Chapter 11 First Round

The atmosphere, while still a little tense and worried, cleared up enough so that Peach's spirits rose back up. She examined her cards, a grin that would make the Cheshire cat jealous stretching across her face. There was one card that required whoever was using it to jump into a pool with a cheep chomp and survive for two minutes. Honestly, she didn't know how exactly that would be possible in this pocket dimension. Maybe Rosalina, where she is or whatever form she was in at the moment, would interfere? Either way, Peach was a little confused as to why that was in her deck. She theorized Roy was the one to draw it (he never was the sharpest tool in the shed).

Speaking of people who weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, Bowser giggled to himself as he examined his cards. Peach sent a raised eyebrow his way. "Feeling giddy, are you Bowser?"

Bowser's giggling grew more intense. "Oh, you know…" he shrugged. "I think this could shape up to be a very exciting game."

"I hate to say it," Daisy said as she looked up from her deck, "but I agree with Bowser." She looked a little confused as she reexamined her cards. "Although, I don't see how some of these cards will be usable in our current environment."

Peach nodded. It seems Daisy got cards similar to her cheep chomp one.

Bowser laughed. "I'm sure all cards are usable! We just have to get creative."

Peach snorted. "Says the guy who uses the same, uncreative plan to kidnap me all the flipping time."

Larry burst into laughter. "Oh, you just got burned, Bow Wow!"

Bowser sniffed as Larry continued laughing. "You kids and your twisted senses of humor." He looked over at Iggy. "Can I go first so I can force Larry to shut up?"

"Hey!" Larry exclaimed.

Iggy shook his head. "Who goes first is determined by spinning a bottle."

"Oh come on!" Bowser said. "That's just one of our house rules! It isn't actually in the rules!"

"Regardless, it's the most fair method, so that is what we will do." He pulled an empty plastic bottle out of his hammerspace and set it in the center of the table. He spun it around on its side, and the person it stopped on was…

"Aqua!" Iggy said. He sat back down in his seat. "Looks like you have been selected to go first!"

Aqua grinned. "Heck yeah!" She pulled a card out of her deck and looked over at her oldest sister. "I want to play this card to Peach."

She laid the card in front of the Mushroom Kingdom princess. Said princess looked at it and then gave her sister a smile.

"Aww!" She picked up the card. "You gave me 200 hundred points right off the bat!"

"Yep!" Aqua snickered. "I can be a good sister." She paused. "When the planets align."

Peach rolled her eyes. "Well, either way, it was really sweet. Thank you."

Daisy gagged at that display. "Blegh. I thought we were playing a card game, not being suck ups."

Morton sniffed. "Wow. And I thought we koopas were the only ones that encouraged each other to be mean."

Daisy cast him a glare. "Shut up." She looked back down at her deck. "Well, I don't exactly see how this card can be used right now, but…" She placed it in the center of the table… "I'm gonna play it to the center."

Everyone at the table leaned in closer so they could see the card. It read that you had to collect as many purple coins as possible, and the amount of coins you gathered in ten minutes was the amount of points you would receive as a result.

Peach's nose wrinkled up. "Yeah, I don't see how we are supposed to…" A sparkling occurred right in the center of the table… "to do that." She blinked. "Did anyone else see that?"

"I did," said Solar. He grinned. "It seems to me that Mama is providing us with a little assistance."

As soon as he finished saying that, the scenery around the table changed. They were now in the Honeyhive Galaxy, and all around them were shiny, glittering purple coins.

"Woah!" Larry exclaimed. "That's new!"

Peach nodded in agreement. "I know! How did…"

"I told you," said Solar, "Mama must be providing us with assistance." He smiled up at the sky. "Wherever you are right now, Mama, thank you for making this game more exciting! I love you!"

"Ugh, more sappiness," Daisy said. She rose from her seat. "Well, I guess we should get to collecting those purple coins."

Larry cackled. "I'm gonna collect more coins than the rest of you losers combined!" He rose from his seat and rushed off, collecting about five coins in the process.

Wendy sighed and shook her head. "Boys." She grinned wickedly. "But seriously, all twelve of you are going down!"

"You wish," said Ludwig. "I have the power of flight. I can pick up more coins at speeds so fast that you guys won't even be able to blink first!"

"Yeah right," Peach said. She stood up. "I might be wearing heels and a dress, but I think I can still display a significant amount of speed."

"Oh yeah?" Ludwig asked. He grinned. "Then why don't you prove it?"

With that, everyone rose from the table and ran to collect their coins. Peach grinned to herself, her hands planted firmly on her hips. This was going to be easy. She wore heels so often that her feet were pretty much fused to them. She would have no trouble whatsoever running around in them. She could collect all of the purple coins in no time at all. She would put everyone to shame; Solar, her sisters, Rosalina, the koopas…

Oh, she was very excited about putting the koopas to shame. She was going to make all of them look even worse than they usually looked. She guaranteed it.