Anonymous Guest

Yoshi used to be scared of Ghost Houses back then, but it wasn't as much as Luigi's fear.

Bloxxel64

Sorry to say this, but when 2020 hits in my canon, Alex will be prompted to look up the 1995 build of Super Mario 64 by a friend.

breath20k

The more members there are on a team, the more likely tasks can be done fast.

CVGWJames

I hate nightmares too.

LiamTheYoshi

I'm glad you got away from the Wario Apparition despite you getting a Game Over.

mariobroultimate

Me neither. I wouldn't be able to sleep for days if I went through the same scenarios.

Mario bros fan4ever

Maybe I'll look at that fanfic some time.

Nataly Guardado

That's a weird dream. But rest assured, you'll get back to playing Super Mario 64 in no time.

Chapter 8

8A - Take This Magic!

It's now 8:17 AM. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Alex are on the final stretch of their adventure that began nearly two days ago. Having entered through the compass room's west door, the group found themselves in a dark and abandoned school cafeteria.

"Does this look like your school's cafeteria, Alex?" Mario asked.

"I can't tell," Alex answered while gazing around the cafeteria. It was slightly smaller than his elementary school's version. "And we can't have breakfast because there's nobody here. Not even the chefs."

Suddenly, several cackles echoed from the top left side of the kitchen. Everyone knew there were invisible Boos floating all around.

"I hope the spell works this time," Alex said as he reached for the pouch on his back. But it flew off his shoulders as if it was a fish being caught by a fisherman.

"Wha- Who did that?!" Alex exclaimed. The pouch hovered from above his head to several feet in front. A Boo faded into view with the pouch in its hands. He heard Luigi scream and run to the cafeteria's bottom left corner.

"Give me back the pouch!" Alex ordered the Boo.

"It's not yours, you evil spirit!" Mario added in. The Boo cackled again, prompting 19 other Boos to appear. Apparently, they were the Boo army Bowser gathered together before kidnapping Peach.

"I don't know if Luigi can fight those Boos," Yoshi remarked. "Look at him." He pointed to Luigi cowering in the corner.

"But he needs to!" Alex argued. At the same time, two Boos floated behind Mario and the Boo with the pouch threw it over his head. Mario was too slow to catch it.

"Hey! I said that's ours!" Mario said with anger. The other Boos floated all over the place, wanting to play a version of Keep Away with the pouch. "Yoshi, help me out!"

While Mario and Yoshi attempted to grab the pouch, Alex ran to the scared Luigi.

"Luigi. It's Alex."

Luigi slowly turned to see Alex. He was sweating and was on the verge of crying.

"You got to stop hiding like that."

"B-but I c-can't…g-go out th-there…" Luigi stammered. "Th-there's too…m-many…"

"I'm sorry, but there's no choice. Those Boos are playing Keep Away and Mario and Yoshi can't reach for the pouch. Only you can."

Luigi peeked at the Boos, but quickly turned his head again.

"N-no… I-I can't…"

"Please, Luigi?" Alex asked. "You can do it."

Luigi stood up and Alex held his hand.

"W-what d-do…I d-do…?" Luigi asked in a shaky voice.

"Just jump to catch it and say the spell."

"O-okay… I'll g-go…"

Alex and Luigi began to walk to where Mario and Yoshi were "playing" with the Boos. They stopped at a table just short of the center aisle.

"I can't Flutter Jump as high as them!" Yoshi complained. No matter how hard he tried to Flutter Jump, he still couldn't grab the pouch; the Boos were moving at a fast speed.

"Do you need a boost?" Mario asked. He held his palms out and turned them toward the ceiling. "You land on my hands and I'll throw you up."

"But what if they go through the ceiling?!"

"They won't!" a familiar voice called out from Mario's left. He and Yoshi turned to see Luigi leaping for the pouch. Luigi reached his left arm forward and grabbed one of the straps. The Boo holding the pouch still had its grip on it and was pulled down too.

"Let go!" Luigi yelled. He tried to pull the pouch out of the Boo's hands, but the Boo pulled on it too.

"I got it!" Alex's voice cried. Alex ran up to the Boo and grabbed its tongue. He then swung the Boo to his left, allowing Luigi to get the pouch back. All the other Boos cackled in response to Alex's attack and started to close in on the group.

"Luigi! Lay the Magic Mushrooms on the table! It's black, green, orange, blue, yellow, and red! Read the spell on the parchment too!" Alex instructed Luigi.

Luigi took out the Magic Mushrooms and placed them in order from left to right. Right as he unpacked the parchment, the Boos cackled again and made angry demonic faces, scaring Luigi.

He gazed at the spell, looked at the Boos, and yelled out loud, "'EENIE, MEENY, MINY, MOE! SEND THE BOOS WHERE THEY SHOULD GO!'"

Right on cue, different colored rays shot out of each Magic Mushroom and exploded outward, hitting all the Boos at once. The Boos shrieked as they blew up in white clouds. Complete silence filled the cafeteria once all the Boos were gone.

Luigi panted from being scared and yelling out the spell.

"You did it…" Mario said in a monotone voice. Seconds later, the Boos' defeat hit everyone; they with the exception of Luigi laughed and cheered with relief.

"YES! THEY'RE GONE!" "WAY TO GO, BRO!" "EXCELLENT!" Alex, Mario, and Yoshi shouted respectively. They hugged and high-fived Luigi, who was still stunned at what just happened.

