Chapter eleven: Showdown Part 2
(Castle)
Luigi and Waluigi ran down the hallways of the mountain base, side by side. Although they weren't exactly best friends, to save Daisy, they would gladly put all differences aside, if only for a little while.
During the run, Luigi chuckled. "Hard to believe, eh?" He asked his rival. "Us, sworn rivals, joined together to save a princess."
Waluigi managed a smirk, although it looked like a grin because of his huge mouth. "I know. Imagine that." He quickly looked at Luigi, but neither stopped running. "Just remember that after this is over, we go back to hating each other."
Luigi nodded. "Of course. If either of our brothers found out that we helped each other, neither of us would hear the end of it."
The two plumbers ran for a good while, and without coming upon anything of interest. Eventually, they came upon a door at the end of the hallway. They tried looking through the window on it, but neither of them could see anything.
"Should we see what's inside?" Waluigi asked.
"Ah...What the heck." Luigi replied as he opened the door. "I'll use the Thunderhand to see. Stay behind me."
Luigi walked into the room, Waluigi following him. Inside the room, it was pitch black. Neither of the reluctant allies could see anything.
Lighting up his hand using the Thunderhand, Luigi was sable to find a light switch on the wall. The green plumber flipped the switch, making a light turn on in the direct center of the huge room. The spotlight on the floor was big enough to be a battle arena.
Luigi and Waluigi's eyes sprang open when they saw what the scene was before them. Daisy, bound and gagged, was trapped inside a glass diamond, which looked like it was hanging in midair.
"DAISY!" They both cried as they ran towards the brunette princess.
However, just before they could get to Daisy, a powerful blast shot from the shadows, sending them both to the ground. Quickly jumping to their feet, the two plumbers stared into the shadows, where the energy shot had come from.
"Whoever you are, come out!" Luigi shouted.
A deep voice chuckled. "Very well." With that, a lone figure stepped into the spotlight. Luigi and Waluigi couldn't tell what he looked like, as he was wearing a cloak with the hood pulled over his head.
Waluigi got straight to the point. "Are you the one behind this whole thing?" He asked.
Another deep, sinister chuckle came from underneath the hood. "I am."
"Well, we're here to stop you!" Luigi replied. "Release Daisy and hand over the Power Crystals and maybe we'll let you live."
The leader looked at Luigi and shook his head. "Not a chance, pal. Not after I've come this far."
"Who are you, anyway?" Waluigi asked.
The leader chuckled as he grasped his hood. "You two may not know me, but you might say that I know Mario."
Without another word, the leader threw the cloak off, tossing it outside of the spotlight. Luigi looked at the leader again. He was now a tall, purple alien with pointed ears and sharp fangs sticking out of his bottom lip. He wore a black suit.
Luigi's eyes snapped open. He had never seen this guy before, but Mario had told him what he looked like. "TATANGA!" He cried.
Tatanga raised an eyebrow. "So Mario HAS told you about me." He said. Pressing a button on his belt, the tall alien suddenly started hovering above the ground, his belt proving to be an anti-gravity device.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Luigi said as he looked up at Tatanga. "You're from space! Koff E told us that they banished you HERE, and that was BEFORE Mario defeated you!"
"I admit that I AM from space, but it is quite obvious that by the time Mario defeated me, I had been here for at least thirty years. I didn't waste my time while I was stranded on this island, either. I built this whole base and many computer-operated flying ships to pose as an invading army from space." Tatanga explained. "You two were extremely lucky to have made it this far, but here is where your luck ends! My henchmen, as stupid as they all may be, must have worn you both down by now."
Waluigi growled as he put his fists up. "No way! We're gonna pound you so bad that your bruises will have bruises!"
"For once, I agree with him!" Luigi added, copying his tall counterpart. "After everything we've gone through, we're not gonna let Daisy down now!"
