They finally reached the stairway to heaven! But they still need to look for the rest. Let's see what happens.
Chapter 27: The Forbidden Apple, reunited and complete!
Clouds and bright light, those are at the current sight of the heroes.
"Blue skies at least! This is the way to the Overthere, the Overthere Stair! " Luvbi squealed.
"Sounds cool, but we still have to find Peach, Duncan and Owen" Mario objected. "I'm sure they must be around here. Still, Duncan not being down there was strange. Guess he's not that tough" Heather snickered.
Gwen and Mario rolled their eyes.
"Enough idle blather! I shall fly ahead, so keep up if thou canst! If thou climbest too slowly, the sun will set, so shaketh a leg!" Luvbi said and left.
"How could you put up with that girl?" Courtney wondered, "We put up with your bossiness! She's way less annoying than you" Bowser taunted.
"You're asking for it Bowser!" Courtney glared at him, "Easy there you two. We can't waste any more time" the plumber intervened.
"Mario's right! No fighting among us!" Geoff said. The beast and the leader glared at each other, sighed and agreed.
"Let's get going!" Luigi chirped and everyone began the long journey
It was an extremely hard and tedious climbing through all the clouds. The team, under Courtney's revitalized leadership skills, managed to bring down all enemies, earning them a nice four-hundred dollar loot.
As they traversed the first four stairs, the gang came across several trees with apples of different colors.
The moment they reached the half of the fourth stair, they spotted Luvbi staring at something at the tree of golden apples.
When they reached her, they saw three people resting there.
Those were… Peach, Duncan and Owen, seemingly sleeping tightly.
Bowser's jaw dropped and rushed to the princess while the rest rushed to the other two contestants.
Upon further inspection, they found out the trio was sleeping.
"HEY! PEACH! PUNK! FATSO! GET THE HELL UP!" Heather shrieked, making everyone cover their ears.
"GET UP!" Bowser roared, scaring the others, but not the sleeping three.
"Obviously they can't heareth you. They hath eaten the golden fruit" the nimbi rolled her eyes.
"The Overthere teemeth with magical trees whose fruit maketh many an odd effect. The fruit of golden hue maketh people so satisfied, they falleth into deep sleep. And I mean DEEP sleep... The kind thou dost not wake up from for a hundred years...
Pray, wherefore would I know of such... Ah, but hold on a moment... I do remember my father's words of long ago. Yea, he said one tree in The Overthere bore a taboo fruit that could waketh anyone..."
"A taboo fruit… Hmm…" Mario thought. "Wait, didn't we see some apple trees when we were climbing?" Justin asked.
Confessional: Luvbi
"Not only is he gorgeous, he's also the smartest" the nimbi swoons.
End Confessional
"That's right! Maybe one of those trees contain the taboo fruit. Way to go Justin!" Luigi grinned.
"Well, this calls for the usual split up" Courtney said. "Mario and Geoff, you go back to the tree with the blue apples at the second stair. Bowser, Gwen and Justin, you go to the tree with the red fruits at stair one.
Luigi and Heather, you're with me. I have a hunch with the black apples I saw on the stair number three.
Luvbi, you stay here and guard them" the C.I.T. told to the nimbi. Despite not liking being bossed around, she nodded after Justin convinced her with a hair-flip.
The eight and Tippi parted ways, with the Pixl following the second group.
They managed to drop a long distance and land on the safe and soft clouds. "Impressive that my perfect face didn't suffer any damage" the model smiled. Gwen and Bowser rolled their eyes and went to the tree.
They quickly found the tree and picked up three red apples. "That was quick" Justin said. Suddenly, several strange-bony demon enemies swarmed them.
"Way to jinx it, doll-face!" Bowser groaned as they prepared for battle.
The beast quickly dispatched them with a Fire Breath, Gwen with her Burst Grenade and Justin with his Dolphin Slash.
All of the foes fell and the gang proceeded to return.
Tippi went with Mario and Geoff to check on them.
With those two
She arrived just in time to witness the two fighters taking down the same kind of enemies the second squad faced recently.
Geoff managed to beat the last one with his side smash attack.
"Nicely done Geoff!" Mario chirped. After they collected the blue apples, they made haste and began their return to the sleeping heroes.
While on their way, Geoff asked Mario on how he and Heather managed to get along without the queen bee backstabbing him.
"Well you see Geoff, when we first teamed up, she only stated she did this for her money.
She also told me all what she did back in the previous seasons of the show you two competed. Despite what she did was bad, she already had her punishment, shunning her more would only have been counterproductive.
Adding to that I also knew there was a slight amount of goodness behind that mean girl attitude. And with the kindness I showed her, Heather felt less tense around me, Peach and the others.
I also consider her a friend. Sure, she may be a bit rude but still, it's my friend. And friends stick together!
By the way, she also told what you said in the Aftermaths shows of this World Tour season.
Which reminds me" Mario said seriously to Geoff before performing an up throw and a Super Jump Punch on him. "That's how that first slap Leshawna gave to Heather felt"
Confessional: Mario
"I know I should let Heather solve her own matters, but man this one kinda needed to be done.
