It only took about 15 minutes of searching before Mario discovered something… unusual. It actually wasn't the way the locals seemed to treat him, nor was it the underlying fear with which he was beheld. Mario was used to it and quite frankly happy that the lesser peons knew their place. He stood only 5'5" and though his 210 pound, muscular build suggested that he was not wrong to be confident in at least his physical power, the fact that he walked around as though he towered over every single person around him was all the confirmation one needed to understand what Mario thought of anyone who wasn't Princess Peach.

No, what was unusual was the wreckage he saw just past the water towers of the Airstrip. The symbol for Gadd Science was visible on the one crate that was still intact, which was basically the only way to know that it was a shipment of Professor Elvin Gadd's products that had been destroyed. The paint-like substance covering most of the wreckage matched the pulsating goop geyser that Peach's plane nearly crashed into. "Hmm… Interesting…And how convenient." Mario said as he surveyed the scene, searching for anything that the Princess could use. "May as well help myself. And give something nice to the Princess while I'm at it." He pondered aloud.

"Hey, does anyone else hear that?" Mario heard a voice speak aloud, though it was clearly hushed and whispering. They seemed to not know Mario could still hear them, despite the sounds of the water also camouflaging their words. "Is that Mario? From the Mushroom Kingdom?" Another said as quietly as they could.

"WHO'S-A WHISPERING!?" Mario yelled out, his voice carrying over the entire wreckage. He heard footsteps, and promptly followed the sound. And upon making it to where the sound originated Mario was greeted with a whole lot of nothing but more wreckage and spare parts. He looked around for any sign of who might have been present before. "COME OUT!" He demanded, as he continued to search. He stopped abruptly when he felt his foot step on something, and when he looked down he saw that it was an emblem bearing the Gadd Science symbol. "Hmph. More trash, like the rest of the citizens here." He scoffed. He picked it up, with the plan to chuck it as hard as he could into the ocean.

But as soon as he did, the 'emblem' began to transform. Mario dropped it, jumped back and summoned some Fire energy to his hands as he assumed a fighting stance. The emblem continued to shake, before expanding and beginning to take form. The 'device' started to take humanoid form, but not just any form. This 5'6" form was that of a curvaceous, shapely woman with red 'hair' made of self-repairing coolant tubes. Her 'skin' was a metallic gray, with yellow pieces forming a leotard made of yellow plate armor. It took Mario a moment, but he definitely recognized the face of this gynoid.

"Wow, E. Gadd. 35 years, and you're still stuck on your wife's death?" Mario laughed derisively to himself as he beheld the female android who resembled the deceased scholar Professor Iris English (also known as Professor I.E. to her friends). He couldn't lie, Professor I.E was certainly the hottest academic he ever saw, but this was the 5th gynoid E Gadd had built in her image.

"Power-up complete." She said, jarring Mario's attention back to the device. "Thank you, Mr. Mario, for purchasing this item from…" The gynoid stopped cold when she saw the man in front of her was of similar height. "Luigi Mario, founder and trustee of Mario Enterprises, not detected. Scanning and classifying current operator's data and information. " She said, and Mario's eyes metaphorically lit on fire as his fists physically burned hotter.

"Are you serious?! It's-a me, Ma-" Mario began, as the gynoid finished scanning him. "Subject identified as Mario Mario, resident of the Mushroom Kingdom, secondary trustee of Mario Enterprises and older twin brother of primary client, Luigi Mario. Data storage complete." At this recognition, Mario calmed down just a little. Of course Luigi would have money to burn and cast away like this; Mario wondered why he would even buy something like this. "I am F.L.U.D.D.; Flash Liquidizer Ultra Douserdroid. I hope to be of assistance." She said, as she seemed to imprint Mario's data fully into her system.

