of his downfall: he was being consumed by himself. Sure enough, a miniature void was soon visible as it absorbed the rest of him until there was nothing left.

At that moment, the black hole managed to shatter the shield surrounding it. Fortunately, as it did so it dissipated with Void into oblivion. All was quiet for the moment as everyone looked at each other, unsure if the threat was truly gone.

After a few minutes more, everyone remained quiet. Boone and Mario went over to retrieve William, who was surprisingly still alive. Mario sat down quietly, away from the others as the partners that were still able to move around were busy taking care of the two unconscious ones. Mario had made sure to leave two Life Shrooms with them to at least revive them for the moment. He didn't have much else to heal them, though, so that would be a problem for when they got into the fortress.

Remembering his goal, Mario turned his attention to the castle in front of him. Acknowledging that the threat of Void was gone, he now had to take care of Bowser. But before Bowser, he still had two more Mega Stars to get back. And one of them was within his grasp.

I better not get any complaints that "oh, why'd you go and have Void come here so soon, especially right before the fight with Bowser Jr. and Mr. L! Now the team is weak, there's no way they could win unless you pull some random thing that comes out of nowhere."
I know what I'm doing, and this was necessary for the story to progress. Void needed to be taken out of commission, so that Bowser could be focused upon. And as for when I do the Bowser Jr. and Mr. L fight, I've already given you guys how it'll be done. It was probably overlooked as "unimportant" a chapter or so ago. But I'm not going to spoil anything about the future of this story. I'm thinking that there'll be one or two more chapters before the fight with Bowser Jr. and Mr. L, it depends on how I pace the next one.

But I suppose I can give a nice little tidbit about the contents of next chapter. We're going to meet the next partner, and it's not going to be a pretty first encounter!