Mario walked to the middle of the city.
Kamek also walked to the middle of the city.
Then Wario and Waluigi showed up. They grinned and laughed. Mario averted his eyes.
Then some DEM wizards were in the middle.
REPRESENTING TEAM MARIO...
Mario clenched his fist.
REPRESENTING TEAM MIKU...
Wario laughed.
REPRESENTING THE DEM...
They aimed their guns
REPRESENTING... KAMEK?
Kamek got on his broom.
Mario stepped back from the middle and went into hiding. "A four-way team fight? Oh boy."
"Mario." A monotone girl voice said.
Mario practically yelped as he turned his head to see Origami.
He exhaled. "What do you want-a now of all times?!"
"I'm on your side."
"Wh-?! I don't-a believe it..."
Origami got up. "Fine. But we have to stop them. For Shido's sake."
Mario shrugged. "Okay, okay." He got up on his feet. "But something tells me I'm-a gonna hate the word 'origami' when I get-a home."*
He turned to the rest. "Okie dokie then, let's-a-hope I can bring them back."
He then ran to the middle...
and all four teams clashed!
They jumped up high in the air as Mario grabbed a DEM wizard's gun and fired a shot at Wario. Waluigi charged in but a Bandersnatch unit hit Waluigi.
Luigi hammered the Bandersnatch and got hit by Blue Toad, which sent him flying, but Mario caught Luigi.
"Thanks bro! WAAH! Kamek is here too?!"
Mario and Luigi got hit by a spell blast as they landed to the ground. Mario unfortunately had to leave Luigi behind as he entered a running state. He jumped up to avoid an icicle wave from Yoshino and landed on it with his feet. He pulled out his hammer and simultaneously hit Yellow Toad and Yuzuru. He then twirled into the air, Matrix-style, to punch a falling Rabbid Luigi into the distance.
In the distance, Donkey Kong grabbed Rabbid Peach and threw her up, aiming her blaster at Jessica who was interfering with Mana.
Jessica landed near Mario who hammered her in the face. "That'll-a teach you!"
Then Kaguya jumped at Mario. "Woah! Mama-mia!"
A Bandersnatch unit cut off Kaguya's path, then almost slashed at Mario when Kamek interrupted with a spell blast.
The Bandersnatch blocked it and almost fired it's shots when time paused.
Kurumi appeared in the middle and shot her pistols at both the Bandersnatch and Kamek!
Mario pulled out his hammer, jumped in the air, and knocked Kamek down from the air with a hammer strike!
Luigi finally caught up, using his hammer to knock Kamek away like a damn baseball.
They both cheered at the same time. "Woohoo! Super Mario Bros!"
Their celebration was cut short when Jessica rose once more, hitting Mario away with a gun blast.
He landed up high on a roof, causing him to look up and see a Power-up.
"Huh... I guess-a Blue Toad and-a Yellow Toad dropped this."
He jumped onto the higher roof to see it was a Tanooki Suit.
"Aaah, I see!"
He slowly gripped it in his hand. "Now we're-a playing with power!"**
And then he absorbed it.
Luigi pulled out his hammer and clashed with Jessica, with Mana kicking Jessica on the side.
Wario kicked Jessica, causing the force to blow Mana and Jessica away while Luigi barely dived out of the way from a sharp icicle wave.
Luigi turned to Yoshino and then she got blasted with a gun by Kurumi.
Donkey Kong jumped into the action and pounded the ground, senting Blue Toad and Kaguya up in the air.
Mario flew in with his new Tanooki Suit and tail whipped Kaguya. Now it was combo time!
He whipped, punched, kicked, hammered, whipped up, punched, dunked and then punched away!
"Woohoo!" Mario cheered.
Then a Bandersnatch unit came up and slammed Mario onto the ground within a very long street.
"WAAAH!" Mario kept running!