[BATTLE: START]
[MINI-BOSS: TATANGA – HEALTH: 3]
As Tatanga floated around the room, he started generating balls of energy in both fists. Once he was fully charged up, Tatanga fired the energy shots at the ground, making the two plumbers bolt away from each other. The energy shot struck the ground harmlessly.
Waluigi started throwing fireballs at the purple alien, but nothing hit him. "He's flying to high!" He shouted in anger. "I can't hit him!" He turned towards Luigi. 'What about that Thunderhand you have?"
Luigi shook his head as he dodged another energy shot. "That only works at close range." He replied. "The way it stands, the only way we can hit him is if he flies lower or we can make ourselves jump higher."
"Great." Waluigi muttered. "I don't think he'll be coming closer to the ground, either."
Tatanga smirked evilly as he hovered over the two plumbers. Shoving out both hands, the evil alien fired rapid energy shots from both palms, each stream of shots directed at one of the two plumbers. Luigi and Waluigi quickly turned around and ran off, the shots striking the floor just behind them as they ran.
"Any suggestions?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah. Split up and hope he goes after you!" Waluigi said as he turned to the right and ran off.
Luigi sighed as he turned to the left as continued running. Both plumbers quickly saw that Tatanga had spread his arms, making each of the energy waves continue to follow a plumber.
"Come on! Stop already!" Waluigi shouted as he struggled to outrun the stream of energy shots striking the ground behind him.
Suddenly, his wish was granted. Tatanga stopped firing the shots from his hand as he slouched over in midair, clutching his heart. He breathed heavily.
"Hey! That attack took a lot of energy out of him!" Luigi said as he turned around. "Now's our chance to attack!"
"And how do you impose we do that, genius?" Waluigi asked.
Luigi didn't answer. He simply ran over to Tatanga and stood in front of him, facing Waluigi. He cupped his hands, providing a step. Waluigi suddenly, smirked, realizing what his counterpart was thinking of.
Without a word, Waluigi charged at Luigi, winding up for a Flaming Uppercut. The dark plumber stepped into Luigi's hand, and as soon as he did, the plan took action.
"Alley-Oop!" Luigi shouted as he threw his hands into the air, throwing Waluigi higher than either of them could jump.
On the way up, Waluigi's fist was engulfed in the familiar dark flames. Waluigi's fist made hard contact with Tatanga's face, making the alien spin off a few feet away. [HIT]
"A lucky shot." Tatanga said as he rubbed his jaw.
Luigi and Waluigi watched as Tatanga floated over to the middle of the arena, where he stay still. Suddenly, he rose into the air a couple more feet, his feet surging with electricity.
The green plumber instantly knew what was coming next. "Get ready to jump!" He told Waluigi, who nodded.
"TAKE THIS!" Tatanga shouted as he plunged feet first into the ground, creating a massive shockwave, which rocketed out in all directions.
Luigi and Waluigi leapt over the shockwave, and quickly saw another one coming, although not as powerful. The shockwave died down just before reaching the feet of the two plumbers.
Tatanga raised into the air again and started floating around. Pulling his fists back, the purple alien charged up another energy shot and fired it at the ground, hoping to strike the plumbers. Luigi and Waluigi dodged the attack, and Tatanga charged up another. The reluctant allies ran to the side and avoided the second shot.
The evil alien floated after the two plumbers, firing rapid energy shots from his hands. No mater where the plumbers ran, the energy shots followed. Luigi and Waluigi quickly saw that the energy shots were firing faster than before, but luckily, they were still able to outrun them.
Once the energy shots died down, Tatanga slumped forward in midair, exhausted of power.
"Okay, he's dropped his guard!" Luigi said as he ran closer to Tatanga as faced Waluigi.
"Get ready, shorty!" Waluigi shouted as he started running. "Cause here I come!"
