Chapter 26 – Cackle and Fury

A set of spikes blocking the path forward retracted as soon as the last Koopaling fell. Mario and Luigi continued along the path until they arrived in a room with a pool of lava in the middle.

Suddenly, out of the pool rose a large, green metallic dome as the pool below it was closed off by a set of metallic doors.

The dome then opened up, revealing none other than Fawful.

"I have fury!" the insane bean declared. "At last, my entrance with drama!" he turned to face them. "Finally, now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!"

The lights were then somehow cut out, and after a few moments, a single spotlight shone on Fawful, but his appearance was now different.

Gone was his red cloak, replace by a pink skintight bodysuit, as well as a yellow antenna on his head.

"St-standing in the spotlight at such a gala of spectacularity…my nerves are nervous!" he stammered. "But now that I am thinking…Cackletta's revival was all thanks to my quite nasty efforts! Which means that all this time, I am Fawful, who is just a toady! Such working, all for others!" The lights then came back on. "And THAT means…the true meaning of our battle gives me fear and confusion! I need no long speech before this battle, which will now be mighty! Snack on my wrath, fink-rats!"

His antenna flashed a bright yellow before shooting a ball of electricity that knocked the Mario Bros. back. Fawful then guffawed before his dome closed up again.

"Come on!" Mario said as he brought out his Hammer, his brother following suit. They began to whack away at the dome, but their attacks didn't even scratch it.

"What a wasting!" Fawful taunted. "Rat-fink! Have as many hittings of me as you wish-the resulting will be the same!"

The dome, which resembled Fawful's face, began to whirr as its 'eyes' glowed and shot out a stream of laser rings at the brothers, who had to jump to avoid it.

"That dome may be tough, but we're tougher!" Mario said as he went for a Chopper Bros. attack, clashing his Hammer against the metal multiple times.

"You have annoying persistence!" Fawful growled from within the dome. "And now you eat this!"

The mechanical dome spun around rapidly and created several orbs of energy that Mario and Luigi tried to disperse with their Hammers, though they had to jump over some of them.

Eventually, the dome stopped spinning, but then glowed a bright red. It rapidly opened up and Fawful jumped out, flapping his midarms to try and keep himself in midair.

"OUCH! Hotness!" Fawful screamed. "It is the overheat!"

"He's wide open! Now's our chance!" Mario exclaimed.

Both Mario and Luigi took advantage of Fawful's weakness, and bombarded him with Chopper Bros. and Knockback Bros. attacks. Bowletta's right-hand bean could do nothing except tank them while waiting out the overheat.

Eventually, his dome mech did eventually cool off enough and he got back into it and resumed attacking.

A small hole opened up in his dome, and from it shot out many orbs of electricity from his antenna, which Mario and Luigi had to fend off with their Hammers.

The dome's eyes began to glow again and released another stream of rings that they barely jumped over.

"How do we get him to come out now?" Luigi asked Mario.

"We keep hitting him." Mario suggested. "Until he overheats again."

Luigi nodded and the two of them began striking at Fawful's mecha again, all while avoiding the various attacks Fawful was conducting from within. Eventually, Fawful did his spinning attack again and as expected, his dome overheated and he was forced out.

Once again Mario and Luigi took advantage and bombarded him with Splash and Bounce Bros. attacks as fast as they could before Fawful could retreat back into the dome.

The dome soon cooled down again, but as Fawful landed back on the mecha, he found that he could not close it.

"What is this?!" He muttered. "My dome does not have closing?! Curses, you fink-rats!"

Now filled with fury, Fawful flapped himself up in the air and repeatedly attempted to divebomb the Bros. Most of his attempts were countered by Hammer, though he managed a few hits.

But Mario and Luigi weren't fazed by the attack, and powered through to continue attacking Fawful with Fire Bros. and Thunder Bros. attacks.

"Grr…how about having this, then?!"

Fawful snapped his fingers, and two mechanical blocks, both styled after him, floated in above the bros.' heads, while he began charging up his antenna. The idea was that the blocks would prevent them from jumping high enough to avoid his next attack, and it seemed that both Mario and Luigi had caught on.

But Mario would not resign to this fate, and began jumping rapidly in the hopes that he could break the block before then.

