In this chapter, our heroes will face General Guy! This is the showdown that you've all been waiting for, am I right? I know that people want me to continue this fanfic, so I figure I should try to please them.
After all, I do have plenty of reviews.
If they defeat him, there'll be only three guardians left to go.
Although, even if they defeat those guardians, they'll still have to take on Bowser. And he still has the Star Rod.
Chapter 32: General Management
As much as fun as it was for the younger members of the party to be inside a giant toybox, they all figured it was about time to fight the general and get the Star Spirit.
And as luck would have it, he seemed to be nearby.
Our heroes entered a room filled with Shy Guys.
Perhaps the General was nearby. After all, he was their leader.
However, it seemed the Shy Guys were too scared to fight them.
It seemed someone had turned off the lights and now they were frightened.
Or maybe they weren't expecting Mario to get this far.
"I want my mommy!" exclaimed one of the Shy Guys.
Now that Lily thought of it, she wouldn't mind seeing her mother either.
It had been a while.
"I personally don't see why they're complaining." remarked Lucy.
"Yeah, me neither." nodded Bow.
What was so bad about the darkness?
"You think we can pass on through?" asked Bombette.
"Maybe, but I get the feeling we'll have a hard time avoiding bumping into them." noted Goombario.
Except for Parakarry and Lincoln, since they could fly.
Those Shy Guys seemed to be running all over the place.
One of them had tripped.
Was there a way to light up the room?
There didn't seem to be a light switch.
If there was, chances are one of the Shy Guys would have flipped it by now.
Fortunately, Mario remembered he had Watt with him.
He decided to use her to light the way.
It was rather fortunate that he had managed to find her inside the toy box.
Now he wouldn't have to worry about dark environments such as the Forever Forest.
"Good thinking." remarked Kooper.
"Maybe I should have brought my sunglasses." noted Lola.
The Shy Guys seemed to stop panicking, now that the room was illuminated.
They instead went into the other room.
In the next room was General Guy.
It seemed the Shy Guys had warned him that Mario was coming.
He clapped his hands together.
It looked as if he was impressed with their abilities.
"Well well well. It seems you managed to make it here. I was hoping that maybe Kammy Koopa would be able to scare you off, but apparently you're braver than she thought." noted the general.
"Was she the one who gave us all this free stuff?" asked Lincoln.
"Let me guess, Bowser asked Princess Peach about Mario's weaknesses." remarked the Shy Guy.
He wasn't sure what had given him that bright idea.
If anything, he had made the party more motivated.
"Fight us already!" exclaimed Lynn.
"Don't worry, I will. But before you challenge me, you must fight my guys." spoke General Guy.
"Seems fair." nodded Lincoln.
There was only one of him and fourteen of them.
Fifteen Shy Guys appeared.
General Guy sent them towards our heroes.
"How can we take them all on?" asked Lincoln.
He didn't think they would be fighting this many Shy Guys at once. Usually there was about four of them at the most.
At this rate, the Shy Guys were going to dogpile them.
Luckily, one of his older sisters had an idea.
Luan threw a pie at one of the Shy Guy's masks.
This seemed to distract them.
One of the Shy Guys thought it was funny.
Seemed the Shy Guys happened to like practical jokes.
He decided to throw a pie at another Shy Guy's face.
Eventually, they all started throwing pies at each other.
In the process, they forgot all about fighting the heroes.
The general did not approve of this behavior.
"No! Stay organized!" exclaimed the general.
Unfortunately, the Shy Guys were having too much fun to listen to him.
It felt like it was a birthday party.
Lily couldn't help but chuckle.
"So, did we win? Or..." asked Parakarry.
General Guy sighed.
It looked as it the first wave was a no-go.
Perhaps he needed to discipline his soldiers a bit more.
Was he the only Shy Guy that wasn't a total clown?
Maybe that was why he was their leader. He was the only one who would take that sort of position seriously. Bowser seemed to think he was the ideal candidate for the job.
