Chapter 5: The Battle at Bianco Hills

Mario and the rest of the battalion were only minutes away from the entrance to Bianco Hills. Not knowing what the place was like and what Petey Piranha was up to, Mario couldn't help but be nervous. Before he realized it, Zoshi was telling all of them that they had arrived.

"Here we are, Bianco Hills!" he screamed, clearly eager to get into battle. "Now where is Petey Piranha? Where is anybody?"

As Mario looked around, he noticed that the streets of the village were completely empty and that there was nobody in sight. The group continued to walk for some time until they reached the road that led to the big windmill Big Windmill, the place where Mario had fought Petey Piranha before. While Mario was looking up at the giant structure, he did not notice that a giant blob of something had just hit Toadette right in the face.

"AHHH!" she shouted in disgust, "What is this goop? It smells awful, and I'm covered in it!" Just as Mario and the rest had focused their attention on her, a Yoshi behind Mario began to shout.

"Look, over there! There coming towards us! Hundreds of them!"

Mario looked all around him and saw what the Zoshi was talking about. Hundreds of Piranha Plants and Glooper Bloopers were coming right towards them from all directions, and Mario soon heard a noise above him, a strange ugly voice that could only belong to one person: Petey Piranha.

"There he is!" shouted Tina. "Mario, you have to stop him! Ride Yoshi and take him down!"

Petey Piranha had just landed on the bridge leading to the Windmill, and Mario knew this was his chance. Without warning to Yoshi he jumped on him, grabbed Toadette and began chasing after the disgusting beast determinately.

"AAAHHH!" hollered Toadette, for she was still surprised that Mario had abruptly grabbed her. "Mario, how do you plan to catch Petey? You might have realized that he can fly!"

Mario was not sure how he was going to get him, but he knew that if he wanted to free the people and get his house finished, he would have to take Petey Piranha down somehow. He and Toadette flew up the road to the Big Windmill on Yoshi and it wasn't long until they had caught up to Petey Piranha. He gave one of those retched calls that he always gives when trying to communicate, and Mario realized what he was going to do. When they reached the entrance to the Big Windmill, Petey, without warning, jumped off of the edge and began to fly. Yoshi, however, thought quickly and used his tongue as a rope and wrapped it around one of Petey's legs.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Toadette screamed in surprise, for her and Mario were very shocked when they had gone off the ledge with Petey. "What do you think you're doing Yoshi, you almost got us- AHHHHH!"

At that moment, Petey had risen higher into the air, and Toadette wasn't holding on tight enough. She fell into the water below her, landing awkwardly in the crystal clear lake.

"Toadette!" Mario shouted in surprise. But a moment later, he saw Toadette rise from the lake, pull herself onto one of the nearest lily pad, and begin to row herself back to shore. "Oh good, she's alright. Yoshi, hang on!"

Yoshi shook his uncomfortably shook his head due to the fact that his tongue was hanging on Petey's leg for dear life. Mario began climbing up Yoshi's tongue so he could encounter the evil being it was attached, even Mario was not sure what exactly he was going to do. When he arrived at the end of the tongue and at Petey leg, he jumped on the creatures back and suddenly remembered what he had done last time he defeated Petey. While the giant Piranha Plant was swinging at Mario left and right, Mario swung himself around to the other side of the monster's body while dodging these punches and punched Petey Piranha in the stomach as hard as he could.

The creature gave the loudest cry Mario had ever heard, and without warning he stopped flapping his wings, causing all three of them to fall to the ground below them. When Mario looked down, he realized that they were not over the lake anymore, but over the village streets. Horrified, Mario closed his eyes and prayed that he would somehow survive this. He then felt somebody grab him and after a few seconds Mario, who still had his eyes closed, wondered why they had not hit the ground yet. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to discover that he was in Yoshis arms and his tongue was around one of the windmills, causing the two of them to be inches from the ground.

Yoshi let go and they fell only a few inches, landing on their feet and feeling a little dizzy. They looked over to see Petey Piranha lying a few feet away from them, not moving but clearly not dead. As Mario was staring at him he could here voices yelling his name not too far away.

"Mario, Mario!" screamed the voice of Toadette happily. "You did it, you got him! I was so scared when I fell off Yoshi, but I survived, and you guys found a way to take him down!" Toadette was still soaked from the fall and it appeared from the small scratches on her face that she may have encountered a spider or two during her escape from the lake.

"Where are the others?" asked Mario curiously, for he had not seen anybody else while he was in the air, though he was not paying very good attention either.

"I heard some voices coming from the Big Windmill, maybe we should go check up there," replied Toadette. "Come on, quick!"

Mario and Yoshi followed her down the streets, up the road and across the bridge to the Big Windmill, where they were happy to see not only the Zoshis, but the citizens of Bianco Hills looking somewhat dirty, but happy that they were free from the wrath of Petey Piranha.

"Mario, you're ok!" exclaimed Zoshi, pleased to see that they were all alive. "Did Petey escape, what happened?"

"He's unconscious back at the village; he'll probably be out for quite a while. But what happened with all of you? Is everybody ok?"

"Well Mario, umm…" started Zoshi, "We're all ok, but… one of the Piranha Plants took away Tina! We tried to stop them, but they were too fast and got away before we could do anything. I'm really sorry this had to happen…"

"What! Tina's gone!" Mario shouted, angry that the Zoshis couldn't do anything to stop the Piranha Plants from taking her away. "Which way did they go? We have to find her!" Mario was extremely angry, but it was clear that the Zoshis were not as concerned with the safety of Tina Noki.

"Listen Mario, we shouldn't concentrate on her right now. We have Petey Piranha, we should be taking him down to the police! We can worry about Tina after we do that, ok?" Although Mario knew that Zoshi wanted to get Petey Piranha in prison, he thought that Zoshi just didn't care about Tina because she was a native

"Yeah, I guess you're right," replied Mario apprehensively, "But as soon as we do that, we've got to start looking for Tina, Ok?" Mario could see in Zoshis eyes that he didn't want to, but agreed with Mario anyway.

"Of course, we'd do anything for Master Mario. Now let's get down to Petey and get him to Delfino Plaza!"

As Mario, Yoshi, Toadette and the Zoshis began to walk away, Mario heard a voice call his named behind him, and he turned around to see a large pianta with a thick mustache. "Mario, its so good to finally meet you! I'm from the Pianta and Sons Construction Company, and I just wanted to apologize for not having your house finished on time. Now that I'm free, my sons and I can have it done in no time!"

"Oh, hello sir," replied Mario, surprised that he had forgotten that the construction workers were the reason he had came to save the village in the first place, "It's no problem about the house, just get it done whenever you can. Well my friends and I have to go; it was nice to finally meet you."

And Mario walked away, thinking this adventure had become much more than saving his construction worker.