In this chapter, our heroes are going into the desert. And no, there's not dessert.
It wouldn't be the first time Mario and Luigi ventured into one. In fact, that was where Bowser hid one of the seven Star Spirits. In a desert.
Hopefully they won't get swallowed up by quicksand.
It would be a shame if our heroes' adventure ended fairly quickly. With an emphasis on quick.
Chapter 9: Sand Up For Yourself
Unsurprisingly, it was hot out in the desert. Mario was reminded of Shifting Sand Land. Though to his knowledge, he couldn't get to this area through a painting.
The sun was looking particularly bright today. They couldn't see a cloud in the sky. Speaking of which, for some strange reasons, clouds in the Mushroom Kingdom always seemed to have a face.
And they were pretty cheerful
It wasn't as hot in the desert as it was in Bowser's Castle (which inexplicably was filled with lava), but nothing to sneeze at, either. Unless you counted the grains of sand that occasionally got into their noses.
Sweat began to form on Luigi's face.
He used his hat as a fan.
Perhaps there was a reason he always wore it. He had had that hat since he was an infant.
Hopefully there was an oasis somewhere in the desert where they could cool off. Otherwise they might start having mirages.
They could certainly feel the sun's heat descend down on them.
How far did the desert stretch?
They weren't sure.
"I wonder-a where the meteorite is." noted Luigi.
"It's-a got to be in the desert somewhere." remarked Mario.
Goombario always seemed to complain about the desert back when he was traveling with Mario.
The temperature of the desert didn't seem to bother the Cosmic Clones though. Was it hot on their home planet?
Maybe they simply adapted to whatever environment they were in.
The heroes could tell that the meteorite wasn't too far from their location.
Wario was digging in the sand for some reason.
Princess Peach took noticd.
"What are you doing?" asked Peach.
"Digging for treasure!" exclaimed Wario.
If he was lucky, he would find a treasure chest.
"You're going to dig for treasure without a treasure map?" asked the princess. That didn't seem very practical. It'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It occurred to Wario that he might not have thought things through.
Some Monty Moles popped out from the sand.
"We got company!" exclaimed Speedster T, pointing in the direction of the moles.
"For the Cosmic Princesses!" exclaimed one of the Monty Moles.
They began to throw rocks at our heroes.
Mario hammered them away.
However, he noted to himself they could be sneaky.
Sometimes, they would burrow and reappear behind him.
And their claws were sharp as well.
Personally he considered himself lucky that the sun wasn't attacking him this time.
He remembered the Angry Sun.
Why did the sun not like him anyway?
He never recalled trying to block out the sun...unless you counted the sunscreen he used when he went to Desert Land.
Some Bandits appeared.
"These friends of yours, Wario?" asked Mario.
"What makes you say that?" questioned Wario.
They eyed the princess eagerly.
They then attempted to make off with her purse.
But she refused to let go. It seemed she had a strong grip.
"I guess they realized I was loaded." noted Princess Peach. The golden tiara would give that sort of implication. Some said that it even sparkled.
One of the Bandits let out a giggle.
Toadstool attempted to stop them from taking her belongings.
She whacked them with her trusty frying pan.
"Ow!" exclaimed one of the Bandits.
Luckily, these Bandits didn't seem to be kidnappers.
Adter all, they weren't working for Bowser.
Mario nodded. Princess Peach had a LOT of coins.
That was not to say he was a gold digger, however.
Princess Peach whacked them with a frying pan.
Mario remembered fighting them in the Glitz Pit.
They were being led by Bandy Andy. No doubt they had been competing in the pit for the money. Perhaps he figured that the Glitz Pit was more to his liking than Rogueport was.
Unfortunately, Grubba found out that he was sticking his nose in his business, and he decided to take action against him.
Wait, did Bandy Andy have a nose?
One of the Bandits attempted to swipe liquor from Alcoholic Koopa.
But this made him angry.
"You're not swiping my booze, you rainbow panda!" exclaimed the Koopa.