But then again, sometimes Bowser was prone to making mistakes. He assumed Tubba Blubba was invincible when he had an obvious weakness.
"Bring in the next wave!" shouted the Shy Guy.
The fifteen Shy Guys left.
They were going to a bakery to get more pies.
Some Shy Guys on stilts appeared.
Mario wasn't sure why they were on stilts.
Were they hoping to be taller?
They were shorter than he was, now that he thought of it.
The Stilt Guys attempted to step on them.
Of course, Mario was shorter than his brother as well. Even though he was the older one of the two.
However, Luan laid a greasy banana peel out on the floor.
Sure enough, one of the Stilt Guys slipped over it.
"Ow!" exclaimed the Stilt Guy that fell.
He decided to take his leave.
"Focus!" demanded the general.
Unfortunately, the other Stilt Guy fell when Goombario bonked him.
He too left the battlefield.
"Bring in the last wave!"
Shy Guy Towers came in.
Luckily, it seemed they didn't have the power to spin like the Koopa Bros did.
Still, the Shy Guys were more formidable when they stood together.
However, as before, Luan made them slip and fall.
"Ow!" exclaimed one of the Shy Guys.
"You think that was the last of the Shy Guys?" asked Parakarry.
"Looks that way." nodded Lisa.
"Wait, where's the general?" questioned Lincoln.
Mario wasn't sure. He seemed to have left while they were busy fighting his men.
He didn't seem like the type to flee like a coward.
After all, he expected his guys to hold the line.
Suddenly, a tank burst through the wall.
Lincoln gasped. It looked as if the general wanted to make a dramatic entrance.
It looked like this was what he was going to fight them with.
For some reason, the tank had a lightbulb on it.
A very big lightbulb.
Perhaps he knew how dark it was inside the room.
"I designed this vehicle in case you somehow managed to breach my defenses...which unfortunately you did." remarked the general.
It was impressive what they had managed to build from toy parts.
"Look at the size of the thing!" exclaimed Lynn.
The general had decided not to entrust the tank to his soldiers, as he figured doing so would be risky. They needed to realize thar despite its appearance the tank was not a toy...not anymore anyway.
Unfortunately, the tank had decent defense.
Jumping on it didn't do much.
"I feel like I'm punching a brick wall." noted Lincoln.
Lisa wondered how they would get past the tank's defenses.
Lincoln hadn't bruised his fists though. At least not yet.
The tank launched a cannonball at them.
"Ow!" shouted Kooper.
It then followed by launching lightning bolts at them.
"Ow!" exclaimed Lana.
"I'm fried!" bellowed Lynn.
They had originated from the light bulb on top of the tank.
However, while the twnk was definitely sturdy, it seemed the war machine was vulnerable to electricity.
Watt could exploit that weakness pretty well. She was basically a living ball of electricity.
She decided to zap the tank...
...which worked.
The general was surprised.
It seemed the heroes had found a way to breach his defenses.
He had been confident that Mario would have a hard time jumping on it or hammering it, but he didn't account on what companions he would bring to the fight.
Why was there a L'il Sparky in the toybox anyway?
Well, this L'il Sparky seemed rather young.
Perhaps she wanted something to play with. Something big.
"If only my tank was made of rubber." remarked the general. That way he wouldn't have to be worried about being attacked by a L'il Sparky.
It wouldn't be too surprising considering they were fighting inside a toy box.
General Guy attempted to run them down with his tank.
But our heroes moved out of the way.
Bombette exploded, damaging the tank.
"Trying to blow up my tank? Not a bad strategy." noted the general.
But he happened to know a thing or two about strategy himself.
This time, he summoned more Shy Guys.
However, Bow scared them off.
"Aaahhhh!" exclaimed the Shy Guys.
They were acting much like the Shy Guys that they had encountered in that dark room.