Luigi cupped his hands and prepared for Waluigi to step in them. As soon as Waluigi's foot was in his hands, Luigi tossed him upwards, straight towards Tatanga. Waluigi performed a Flaming Uppercut, again striking Tatanga in the jaw. [HIT]
"I won't let my plan fail!" Tatanga said as he flew higher up. "Not after I've come this close!"
"Bring it on, buster!" Waluigi taunted.
Tatanga flew closer to Waluigi and pulled both fists back. The evil alien thrust both arms forward, in Waluigi's direction, firing a ball of dark purple energy, crackling with electricity. Waluigi saw this coming and dodged to the side, allowing the projectile to strike the floor. The tall plumber was expecting the ball to explode, but when it hit the ground, it instead burst into five smaller orbs, each of them homing in on either one of the two heroes.
The purple plumber found himself running from three of the orbs, which weren't showing any signs of dissipating anytime soon. He looked over his shoulder at Luigi, who was running from the other two orbs. "How do we get rid of these things?" He called out.
Thinking hard, Luigi decided to go with his instincts. Turning around and stopping, Luigi activated his Thunderhand and used it to generate a shield of lightning, allowing the two orbs to perish when they struck it. "Create a shield with your flames!" He replied to Waluigi.
Waluigi nodded as he spun a flaming fist in a circle in font of him, creating a temporary shield, which proved to be just as effective as Luigi's lightning shield. All three orbs struck the shield and died down quickly.
Tatanga, seeing that the two plumbers had avoided the attack, floated higher up, his feet pulsating with energy.
"He's gonna do the shockwave again!" Waluigi observed.
"Scatter!" Luigi ordered as he watched Tatanga come racing towards the floor like a torpedo.
The purple alien crashed into the ground, sending another shockwave out in the plumbers' directions. Luigi and Waluigi put all of their respective strength into their legs as they rocketed off the ground, leaping over the shockwave as it passed underneath.
On the way back down to the ground, Luigi saw that another shockwave was coming at the two of them again. As soon as he touched the ground, Luigi leapt into the air again, Waluigi copying him. When the two plumbers landed back on the ground, Tatanga rose back into the air again.
Tatanga pulled both arms back as Luigi and Waluigi ran around on the ground. The alien fired an energy shot at the ground near Luigi's feet, but luckily, the green-clad man dodged the attack. Waluigi had to do the same thing for the second energy shot.
The evil alien, becoming intensely frustrated, held both hands in front of his face and rapidly fired energy shots from both palms, making two trails tear up the ground, going in the plumbers' direction.
Luigi ran to the left, Waluigi ran to the right, each of the energy trails followed them. Both of them waited impatiently for Tatanga to tire out and stop attacking.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Tatanga stopped shooting energy orbs and slouched over in midair, breathing heavily.
Luigi smirked slyly as he rushed over to the ground directly underneath Tatanga, faced Waluigi and cupped his hands. He nodded once to his purple rival.
Waluigi smirked and nodded in reply as he ran towards Luigi and placed his foot into his hands.
"Alley-Oop!" Luigi shouted as he threw his hands into the air, rocketing Waluigi into the air for the final time, as the purple plumber's flaming fist found its way to Tatanga's jaw for the third time. [HIT]
Tatanga remained silent as he slowly floated down to the ground, where he lay defeated.
Luigi and Waluigi gave each other their first high-five, thankful that neither of their brothers were around to see it. "Go back into space, ya dweeb!" Waluigi laughed.
[END BATTLE. LUIGI AND WALUIGI WIN]
Luigi brushed his hands together. "Well, that's that."
Waluigi rushed over to the diamond containing Daisy and looked around for a way to open the case up so the two plumbers could get Daisy out. Alas, Waluigi could find nothing. Daisy was trapped.
"We have to find a way to get Daisy out of there!" Luigi said as he joined Waluigi in searching for a way to open the diamond.
Luigi and Waluigi suddenly heard a chuckle coming from behind them, in Tatanga's direction. Both plumbers turned around to see the evil alien slowly getting to his feet, a triumphant smirk on his face.
