LiamTheYoshi

Two hot heads are worse than one.

Fawful was still funny in Bowser's Inside Story. Such as the line: "Beef? I am lacking in beef! Fawful is beefless!" But I will admit he's less funny, and more evil there.

StarlitDuck

So sorry about all those problems. I'll try to work on that.

Just for clarification, I'm taking some dialogue lines from the game itself, and typing them in the exact format they were typed in said game. So apologies if those in-game lines have phrasing issues you may not agree with. (I am aware that the original game misspelled 'Cackletta' as 'Cakletta' before the final Fawful battle. I guess Alphadream themselves didn't do proofreading. The remake thankfully fixed that.)

Nataly Guardado

Mario: Hey, you're really good! I like having you as a friend!

breath20k

What a coincidence that I uploaded the last chapter exactly 17 years after the original game's release. I wasn't even aware of that until you pointed it out.

nintendoscript15

I don't think Tolstar changed. For he is never seen or heard from again after this moment. He's probably just doing this out of fear and respect.

The hammers are built in a matter of seconds. It's just that the heroes need to gather materials in order to build them.

Guest

Hmm… I was going to give Daisy and Aqua hammers, but after hearing your ideas… I thought of something better.

Amethyst Goldenwind

Yup! Sentient hammers build hammers.

I'm going to assume that Prince Peasley tried to fight back, but ultimately lost to Fawful and got captured. Remember, Fawful took down an entire ship. He is not a foe to be taken as a joke despite his disgusting metaphors.

Chapter 7: Scaling Hoohoo Mountain

[BGM: Hoohoo Village - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions]

Mario and Co. left the Hammerhead Bros. house. To their pleasant surprise, the bridge had been fixed.

"Well, that was fast," Mario commented. "Let's a go!"

With the bridge repaired, Mario and Friends proceeded to the left to start climbing the mountain.

[BGM: Hoohoo Mountain - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions]

Hoohoo Mountain was a tall rocky range located in the outskirts of the village. It was said that an ancient civilization inhabited those mountains, which were the Hoohooligans' ancestors. There were Hooroglyphs (the Beanbean equivalent of Hieroglyphs) inscribed on the rock walls at certain points of the mountain. Aqua was interested in the Hooroglyphs, and tried to read them, but couldn't quite make them out.

"I… don't think we can read those, amico." Mario shrugged. "I don't even think anyone has translated them."

"Oh well. I doubt they're anything important anyways," Aqua said with some disappointment.

Inhabiting the base of the mountain were Beanies. These green creatures were bean shaped, lacked arms, had a sprout on their heads, and always sported a sadistic grin on their face. They were practically the Beanbean Kingdom's equivalent of Goombas, and were defeated in the exact same way.

Proceeding east of the mountain base, the heroes traveled to the Hoohoo Mountain Trail. For some reason, a miniature tornado was seen spinning at the side of the cliff.

"Woah! I knew the mountains were windy, but this seems to put a whole new spin on it!" Daisy joked.

Mario noticed the pun and glared at Daisy with lowered eyebrows, half opened eyes, and a visible frown underneath his bushy mustache.

"Remind me why I owe you cupcakes again," Mario commented with dry humor.

Daisy scoffed. "Let's see you do better!"

Luigi meanwhile, read a sign next to them.

"Whirlwind Warning

If you have faith in your spin, or are light enough to float, step into the wind!"

"Alright you two." Luigi pushed the two verbal fighters apart with his own hands. "Can you take a break from your sudden rivalry that sprouted out of nowhere, and help us cross this gap?"

"It's not out of nowhere!" Mario claimed.

"Yeah. Ever since I started dating you, I had to meet with your brother more often. And we came to a lot of disagreements," Daisy added.

Luigi, knowing he had no other choice, gave them both his infamous death stare. The image of Luigi's face made both rivals' hearts sink as they felt it creeping into their souls.

"Fine…" Mario and Daisy reluctantly agreed like children after a fight.

"SPIN!" Mario shouted as he jumped on Luigi's shoulders.

"FLOAT!" Daisy shouted as Aqua hopped on her shoulders as well.

Both floated across the cliff, and used the tornado as an impulse to make it to the other side, where a strange Hoohoo-like fire statue was sitting inside a chasm.

"Are we supposed to do something with this?" Daisy wondered. As the adults were thinking, Aqua spotted a watering hole nearby and she beamed like a lightbulb.

"I got it!" Aqua ran over and gathered some water in her hands. She used her powers to form it into a ball of H2O. Mario and Luigi were near speechless upon seeing her do that. Last time they met, Aqua could only summon waves in large bursts when she got really angry.

"H-How did she-?!" Luigi tried to ask, but was too awestruck to let words get out of his mouth.

"Ever since we left Isle Delfino, Aqua has been practicing," Daisy explained. "She still has a ways to go, but has learned to make small things out of water, like a ball and a rope. Peach and I were pretty impressed when we saw her do that. When she reaches my age, Aqua oughta be a force to be reckoned with!"

The bros both smiled, feeling proud of how far their amico had come.

The Lake Kingdom's princess doused the flames on the Hoohooligan statue. When this happened, the smoke that went into the air was swallowed by the statue, and transferred to the mountain side as a tornado. The team once again crossed it using the spin and rope jumps, while taking advantage of the tornado to proceed.

