Tension. Uneasiness. Dread. These words best described what Starlow felt as the group passed through Teehee Valley after stepping off the elevator. Something felt wrong in the world again, she felt a powerful, invisible dark wave moving through the world as evil seemed to touch the face of earth in a sudden fashion again...did they do it once more?
"I feel like Nico and the others...have brought Cackletta back, and possibly Midbus as well," she worried aloud, the rest of the group looking at her with interest.
"What makes you say that, my dear?" Dreambert asked her as the five of them got closer to the place Nico and the other villains were in.
"I felt something, a dark shift in the world; a great evil has been unleashed..." the Star Sprite explained as she shuddered at the thought of what she felt.
"If what you say is true, then Cackletta is most certainly alive again...she could have stayed in the afterlife for a few eternities longer if you ask me, just like Fawful," Mario sighed.
"Great, makes stopping them even harder..." Luigi complained as the entrance to the area of the SS Chuckola came into sight.
"Not necessarily, Nico and Fawful might be too worked out to fight again right now, so we could stand a reasonable chance," Kamek threw in as they walked up to the entrance of the area.
"It will be seen," Dreambert replied, the group now being able to overlook the area the ship had stood in once upon a time.
On the far end of the valley, Nico and Fawful could be seen disassembling the machine they had used earlier and transporting the parts onto the blimp, which Cackletta seemed to rest upon. And closer to them, blocking their path stood a familiar robot and a blue, strange monster with a crown on his head and a cape of fur on his back.
"Enemies come. As we thought," Blizzard Midbus commented as the group looked at the two beings.
"Persistent enough so that we could expect it, indeed. I almost regret to inform you that your path ends here," Nicbot added.
"So, you two are planning to stop us? You won't succeed," Starlow replied, both annoyed but confident that they'd be able to beat these underlings as a group of five.
"Haha, adorable, a little Star Sprite thinks she can threaten us! Come on Midbus, time to show off," Nicbot laughed before activating his thrusters to hover above the ground, while the monster in question got into a fighting stance, violently breathing ice out of his nostrils.
"HERE YOUR LONG JOURNEY ENDS!" the pig monster declared as the two servants were battle-ready, and so Mario and the others took their battle-stance as well after jumping down into the valley to face off against their enemies.
Boss fight: The Head Underlings (Nicbot and Midbus)
Showing a surprising amount of agility, Blizzard Midbus jumped up to hang onto the overhanging cliff, lobbing frozen snowballs at the group of five, while Nicbot charged his thrusters and launched himself right at the group, keeping a high amount of velocity as both of his hands changed into energy blades to attack Mario and Luigi, striking quickly and aggressively and hovering between and around the plumbers to leave them no opportunity to catch a breath.
The snowballs thrown at the group were met with resistance in the meantime, as Kamek destroyed them using his magic projectiles. Blizzard Midbus wasn't a threat to them from afar, but that was subject to change as he, Dreambert and Starlow realized quicker than they would have liked. As they fired a Love Beam at the minion, he swung himself forward and out of harm's way, landing on his belly before rolling at the group.
Nicbot and the Mario brothers noticed the threat in time, the robot boosting himself into the air and the plumbers rolling out of the way just before they would have been hit. As Nicbot fired up his thrusters and dove down into a brawl with Mario again, with Luigi jumping in and clashing with the robot once more, Midbus stopped rolling and performed a sliding punch, narrowly missing the ranged fighters who managed to hover out of range just in time.
They prepared a counterattack, intending to hit him with a set of Love Spheres and magic shapes, but the monster in blue summoned four Snawfuls from his crown which started hurling more snowballs at the group, taking their counterattack out of the air while Midbus froze the air around them, preventing the Snawfuls from melting in the dessert heat. As this happened, Nicbot and the brothers were at a standstill, his frequent attacks serving only to keep them in place without being able to break through their guard, a fact which upset him more than just a little.
As the Snawfuls kept their attack up, Midbus jumped onto the wall of the cliff and climbed upwards, gaining altitude before launching himself at the group, a flying ball of heavy mass coming in like a wrecking ball. Nicbot's sensors picked up the threat and he quickly disengaged from his opponents, launching himself away as the flying ball flew directly at Mario and Luigi, who took their hammers in an attempt to defend themselves, swinging together and successfully launching the blue monster back against the cliff, where he bounced off and came flying back, landing right in front of them which they used to swing their hammers, but he didn't even flinch as they hit his body, making him scoff and grab the hammers before tossing them and the brothers at their other friends, taking Starlow and Dreambert by surprise and knocking them down which forced Kamek to raise a barrier to block the snowballs from hitting them.