"What are you so happy about?" Waluigi asked suspiciously as he and Luigi walked towards the alien.
"You really think my plan has failed?" Tatanga quizzed. "The plan was completed five minutes before you two arrived!"
Luigi angrily grabbed Tatanga's shirt as shook him. "Why Daisy? She has nothing to do with this!"
Tatanga chuckled. "That's what you may think, but do you really know the true story?" He pointed up at the diamond containing the terrified brunette, which was rising off the ground. "That gem on her dress is a shard of the original Power Crystal!"
"Well, that we gathered!" Waluigi shouted. "But why not just steal it from her? Why did you kidnap her?"
Tatanga grinned. "She's had that gem all of her life. After all those years of wearing it, Daisy actually absorbed most of the energy from the crystal." His grin got even bigger. "She's absorbed so much energy over the years that she's practically BECOME the Power Crystal!"
Luigi and Waluigi's eyes snapped open. "WHAT?" They looked up at Daisy and quickly saw her starting to glow inside the diamond. They then saw the other six shards of the crystal lined up, three on either side of the princess' diamond, start glowing, everything attached to what looked like a giant collar. Daisy was hanging directly in the middle.
Luigi spun around to face Tatanga. "What's this plan?" Luigi demanded.
Before he could get any answer out of Tatanga, he and Waluigi heard a loud, reptilian roar. Daring to look over their shoulders, the two plumbers saw an enormous Koopa lean into the light, so big that only his head and hands were able to come into the arena. The Koopa had glowing, yellow eyes, sharp teeth, razor sharp nails on his long fingers and fire red hair.
A light wen ton inside both plumbers' heads. Fire red hair?
"BOWSER!" They both cried.
Luigi and Waluigi quickly realized Tatanga's plan. His plan was to bring Bowser back as a gigantic form of Giga Bowser, under his control.
Tatnga laughed as he floated above the ground. "It's great, isn't it? The number one enemy of the Mushroom Kingdom, ready to fight again after being destroyed. Soon, the entire Kingdom will be in the palm of my hand!" He turned to look into Bowser's eyes. "Crush them!" He ordered as he floated high above the battlefield, clearly out of harm's way.
Bowser let out an Earth-shaking roar as he looked down at the two plumbers. Daisy, although muffled through the gag in her mouth and the diamond separating her from her heroes, screamed out to Luigi and Waluigi, wishing that she could do something to help.
[BATTLE: START]
[BOSS: GIGA BOWSER – HEALTH: 3]
Bowser pulled a giant fist into the air and brought it down, barely missing Waluigi. Once it was on the ground, Luigi jumped onto the hand and leapt at Bowser's face, preparing for an uppercut. However, instead of doing any damage, Luigi bounced off the Koopa King's face, landing on the cold, hard ground.
"What the heck?" Luigi thought aloud. "Our attacks don't damage him!"
"Hit him with all you've got!" Waluigi directed as he performed a Flaming Uppercut, faring just as bad as Luigi's attempt. "There's got to be a weakness!"
Bowser reared back and exhaled with all of his might, breathing a huge beam of fire at the two plumbers. Waving his head from side to side, Bowser maneuvered the flame around, covering more ground. Luigi and Waluigi had to leap over the flames to avoid them, but they managed to do so just barely.
Luigi ducked to the ground and aimed his head at Bowser's nose. Pulsating in a strange energy, Luigi performed a Green Missile, rocketing himself into the air, straight at Bowser's face. The green plumber slammed into the Koopa King's head, but it too proved ineffective.
Waluigi, on the other hand, decided to play it safe, and throw fireballs from a distance. They all struck Bowser in the face, but none of them damaged him in the slightest. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Waluigi quickly saw Bowser's left claw coming at him for a horizontal swipe. Using all of his leg power, the purple-clad man leapt into the air and over the claw as it went underneath.
