Chapter 9: The Fall of the Mansion

"This chain is useless," Musty grumbled. "Rusty chains are nice, but they sure break easily."

"You can say that again," Franky agreed. "I'll go check to see if we have any extra chain in the basement, OK?"

"OK."

"Check for some lightbulbs, too!" Igor called after him. "It needs a new one!"

Musty, Igor, and Franky were working on fixing the chandelier in the lobby of the Boo mansion. It wasn't supposed to be a difficult task, but Musty had discovered that the chain holding it up was rusted through, so it couldn't be hung up anymore.

"So, tell me, where do you hide out there days?" Igor asked. "No one's seen you for years!"

"I have my own little shack. Those two guys found it, and wanted to know how to come here, so I let them," Musty explained.

"Will you move back?"

"Dunno, depends on if Bow would allow it or not."

"I'm sure she would. She's gotten nicer since she helped Mario save the world."

"Really? I see very little change in her," Musty muttered.

"That's because you haven't even talked to her yet! Try right now, I don't think she had anything going on."

"I'd better not. She still seemed shaken by that carrot coming here."

"Back!" Franky called, holding a chain in one hand and lightbulb in the other. "This chain is just rust-colored, not actually rusty... I think."

"It'll do fine!" Musty and Igor worked on fixing the chandelier, then hung it back up, over the doorway. "Is it straight?!" Musty called down to Franky.

"Yeah, looks perfect!"

"It looks wonderful. Good job, you guys," Bow praised them from her stance on the third floor balcony. She re-appeared on the first floor. "Does the light work?"

"It's only a ten-watt bulb, so don't worry about it. It just casts an eerie glow over things, heh heh." Franky flipped the switch. The glow from the light was a creepy yellow color.

"Gee, it makes us look like ghosts from Gusty Gulch!" Igor laughed.

"Next order of business," Bow said, looking at the door, "is installing a lock on this thing. Franky, did you see anything in the basement that could be used to bolt the door shut?"

"Oh, I didn't notice anything. I'll go check again!" Franky disappeared into the basement.

"I think I'll go look around in the other rooms, your ladyship," Igor offered, also vanishing.

"If they don't find anything, we could use the old fashioned metal pole across the door technique," Musty told her. "Do you really think that carrot will come again?"

"He said he would."

"Yeah, but what are promises from him worth?"

"I don't know. But I have a feeling he'll be back."

They both stayed quiet for a few minutes, when Bow suddenly asked, "Will you be staying long, Musty?"

"If you'd allow it, your ladyship, I'd like to."

"I'll allow it."

"Really?" Musty smiled. "Then I'll stay here for a while."

"Why did you leave in the first place?" Bow asked. "We were all worried about you..."

"Because I was being ignored," Musty mumbled.

"By whom?"

"By you."

Bow looked surprised. "I have other things to do, Musty... I can't lavish all my attention on one Boo!"

"I know, I know, but, bleh, I was immature, I think I can handle it now," Musty laughed. "Sorry, your ladyship, that was probably a sorry judgment on my own part."

"I guess so," Bow agreed. "I've made my fair share of mistakes to though, bleh."

"We all do," Musty assured her, just as Igor came back.

"Your ladyship! I found a big combination lock!" He proudly showed it to her. "Would this work?"

Bow grinned. "Yes! Perfect! Now, I want some of you Boos to station yourselves outside and watch for that carrot. Musty, do you think you could lead the group?"

"Yeah!" Musty jumped at the chance. "I'd love to!"

"OK, so round up some Boos and start guarding!"

"Are we lost?" a turnip asked Carroboscis.

"No, we aren't," Carroboscis assured the little vegetable, one of the few left after Deceptar had frozen the vegetables along with the Duplighosts. "Just keep your eyes out for a big, run-down mansion."

Finally, they found it: nestled in a grove of ancient apple trees was the building they were looking for. Carroboscis hadn't taken a good look at it before. Many bricks were miscolored, a few roof tiles were missing, and a couple of windows were broken. It really looked like an abandoned house, all right. Hard to believe some of the toughest creatures in Mushlandia called this place home...

Carroboscis tried the door, but it wouldn't budge. "Locked," he realized. "Hmm... we need to find a way to—"

"AAAH! Master Carroboscis, HELP!" The few turnips and pumpkins who had followed him were being pelted with apples from an unknown source.

