15 Minutes Later

"Out of my way! MOVE!" Mario demanded, as he threw a few piranha plants off the towering pillar that supported Bianco Hills' power source. These were the lucky ones; Mario ripped the others in half entirely if he wasn't close enough to a ledge when he encountered them. "Wait! Please! He's just a boy!" One of the elderly Piranha Plants attempted as Mario was about to ignite a juvenile that struggled desperately in his grasp. "Everything you posies know about my look-alike. Right now!" Mario demanded, his grip tightening on the young plant in his hand. The kid's struggling began to wane, and his grandmother was quick to speak up.

"He ran towards our queen just a few seconds ago. He must have some accords with her. That's all a bunch of lowly subjects like us would know." She said, and hoped Mario would accept this truth. For a few moments, Mario continued to hold the young Plantling hostage. "Whoever this queen of yours is, I'm going put my fist all the way up her-" The elder Piranha Plant made the mistake of interrupting Mario.

"Sir, not in… front… of…" She lost steam when Mario's grip tightened on the child's throat. "Wait, no! Don't do it!" She begged, realizing that Mario was not the one she needed to lecture about propriety in front of children. "Fine, I won't kill the child in front of his little old granny." Mario said. If the elderly Plant felt any relief, it was quickly dashed along with her skull when Mario forced her head to turn away and down into the pavement. Her skull immediately split open, causing the child he was holding to try and kick Mario in the face. He had no real strength anymore, but the fact that the boy's foot reached his face caused Mario to piledrive the boy into the ground, hard enough to cause debris to splash from the ground beneath them.

"Lecture your kids. Not-a me…" Mario said, as he quickly moved on from the victims and set his sights to the last location he saw Shadow Mario race off to.

The Top of the Windmill

The queen of the Piranha Plants and Mario's doppelganger could since Mario's incoming presence; the power of a Star Child was unmistakable. "It is difficult to say why, but clearly Luigi has convinced Peach that this island is a lost cause. To send Mario here unattended…" Shadow Mario said. "Petey, there's going to continue to be losses to your people if you don't intervene. What's more, he already would have gotten your scent by now." The giant Piranha plant didn't even need to open her eyes; Shadow Mario could practically feel the fear and sadness in her soul.

"King Pintar should have just executed Paetar when he had the chance. His son has proven far more reasonable, and a more benevolent trustee of the Deltazar fortune, anyway." Petey said. "I honestly thought I'd have more time than I did…" She lamented, before Shadow Mario took a breath. "It can't be helped. I had hoped he'd have ran into the Masai Five, Raiko, or Azuro's inner circle first. But, you never really know what Mario is going to do, besides that it will be what he thinks is in Peach's best interest. And the key words there are 'what he thinks'..." Shadow Mario warned. Petey scoffed. "I doubt that petulant, roided up thug can do a task as complex as thinking."

Speak of Mario, however, and here he comes. "What the fuck did you just say about me, bitch!" Mario's voice sounded before he appeared. Neither Shadow Mario nor Petey Piranha displayed their surprise, though they were clearly annoyed at being rudely interrupted by Mario's sudden appearance.

"Hmph… You clearly heard me, eavesdropper." The giant, currently-rooted Piranha Plant queen snarked. Mario's fists glowed with power. "I'll prune you later." He threatened, causing Petey's eyes to widen in shock at Mario's implication. He pointed his fist at Shadow Mario. "Everything you know about those perverted Deltazars, right now." He demanded. Shadow Mario hesitated, before answering.

"What would you like to hear? Perhaps I could tell you that they report to me. Or that I report to them. Maybe I know everything about their machinations. Maybe I know just a little bit. Or Maybe I know nothing at all." Mario seethed at his doppelganger, clearly losing patience. However, Shadow Mario was not perturbed at all, despite his massive accomplice's trepidation.

"You're gonna have to play my little game if you want to ensure the Princess's safety." Shadow Mario stated, perhaps knowing it was futile. "Or, maybe I turn you into fucking paste to ensure that? Maybe I turn every single one of those perverts into cinder!" Mario barked out. Shadow Mario simply smirked at this. Upon sensing Petey's energy activate, Shadow Mario made his next move.

"Oh, that'll be an interesting idea, and one I'd like to see you try." Almost before he was done talking, Mario dashed at his doppelganger. And, exactly according to plan, Petey was quicker on the draw and caught Mario in one of her roots. Shadow Mario laughed, as he disappeared from sight.

"Let me go, you overgrown petunia!" Mario barked out, struggling to free himself.