Unsurprisingly, the Bandits dropped coins when they were defeated.
Wario was all too eager to collect them.
Knowing Alcoholic Koopa, he would spend them on beer.
The rest of our heroes figured it would be a better idea to spend them on supplies.
They could be very useful in a sticky situation.
Some Little Mousers appeared.
Luigi shrieked.
Unfortunately, none of them had mouse traps.
The plumber in green quickly began to hammer them.
Fortunately, they were small so they didn't cause them a lot of problems.
But they did bite.
Mario hammered them away.
While they weren't strong individually, they tended to attack in groups. And they also had the advantage of agility...much like Speedster T himself.
A Whacka suddenly appeared from the ground.
Wario gave him a punch.
"Ow! What was that for?" asked the Whacka.
He wasn't a member of the Cosmic Army that were causing trouble throughout the Mushroom Kingdom.
The yellow plumber eagerly collected the bump.
"Wario!" exclaimed Peach.
"What?" asked Wario.
"Whackas are an endangered species! You can't whack them!" exclaimed the princess.
The yellow plumber groaned.
She had a point.
Besides, this Whacka was pretty innocent.
The Whacka put an ice pack on his head.
Why did his bumps have to be so valuable?
What was the market coming to?
Some Pokeys appeared.
These Pokeys were safe to jump on. They lacked the spikes on the head.
However, it was best if our heroes hammered their body segments to weaken them.
It was somewhat ironic that there were plants in the desert.
But it was surprising how hardy some plants could be.
Some Bob-Ombs appeared.
They looked just about ready to explode, as they often did. It was best to keep them away from gas stations.
Perhaps the hot temperatures were causing their fuses to ignite.
Or maybe they were simply angry.
If they could blow out their fuses quick enough, they would be rendered harmless.
Luckily, these weren't the big ones, so their explosions were small.
Still, it was best not to agitate them, and it was preferable to fight them from a distance instead of close and personal like the Mario Brothers usually did. They had stronger power than most of the enemies they had fought, aside from the big ones.
Fortunately, Alcoholic Koopa found out that he could make them explode at a distance by tossing his alcoholic beverages at them.
"You're not blowing me up, you singing monkeys!" exclaimed the Alcoholic Koopa.
The Bob-Ombs looked at Alcoholic Koopa with confusion.
The meteorite was being guarded by a giant Pokey.
"That's-a one big Pokey!" exclaimed Luigi. It certainly wasn't normal for them to grow to such a size.
But then again, these weren't normal Pokeys. They were from outer space. Though they might have been exposed to some magical fertilizer.
After all, Cosmic Peach probably had her own garden, like Princess Peach. But chances are it was evil. They dreaded the thought of going inside of it.
It seemed that if they wished to dispose of the meteorite, they would need to get rid of the Pokey.
Unfortunately, they couldn't jump on it.
It was much too big for that. Even for plumbers who could jump as high as Mario and Luigi.
But they could still hammer it.
The Pokey launched needles at them.
"Ow!" exclaimed Luigi.
Luckily, Speedster T was fast enough to avoid them.
He kicked the Pokey in one of its body segments.
This seemed to injure the giant cactus.
Mario them hammered another body segment.
Alcoholic Koopa threw bottles at the Pokey's face.
The Pokey released a pollen.
This pollen could paralyze victims on touch.
It was best to keep an eye out for it.
It was especially bad for Speedster T, since he relied on speed to win his fights.
Speaking of Speedster T, he struck the Pokey once again.
The Giant Pokey exploded into blue light.
It seemed their work had paid off.
"We did it!" cheered Peach.
Luigi destroyed the meteorite.
However, the minions did not disappear.
"Huh?" asked the plumber dressed in green.
That seemed to do the trick before.
But not this time.
Instead, they seemed to be angry.
"What's-a going on?" asked Luigi.
"I-a don't know, but I think we'll-a need to be more careful from now-a on!" exclaimed Mario.