The green plumber sighed as he delivered yet another futile Thunderhand attack in an attempt to hurt the mutated Koopa. "It's no use." He admitted. "If we can't damage him, he'll wear us down eventually and it'll be all over."
Meanwhile, inside the diamond hanging from Bowser's giant collar, Daisy suddenly heard what Luigi had said. She stopped panicking and started thinking. Luigi and Waluigi, as well as the rest of the team, had done so much to help her. She figured that there must be SOME way she could help the battle. The only problem was figuring out how before Luigi ad Waluigi ran out of strength.
A light suddenly went on inside the brunette's head. She had heard Tatanga reveal that she had absorbed a lot of the energy from the Power Crystal shard. Maybe she could weaken Bowser by using the energy she held.
Daisy silently closed her eyes and concentrated using all of her strength. She concentrated on using the crystals against Bowser in an attempt to weaken him. Suddenly, she felt herself become engulfed in electricity. It felt like she had fallen against an electric fence, and then some. Even through all of the pain, Daisy continued concentrating, determined to help Luigi and Waluigi.
Bowser pulled his fist into the air in an attempt to bring it down on the two plumbers when he suddenly felt a surge of pain flood through his body. Bowser's eyes snapped open as he recoiled and howled in pain.
Luigi and Waluigi saw Daisy inside the diamond, looking like she was in more pain than Bowser, but looked like she was concentrating hard. The two plumbers quickly realized what Daisy was doing.
"She's using the Power Crystals against him!" Waluigi observed in amazement.
"Come on! Let's attack him!" Luigi ordered. "Daisy trying to help us and I don't know how much more she can take!"
Waluigi nodded as the two of them rushed towards Bowser, pulling their fists down and, in perfect synchronization, landed a double hit to Bowser's jaw, although it only did the equal damage of one hit. [HIT]
Bowser roared in anger as the pain inside suddenly stopped. Daisy, inside the diamond, exhausted herself trying to weaken Bowser and had stopped concentrating for a little bit.
Waluigi quickly threw some more fireballs at Bowser's face, but none of them did any damage. "What's going on? We just damaged him!" He said.
"Daisy must've only temporary weakened him!" Luigi replied. "She's our ticket to winning this battle! We need to avoid Bowser's attacks long enough for Daisy to weaken him again!"
With that, Luigi looked up at Daisy. "Daisy! You need to weaken him some more!" He directed. "We'll avoid his attacks long enough for you to regain your strength!"
Although weak, Daisy nodded. She knew that she was the only way Luigi and Waluigi could damage Bowser, and she was determined to help them do so.
Bowser looked down at Luigi and Waluigi and growled. His yellow eyes suddenly started glowing. Although Waluigi was confused, Luigi quickly realized what was going to happen. Using his right hand, Luigi pushed Waluigi out of the way before running to the left. As soon as the two were out of harm's way, a beam of yellow energy fired from Bowser's eyes and struck the ground right where they had been standing.
Once the beam stopped, Bowser exhaled again, firing a wave of fire at the two plumbers, scattering the flames around the battlefield. While Luigi jumped over the flames, Waluigi decided to run from them. Either way, both methods worked and the fire subsided with neither of the plumbers getting burned.
Luigi landed on the ground just in time to see Bowser's huge claw coming at him. Flipping to the side, Luigi avoided the claw as it slid on the ground underneath him. Waluigi saw the same claw coming at leapt over it as well.
Inside the diamond, Daisy was still recovering from the damage she had dealt. She knew that she had to do it at least once more, and although she was in pain, she knew that she had to do it.
Even though she hadn't fully recovered, Daisy concentrated on the Power Crystals again. After focusing hard enough, she felt the searing pain of electricity flood her body. Although in terrible pain, Daisy continued concentrating. Bowser's eyes snapped open as he shrieked in pain.
"Come on! Before Daisy runs out of energy!" Lugii ordered as he ran at Bowser with Waluigi beside him.