"Hey! No deserting the battlefield!" demanded General Guy.
Unfortunately for him, it seemed that they were already out of earshot.
General Guy then attacked them with toy soldiers.
They whacked the heroes with batons.
"Ow!" exclaimed Lincoln.
Lily whacked one of the soldiers with a bottle of milk.
The general then sent teddy bears after them.
They began to attack them with claws.
"Never thought I would be attacked by teddy bears..." remarked Lucy.
However, Kooper rammed into them with his shell.
It did a pretty good job of shielding him from their claws.
Lincoln decided to try picking up the tank.
"Hey! What are you doing?" asked the general.
He then threw it against a wall.
The tank exploded.
The general was sent flying out.
At this point, it seemed he was unable to fight any longer.
He had expended all of his troops.
"I guess it's time for me to wave the white flag." remarked the general.
Too bad his tank wasn't invincible like Tubba Blubba was. Sure, it was sturdy...but Watt had proven all too well that it wasn't invulnerable.
Still, his men had given it their all.
For that, he was proud of them.
"I just hope Lemmy can handle things from here..." noted General Guy.
Unfortunately, a certain tiny Koopaling made off with the Star Spirit.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed the Koopaling, hopping away on that yellow ball of his.
"Oh man!" exclaimed Lana.
He hopped his way towards his airship.
His airship in question was painted yellow.
"Can we skip this part?" asked Lucy. It seemed kind of repetitive.
They had already fought three different Koopalings...though she hadn't been around for the first one. Wasn't it Larry?
"Well, we do get Star Points if we win." noted Lincoln. The more Star Points they had, the better chance they had of defeating Bowser the Koopa King.
Lucy noted that was true.
Still, this was the fourth time that a Koopaling had stolen the Star Spirit.
It would be nice if that didn't happen for a change.
In the room was also a loot bag.
It seemed that it contained a lot of coins.
It was likely the stolen money that the Shy Guys had taken from Toad Town.
Perhaps they should give that back.
After all, they were the heroes.
It would be wrong to make it off with it.
They were not the Wario Bros.
On the way out, our heroes encountered Watt's parents.
They certainly were happy to be reunited with their daughter.
However, Watt insisted she continue to accompany our heroes on their adventure.
There were still some Star Spirits that needed to be saved.
Her parents complied.
Meanwhile, Lemmy was approached by Bowser Jr.
"Bowser Jr?" asked Lemmy.
"Hey there, Lemmy! Mind if you give me that Star Spirit?" questioned Bowser Jr.
"Why would I do that?" asked the smallest of the Koopalings. Bowser had told them that the Star Soirits weren't toys, and they had strong magical power. So he couldn't see why Bowser Jr would want to play with it.
"Well, the Koopalings haven't being too well against Mario so far." noted the son of Bowser the Koopa King.
Lemmy sighed. He did have a point. Larry, Roy, and Morton had all lost to the heroes. Though Morton DID find the Star Spirit after Tubba Blubba had misplaced it.
He handed the Star Spirit over to Bowser Jr.
No doubt Lemmy would provide a good diversion while he took the Star Spirit to a tower.
Meanwhile, Kammy wondered why her tactic of using the things Mario and Lincoln feared didn't work out.
She got the feeling that Peach had lied to Bowser.
Well, hopefully the Koopa King wouldn't repeat that mistake.
She didn't want to give Mario a Starman that would make him temporarily invincible.
He might even be able to injure Bowser in such a state, though it likely wouldn't last long for him to best the Koopa King.
Next he was going to give shower Princess Peach with gifts...which she could then send to Mario.
How were those items getting to Mario, anyway?
She might want to look into that.
Well, our heroes are going to have to face Lemmy now. He may seem like a clown, but he can hold his own in a fight. I can assure you that.
In the next chapter, we'll get to check on Peach again.
Where could the fifth Star Spirit be?
You probably already know where it is...but Mario doesn't.