Fawful's laser soon reached full power, and he unleashed its full might, sweeping across the field in the hopes that he got those fink-rats.

…

Mario landed back on the ground, shards of a broken block dropping to his feet. Luigi was also thankfully unharmed, having managed to break his block in time as well.

At that moment, Fawful fell to one knee, completely exhausted by the last attack. Wasting no time, Mario and Luigi unleashed a Super Swing Bros. attack, followed near immediately with a Super Cyclone Bros. attack. Unable to take any more, Fawful collapsed to the ground, completely defeated.

"It's over, Fawful." Mario declared.

"Urgh…unless my mind is crazy, I have somehow managed to lose…" the henchman groaned. "This must be fate…I must accept the defeating…"

Luigi noticed too late that Fawful's antenna had begun to spark, and the resulting shot hit Mario, electrocuting him while knocking Luigi back.

"I have fury!" Fawful laughed evilly as he got up. "Hah! Now taste the finale, when carelessness opens the door to a comeback not expected by you! Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid! You shall all fall and vanish with your precious Beanbean Kingdom as I laugh heartily at you!"

Suddenly, Prince Peasley came out of nowhere and swatted him with his sword, knocking him down once again.

"HAH!" the prince smirked. "In the finale of the finale, when negligence begets rashness, the comeback is come-back upon!"

However, Fawful simply got back up and shot another electric ball at the prince, electrocuting him, too.

"I have fury!" he taunted. "In the last moments of the finale of the finale, when relief leads to negligence that begets rashness…that is when the comeback that faltered comes back and beats your pathetic comeback that I scoff at!"

But in the midst of his gloating, Fawful failed to realize that Mario had recovered from his earlier shock, and stomped over to Fawful with a glare in his eyes.

"Enough of this nonsense!" with a mighty vertical swing of his Hammer, Fawful yelped as he was thrown into the air. A follow-up horizontal swing from Luigi sent him flying and leaving a Fawful-shaped hole in the wall during his one-way trip out Bowser's Castle.

Prince Peasley also managed to shake off the electric shock and approached Mario and Luigi. "It looks like I am indebted to you once again."

"You shouldn't have come here alone," Mario chastised. "Your mother is worried about you."

"Ah yes, I should apologize for that later." The prince scratched the back of his head. "But I'm afraid there is something else I must do here before I leave. For now, you two must focus yourselves on defeating Bowletta. So, farewell!"

The prince then flew off, leaving Mario and Luigi to face the path ahead. A path to decide the fate of the Kingdom.

"So, this is it, huh?" Mario mumbled as the large, imposing door before them opened ominously. "The final battle…"

Luigi was shaking a little, but managed to straighten himself out, as he was quite confident that with his brother alongside him, they can defeat Bowletta once and for all.

"When this is over," the green-clad plumber said, "we definitely need a long break."

"We can have our break once we're done here." Mario assured him. "Now, are you ready?"

"As always, bro."

They soon entered Bowletta's throne room, where the monster herself was sitting on the stolen throne with an evil grin on her face.

"You've done well to make it here!" she said with a sneer. "I should have expected as much from the superstars of the Mushroom Kingdom!" she stood up and stomped the ground. "Unfortunately for you, those who desire to disrupt my plans have very short futures! After conquering the Beanbean Kingdom, I intend to make the Mushroom Kingdom mine as well!"

As she said this, she expelled several fireballs from her mouth, setting the room aflame.

"My new country has no need for old superstars! It will do just fine with only one: The Great Bowletta!"

She let loose a stream of fire at the Mario Bros., who quickly dodged.

"Not gonna happen!" Mario said. "You will NEVER be a superstar, and we will stop you, here and now!"

The final battle had begun.

Bowletta started off by tossing something over the brothers and spitting out special giant fireballs known as Flarets towards the Bros., though some of them she spat instead onto the ground, right in front of her.

Mario fought back with a Splash Bros. attack, and Luigi followed with Bounce Bros. But, to their shock, Bowletta simply walked over to the remaining Flarets on the ground and ate them, recovering some health. She then spat out even more at the Bros., all while leaving some on the ground for later.

"We gotta destroy those things somehow…" Luigi muttered, referring to the Flarets.

As it turned out, something as simple as a Hammer swing was able to shatter them. Mario had Luigi take care of the Flarets while he focused on pummeling Bowletta with attacks like the Firebrand.

Bowletta continued to spew out Flarets everywhere, though many were destroyed thanks to Mario or Luigi.

Deciding to try something else, Bowletta then began spewing a stream of fire from her mouth, classic Bowser-style. Her flames swept across the floor, though Mario and Luigi dodged the stream easily.

Snapping her fingers, two blocks not unlike the ones Fawful summoned earlier appeared over the brothers' heads. They tried to break them quickly just as they did before, but these were much tougher and they failed to do so in time before Bowletta caught them in another stream of fire.

Although singed, they were still standing, and they retaliated with a Super Fire Bros. attack, followed up by a Super Thunder Bros.

Bowletta attempted the same trick again with them, but they managed to break the blocks even faster this time, dodging her flame breath with ease.

She then immediately shifted back to spewing out Flarets at the Bros., and even tried to eat some before the brothers could destroy them.

Mario and Luigi then rushed at her, palms outstretched and glowing with their respective Hand powers. Their attacks nailed her in the face.

Mario attempted to continue their momentum; charging forward and subjecting her to a Chopper Bros. attack, and followed up by Luigi turning him into a ball for a Knockback Bros. to finish.

Bowletta was knocked back by the continuous attacks, but was still pretty much standing, if panting from the onslaught. Roaring in anger, her skin turned pitch-black with only certain features, such as her face, glowing an eerie yellow.

"GRAAAHHHH!" Bowletta bellowed as she began attacking at a faster rate, producing more Flarets in conjunction with various intervals of flame breath. While the battlefield was already set aflame, her darkness-induced rampage amped up the heat to near-blistering levels.

But Mario and Luigi weren't just about to give in, and continued their charge regardless. The former moved in for a jump attack, but to his surprise, the attack bounced off and hurt him instead.

"Wha-?" Luigi gasped.

"Must be whatever dark magic she's channeling right now!" Mario surmised. "Let's just try something else!"

As it turned out, her mysterious dark protection only shielded against jump-based attacks, as Mario was still able to damage her with a Chopper Bros.

Luigi then went for a Thunder Bros., as he sent down a powerful bolt of lightning down on her.

Bowletta growled and raised her arm, which was covered in dark energy. "THIS ENDS HERE!"

She thrust her arm forward, and several large stars crashed through the ceiling and towards the brothers.

Mario and Luigi whipped out their Hammers in response, managing to whack several of them back towards their summoner, resulting in her getting dizzy from the damage.

"Let's finish this!" Mario declared.

Luigi began charging up his Thunderhand, before Mario dunked him into the ground with his Hammer. Making his way over to Bowletta, Luigi let loose a powerful electric uppercut to her stomach for a Super Thunder Bros. attack, sending her flying.

Not letting up for even a second, Mario created a large fireball in the air just as Luigi returned to his side. The green-clad plumber tossed it up, and Mario jumped and spiked the fireball, which hit Bowletta while she was still in midair and crashed her into the ground.

The damage taken was more than she could handle at that point, and she collapsed to one knee as her colors returned to normal.

"GAAAHHH!" Bowletta screamed. "No! Cursed Mario Bros.! Not again…"

It seemed to Mario for a moment that they had won, but he noticed that something about Bowletta's eyes were off, as if she had one last trick up her sleeve. He also felt as if he had forgotten something.

Just as he pondered what it could have meant, something waddled over to them, and that something was what Bowletta threw into the air earlier.

A Time Bob-omb.

0:00

Mario's eyes widened.

"LUIGI! LOOK OU-"

BOOM!

The explosion sent both brothers crashing hard into the wall. Both slumped back down on the ground, and could not get back up.

"EYA HA HA HA!" Bowletta laughed in triumph. "FOOLS! You let your guards down! Even with all your fancy attacks, you can't beat me!" she stomped over to them. "Farewell, you two losers! It's time you took a nice, relaxing break…in my belly!"

With that, she opened her mouth and vacuumed the two downed brothers inside and swallowed them whole. Once the deed was done, she went back and sat down on her throne, wickedly grinning in victory.

To be continued...

AN: Could this be the end? Stay tuned...