"You dumb Boos," Carroboscis grumbled, then made a silent wish. I wish that those stupid ghosts would lose their ability to turn invisible! Every last one of them!

Carroboscis' wish was instantly granted. Two Boos appeared over the vegetables, one white in color, the other beige. A few other Boos became visible, too, including the bluish one who had led Carroboscis there the first time.

"Ah, Franky!" the beige one gasped, "You're visible!"

"Herbert, you are, too!"

"Huh?!" Herbert realized it was true. "Aah!" He tried vanishing, but nothing happened.

"Uh-oh..."

"Retreat!" the bluish one shouted, and they all went into the mansion – through a wall.

"What should we do?" a pumpkin asked.

"Well, since the door's locked..." Despite the fact he had no visible arms, Carroboscis managed to pick up a nice-sized rock and hurled it at a first-floor window. The window shattered. He grinned. "The door's locked, but the glass is weak. Prepare to attack, everyone!"

"He's back, he's back, your ladyship!" the frantic Musty called to Lady Bow. "And to make things worse..."

"We can't turn invisible anymore!!" Franky wailed. "What will we do?!"

Bow thought it over. It would be hard to fight while visible: it was just something that Boos didn't do. But, suddenly, she got an idea...

"Can you still go through walls?" she asked Franky.

"Y, yes..."

She smiled. "That's all we need, then. If you can hide on one side of a wall, when the carrot passes by on the other side, attack him. He won't be able to see you coming, so it should work."

"Lady Bow, you're a genius!" Musty exclaimed. "OK, everyone, hide in or around the walls of the main first-floor room. That's where the carrot will enter."

So they did that, most of the Boos hiding in a different room or inside the wall. Musty decided to hide in the staircase. The carrot and his small army entered.

"Hey, where'd they go?" a turnip asked. "It's empty!"

"Maybe they fled," the carrot grinned. "Go ahead and start setting up base. Eck, this place is a mess..."

Carroboscis had wandered by the door to another room, and before he could open it, one of the Boos, Stanley, suddenly came out of the wall next to the door and hit the carrot over the head with a weight. "Heh heh, like my welcoming present?!" Stanley then flew up into the air, well out of the carrot's reach, while another Boo, Igor, dropped a crate full of old apples on Carroboscis.

"Mine's better!" Igor laughed, flying up to join Stanley. The two high-fived.

Carroboscis was dazed, and had a major headache. "Why, you...!" He tried to jump, slipped on the rotten apples, and ended up falling on a couple of turnips, crushing them.

"He defeats his own henchmen," Stanley pointed out, laughing.

Franky, in his hiding place inside the wall, hit Carroboscis with an apple core fired from a slingshot. He then started firing at the pumpkins and turnips, and was soon joined by Herbert, firing pebbles from a pea shooter.

"Ah!" The pumpkins and turnips were freaking out. "Boss! What do we do?!"

Carroboscis wasn't about to give up this time. "DECEPTAR!! I need your help!"

Just as Carroboscis said that, the black star appeared, laughing. "Yikes, Carroboscis, yer havin' a lot o' trouble with these ghosts, ain't ya? I was wonderin' when you'd call fer help!"

"Just shut up and defeat them for me," Carroboscis muttered, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Ya didn't say please."

While the two of them were talking, Musty, holding a weight bigger than the one Stanley had been holding, decided to try hurling it at the star. "Hey! Get out!"

"Yowch!" The star turned around. "Eh, what's the big idea?! Ya know you cain't turn invisible, right?!"

"Of course," Musty said bravely, "But, as that weight should have told you, we won't go down without a fight."

"That much we've figured," Deceptar muttered, then shape-changed into Musty. "But we stars got special advantages! So, whaddya want me to do with 'em, Carroboscis?"

"Anything, just make it clear to them that this building belongs to me and they aren't welcome here anymore!"

"Well then, I'll just get rid of them then. Bye bye, ghosts!" Deceptar was about to make a wish when...

"Stop!" Lady Bow, having watched the whole thing from the third-floor balcony, suddenly flew down to face the star. "I need to talk with you first."

"What?" Deceptar asked, suspicious.

"Give us back the ability to turn invisible, and we'll leave peacefully," Bow told him.

