Chapter 11 – The Final Battle?
Deep inside the main laboratory of Woohoo Hooniversity, the Beanstar sat in the center of it all, fast asleep. Robots made in the likeliness of Princess Peach surrounded it, as Cackletta and Fawful were overseeing the final preparations.
"Preparations have completion!" Fawful reported. "O Great Cackletta, unleash the voice of Princess Peach on the Beanstar when you are wanting to!"
Cackletta laughed evilly as the grin on her face grew even wider. "The moment when all the world will bow down to me has come at last…" she pulled out a remoted and pressed the button. "Peach-bots! SPEAK!"
"Ho! Ho! Ho!"
"Ho! Ho! Ho!"
"Ho! Ho! Ho!"
The Beanstar rose up into the air…and turned red as it assumed an angry expression.
"Be…QUIET!"
The Beanstar smashed the center of the floor apart, creating a giant hole where the Peach-bots fell, before dropping into it itself. Cackletta and Fawful dived to safety in the meantine, but soon got up and looked down where the Beanstar descended.
"H-huh?!" Cackletta looked confused. "Wh-wha-what happened?! What is this?!"
"I have fright!" Fawful stuttered. "A situation we had not suspected has begun to d-d-develop! May we flee?"
"CACKLETTA!"
The villainous duo turned around in horror as the Mario Bros. jumped onto the scene.
"End of the line, Cackletta!" Mario declared. "Give Princess Peach's voice back or else!"
"Pests! Loathsome pests!" Cackletta screamed in frustration. "And at the worst possible moment! We don't have time to deal with you fools!"
Luigi rushed over and smacked Fawful into a wall with his Hammer, rendering the grammar-butchering creep unconscious.
"That's one down!" Luigi said.
"EEYARGH!" Cackletta groaned. "Hmph! Well, won't this be fun! If that's how it is, I'm ready for you!
Cackletta's grin grew monstrous as she gave a terrifying glare towards the heroes. "I'm going to knock you all the way back to the Mushroom Kingdom!"
"Look alive, Luigi!" Mario said. "The time has come!"
Cackletta started off by using bolts of lightning to summon several holes that moved towards Mario and Luigi. The heroes jumped over the holes as they passed under them, but they kept getting faster until Luigi fell into one, with a distracted Mario following soon after. When Cackletta stopped the attack, a large hole opened up in the ceiling and spat out the Mario Bros., causing them to drop on the ground painfully.
Both heroes got back up and attacked with a Chopper Bros. followed up by a Knockback Bros., managing to get a few hits in.
Cackletta then raised her left arm, summoning a bolt of lightning that Luigi barely dodged, but a second one followed that Mario didn't. Luigi responded by using a Jump attack on her. Cackletta raised her right hand this time, but Mario was ready and dodged it, and Luigi also dodged the follow-up.
Mario and Luigi struck back with Splash Bros. and Bounce Bros. respectively, with both Bros. Attacks striking Cackletta square in the head.
Cackletta then raised both her arms, summoning two bolts of lightning at once that caught her foes off-guard, with Mario in particular receiving severe damage from the attack.
Luigi rushed over to his brother, and gave him a Super Mushroom to restore his health. He also gave him a Syrup bottle to restore his energy.
"Can you still fight, bro?" Luigi asked.
"I'll keep going until that witch goes down!" Mario declared as he got back up.
But to their surprise, when they turned back to face Cackletta, there was somehow three Cacklettas instead leering at them!
"Which is the real me? Do you idiots know?" One of them taunted.
Mario then Jumped on one of the witches, only for her to cackle evilly before turning into a swarm of bats that zoomed one by one towards the brothers. Some of them succeeded in hitting them, and one even sent Luigi into the Poisoned status. The man in green could only cough before finally collapsing to the ground.
"LUIGI!" Mario screamed. He scooped up his unconscious brother with one arm before dodging more lightning strikes from the remaining Cacklettas. He immediately grabbed a 1-Up Mushroom as soon as the attack ended and fed it to Luigi, restoring him back to health immediately.
Luigi attacked another Cackletta, but she too dissolved into a bat swarm. This time, though, the heroes were slightly more prepared and got hit less as they jumped over bat after bat.
The remaining Cackletta raised her arms again, summoning more bolts of lightning to jump over, before sinking into her shadow that seemed to split into three before a Cackletta rose up above each, explaining her earlier trick.
Mario and Luigi were initially wary of which one could be the real one, but noticed that one of them seemed to only raise both her arms when attacking, while the others only raised one. Sure enough, when they attacked that specific Cackletta, the fakes immediately vanished into smoke.