"Hmph, as said back at Peach Castle. You are smaller and weaker than Bowser. No match," he commented on the fight. Looking at Nicbot, he continued. "You can't beat them?"
"Alright listen here, popsicle, do you have any idea how hard it is to balance out my strength with the sheer mobility I engaged them with? You should be impressed I consistently gave them such a hard time with how fast I went!" the robot snapped at him, but Midbus paid it no mind.
"No matter. Now we trash them. Cold trash like old ice cubes," the ice-caster replied.
"ENOUGH!" an infuriated Kamek shouted, summoning a big lit Bob-omb between the Snawfuls and obliterating them. "You want to trash us? I'll show you who the trash is!"
With that, he shaped into a red Magikoopa and summoned a massive broom, swinging it down at Nicbot who narrowly flew to the side to dodge it, but the broom promptly wished at Midbus who got swept up and knocked back into the cliff, which Kamek proceeded to smack with the broom, breaking a bunch of boulders loose and trapping Midbus underneath. He then lowered the barrier the others were behind, and his friends regained their senses in time to witness the robot launch a counterattack.
Nicbot gained altitude and switched his arms into energy launchers, firing missiles at the broom to destroy it before shifting focus onto the group, to which Starlow and Dreambert summoned a Love Shield to block the projectiles. Their adversary responded by starting to fly in a circle above the group, raining missiles at them with no pause and keeping the two busy while also dodging the different ranged attacks Kamek threw at him. Fed up with his unsuccessful attack, the robot eventually started including downward loops to attack from even more angles, which was still blocked by the shield, though it slowly grew weaker as the pair was getting worn out from keeping their protection supplied with love.
All of a sudden, during one of his loops, Nicbot switched his launchers into blades and fully burnt his thrusters, speeding right at the group where Mario and Luigi braced themselves with their hammers. Meeting him head-on, their weapons clashed together while the robot fired his boosters more, staying horizontally in the air as he pushed against the plumbers who tried to hold him back, but they were eventually forced back as they slid backwards, before he finally broke through and caused the brothers to spin as he flew through between them, right at Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek.
Spinning as he flew at the trio, he got a direct hit on the Star Sprite and immediately took her out of battle, landing on the ground next to her and kicking her away from the action, with Dreambert quickly fleeing towards her as Nicbot turned his attention to him. He didn't get far as a quick jump and slash rendered him unconscious too, forcing Kamek to retreat behind Mario and Luigi. Rushing at them, the robot was quickly locked into blade to hammer combat again, aggressively pushing against the defenders who stood their ground this time.
Kamek retreated discreetly, hovering to his knocked out friends and shifting into a white Magikoopa to raise them again, both of them waking up after being restored to a state they could barely fight in. They noticed the battle going on between the rest, and nodded at Kamek before both consuming a mushroom and syrup to get back into fighting shape. However, it seemed as though Nicbot had different plans.
Stepping between the plumbers, he delivered a mighty blow with both hands at Luigi, who was knocked back upon blocking the hit, which left Mario alone with him for just a bit, enough for the robot to reach into his collection of tricks and techniques. Switching both blades back to his hands, he caught Mario's hammer as he swung it, and delivered a swift kick to the plumber's head which disoriented him. As Luigi closed in again, Nicbot used the momentum of the swing to perform a cartwheel, landing on one hand and unexpectedly pulling the green brother's leg away with the free one.
Luigi fell over, which Nicbot used to spin on his hand and send two kicks to Luigi's head, dizzying him as well. With both plumbers stunned, he swiftly jumped off his hand and summersaulted through the air, during which the built-in ray guns in his wrists fired once each, the rays knocking the brothers out as soon as they connected. The robot landed on his feet, twirling and posing while built-in speakers in his head played a small applause.
"Thank you, thank you!" he mocked them as he sarcastically bowed before the group.
"I take it back. Not bad fighter," he heard behind him. Turning around, they witnessed Midbus punching the last of the boulders keeping him trapped to bits, after which he stepped forward towards the battlefield again.
"Midbus! We have the leaving!"
"You too, Nicbot! Pack up and we're getting out of here!"
Turning their heads, they saw Nico and Fawful loading the last piece of the portal device on the blimp, jumping onto it and waving them over.
"Alright, first: thanks for the deserved compliment. Second: let's get going, we have grand plans," the robot addressed his companion, who nodded.
"Master calls. We leave. Puny heroes not worth fighting now," he agreed, before turning to Starlow, Dreambert and Kamek. "You. Get stronger if you want to fight. Laughable performance."