Some evil Toads appeared.
They seemed to be wielding scimitars.
Sure enough, they were laughing wickedly.
They all idolized their master Cosmic Speedster T.
Well, him and the Cosmic Princesses.
They sure didn't intend to let the speedster down.
Mario used a Fire Flower to send fireballs at them.
The Cosmic Toads scattered to avoid the flames.
Perhaps Mario was a bit too hot for them to handle.
It turned out there was another meteorite.
Perhaps this was why the Cosmic Clones didn't disappear.
Our heroes would need to destroy it as well if they wanted to put an end to this outbreak.
"Two meteorites? That's a new one." noted Speedster T.
The second meteorite was being guarded by a giant Monty Mole.
It too threw rocks at them.
Big ones.
"Ow!" exclaimed Luigi as he was hit by one of the projectiles.
He clutched his right arm where he had been struck.
The Giant Monty Mole then began to swipe at them with its sharp claws.
They were certainly dealing with an aggressive opponent.
Mario hammered the giant Monty Mole with his hammer.
The giant Monty Mole roared at him.
Luigi then whacked the mole with his own hammer.
The Monty Mole bit into him.
"Ow!" exclaimed the green plumber.
Alcoholic Koopa threw a bottle of beer at the Monty Mole.
However, it roared at him in retaliation.
"Aaah!" screamed the Koopa.
Mario hit the mole again.
It too exploded into blue light.
Mario destroyed the other meteorite.
This time, the minions disappeared. It looked as if their task was done this time.
Our heroes weren't expecting there to be two meteorites.
It seemed that the Cosmic Clones had upped the ante. Their deeds weren't going unnoticed.
Perhaps they had realized at that point that one meteorite wouldn't be enough.
The mayor was grateful at their work. Maybe now they could sleep in their beds tonight.
He wasn't surprised that Mario and Luigi had showed up, but he seemed surprised that a monarch would be fighting the Cosmic Clones directly.
Then again, perhaps there was a reason why the princess was beloved by her people.
But our heroes got the feeling that their work wasn't done yet.
"It looks like there's a cavern up ahead." noted Peach.
Mario nodded.
They could tell that another meteorite was in there. There was a faint blue light coming from the cave.
They should go inside and destroy it. The more they weakened the Cosmic Army, the easier it would be to stop the princesses from conquering the kingdom.
Besides, it might be cooler in the cavern than it was outside.
However, they could tell that it was dark inside the cavern.
Luigi began to feel rather scared.
It would be helpful if they had a light source.
That way they could avoid being ambushed.
Fortunately, it appeared that there were Shine Sprites inside the cave.
Mario remembered them from Isle Delfino.
He had spent some time collecting them.
120 to be precise. He wasn't sure why Isle Delfino had so many shines, but it sure made the island vibrant.
Finally, when he was done, he got to have a nice vacation.
Perhaps he could use them to light the way.
Unfortunately, they were being monitored by Cosmic Speedster T.
He had witnessed them destroying the two meteorites that he had sent.
He was frustrated by his lack of progress. The heroes seemed to be as determined as ever to stop the Cosmic Army.
They had managed to destroy not one, but two meteorites in a row.
The Cosmic Princesses would be displeased if he couldn't handle the heroes. After all, Cosmic Yoshi had already failed to do the job.
Though personally he would like to see how Mario fared against his cosmic counterpart. Maybe if they became a big enough threat to the Cosmic Army, Cosmic Mario would consider dealing with the heroes himself.
He was going to have to try something else.
He decided that he was going to summon a Giant Swooper to fight the heroes.
He called it Mega Swoop.
Perhaps that would do the trick.
If not, he also had a giant Buzzy Beetle.
It was best to be prepared for certain situations.
Why did I continue this fanfic? I was getting a lot of views and I figured I should do what my fans want...as long as they aren't crazy. And I don't think my fans are crazy.
In the next chapter, our heroes are going into a cavern.
Did our heroes bring a light? No.