Chapter Three- The Castle's Breach
"Now, where is it? Oh, yes! There's the cookbook! Let's see here… oh, Toad will you get the cake mix, please? No, not you, Luigi. You're supposed to be resting. Oh, careful Yoshi! Those eggs aren't very… ooh, there's another mess to be cleaned up. Oh dear. Toad, that cake mix!"
As clear a greenhorn as anyone could be, Peach ran back and forth in the royal kitchen, her pink-and-white checkered apron trailing after her. Already, her arms were splattered with ingredients, and she hadn't even begun working on the cake yet. Toad frantically tried to carry out Peach's orders, all the while keeping an eye on Yoshi, who was constantly finding ways to make things worse. Luigi, meanwhile, sat in a chair in a corner of the kitchen, nervously watching the spectacle and occasionally covering his head whenever a dish was smashed or an ingredient was sent flying.
"Oh, my! This cookbook is in French! Well, maybe I can still get a passing understanding of it. Does le mean the same thing as lb? If only Chef Torte was here… Yoshi! Not the cupboard! Toad, catch him!"
Toad did catch Yoshi, but not the stacks of dishes that were brought down with him. Dozens of plates were smashed in an instant. Peach skipped about to avoid getting cut by a sliding ceramic piece. Peach buried her head in her apron and groaned. Then, everyone paused, listening. There was a bugle call coming from outside.
"The call of the guards?" Peach wondered. "What on earth could they be calling for? Toad, go see what it's all about."
"Yes, Princess," Toad said, with a bow. He looked over the ruinous kitchen one last time, before departing. Luigi watched him go.
"May I?" Luigi asked.
Peach motioned with her arm. "Go ahead," she said quietly.
Luigi was glad for the chance to leave the room. As the door shut behind him, he heard the sound of Yoshi overturning the cake mix, followed by another one of Peach's groans. He shook his head and climbed the steps out of the basement.
As Toad opened the door from the basement to the foyer, he heard the bugle call a second time. Except this one was cut short. Feeling a tinge of alarm, he walked across the foyer to the front door, which he opened without a thought. It never occurred to him how urgent the situation might have been.
As soon as he was through the front door, he saw that the front lawn was filled with Koopa soldiers, without an inch to spare. He looked toward the waterfall. A magical staircase had been created, leading from the mouth of the falls down to the edge of the moat. He turned his attention back to the front lawn. At the head of all these soldiers, grinning his toothy grin, was the King of the Koopas himself, Bowser. Surrounding him was a half-circle of Magikoopas, their wand above their heads. Toad looked into the sky and saw the Mushroom guards, every single one of them, encased in magical prisons.
"Am I interrupting anything?" Bowser hissed. Behind him, the Magikoopas simultaneously drove their wands into the ground. With a flash, the guards vanished.
"Princess!" Toad screamed. He turned around and threw open the door, screaming, "Princess! Go, Princess!"
Bowser nodded to the Magikoopas, and the one to his left lifted his wand. In the wink of an eye, Toad found himself encased in a magical prison. He drifted toward Bowser until they were face-to-face. Bowser said nothing; he simply grinned triumphantly, driving his piercing red eyes into Toad's beady ones. A moment later, Toad disappeared.
Luigi heard all this from the foyer. Without a second thought, he slipped into the basement, flew down the stairs, and stormed into the kitchen.
"Peach!" he screamed.
Both Yoshi and the Princess stared at him with gaping eyes. Immediately, Peach knew something was wrong. She saw it in his face; more specifically, she saw fear in his face. With a sickening feeling in her stomach, she realized that Luigi wasn't afraid for himself, but afraid for her.
"The castle is breached! The castle is breached!" Luigi shouted. "You must come quickly!"
Peach opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped when Luigi grabbed her by the hand and forcefully dragged her out of the kitchen. He looked around quickly, saw the stairs, and led her up to the hall leading to the courtyard. There was the closest entrance to the underground shelter built specifically for Peach's protection. It even had a small tunnel that led into the wilderness, in case the shelter had to be evacuated. There was but one caveat: she mustn't be seen going inside.
Luigi felt resistance halfway down the hall. Peach was jerking her arm away from his grip. "No!" he screamed. "There's no time! Come on, Princess! You must come!"
Peach looked up at him with a grimace on her face. "I can't," she said quietly. "If I leave the Power Stars to be picked up by Bowser, then all will be lost."
With a final jerk, she wrested free from Luigi's grip and tapped the nearby wall at five specific spots. Internal gears whirred as a hidden door slid away, revealing a secret elevator.
"Wait, Peach!" Luigi grabbed for her, but it was too late. She elbowed a button at her side. The hidden door slammed shut, and the elevator shot upward.
Luigi slammed his fists into the wall and roared, roaring not only in fury at Peach's foolhardiness, but also in pure desperation. He turned around and saw that Yoshi was standing behind him, fearfully rubbing his hands together.
"Let's go," Luigi said.
The two darted for the foyer, hoping they could catch Peach before Bowser did. But as they came leaping through the door from the basement, they found that they had leapt into a foyer dominated by Koopas, not the least of which was King Bowser. Luigi balled his fists and prepared himself to stand his ground, but for naught. The Magikoopas promptly did their duty.
Elsewhere, the elevator came to a stop and another secret door opened up, revealing Peach's bedroom. She stepped out, jotted down a quick note on her dresser, and hurried to the great chest. When she opened it up, the light of a dozen suns filled the room. She shielded her eyes from the intensity of it all.
"Don't be afraid of the light," Peach said to herself. "Remember what Luigi said. Don't be afraid to look into the light!"