"Wha, what?! Bow, are you nuts?!" Musty hissed at her. "You're willing to give this place over?"

Bow glared at him in such a way he knew he shouldn't try to reason with her again.

"Where would ya go?" Deceptar asked, even more suspicious.

"Wherever you tell us to go."

Deceptar thought it over. "OK, but under one condition."

"What's that?"

"Yer the ruler of the Boos in this area, right?"

Bow nodded.

"Then you gotta stay here, as our captive. An' you still cain't turn invisible. But we'll give the rest o' the Boos back their ability to turn invisible. And they gotta leave."

"Hey, no way!" Musty and a few others spoke up.

"We're not leaving Lady Bow with you creeps!" Igor exclaimed.

"No kidding! We'd rather die again!" Franky shouted.

"The ancestors would not like it!" Bootler added.

"I accept that," Bow said somewhat softly.

"Wha-WHAT?!" Musty was shocked. "But, Lady Bow--"

"We can't do anything without the ability to turn invisible," Bow pointed out. "And I trust you and Bootler to do a good job of watching the rest of the Boos."

"But, but..."

"No buts about it," Bow said sternly. "I'll stay here, you guys had better leave. Now!"

Rather than arguing with her, Musty rushed the rest of the Boos out. Franky tested the invisibility technique. It worked.

"Well, that star kept his promise!"

"I wonder where Mario and the others are," Musty sighed, "We'd better find out..."

"Where should we go?" Stanley asked.

"Toad Town, I guess."

"Ugh..."

Dupliana had never had such a bad headache before. She still wasn't sure what had happened...

The black star had banished all of them to... Somewhere. She didn't know where she was. Was anyone else here, too? Cloner? Princess Peach? The Crystal King?

She finally opened her eyes, to see... the sky. And... clouds.

But the clouds weren't in the sky, she was lying on one...

She let out a surprised yelp and got to her feet. She was on a cloud, yes. Nearby, lay Princess Peach, the pink star, and Twink.

The pink star had just sat up. "Aah," she moaned, "This can't be good for me..."

Dupliana tried waking up Princess Peach. "Your highness, are you all right?"

"Hmm... I think so," Peach managed to sit up. "Twink?"

Misstar tried waking him. "Hunh? Ah! Where are we?!" Twink quickly got up.

Peach looked around. "This looks strangely familiar..."

"Where are we?" Dupliana asked.

"I'm not sure..." Peach got to her feet. "Let's take a look around."

A few minutes of walking around brought them to a small town, complete with a fair-sized castle that... seemed to be made of... ice cream? "Aha, just as I thought! This is Nimbus Land, near South Mushlandia."

"How'd we end up here?!" Dupliana wondered aloud.

"It's Deceptar's doing, I'm sure," Misstar sighed. "Those darn stars, I hope someone teaches them a lesson in respect soon!"

"Misstar, can you try contacting the other honorable Star Spirits to see if anyone's nearby?" Twink asked. "I know you're much more powerful than me!"

"Certainly." Misstar closed her eyes and focused with all her might. Eldstar, Mamar, Skolar, Klevar, Muskular, Kalmar, can any of you hear me?

No response. Misstar then realized that they might not respond if they didn't know who she was. This is Misstar, Twink is with me. If you can hear me, please respond!

But Misstar got no response. "Either my power is too weak, or theirs is so weak they don't notice it," she sighed. "Where should we go...?"

"Well..." Peach thought a moment, then remembered, "I told Parakarry and Mayuri to come here a while ago, I want to see if they're still here."

Peach managed to get an immediate audience with the king and queen. She and Misstar told them the story.

"Wow, that sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?" Prince Mallow commented once they'd finished. "Sounds like when Smithy destroyed the Star Road..."

"And we had to find the seven Star Pieces to fix the road," Peach finished. "Yes, it is a lot like that."

"Down to the fact that there are seven Star Spirits," Queen Nimbus added. "I'm sorry, but Parakarry and Mayuri are no longer here, they left a little while ago."

"Where did they go?" Peach asked.

"I'm afraid we don't know," King Nimbus sighed. "They didn't say."

"Should we look for them?" Luigi asked.

"I think it's more important to find Eldstar first," Misstar told him.

"Well, who knows, maybe we'd run into them looking for Eldstar, or vice versa."