Realizing that they have found out her tricks, Cackletta summoned a circle of copies to surround her. All of them raised their arms at once, summoning a bevy of lightning strikes at the duo. Mario and Luigi powered through as they decided to aim their next attack at the center where they believed the real Cackletta was.
Sure enough, their attack struck true, as Cackletta seemed to collapse to one knee. But when it seemed like she had grown weak, she surrounded herself with a dark aura that seemed to attract her copies; one by one she began merging with them, until her form changed to something slightly more monstrous as she glared at the heroes.
"Tenacious little boys, are you?" Cackletta growled. "I'm too busy for such games! Time for this to end!"
"Couldn't agree more!" Mario said as he landed another Hammer strike.
Cackletta began summoning her moving holes again, but Mario and Luigi were more prepared as they managed to dodge all of them this time.
"Let's finish this, bro!" Mario said.
"Super Knockback Bros., one more time!" Luigi said.
He curled up Mario into a ball, and repeatedly whacked him towards Cackletta. Luigi didn't let up the assault until she could finally take no more.
Mario landed back on the ground as Cackletta collapsed and shrank back to her normal form, completely unable to move.
"Graaagh…kyaagh…ughhh…" she coughed. "H-how could this happen?! I cannot fall to the likes of you…"
It was at this moment that Fawful woke up and noticed his very weak mistress, now on the brink of death.
"CACKLETTA! Do not have worries!" Fawful assured, "Watch! I am sucking up your energy with this headgear!"
As Fawful activated his vacuum, Cackletta's body seemed to dissolve into dust that entered Fawful's headgear. Once it was all gone, Cackletta's visage was now shown in the glass of the headgear.
"Oh…oh…Fawful!" Cackletta's grateful voice sounded from the vacuum. "Give them one final…attack for me!"
"I say to you YES!" her loyal minion answered as he advanced towards the Mario Bros. who stepped back warily of what's to come.
"HEY!"
Suddenly, a figure dropped down from the ceiling as its feet crashed straight into Fawful's face. That figure was none other than…
"Prince Peasley!" Mario exclaimed.
The prince immediately attacked Fawful with a series of quick strikes from his lance before launching him out of the building with a swipe.
"What are you doing here?" Mario asked as the prince sheathed his lance.
"There is no time!" he answered, "Quickly! To the fallen Beanstar!"
"There's something that bugs me though," Luigi rubbed his chin. "Why did the Beanstar go mad when it heard Princess Peach's voice? That shouldn't be possible."
"Why indeed," Peasley winked. "I sense a surprising secret at the center of this riddle!"
"Huh?" Mario tilted his head on confusion. "Wait a second, what is the meaning of this? What's going on?!"
"I shall explain it all in detail once we have safely recovered the Beanstar that has fallen below." Peasley pointed down the hole. "You two must go to the bottom floor immediately! I must report what transpired here back to my mother. Farewell!"
Peasley snapped his fingers and his winged beanbag came to take him as he flew out of the Hooniversity.
"So, uh, how do we get down there?" Luigi asked once Peasley was gone.
"Well, even I won't jump down that for sure." Mario peered down the giant hole.
"Door!" Luigi pointed out a door ahead.
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
A few staircases later saw the plumbers deep in the basement of Woohoo Hooniversity. More enemies were to be found here for them to dispatch.
"I can't help but feel that the Beanbean royalty is hiding something from us." Mario said to Luigi.
"Yeah. Something is very off. Now that I think about it, when I heard those Peach-bots earlier, that noise they were making…it didn't really sound like Peach at all."
"True. But we will not know the answer to that unless we retrieve the Beanstar."
"Mm-hm."
The brothers found themselves blocked by a large door, but fortunately the way to open it was nearby, which turned out to involve Mario getting bloated with water again and Luigi used his Hammer to make spit shots, though this time instead of one toy mouse, they had to shoot three to restore power.
When the Mario Bros. entered through the metal door, what surprised them was not the Beanstar lying there, fast asleep, but rather who was right next to it.
"Hey Boss, what's that shiny thing?" Rookie asked his master.
Popple inspected the object. "This shape…this shine…this AURA, see?! If I ain't mistaken, and I never am…" his sleazy grin grew ever wider. "This has gotta be the legendary Beanstar! I can't believe that it just came falling down out of nowhere…it was shocking, see? But having treasure fall out of the sky sure is lucky! Verrry lucky! Only Popple the shadow thief could get such results, see?"
"You're amazing, boss!" Rookie praised.
Mario stepped forward. "Can it, you two! That Beanstar is not yours!"
Despite having been in front of him the whole time, only now did Popple notice the interferers.
"Rookie!"
"Yes, boss!"
"Un-unless my eyes are screwy…Look there! It's Red and Green from the chateau!"