Her eyes suddenly blinked red. "Detecting new arrivals." She informed, right as Mario turned and saw 11 very mean-looking Piantas. "It's him! It's Mario! Inform the boss at once! That girl with the pink jumbo jet isn't just some Princess Peach cosplayer!" He shouted, and Mario's pupils constricted at hearing Peach mentioned. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE PRINCESS?!" Mario bellowed in anger, causing his 10 adversaries to jump with fright and draw their automatic pistols. "That blonde bimbo isn't-"

Big mistake referring to Peach as a bimbo. "RAAUGH!" Mario screamed as he charged, fists ablaze. F.L.U.D.D was not fast enough to keep up with Mario's burst of speed, but she managed to use water bullets to disarm the five that weren't in Mario's direct and immediate striking range. The average male Pianta stood roughly 6'2", and as a race Piantas were known for being hulking masses of chlorophyll and muscle. Unfortunately, their greater size made them far too slow to defend Mario's punches, and then made them much too large to avoid his fireballs.

It wasn't much of a fight. The first five Piantas literally had their lives torn asunder by Mario's blazing punches, and the 5 of the 6 disarmed Piantas then found themselves being blasted into oblivion by Mario's fireballs. The one who spoke had done the wise thing, and dodged out of range as Mario went berserk on his hapless comrades. He immediately ran back towards the airstrip, screaming bloody murder as he did.

"Boss! Boss! This is the real deal!" Mario heard the survivor shout. "That's really Princess Peach! And Mario is pissed!"

Back at Delfino Airstrip

The Toad Brigade formed a protective ring around Toadsworth, who in turn shielded Peach from the rogue Piantas surrounding her and the private jet. Just a moment before, all 15 piantas plus the boss of these rogues were confident of their victory. They outnumbered the Toad Brigade 5-to-1, after all. It was only a matter of time before they added another hapless human woman to their black market trade ring. The man in the center who wore a cartoonish Tanuki mask while being decked out in a business suit had in fact found this spoiled woman's delusions of being a princess to be a bit amusing.

Right up until he heard one of his subordinates in outright panic as he returned to them. He had to double take as he heard his words. "Wait a minute, what did you just say?" The masked man asked his harried subordinate.

"Il Manutako, that's the real Princess Peach. That's not a cosplayer, and those aren't cosplaying bodyguards either. And more importantly, Mario Mario is with her!" He said, bursting into tears of fear. The boss, Il Manutako, felt a cold chill up his spine upon hearing these words. He looked back at Princess Peach, then at her private jet, then back at the Princess. "She… You mean she isn't…"

"Boss, we're risking the future of our bosses by doing this!" The subordinate said; the rest of Il Manutako's men suddenly became quite frightful when they realized their mistake. "That can't be! That wouldn't be. What are the odds that the real Princess Peach and her entourage just happened to be here at this time of the year?" Il Manutako continued to argue, right as he heard an explosion and then saw a fireball cremate the messenger out of existence.

"Mario!" Peach called out with a joyful wave, showing him that she was for the time being unharmed. Mario's eyes watered with relief and joy at seeing the beautiful princess untouched without so much as a hair out of place. But then he gazed upon Il Manutako and his remaining 15 men. "Princess! You're-a safe now!" Mario turned to FLUDD.

"Clean up that goop! These wuss-asses are probably using it for some sort of power-up or dirty tactic." He gruffly commanded, and FLUDD gave her affirmative as she got to washing off the airstrip. Meanwhile, Mario's face contorted with rage, and the Delfino Mafiosos all seemed to shake with apprehension. Il Manutako for his part started to sweat under his mask, and it wasn't from the heat of the day.

"You sons of bitches! I'll-a kill you ALL!" Mario roared out as he began to move towards the frightened Mafiosos. He took one step, and all of the Mafiosos scattered. Il Manutako simply activated his weapon, which seemed to be a magic paintbrush of some kind.

"No, you're gonna kill a piece of my art!" He said defiantly, as he caused the goop geyser that Peach's plane almost crashed into to erupt into an enormous Piranha Plant-like dragon. FLUDD had to double back, lest the splash engulf her the same way some hapless Pianta citizens were.

Mario immediately dove to protect Peach, and got her out of the Paint Dragonplant's range. "FLUDD, GET OVER HERE! PROTECT THE PRINCESS WITH YOUR LIFE!" Mario commanded harshly, and FLUDD double-timed to Peach as Mario immediately raced to engage the frenzied Painted Dragonplant. For now, Il Manutako and the Delfino Mafiosos would escape Mario's reach, but they'd be handled very, very soon.