Yet she squinted her eyes shut, purely out of instinct, as she reached into the chest and grabbed as many Stars as she could. Suddenly she could hear hundreds of rapid footsteps ascending the stairs. Holding the Stars to her chest, she turned away and knelt in the center of the bedroom. Her mind sank into deep concentration, forcing all outside noises away. Softly, she muttered one of the few spells she knew. The footsteps were coming closer, but she ignored them. When she finished the spell, the Stars shrunk to tiny pinpoints of light and scattered, tucking themselves into the farthest, most secure corners of the castle. And that was when her bedroom door was kicked down.
Bowser found the Princess Peach kneeling on her bedroom floor, eyes serenely kept shut. It was not hard to notice that there was also a treasure chest full of Stars in the room, for it had enough light to illuminate the whole world. He pointed at the chest. Ten of his best troops broke formation to surround it. Bowser walked slowly toward the kneeling princess. With a smile, he bent down, placed a claw under her chin, and gently lifted her head. She opened her eyes and looked into his face. She was very calm.
"Princess Peach Toadstool," Bowser said. "Leader of the Mushroom People, Owner of the Mushroom Castle, Keeper of the Power Stars… and now, Prisoner of the Koopa Clan. Know that, when I have possession of these Stars, the defeat of your kingdom will be certain. Know that many Mushroomites will die at my hands. Know that your legacy will end with ruined towns and scarred battlefields."
"I would laugh at your confidence," Peach said, "if your offensive odor didn't keep my mouth shut."
"Charming," Bowser said with a deep-throated growl. "You know, Princess, I couldn't help but notice how much this castle has changed since it was under my ownership. I've especially noticed that stained-glass beauty standing high above the front door. Am I correct in assuming that the window was made in your image?"
Peach nodded. Bowser's claw pressed itself into her chin, drawing a single drop of blood.
"Such vanity." Bowser shook his head. "I would expect that of any matriarch, except you. I would have expected better of you. Well, no matter. If you wish to be suspended high above your people in such a glorious fashion, then so be it. That stained-glass window is now your prison."
The circle of silent Magikoopas raised their wands all together. Then, moments later, every wand dropped to the floor. With a shower of sparks, Peach disappeared.
As soon as the pink figure was gone, a sort of paralysis fell over everyone present. For a moment, the Koopa soldiers wondered if Bowser was in a state of shock. After all, the war was virtually won, and it had come quite suddenly. But it wasn't long before Bowser broke the paralysis as he turned to address his crew.
"Gentlemen," he said, grinning his favorite reptilian grin, "This castle is a fine piece of real estate, and it is ours once again. I think it will make an excellent base of operations."
The soldiers hooted in approval.
"Well then, let's take a tour of our new home!"
Bowser and his troops filed out of the bedroom, having emptied the treasure chest in the corner. Then, beginning with the rooms in the foyer, they began exploring the castle, scrapping whatever furniture they encountered (simply because, with so many Koopas, furniture got in the way). Bowser fiercely commanded them not to vandalize the castle itself, though. He seemed to take a liking to the Mushroom Castle's fine architecture.
After exploring the castle from top to bottom, Bowser and his troops returned to the foyer. He let his Koopa minions chatter among themselves for a minute or so before clearing his throat to signal that it was his turn to talk.
"Peach was rather thorough in her restoration of the castle after she recovered it from me," he said bitterly. "Most of the layout is the same, but now, it's very feminine. There are tapestries and paintings and murals and marble statues. A real man's castle has an abundance of black brick and hot lava. The only 'art' pieces you need are gargoyles."
"Peach has a love for art, it seems," hissed one of the Magikoopas. "Nearly every room has a painting in it."
"And then there's that clock in the top room," said another, shaking his head. "Did you see it? An entire tree grown at the top of a tower and then carved into a clock! How eccentric!"
"Eccentric, indeed!" cried a third. "How about those giant fish tanks in that room over there? Those might be useful, anyway. If we grew lobsters in there, we could have…"
"Listen to you all!" Bowser roared. "Fools! When I say this is our home, I mean it's our fortress! We should turn it into a useful headquarters!"
A Magikoopa cleared his throat. He said, "Excuse me, sire, but I think the paintings, fish tanks and giant clock could all be very useful."
"Explain," said Bowser.
"Well, sire, if we use our magic, combined with the power of these Stars, we could create portals to every one of our strategically critical locations. You could have a portal to the North Pole in one room, while another room leads to the desert."
Bowser was not a magically inclined Koopa; it took a bit more explaining to convince him. But once he was convinced, he found himself considering the idea so clever that it certainly had to be his own. He ordered his Magikoopas to get busy creating the portals, while several divisions of troops were sent out the door and through the main gate to begin the attack on Toad Town. With his new base of operations, Bowser did not hesitate to give multiple orders in multiple locations.
At last, the castle was a fully functioning crossroads of sorts. Bowser could effortlessly reassign soldiers to certain battlefields that needed more support. The rest of his soldiers were sent through the portals, taking the Power Stars with them for safekeeping. But it wasn't long before Bowser began to grow paranoid. He feared that if the castle were retaken, the ease of traveling through the portals would be used against him. So he ordered his Magikoopas to seal every door in the castle, making it so a certain number of Stars (depending on how important the door was) was needed to pass through the door. The Magikoopas did this. It took several hours, but at long last, every door in the castle was securely sealed. Except for one. In his planning and fretting, Bowser forgot one very important door to have sealed. His Magikoopas had left the front door unlocked and completely accessible.