"That's right! We're here to take that Beanstar back to Beanbean Castle!" Luigi declared.
"Well, boo! Boo to you, I say!" Popple jeered. "Why does this always happen?! This isn't funny, see? Rookie!"
"Yes, Boss!"
"These two numbskulls seem to like the old ring-a-ding-ding! Time to scrap again, see?"
"Yes, Boss!"
"So you want to fight for the Beanstar?" Mario said. "Then it's a fight you'll get!"
Both him and Popple carefully set the Beanstar aside safely before bowing to each other and taking their respective sides.
"Now!" Mario said. He and Luigi started off with Jump attacks on Popple, who tried to swipe at them in an attempt to steal another one of their items, except the Bros. weren't falling for it this time.
Rookie began throwing hammers at Mario, but also shot fireballs in tandem at Luigi. Mario retaliated with a Super Chopper Bros., repeatedly sending Rookie crashing into the ceiling.
Suddenly, Popple tackled Mario from behind, distracting him long enough for Rookie to land safely…on Luigi. The green man skidded along the floor, dazed.
Mario immediately ran over and fed a Mushroom to Luigi. "Come on, we still need to keep going."
"Hey boss!" Rookie said. "These two guys are tougher than I thought!"
"I guess we got no choice, see? Use THAT technique!"
"What technique?" Mario asked.
"THIS!" At Popple's command, Rookie grabbed him in his hand, and spun him and few times before launching the thief into the air. Rookie jumped up, grabbed Popple, and piledrived him into the ground to create shockwaves that struck their opponents.
"D-did you see that?!" Popple coughed, steam emanating off his head. "T-that was our…'Bros. Attack'!"
"So they can do those now?!" Mario gritted his teeth. "Be careful, Luigi!"
Rookie began breathing more streams of fire towards Mario, who jumped over them as Luigi ducked under and used his Hammer on him.
But while both were distracted by Rookie, Popple took the opportunity to sneak behind Luigi and swiped a Mushroom from him. He immediately fed it to Rookie, restoring some of his health.
Both thieves performed their 'Bros. Attack' again, creating more shockwaves that were jumped over. Mario continued on attacking with a Splash Bros. while Luigi used a Syrup to help keep Mario's energy up.
"Rookie!" Popple yelled. "Use the other one!"
"Boss?"
"The other 'Bros. Attack'! The one with the fire! Remember?"
"Oh yeah, that one…"
Rookie grabbed Popple in his hand again, but this time, he breathed fire into it, igniting the Beanish thief. Rookie then swung his arm and threw the flaming Popple at Luigi, who countered with his Hammer in a panic. Rookie tried again, and succeeded in hitting Mario, burning him quite badly.
Luigi wasted no time in using a Mushroom for healing. "You okay, bro?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Mario took a glance at the Beanstar, still laying asleep at the side. "What say we end it once and for all?"
Luigi nodded. "Alright then, Super Bounce Bros.!"
Once again, they initiated the High Jump-based attack, only to separate after the initial jump and launch themselves toward a foe each; Mario stomped on Popple and Luigi smashed into Rookie.
Finally, the dastardly pair could take no more, and collapsed onto the ground.
"Did we do it?" Luigi asked.
"We did." Mario nodded. "Now to claim what is rightfully the Kingdom's."
But just as Mario got close to the sleeping star, a Peach-bot suddenly crashed down onto the floor. Despite being badly damaged, it still seemed functional.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! HO! HO! HO!"
The Beanstar shook again and turned red from anger. "I said…BE QUIET!"
It rose into the air and grew larger, as if preparing to blast off.
Popple was the first to get back up, and immediately spotted the fleeing Beanstar. "Oh, no! Our treasure! It's gonna fly away, see?" He grabbed and clung onto it, as did Rookie in an attempt to weigh it down.
Mario and Luigi attempted to join in, but the Beanstar was too powerful as it lifted off and dragged the four out of the basement and out the Hooniversity.
"We're going way up…" Mario noted.
As the Beanstar rose higher and higher into the sky, it became evident that three of them were beginning to lose their grip on the Beanstar.
"Grrghh…can't…hold…on…"
Popple was the first to fall, then Luigi, then Mario, leaving Rookie, who was the only one still comfortably holding on.
Suddenly, his eyes widened, as if suddenly realizing something. "Oh! I remember! I remember! I…I am…I am…BOWSER THE KING!"
The Beanstar rumbled, causing the Koopa King to finally lose his grip and fall. It shook ever so violently from its instability, that with a mighty explosion, it shattered into four green pieces that scattered to different parts of the Beanbean Kingdom, never to be seen again…
…for now.
To be continued...
AN: See you next time.