He jumped over Blue Toad, Ground Pounded to avoid Yellow Toad, dodged an incoming flung Donkey Kong and dived to avoid Kaguya. He grabbed Yuzuru and chucked her back to Kurumi, which responded with a gun blast. He landed and avoided a blast from Jessica which hit Kamek, and Kamek slowed down and almost crashed into Mario. He then got hit by a tumbling Rabbid Luigi, which Rabbid Peach chased after. Mario was now vulnerable in the air, and then got hit by a flung Luigi. Origami arrived to blast a persistent Yellow Toad away and then Rabbid Luigi got up on his feet and charged up his Bworb which hit Mario far away!
All of that within a few seconds!
Rabbid Peach escaped from the action... Or not. She saw Kaguya AND Yuzuru giving chase!
They combined their Spirit Powers. "RAPHAEL!"
A huge tornado was giving chase to her. Rabbid Peach ran as fast as she could and then saw an incoming building dead ahead.
She smirked. Time to put her Kingdom Battle skills to the test!
She jumped up, put her feet on the building, then jumped OVER the giant Kaguya-Yuzuru tornado.
Mid-jump, she took a selfie. She wasn't fooling around this time.
She landed and ran in the opposite direction, Kaguya and Yuzuru close by.
Donkey Kong slowed down to catch up to Rabbid Peach. He grabbed her and tossed her out of harms way. Now the twins were chasing Donkey Kong.
He rolled into a ball, jumped up from the momentum and pounded his fists onto the ground, sending the twins into the air.
He punched Yuzuru while Rabbid Peach pulled out her blaster to hit Kaguya in mid-air.
She finally learned from Mario and used Hero Sight.***
Luigi was running away in fear with Yoshino right behind him.
He jumped onto a street stall, bounced from that stall to a fountain top, then jumped, using a flutter kick to gain extra height to BARELY dodge Yoshino's ice blast!
"Yay-haaay!"
Then he saw Yoshino charging an even more powerful ice blast. "Oh no!"
Then Mario swooped in, still having his Tanooki Suit on, gripped Luigi and flew up, dodging a devastating blast.
"Thanks, Mario!"
"No-a problem, bro! Let's-a hope Shido ends this soon!"
Mario then noticed that the threat of all the Spirits was suddenly gone and crowding the tower that Shido went into.
"Alrighty, Luigi... Can I-a trust you to get-a Kamek and the Bandersnatch?"
"I can, but-"
Mario heard that first part and dropped Luigi onto the ground as he soared towards the tower.
He noticed the Spirits slowly flying away as he was already on a crash course towards the tower.
"Mama-mia!"
He gripped his feet onto the wall as he clinged onto the top of the window.
And then he saw two very familiar figures. "It's-a Shido!... And-a you..." He shot an angry glare at Miku.
"MARIO?!" Shido was baffled. "What's going on out there?! What are you wearing?!"
Mario looked at his Tanooki Tail. "Well, to be-a fair, Shido... You've got a princess, a loli, a little sister, twins, and a lesbian! Who's to-a say furries aren't on the list?"
"..."
The two looked at Mario.
Shido just pointed. "Get back to fighting, Mario."
"R-right."
Mario swooped away.
He landed on the streets, noticing most of the people knocked out from the battle.
In fact, all his enemies were knocked out!.. except for one.
Jessica. And she was screaming nonsense. "MAAAAANAAAAA! HEEEEY MAAAANAAAA!"
Mario clenched his fist. "Not-a this time."
He jumped up with his Tanooki Tail.
But then Mario got sliced as he tumbled down into the ground and lost his suit. "Doh!"
He then looked up to see a familiar ash-blonde female figure.
"Ellen! It's-a you!"
Ellen looked down at Mario. "Oh. I thought it was a 2v1 with Mana. I can take you on, Mario."
"Oooh, hahaha!" Mario rubbed his gloves together, lowering his eyerbrows with a smirk. "I've-a been looking for a rematch with-a you!"
Then Ellen charged at Mario.