Guess Heather is actually influencing me" he scratches his head.
End Confessional
"Ow! Sorry man, by that time everyone hated her, including myself. That's why I did that stuff. But I guess being punched and ironically saved by Heather is what made me respect her" Geoff apologized after he landed to the ground and Mario helped him get up.
"Well, as long as we don't fight each other any longer since our worlds are in the brink of destruction, we're cool. Now let's get back to the others!" Mario chirped and the two continued their way back.
Tippi, who silently followed them, departed to check on the last squad.
With Heather, Courtney and Luigi
The three were fighting against the same enemies.
"Ha! You have to do better than that, bonehead!" Heather laughed after she took one foe down with her up smash.
Luigi manage to shatter several enemies with his Super Jump Punch. "I hope my bro and the others didn't get into trouble" he said.
"Heather, Luigi! Behind you!" Courtney shouted as she burned several foes with her Explosive Flames.
The two turned around and took down a big-sized enemy with a shot from the Paralyzer and a green Fireball.
All enemies were defeated and the trio high-fived. The tree with the black apples was just ahead of them. They collected the fruits and quickly returned to their rendezvous point.
"I have the feeling that won't be the last of them" Courtney sighed. Heather and Luigi looked at each other and agreed.
The three, followed by Tippi returned.
Little did they know that a beaten enemy reassembled and watched the heroes leaving the site.
It spread its wings and began flying "Must inform him. Otherwise, they will foil the grand plan" it said and kept flying.
The eight rendezvoused at the sleeping trio's site.
Everyone handed the apples, each to one of the incapacitated heroes.
First, they fed them the red apples, the heroes woke up but suddenly grew up in size, the effect wore off and they fell asleep again.
"Trial and error people! Let's give them the blue ones!" Courtney said.
The fruits were consumed and this time the trio shrank down. Mario, Heather and Gwen face-palmed
"Forget it! I'll do it myself!" Courtney gritted her teeth and forcefully fed them the set of apples.
Peach, Duncan and Owen began to shiver, suddenly waking up and yelling:
"GROSS!"
The three spat the apple and quickly brushed their tongues.
"Eww, what WAS that?! What in the world did you just make me eat?!" the princess scoffed. "Awful! Not even I would eat this again!" Owen cried.
"FUCKING DISGUSTING! This beat Chef's crappy food, and I didn't think that was possible!" Duncan roared.
"Yes! It worked! You're awake guys!" Geoff beamed. The three then looked at Luigi, Gwen, Justin and Geoff.
"Luigi?! You're safe and sound!" Peach smiled, "Hey there, Geoff!" Owen chirped and then noticed the model.
"Justin! It's always nice to see you!" he beamed and hugged him. "Also… missed you… Can't breathe, Owen…" Justin said.
The party guy let him go and then spotted the others "Mario! Heather! Bowser! Courtney!" he shouted.
The mentioned ones grinned at him. "How are you alive?" Peach asked. "Sit tight, princess and enjoy the tale" Heather began to explain everything…
15 minutes later
"That kind of wraps it up" the queen bee said.
Peach and Owen blinked in surprise after they learned everything that happened.
"I'm surprised that we survived an execution" Peach noted.
Duncan, on the other hand, stared at Gwen. The delinquent felt extremely happy and quickly ran to hug her.
"Babe! You're alive!" Duncan grinned. Gwen blushed a little and then the two stared at Courtney, who still was a bit bitter to see the punk.
"Duncan, I think we need to sort this out the three of us" the goth said.
"I think that's our cue" Tippi said, the other nodded and left the three, with Bowser smirking that Peach and her husband have reunited.
The three sat in front of the tree and began to talk things out.
After several heated arguments (which included the list of things to change for Duncan, and how he and Gwen gave into the rush of the moment), Duncan getting slapped by Courtney and some yelling, they managed to settle down their differences.
"I'm sorry, Courtney" Duncan said, "Just promise me to not cheat on her…" the leader sighed.
He felt guilty about how things went down in London.
Duncan nodded and shook hands with Courtney.
The three quickly dashed to the team, who were waiting for them at the end of the fourth stair.
"We made up, sorta" Gwen said, much to the relief of the heroes. "That's good to hear guys" Mario smiled.
"Then let us maketh haste to the Overthere" Luvbi said.
The team nodded and continued climbing the stairs. They took down more of the several enemies, the same type the gang encountered before. This earned them a nice loot of three-hundred dollars
Luvbi gasped "Skellobits! But they wereth supposed to be imprisoned in the Underwhere!"
"I have a bad feeling, let's get to the Overthere quick!" Peach rallied. The rest agreed and took off.
They managed to climb the seventh and last stair.
Several temple-like buildings started to become more common as they continued their tracks.
White clouds as far as the eye could see...
Mario, Heather and Co. had climbed through the clouds and finally reached The Overthere.
After finally reuniting with Peach, Duncan and Owen, the team became complete. But with those skeleton-like foes, Luvbi began to get uneasy.
Why? Because something unexpected and totally dramatic was about to happen...
The gang is complete! The team will explore the Overthere next chapter!