The two plumbers leapt into the air and each performed an uppercut, striking Bowser in the face at the exact same time. [HIT]
Bowser roared furiously as Daisy suddenly stopped concentrating, exhausting herself again.
Pulling both arms into the air, Bowser slammed both fists into the ground, creating a small Earthquake, causing cracks to appear in the floor. Luigi and Waluigi weren't expecting this, so they became stunned. Bowser used this opportunity to swing his claw at the duo again. Luckily, the two plumbers snapped out of their daze to see it coming and they both jumped over it.
"That was almost TOO close." Luigi sighed in relief as he landed on the ground.
Bowser's eyes suddenly glowed again. Both plumbers knew what was going to happen next, and ran to the side, allowing the beam coming from Bowser's eyes to strike the ground harmlessly. Bowser continued with another wave of fire breath. Both plumbers avoided the flames easily.
The mutated Koopa King pulled his hands into the air again and balled them into one big fist. Slamming them down into the ground with amazing impact, Bowser made the cracks in the floor even bigger. Luckily, the two plumbers saw that attack coming and leapt into the air to avoid getting stunned by the quake's force.
Bowser took another swipe with his claws, aiming for both plumbers. Luigi backpedaled to avoid the claw, while Waluigi leapt over it.
"How much longer?" Waluigi asked Luigi.
"We have to wait for Daisy to recover!" Luigi replied. "If she uses to much power, she'll probably end up killing herself!"
Inside the diamond, Daisy had heard everything that the two had said. She knew that they were right in saying that if she used too much energy now, she'd be overwhelmed, but if she didn't do anything now, she had a feeling that Luigi and Waluigi wouldn't last much longer.
She narrowed her eyes, knowing what she had to do. Concentrating on the Power Crystals again, Daisy knew that she had to make this one count.
Suddenly, the brunette princess became overwhelmed in pain for the third time. Even still, she wouldn't let anything break her concentration.
For the third time, Bowser howled in pain, making his invincibility wear off.
"Let's finish him off!" Waluigi said.
"Way ahead of ya!" Luigi replied as he and Waluigi ran at Bowser and perform a synchronized uppercut to the evil Koopa's face. [HIT]
Bowser roared in pain as the diamond containing started glowing again, this time intensely. Luigi watched in horror as the glass diamond exploded, dropping the exhausted princess towards the ground.
"DAISY!" Luigi cried as he rushed underneath her and held his arms out, barely managing to catch her before she hit the ground. Daisy was unconscious before she even made it halfway to the ground.
"Let's get outta here!" Waluigi ordered when he saw light starting to emit from Bowser's eyes and nostrils, showing that it could result in an explosion that could rock the entire Mushroom Kingdom.
Luigi couldn't argue with his purple counterpart and the two of them rushed out of the lab, Daisy in Luigi's arms. Tatanga tried to escape through the door, but Waluigi was smart enough to lock the door behind him.
[END BATTLE. LUIGI AND WALUIGI WIN]
(Gadd Jet)
"Where the heck are they?" Goombaria asked as she and the others waited in the Gadd Jet for Luigi and Waluigi to emerge from the base.
"They must be getting close." Slim observed as he pointed out the top of the mountain was starting to crumble.
"Look! There they are!" Fice T shouted as he pointed towards the entrance to the base and saw Luigi and Waluigi making a mad dash down the stairs, a bound and unconscious princess in Luigi's arms. "They've found Daisy!" The guard shouted in glee.
The two plumbers quickly arrived at the jet and ran up the ramp that Prof. Gadd had deployed for them. As soon as they were inside, the professor retracted the ramp again.
"Get us out of here!" Waluigi told Prof. Gadd. "This island is gonna blow!"
Gadd nodded. "Hang on everyone!"
Activating the thrusters on the jet, Gadd performed a vertical takeoff as his creation zoomed off back towards the Mushroom Kingdom, just as a massive explosion went up on the island, obliterating Tatanga's base.