Mario put away his hammer and all his items.
Ellen smirked while charging in. "You're awfully brave."
"I'm-a gonna do what's-a called a 'well deserved attack'!"
He waited until Ellen charged right at the right moment, and did do a well-deserved attack.
Mario punched Ellen square in the face which knocked her back.
Ellen struggled to get up.
"Now! Mana!" Mario screamed.
Mana shot a bullet at Jessica, delivering a fatal blow.
Ellen realised this and was distracted.
Mario grabbed one of the knives from an unconscious DEM wizard and sliced Ellen right down the stomach vertically.
Ellen was bleeding out before she even realised. "Someone as old as you...?! Gh... I need to get back..." Ellen flew away.
The plumber put his knife away with a pissed-off look. "I'm-a getting tired of this world. I'm-a gonna go help Shido now." He angrily walked towards the tower.
Eventually, finally, he reached the top.
Shido and Miku looked down. Shido was the first to be baffled. "Mario! It's you! I told you, what happened outside?!"
"Big fight outside... We-a gotta get this over with..." Mario huffed, getting his breath back.
"Gee." Miku put her hands on her hips. "Lowly scum like you should be battling outside for me. I'm shocked Gabriel had no effect."
Mario ignored Miku's ramblings and slowly opened the door.
There was a dark room, nothing about it at all.
Except for a chair.
"Tohka!" Mario and Shido ran forward, but a male voice stopped them.
"I've been waiting for you all!" And there, the ash-blonde male figure in a black business suit emerged. Isaac himself. "I take it you two are friends of the Princess?"
Shido gripped Sandalphon, and Mario noticed. "Aaah..."
"I don't think we've been introduced." Isaac shrugged.
Mario had a smug look. "Yeah, I've-a been wondering! For the main antagonist like-a you, I don't know anything about-a you! Not even your name!"
"You may call me Isaac Westcott from DEM Industries."
"Aaah, there we go! Isn't that-a easy?"
"I knew Diva and the schoolboy would make it, but hoooh?" Isaac looked at Mario. "The main bait is here. How interesting."
He started laughing.
Mario stepped forward. "You better not harm Tohka."
"Oooh, finally getting rid of your accent? That is character development. Don't worry. I'm not harming Tohka. In fact, I'll even give you two a reunion."
The wires that were latched onto Tohka retracted.
"TOHKA!" Shido yelled.
Tohka slowly got to her senses. "Shido... SHIDO?!" She got up from her chair to run to Shido, and vice versa. Unfortunately, a glass wall came up in front of them to separate them.
"Sorry to keep you waiting..."
Tohka sank down in pure happiness that they finally arrived.
Mario turned to Isaac while those two reunited. "Release-a her."
"Oh, I'm not gonna harm her. All you have to do is break the glass."
Mario pulled out his hammer and went to lean for the glass, but Isaac continued.
"...but is that what you want? I hear you watch each other's backs. You've failed that time."
Mario heard a gurgling sound from Shido. He slowly turned to him in horror...
And there was a light sword piercing through his stomach from behind, completely leaving a hole.
Mario and Miku's jaws hung open. The plumber turned his attention to who did it. And of course...
"Ellen..."
Ellen released her sword as Shido plummeted lifelessly to the ground.
"Shido..." But the one who was most heartbroken was Tohka.
Isaac held a demented smile. "Go on. Get to him. Use any means necessary."
Tohka immediately summoned Sandalphon, slashing the glass in fury, blocking out all sounds. "Shido! Shido! Shido! SHIDO! SHIDOOOO!"
But Shido didn't respond.
Isaac finished. "...but nothing works."
"You..." Mario couldn't believe the sheer villainy of this guy. "You...!"
"Shido! Shido! Noo..."
Her rage got the best of her... And then she finally snapped.
Tohka bursted out in a cloud of darkness.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
To be continued.
*Paper Mario: The Origami King
**Nintendo Power
***Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle