Mario jogged through the magic door and appeared inside a great big auditorium jam packed with all sorts of people in need of rescuing. Down the aisle of rows and rows of seating was the concert stage where the evil sorcerer Wart and the 8-bits looked up at him.
"Oh ho ho!" Wart said, throwing out his arms and smiling wide. "There he is! I've been waiting for this! The main event!"
The audience gasped. Phanto masks circled around him in the air with cameras stuck to their faces.
"Mario?" the crowd muttered. "It's Mario!" "What's going on?" "Is Mario here to save us?" "Mario!"
Wart flicked a clawed and beringed hand in Mario's direction. "It's time you and I settled things once and for all! Live on stage for all the world to see! Let's do this!"
Mario rushed through the audience, jumping three times to somersault through the air and land on the stage with a "ha-ha!" Wart, Mouser, Tryclyde, Fryguy, and Clawgrip were waiting for him, armed with their instruments alongside someone new. A shadowy princess called Deedee.
"You folks at home know Mario," Wart said. "He's been in the news a couple times. Was pretty popular back in the day, kind of passe now but he's hanging on. Now, I don't want to say his act aged badly, but he's nothing compared to the new hotness!"
Wart rippled with the rainbow energy of dreams while an aura of dark burned around him like a forcefield. Mario felt himself being pushed back but stood his ground. He readied himself to fight.
"What's this? You still think you can win?!"
Mario hopped twice, affirmative. There was no room for doubt. People were counting on him.
"Alright buddy, it's your funeral!"
As Wart charged up a big magic attack, a chant rose amid the audience. Mario. Mario. Mario! Hundreds of black monitors overhead showing all the kingdoms of the world were roaring with cheers calling his name. A glow of dream power erupted from each of the monitors and flowed into Mario. Every part of him from the soles of shoes to the tip of his cap brimmed with the hopes and wishes of all the people watching. He felt an enormous gratitude from the bottom of his heart and thanked them silently. It was because of them he could do this. There was no way he could let them down.
"NO!" Deedee yelled, startling Wart. "STOP CHANTING HIS NAME!"
"Calm down!" Wart said. "I'll handle this!"
Deedee swelled, her arms growing long and her dark face looming high until it eclipsed the stage lights. She snatched Wart off the ground and squeezed him in a clawed hand.
"You think I'm gonna let you upstage me?!" Her voice boomed through the stage speakers which rang shrill with audio feedback. "I'M the star here, not you!"
"What're you talking about?!" he said. "We had a deal!"
She cackled like a haunted mansion. "I'm not playing second banana to some fat toad! I was waiting for this chance! It's my time to shine!"
"No, wait!"
Deedee swallowed Wart whole. Her body bristled and expanded as she absorbed his power. A familiar power radiated off and swirled around her. It reminded Mario of the Shadow Palace beneath Rogueport and Count Bleck's castle in the Realm of Darkness.
The 8-bits gaped in horror and started to inch away in retreat. Black tendrils shot out across the stage to block their escape.
"Where do you think you're going?!" she said. "You stay right there and play those instruments! My triumph will be celebrated!"
"Yipes! Whatever you say Deedee!" Fryguy said.
"Yar, I were just looking for me guitar pick," Clawgrip said. "There it be!"
The 8-bits broke into an improvised heavy metal track fit for a boss fight.
"It's time!" Deedee shrieked. "I'll show the whole world I'm better than you! Prepare yourself!"
The palace shook and the spotlights turned blood red and purple. Deedee swung her arms to crush Mario and he darted around the stage, narrowly bounding out of the way. She slammed her arm down so hard her hand got caught in the hardwood. Mario ran up the length of her arm as she tugged to get free and pulled out his hammer. He reared back to strike, and light shined over his shoulder as dream power flowed into his weapon. He swung and his hammer landed with a sharp crack against Deedee's face and sent her reeling back. Mario toppled backward and rolled onto the damaged stage.
"Is that all you got?!" she roared. "Try this on for size!"
She held her hands out and hundreds of phanto masks came screaming out of her palms and collided with Mario straight on. They knocked him back and forth across the stage until he took so much damage he shrunk.
He pulled himself onto his feet, feeling so much weaker even with the dream power pulsing through him. He had to keep going.
"Mario!"
Above on the catwalks over the stage, Mario spotted Princess Daisy waving at him. She tossed a fire flower at him like a baseball and just touching it brought him back up to 100% and then some. He bounced to his feet just in time to leap out of the way of Deedee's claws.
"Just what I needed!" Mario said.
He chucked fireballs as fast as he could, each one shining bright and golden with hope. They plinked through Deedee's shields, burning through her tendrils and girth until she swatted him away. Mario tumbled back across the stage, his fire power disappearing as quick as he got it.