"What did I do…?" Luigi softly asked.

"You confronted your fear and defeated the Boos!" Mario said happily. "We're so proud of you!"

"See? I told you it wasn't so bad," Alex chimed in. Luigi started to cry, finally realizing his victory. Everyone awwed with sympathy and Mario sat on the table next to Luigi.

"It's okay, Luigi. I know it's a lot to take in," Mario coaxed Luigi while putting his arm around him.

"U-um…" Luigi wanted to say something, but couldn't get himself to speak. Mario hugged Luigi again.

"Don't cry, Luigi… You did great…"

"D-did I…?" Luigi wept. Yoshi and Alex walked away to give Mario and Luigi their space.

"You did…" Luigi cried even harder, letting himself melt into Mario's arms. "Shh… Calm down, bro…"

"What a relief," Alex told Yoshi. "Thank goodness those Boos are gone for good."

"Well, that is unless Bowser has more with him," Yoshi responded. "Speaking of which, I wonder how Princess Peach is doing."

Rewinding back to when Mario and friends were in the middle of fighting Bowser's Boo army, Bowser had been waiting patiently for the word that the Boos won. If that wasn't the case, then Bowser would have to face the Mario Bros, Yoshi, and Alex himself.

"Hehehe. I can just imagine myself being with my Boo army, scaring Mario and his buddies like no other," Bowser said to himself. "After all, there's got to be more than just the Boos." He walked up to the mirror in his kitchen and stared at himself.

"I mean, look at my face. I could ask anyone if I look handsome, but they would just scream and run. No wonder I'm an evil Koopa. Not just because of me being Princess Peach's kidnapper, but also because I was born to be scary-looking."

Suddenly, Bowser heard a shrieking noise coming from where Peach in her cage was located. He laughed at the sound of it. "I never get tired of those screams unless Princess Peach decides to run her mouth."

Bowser started to walk back to his table, but overheard distant footsteps. "Huh? Who's that over there?"

Back up in her cage, Peach could only just close her eyes as she didn't want to look at the Boos' faces anymore. Only if she decided to open them, she would look down at the floor and shut her eyes again.

"I-I can't…s-stay h-here f-forever…" Peach stammered. "I h-have to g-get out n-now…" With her eyes closed, Peach walked up to each of the cage's bars and pushed them to see if any of them was broken. Most of them stayed sturdy and Peach was getting tense more and more.

"I-it's n-not-" Before Peach could say more, she heard some loud shrieks, causing her to open her eyes. She saw the Boos surrounding her being enveloped in rainbow-colored lights; they blew up in white clouds moments later.

"Oh my gosh!" Peach sighed, wiping her brow. "Finally! Now those ghosts can't bother me anymore." As she recollected herself, Peach saw a big dent in the bar to her right-hand side.

"How did I not see that?" Peach decided to kick the bottom of the bar until it broke off the floor. She managed to lift it up enough for her to jump out of the cage. Peach then floated to a soft landing on the hideout's floor.

"I got to find the exit," Peach whispered. "But I'm worried that Mario will assume I was taken somewhere else." She looked around for an "Exit" sign, but saw nothing due to the dark environment surrounding her. She then took off, speed-walking on her toes.

"Come on, Bowser… Don't see me…"

After going straight for a few seconds, she decided to make a top-left turn. In the distance, she saw a faint light a few feet above the ground.

"Is that it?"

Peach resumed running toward the light when she heard booming footsteps behind her. She stopped abruptly and turned to see Bowser approaching her.

"Where do you think you're going, huh?!" Bowser demanded.

"Uh… I have to use the restroom!" Peach lied. "I've been up in that cage too long…and… I…"

"Oh, cut it out with your lies!" Bowser retorted. "I cannot tolerate another one of your excuses!"

"What are you gonna do?" Peach asked. "Lock me in that broken cage again?"

"Broken-" Bowser looked at the cage and saw the broken bar bent upwards. He started to get angrier and slowly turned to Peach again. "Why, you… You're in bigger trouble now…"

"Oh yeah? You'll have to catch me first!" Peach taunted Bowser. She started to run away from him.

"Urgh! I don't have time for your childish games!" Bowser roared as he started chasing her. "My fellow ghosts! Come on in!" Bowser raised his right hand up and snapped his fingers, which meant for his Boo army to stop Peach from running. But nothing happened.

"Did I not do it right?" Bowser stopped and snapped his fingers two more times, not paying attention to Peach. He started to realize his Boo army was secretly defeated.

"No… It can't be…"

Peach stopped running, having overheard Bowser trying to summon his Boo army.

"Hahaha! Where did your ghosts go?" Peach giggled.

"DID YOU DO THIS?!" Bowser yelled from far away; Peach couldn't see him through the dark.

Even though Peach knew Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Alex might have defeated the Boos, she decided to play along with Bowser's assumptions.

"Yeah! I screamed as loud as I could and they got scared of me!"

"ALL RIGHT! THAT'S IT!"

"Oh, what's the matter…? Did I hurt your feelings…? Aw, poor Bowser…" Peach teased Bowser.

"RRRRAAAAHHHHHH!" Bowser flew toward Peach in his Koopa Clown Car at a fast speed, scaring her instantly. She could only stare at Bowser as he got closer and closer.

"NOOOOOO!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Edited to put in Peach and Bowser's POVs.