"Do you need help in re-taking Toad Town?" King Nimbus asked.

"Well, we're going to focus on that later," Peach said, "I want to see what Mario and the Crystal King have to say on the matter."

"If they landed somewhere around here," Dupliana muttered. "If not, maybe we'll never find them."

"We'll find them," Peach sounded sure, "And we'll get Toad Town and the Crystal Palace back, just wait and see!"

"Take over South Mushlandia, eh?" Wart was talking to Betrayar on the phone. "Sure, I can manage it!"

"All you have to do is take Mushroom Kingdom, the other cities should follow easily," Betrayar assured him. "I already told Potatocide and Carroboscis to go there, and Deceptar will be there to help you out."

"Even better," Wart said. "What are the chances of someone like, uh, Mario showing up?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Betrayar admitted. "But if he does, Deceptar will take care of him, so don't worry."

"Good. I hate dealing with that guy."

"We all do. Well, Wart, I will tell Deceptar to go down to Mushroom asap, so you'd better hurry there, too!"

"I'm on my way!" Wart promised before hanging up.

Wart had created a special fruit and vegetable salad, I mean, army, just for himself: broccoli, asparagus, radishes, and melons.

With this group, no one will beat me! Wart thought happily. Who would want to face all these veggies at once, eh?! If only they were a little smarter...

Once the Boos got to Toad Town, they could tell something was wrong. Horribly wrong. It was way too quiet. The Boos with Musty (some had stayed at Gusty Gulch) kept invisible as they wandered around town.

"This is weird," Igor muttered. "Where is everyone...?"

At the castle, they saw that many veggies and Duplighosts had been frozen into ice. "Oh, no!" Musty gasped, "Looks like we lost a battle here..."

"Hey, I see a couple of pumpkins over there!" Franky said softly. "Should we go and see...?"

"Spy on 'em, guys, and if they say nothing about where everyone is," Musty grinned the last part, "Spook 'em!"

That's precisely what Franky ended up doing. The pumpkins were talking about something else, and only when Franky started hitting them randomly with a stick would they talk about where everyone was. "They were banished to South Mushlandia!" one of the pumpkins wailed. "Now will you leave us alone, mean ghost?"

"Where in South Mushlandia?!" Musty demanded.

"I dunno, but Master Carroboscis had orders to go to Mushroom Kingdom..."

"Oh, great, that's the capital city!" Musty groaned. "Come on, guys, we're off to Mushroom Kingdom!"

Mario, Pararera, Cloner, Luigi, and a few others had landed near Tadpole Pond – actually, Pararera, General Guy, and about half the Shy Squad had landed IN the pond – and were currently deciding what to do next.

"This is not good," Mario mused.

"Well, duh!" Pararera was understandably in an unusually bad mood.

"Where do you think we ought to go?" Luigi asked. "I really, really, really think we ought to go tell the chancellor."

"I'd agree. But Mushroom Kingdom isn't exactly close."

"It's not that far though."

"I know, but still..."

"Telling the chancellor sounds like a good idea to me, too," General Guy broke in.

"Actually, before we do that, I want to go talk to Frogfucious." Mario got up and started to walk away.

"Who?" Pararera called after him, then got up himself and followed him. "You want to see who?"

"Frogfucious. He's a sage who lives in this area."

"Oh. A frog?"

"Yup."

"As if the name doesn't give it away," Pararera muttered.

Mario led Pararera to Frogfucious' small home, and the old frog invited them both in for a chat. "I've already heard of what's been happening in North Mushlandia," Frogfucious said sadly. "These new villains are much tougher than Bowser or Smithy."

"That's because they have one major advantage: they are smart and know this planet quite well," Mario sighed. Frogfucious simply nodded.

"Their only weakness is the Star Rod," the frog continued. "Once you've found the other six stars, then you'll be able to face them."

"Other six...?" Pararera looked confused.

"Peach already found two of them."

"Oh, she did find the one in the Forest Forest!" Mario looked relieved. "You don't happen to know where they are, do you...?"

"I just got a report from Mallow a little earlier saying that they stopped by Nimbus Land, but they're already gone. However, rather than searching for them, I would suggest going straight to Mushroom Kingdom. The news about what happened at Toad Town and the Crystal Palace has the chancellor very worried."

"We're on our way," Mario promised.