"Mario! Mario! Mario!" the audience cheered.
"Shut up!" Deedee said before setting her sights back on Mario. "Think you can take a couple more of THESE?"
She charged up to summon another barrage of phantos. Mario scrambled to find cover, but he was stuck out in the open. Just before the blast fired, dozens of sprixies, a whole flock of Wandas, flew down from the catwalk and summoned a wall of blocks to protect Mario. The phantos smashed against the block wall and evaporated.
"Stop helping him!" Deedee said as she tried to smack the swarm of Wandas out of the air. "You think you can upstage me?! I'll destroy you!"
The Wandas fled back into the rafters and Deedee reached up after them and ripped half the catwalk free from its suspension cables. Mario dodged as spotlights, debris, and sandbags fell around him.
"Wahhh!"
Mario looked up and saw Waluigi fall from the catwalk. The purple mischief maker caught hold of a dangling bit of guardrail still attached. Above him on the last bit of the catwalk still holding was Princess Daisy.
"Do you got it or not?!" Waluigi shouted.
"Here!" Daisy tossed a bubble containing a Super Star down to Waluigi. He caught it and looked Mario in the eye.
"Don't screw this up!" He sneered and chucked it at Mario.
Deedee fired a laser from her mouth that cut through ceiling and the last of the catwalk. Waluigi fell and the audience screamed as rubble fell from above. The bubble hit Mario square in the forehead and the Super Star filled Mario with the invincible power of wishes, multiplying the power flowing through him.
"You can do it, Mario!" Mouser shouted over his keyboard playing. "Stop her!"
"Save our boss!" Tryclyde said. "Please!"
"Whose side are you on?!" Deedee bellowed and swept the 8-bits out of the way with her arm.
Knowing he only had a few seconds, Mario rushed straight at the towering Deedee. Daisy appeared from behind the stage curtain, and tossed a trampoline pad his way. He bounced off it, high enough to soar through the new hole in ceiling, and as he fell over the raging monstrosity, ground pounded like a meteor right on top of her head. The hopes and dreams of every person watching all over the world combined with the infinite star energy, flowed down through Mario's butt to pierce through the shadowy demon like a bolt of divine lightning.
"Urrrgggghh!"
Deedee howled in pain. She flailed, the darkness surrounding her popping and melting faster and faster until an unconscious Wart rolled out of her onto the floor and Deedee burst in a shower of light. Rainbow sparkles fell like snowflakes across the auditorium, and the audience erupted into uncontrolled cheers and applause.
Daisy and Wanda helped a battered Waluigi to his feet. She pointed and the three of them rushed over to where the last of Deedee's dark magic was clearing. A tiny orb of orange light was left over.
"Alright you brat," Daisy said as she grabbed it and stuffed it into her chest. "Get back where you belong!"
The orb fused into her body and vanished. Daisy belched and shook her head.
"Excuse me," she said. "Oh, wow. I feel WAY better. Remind me not to lose my soul ever again."
The crowd continued to cheer and chant. Mario held up his hands for them to wait, and then turned to gesture for the others to join him.
"This way!" Mario said.
Looking a little sheepish, Waluigi, Daisy and Wanda approached Mario at the front of the stage.
"Thank you so much!" he said.
The audience reacted with some confusion to the addition of these three. They offered up a smattering of polite claps and a solitary 'woo!' Waluigi rolled his eyes.
Overhead, the black shadow monitors slowly began to fade out of existence. Through the broken ceiling, Mario could see the rift portals outside close shut. The Dream World was returning to normal.
"Ugh, man," Wart muttered as he pushed himself off the floor. "What happened?"
"Boss!" Mouser cried as he and the other 8-bits climbed back onto the stage. "You're okay!"
"We were afeared you were done for!" Clawgrip said through tears.
Wart looked across the stage and made eye contact with Mario. With an expression of panic, he snapped his fingers in Mario's direction. Then he did it a couple more times.
"It's not working!" Wart said. "What happened to my subspace powers?!"
"Looks like they got obliterated!" Fryguy said.
"Oh," Wart said. He peered back at Mario, Daisy, Waluigi, and Wanda in silence.
"Run away!" the frog said, bounding to flee stage left with his underlings scrambling after him.
Mario itched to chase after and catch those bad guys before they got away. Before running off, he smiled at his three friends and pulled them into a big hug.
"Ugh," Waluigi said.
"Thanks Mario," Wanda said. "Now we're even."
Mario did not need rescuing often, but he was glad to finally return the favor. He exchanged a tiny fist bump with his favorite sprixie and hopped off with a wave to kick those 8-bit troublemakers out of the Dream World once and for all.