However, the giant monstrosity was the problem at hand, and it was quite uncoordinated and seemed to be weighed down a bit by the rainbow paint it was covered in. That didn't stop it from flying and raining havoc on the entire airstrip. It began to take a breath, and Mario had to think fast.

"Thank you so much." He said jovially as he touched the shoulders of a citizen who remained to gawk at the scene unfolding. "For what?" She asked in confusion, before Mario tightened his grip and turned, throwing the screaming woman at the Dragonplants open mouth. The Delfino citizens and Mushroom Kingdom visitors alike gasped in shock and horror at Mario so cavalierly throwing an unsuspecting woman into the jaws of a Dragonplant, especially one that was beefed up with Il Manutako's paint.

For what it was worth, it seemed to work, as she got stuck in the Dragonplant's throat and he was unable to unleash his goop attack. As it choked, the woman struggled more hysterically, her pleas becoming less and less intelligible as she did. Seeing an opening, Mario borrowed Luigi's Super Jump Punch and sweetspotted it, causing the Dragonplant to explode out of the sky and hit the ground, gurgling as he squirmed helplessly on his back. Seeing yet another opening, Mario followed up with a powerful, Fire-laden Ring of Hatred, bringing his fist down on the Dragonplant's vulnerable underbelly.

The woman stuck in his throat thrashed about desperately at the same time Mario pounded away at his stomach and chest, and it was three painful, excruciating minutes of this and being unable to vomit that finally caused the Dragonplant to explode outright. FLUDD conjured a Water Barrier as soon as it happened, protecting the Toad Brigade and especially Princess Peach. However, the entire airstrip was devastated by the explosion of goop and Fire Energy. Any Delfino citizen lucky enough to escape with their lives incurred serious burns, and though the paint was dried up and evaporated this left the airstrip an unusable mess that needed to be cleaned up.

As soon as the dust settled and FLUDD dropped her barrier, Mario raced to the Princess. "Peach? Peach are you okay?" He asked. The Princess looked perturbed, and was unsure if she should tell Mario to look around. "Y-Yes. Nice work, Mario." She said nervously, unsure how to exactly broach the subject of what she had just seen him do in her defense.

"Don't worry. Those mangy, trafficking so-called Mafia dons are dead meat!" Mario said, as though he was in fact reassuring the Princess. "For daring to look your way, I'll hunt every single one of those perverts down and roast them alive! Count on it!" Mario declared. "Ummm…" Peach said, looking past Mario as she said this. "Hmm… quite an unusual ally there?" Toadsworth said, noticing FLUDD.

"Is it some kind of… robot?" He pondered. Mario rolled his eyes at the elder gentleman. "No, it's made out of wood." Sarcastically started, before the full force of his contempt burst forward. "Of course it's a robot, you doddering, useless old buffoon!" Mario insulted, causing the taller Toadsworth to step back lest Mario decided to swing on him as well. Peach simply stared in shock, already regretting that she let Mario tag along without Luigi. "I am FLUDD. Glad to meet you." FLUDD attempted, before Mario tapped her Retraction button, turning her back into an emblem. "That's quite enough from Luigi's sexbot, thank you very much." Mario scoffed as he attacked the FLUDD seal to his belt buckle.

However, it was Torrence who got Mario's attention, though. "Hey, someone's coming!" He said, and Mario turned to see that it was a platoon of local law enforcement. "None of you move!" One of them called out. "You, with the red hat! We have you surrounded! Surrender, for you are under arrest!" Mario scoffed, as he flicked his hat. "That's cute." Mario derided.

"Princess, shield your eyes. FLUDD, use another one of your shields." He said, as he gathered some Fire Energy into his hands. However, this time, he turned the power he was shaping into a ball white, indicating that it was an Explosion attack he was about to unleash.

"WAIT!" Peach's voice called out; Mario heard no one else but the Princess, even over the crackle of his conjured attack. "Mario, NO! I'll pull diplomatic privilege to demand a trial to take place the next morning. From there, I can smooth this whole situation out and I'll get you out of this. But not if you do that." She said, pointing at the ball of energy he formed in his hands. Mario hesitated, but if anyone could make Mario do anything, it was Princess Peach. He sighed, before taking another breathe and dissipating his attack.

Mario accepted his arrest without so much as a hint of further objection or resistance.