Starlow's star flickered in anger as she and Dreambert summoned several Love Spheres around them, sending them in a wide arc before letting them home in on the two minions. At the same time, Kamek summoned various magic shapes and let them converge on the two as well, but they paid it no mind. Nicbot flew into the air and aimed his hands down at the projectiles, spinning in the air while his ray guns hit many of the attacks. Midbus on the other hand started running on the spot, creating a massive snowball under his feet which he soon ran over towards the group while hurling ice balls at the remaining attacks, and it was with this attack that the three had to put all their effort into the shield they raised.
Midbus jumped off the ball before it hit the shield, wearing the three out a lot and hindering them from properly launching any consecutive attack, which Nicbot used to fly towards the blimp while Midbus bounced over from his jump, both of them landing before the aircraft which Nico started the engines of. They looked at each other and nodded, boarding before their pilot steered the blimp into the air, northeast, at which the robot waved at them to say goodbye.
"See you, losers!" he shouted in his familiar and cheerful way before he was out of earshot.
"Hngh...they definitely stepped up their game this time..." an exhausted and upset Starlow said as she looked after the blimp which soon disappeared out of sight.
"Yeah...we really were not prepared for that, they got the jump on us," Dreambert agreed as he sat down on the ground to recover from the battle.
"They're strong, admittedly. I suppose we know what to look out for next time, separating them alone isn't enough to deal with them as we saw," Kamek added as he raised his wand to revive the knocked out plumbers, who slowly got off the ground looking groggy.
"Ugh...I swear, I hate that robot more with each interaction..." Mario complained while rubbing his head which still rung a little from the kick he received, and it seemed as though Luigi didn't fare better.
"Don't tell me they bailed again..." Luigi sighed in defeat as he and Mario realised that the battlefield was missing their opponents, and that the blimp had disappeared as well.
"Sadly they did, we tried to stop them but they were too good of a team for us to stop alone," the Star Sprite reported, her star growing dim in frustration. Dreambert hovered off the ground and gave her a comforting hug.
"Seems awfully familiar, I know, but we'll chase them down until we can stop them for good, as always," he reassured her, and his beloved Starlow gave him a weak smile as her star returned to normal.
"Well, I suppose that leaves us to find out where in the world they disappeared to...what lies northeast of here?" Kamek asked the brothers, who shook their head to clear the ringing they heard.
"Northeast? There's only one thing: Joke's End, a glacial structure. They'll probably prepare something new over there, knowing the nature of our adversaries," Mario replied eventually.
"Joke's End is also a dead end as it's an island in the ocean. If they want to run anywhere, they need the blimp," Luigi threw in, and Starlow's star lit up.
"Well, then we simply destroy that thing as a first measure! If they can't run, they're forced to fight, and if we can bring Nico out of that whole chaos, we might stand a chance once we get him back on track," she said, and the others nodded.
"True, if they bring themselves into a position where they need aviation to escape, then we have to take advantage of that fact. Fawful, Nico and Nicbot may be able to fly using their technology, but Cackletta and Midbus are stuck without help. Nico and Nicbot may escape, but Fawful wouldn't leave them behind...and those two need the others to beat us," Kamek continued her thought, and everyone agreed.
"I don't like that the sun's setting though...we can't do much at night if we have to sleep, especially after that long flight and those battles..." Dreambert threw in as he looked at the sky, and the others noticed that the sun was setting as well.
"That's unfortunate...but, each of them requires sleep too, right? With Nicbot being an exception..." Luigi reminded them.
"Hm...they only have that alliance because they want to beat us, it's a shaky truce at best. He will make sure that nobody tries to backstab Nico in his sleep, so I think we don't have anything to fear over the night," Starlow added, with everyone nodding. The alliance of their enemies would never work in the long run.
"Well, I suppose that means we should make for the castle again and leave in the earliest of mornings to hopefully still find them there," Mario decided, and upon hearing no further disagreement he and the others began their trip back to where they came from.
And thus our five friends yet again fail to stop the development of Nicbot's great plan, though it has yet to be seen what exactly he is after. Having gained even more support for his effort, it seems as though the world is in danger greater than ever...
Yep. It's me, after years of silence. Surprised? I sure am. Life has been a whole rollercoaster, and writing fanfics has been on my mind but definitely not at its front. I inexplicably gained a surge and urge this week, and I wrote most of this chapter in two to three days. Feels good to be writing a proper fight with adequate music accompanying it again, gotta say.
So, where do we go from here? As you should know by now, I've grown inconsistent. Both in the style I write in (because over the years I've evolved more) and in when I write (the last upload's been WHEN?). So I don't make any promises when or if this will be finished. But, it's a good sign that there's something new to begin with, no?
For the first time in a long time: Review if you want to, and I'll see you in (hopefully) the next chapter!