Reaching the midpoint of the Hoohoo Mountain trail, the four heroes were exhausted from the hiking that they took a breather, and then jugged down on some syrup jars they found in ? blocks to restore HP and SP.

"Well, this looks like a rest area of sorts," Daisy assumed. The ground in this area was flat with several natural pillars. The pillars' oranges cliffsides shone bright in the sunlight, except for when clouds covered them. In the center of the area stood a golden statue with a trapezoid base, and a half-hexagonal head. The statue had a rope-like necklace around its neck, large lips, and hair over its eyes.

"What's a statue like this doing here?" Luigi wondered.

Mario shrugged. "Maybe it was built by some of the village folks."

"You think it means something?" Daisy queried.

Aqua slowly inched her hand over to touch the statue, because kids will be kids. Just as she was about to touch it, though…

[BGM end]

"Ah, Travelers."

All four of them paused in their current positions as their pupils dilated smaller than a twinkling star in the night sky. Silence spread across Mario and Co. for about 30 seconds until Aqua broke it.

"Did… the statue… just…?"

"Hello," the statue greeted.

The group screamed upon hearing the statue talk. Aqua's scream even caused the water in the waterfall behind Hoohoo Village to spazz out and splash onto the village. The Hoohooligans were lucky this didn't destroy the village.

"Sorry if I startled you," the statue apologized after the group calmed down. "I am Hoohooros. The ancient weapon of the Hoohoo civilization. Beyond this point, the path grows even crueler. You must prove yourselves up to the challenge… Dare you try this challenge?"

The four calmed down upon hearing this. This statue didn't seem malevolent. It just wanted to test the heroes. So after an exchange of glances, they came to their decision.

"We accept your challenge!" Mario accepted.

"Very well. You must catch 10 Hoohoo Spirits within 35 seconds! But do not fall off the ledges, or you will immediately fail," Hoohooros instructed. "Now, climb atop those pillars."

The heroes followed Hoohooros' instructions. Mario and Luigi High Jumped onto the bottom left pillar, while Daisy and Aqua Rope Jumped onto the top right pillar.

"3, 2, 1, START!"

[BGM: Aquatic Race - Super Mario Galaxy]

The two groups of siblings had to grab Hoohoo Spirits, which were floating purple balls with lines dividing them into 5 sections, using their Spin and Float Jumps. Thanks to their teamwork, the challenge was beaten easily.

[BGM end]

"You have cleared the challenge!" Hoohooros applauded.

"That was easy!" Aqua commented.

"That may have been easy for you, young one. But the next challenge won't be a pushover," Hoohooros warned. "...Now for your next challenge. YOU MUST DEFEAT ME!"

"Wait, what? But you're just a sta-" Daisy interrupted herself when Hoohooros transformed into a rounder stone statue. The statue breathed heavily a few times before letting out a huge roar.

"Should've seen that coming…" Daisy noted as she joined the others in battle stances.

[BGM: Come on, Again! - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions]

"Let us begin!" Hoohooros started by digging underneath one of two pillars decorated with Hooroglyphs to defend himself. These pillars fired lasers that the four had to jump over.

Once it was the heroes' turn, Mario started by destroying the pillar Hoohooros went under. But when he did, Hoohooros just dug underneath the other pillar, and another pillar appeared in the older one's place!

"WHAT?!" Mario shrieked in surprise, not expecting that. After another round of lasers, Mario was going to try stomping the one Hoohooros was under again, but Luigi stopped him.

"WAIT!" Luigi halted. "Bro! This isn't getting us anywhere! Remember what our Papa Pio would tell us during our training as kids?"

Mario thought back to their father, Francesco's, advice. He recalled this quote:

"Remember suos, the best way to catch your foe off guard is to exploit their weakness."

"Exploit their weakness…" Mario rephrased.

"Exactly! If we attack the pillar he's under, Hoohooros will just go under the other pillar. But if we attack the one he ISN'T under first…"

"Then Hoohooros will be completely defenseless once we expose him!" Daisy finished, catching on to what Luigi was conveying. "Nice one sweetie! I didn't know you were so good with battle tactics."

Luigi sheepishly laughed. "You can thank our papa for that."

"Let's-a do it!" said Aqua, imitating Mario's accent.

Mario and Luigi started by using Bounce Bros on the first pillar, and then Daisy and Aqua used Splash Sis on the other.

Hoohooros was left in shock that these travelers exposed him so easily. He fired a laser which dragged across the area. Everyone except Luigi dodged it. Luigi's jump was poorly timed, but was still standing strong.

Within just a few turns, Team Mario beat Hoohooros to the ground using their sibling attacks. Just as Tolstar did earlier, Hoohooros flashed several colors of light and exploded.

"WOOHOO!"

[BGM end]

Hoohooros got back up.

"You have passed this test, too!" Hoohooros congratulated with a hint of surprise. "Now you must face the test of reaching the summit!

The statue disappeared as a staircase appeared, which would lead up to the harder half of the mountain.

"Well everyone, it's gonna get harder from here," Mario warned. "So we gotta be careful."

The others nodded, and they resumed their hike up the mountain.