Petey simply laughed. "Good to know that you at least know my true name. But I'm afraid that I can't quite do that. Not until you answer for the innocent Piranha Plants and Dragonplants you've murdered." The queen-mother of the Piranha Plants said. However, Mario saw Shadow Mario disappear from sight, and as such likely didn't even register what Petey said as his anger turned to Fire Energy.

"I've got your answer. RIGHT HERE!" Mario said as he activated Fire Energy Mode, Stage 1 and broke out of the roots restraining him. Petey moved her head in time, meaning Mario's Ring of Hatred slammed into the roof of the windmill they stood upon. And as soon as Mario's fiery fist made contact with the roof did it give way and now both Mario and Petey falls into the building of Bianco Hills' main power source.

Inside the Windmill

Mario took some comfort in that at least he'd get a cushioned landing by being able to fall on the Piranha Plant Queen. For a few seconds, because he saw her shrink from her Megaflower Form down to a more human-shaped, combat-optimized being.

Though Petunia Piranha was still quite a large-statured woman of 6'3" and very well-built and powerfully inclined, she was no longer the giant, 20 foot-tall Megaflower that was rooted to the windmill's ceiling and therefore no longer an unintentional landing pad for Mario.

Meaning he slammed full force into the floor of the building they fell into. Meanwhile, Petey's downsizing was a quick and smooth transition, and she glided gently down to her feet using her petal wings. She placed a foot on Mario's head, forcing his face back down into the floor. "You have committed crimes against my subjects, and are a danger to the islands I call home. For that, you shall pay with your life!" Petey declared.

It was time wasted, as Mario amped himself with Explosion Energy at that moment and kicked out as hard as he could, tossing Petey away. She had just reset her base when Mario was upon her again, the first two powerful slugs to her ribs confirming right into Mario's rapid-fire barrage of punches. However, despite the punches landing cleanly and her green, plant-like skin being blasted by strikes powered by a Fire Evolution, Petey was… not nearly as affected as Mario thought she should've been.

This was further reinforced when Mario threw a devastating, but heavily telegraphed haymaker-like uppercut. The Piranha Plant queen caught his fist, and threw Mario above her head. To 'catch' Mario she threw her heel into the air and allowed Mario's chin to land right on it, and then proceeded to 'slam' him to the ground by bringing her foot down, once again pinning Mario on his back.

This time, Mario tried a more direct application of his inner energy by blasting her with two Explosion Energy Beams. The concussive force was more than enough to push Petey off of him, and he jumped back to his feet firing off explosive fireballs. Petey deflected them all, each one exploding harmlessly in the air a safe distance away from her.

"The harder you fight, the worse your sentence shall be. All you're doing is prolonging the inevitable." Petey said, as she walked through Mario's fireballs, her petalwings deflecting his bursts of power as she did. "Then perhaps I need to just end this quickly!" Mario said, as he summoned up all his rage and burst into his Atomic Elemental form.

Upon doing so, his fireballs were no longer able to be deflected. Petey tried, but both her petalwings were liberated from her body when the Atomic fireballs hit them. As she processed this fact, Mario seized the opportunity to shove his fists right into her face. She staggered and stumbled, and Mario was determined to knock her down as quickly as he could. However, soon Petey's petalwings grew back. And as soon as they did, she used them to block Mario's next punch and shunt him away with a backwing slap.

Mario hit the wall, but without missing a beat he springboarded from the wall and used the force to attempt a dropkick. Petey just catches him, and uses his own momentum to toss him across the room. Mario was back up in short order, and ran right into a solid headbutt upon missing the wild, desperate haymaker he threw.

He rolled over, meaning now he took the entirety of Petey's Hammer Flower attack on his back as the summoned plant smashed Mario into the ground, cracking the floor with each successive hit. Eventually, Mario's groans became weak, plaintiff wheezes, indicating that all the fight had left him.

Petey turned the giant Hammer Flower into a massive drill-like spear, but she'd never get to use it, as a few shards of Hydrogen stalagmites first chop down the summoned plant, and then a few more lodged into Petey's back when she realized she was no longer in control of her summoning. "Ah!" She cried out in shock, as the Hydrogen shards proceeded to interact with her physiology, causing her body to fill up. Eventually the scream of pain then turned into a plaintiff squeak, before finally the queen-mother of the Piranha Plants exploded outright.

"What in the hell!?" Mario exclaimed, as he began to groom his goatee and cap. "You okay, Mario?" Mario recognized that voice, and then he looked up to see a young fairy-like girl descending into the windmill. "Starlow?" Mario said, and as soon as he could confirm it was her he also noticed that she was using FLUDD in her dual pistol form.

"But when did you get here? And how'd you know I was here?"