After resting a while, Luigi and Princess Peach started their ascent on Star Hill. It was fairly easy getting to the top, because any enemies they encountered were defeated by Peach's parasol and Luigi's magic. Luigi even learned a new spell, Shower, which drenched its targets in damaging water. Along the way, however, Luigi got ganged up by a group of baddies and got badly injured.

"Ow…" Luigi moaned as he fell down for the fifth time.

"Luigi, you must rest! You can't walk like this!" said Peach, worried.

"Don't worry, Princess," said Luigi. "I'm fine. I just let my guard down at the wrong time, that's all…"

"Oh, Luigi, you're so stubborn! This is so unlike you…here, take this."

Peach handed Luigi a Mushroom. At first, Luigi wouldn't take it, so she promptly held his mouth open and shoved it down his throat. Luigi felt the Mushroom's healing properties get absorbed into his body, magically healing his wounds.

"T-thanks, Peach…" said Luigi.

With Luigi good to go, they finally reached the top of Star Hill, but just when they were about to go to Shooting Star Summit, however…

BUMP!

"Ouch!" Luigi had ran into something. "Hey!"

"It must be some sort of barrier," said Peach. "Perhaps something around here can dispel it…"

"You mean we have to find it?"

"Yeah, I haven't had much luck, either." said Mario.

"Mario!" Luigi cried. "You're here!"

"Outta the way, losers!" yelled a voice.

"Who's that?" Peach questioned.

Two things clad in red and white stopped in front of the three friends. They had black "X"s on their bellies and they also made a "X" symbol with their hands.

"Oh, man…" moaned Mario.

"X-X-X-Nauts!" Peach shrieked.

"And where there's X-Nauts…" said Mario.

The two X-Nauts parted, allowing a larger one to come into view. This one, however, had a black shirt and boots, a red cape, a purple Viking-esque hat and pants, and the "X" on its torso was white.

"…Crump can't be far behind."

"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! That's LORD Crump to you, Mustachio!" said Lord Crump. "We're here for the Princess, so you and Greenie skedaddle, got it?"

"Um…it's…Luigi…" Luigi mumbled.

"Not a chance!" yelled Mario. "I kicked your butts before, I can do it again! Get ready, guys!"

Luigi lifted up his hammer and Peach tightened her grip on the parasol.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna go down, eh? Oh, well. It's your funeral. X-NAUTS!" Lord Crump called. "PUNISH THEM!"

The entire X-Naut squadron charged at our three heroes. The first X-Naut met the receiving end of Mario's hammer. He also kicked another one and stomped another. Luigi was trying to balance attacking with his hammer and his magic. Luckily, Peach was able to alternate between beaning X-Nauts with her parasol and throwing Mushrooms to heal the Mario Bros.

After a while, it became obvious that Mario was the primary target of the X-Nauts. Suddenly, one of the X-Nauts gave a signal and they all started to pile up on Mario. Luigi and Peach frantically attacked the pile to free their friend, but then, the pile started spinning! Finally, the pile exploded, X-Nauts flying everywhere. And in the middle was Mario, holding not one, but two hammers! This plumber really meant business.

Lord Crump realized that his X-Nauts weren't enough to stop the Mario Bros. and the Princess, so he decided to enter the fray.

"Don't fret, guys, the smackdown has just begun!" Crump yelled.

Crump then charged at Mario. Mario was ready to sidestep out of the way…

WHACK!
Suddenly, all that Mario could see was something green with spikes. As he stepped back, he noticed it was a shell. His nerves tensed due to the fact that he knew that shell all too well. When the shell turned around, his worst fears were confirmed: the shell indeed belonged to his arch-nemesis, Bowser, the King of the Koopas, the Master of Mayhem, the Boss of Bwahaha.

"Oh, man, not Bowser, too!" whined Luigi. "Is today Kidnap the Princess Day or something?"

"We can take both of them!" Mario said encouragingly.

"Just stay outta my way." said Bowser.

"Huh?"

"What, you deaf? I said, get back! This is between me and Crumpet!"

"Hey! I'm not that fancy-schmancy Y-Naut leader!" Crump yelled. "I'm gonna have some turtle soup!"

The two bigwigs then started fighting. Crump body slammed Bowser, but he landed on the Koopa King's shell and bounced around in pain. Bowser saw his opportunity, and scorched Crump with a blast of his lethal fire breath. Crump, now charred to a crisp, threw some strange object at Bowser. The object released an equally strange cloud of gas that encircled Bowser.

"Huh? What the-"

But for some reason, Bowser didn't get to finish his sentence. When the gas subsided, the reason became obvious. Bowser was now encased in a block of ice.

"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh! How do ya like them apples, Tubby the Turtle?" Crump taunted.

"Oh, no!" Peach cried out. "We should help him!"

"What! No way!" disagreed Luigi. "He was going to kidnap you! I say we get outta here!"

"Please, Mario? He needs our help!"

Mario then thought for a few seconds. After that, he opened his eyes.

"Peach is right. We need to help Bowser, regardless if he's our enemy or not. Crump's the real enemy here." explained Mario.

"Arrgh! No one listens to me!" Luigi whined.

"Now…" Crump schemed. "How about if we go for a ride back to the Moonbase? That sound good? Oh, that's right! You're frozen! You don't care! And neither do I! Buh huh huh!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, care about this!"

Crump turned around to find out who said that, and found out that Mario had sneaked up on him. The plumber lifted up both hammers, like he was using two golf clubs. He then swung his dual hammers and dealt a double uppercut. Lord Crump went sailing and landed on his head with a crash.

"Ouchie…great," Crump winced. "Now I have to worry about two hammers now! Drat! X-Nauts! We retreat for now! And with that…POW! I'm gone!"

Lord Crump left with the remaining X-Nauts that were still conscious.

"We did it!" said Peach. "We drove off the X-Nauts!"

"We make an awesome team, don't we?" Luigi asked.

"Yes, we do, but what about Mr. Stiff here?" said Mario as he motioned over to the still-frozen Bowser.

"Oh, yes. Maybe Luigi can thaw him…" Peach wondered.

"Leave it to me!" said Luigi encouragingly. "Even though I still don't think that this is a good idea…"

Luigi then got ready to cast Fireball on Bowser. He was having many second thoughts on this. After all, the Mario Bros. and Bowser are sworn enemies! But then he figured that since Peach was so magnanimous and Mario was on her side, he didn't have much choice if he wanted to keep traveling with them.

After some hesitation, Luigi pointed the hammer at Bowser and yelled, "Fireball!"

Red and green fireballs shot out from the hammer and encircled the block of ice. After a few seconds, the fireballs dissipated, and Bowser was free from his icy prison, but unconscious.

"OK, I thawed him. Can we go now?" Luigi begged.

"We still can't leave him like this," said Peach. "I'll give him a Mushroom."

Peach force-fed Bowser a Mushroom. Several seconds later, Bowser's eyes slowly opened.

"Gwuh? HEY! THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT! NO ONE CHEATS THE KOOPA KING!" Bowser screamed.

"Ow…my ears…" Luigi moaned.

"What? Where'd he go?" Bowser said, looking around for his adversary.

"He already left," said Peach.

"Oh, well. If I can't kick that X guy's butt, I can always kidnap you!"

"Hey, hold it!" Mario yelled. "We took the time to save your life, and this is how you repay us?"

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"Luigi freed you from that block of ice, and Peach healed you with a Mushroom." Mario exclaimed.

"Oh, please! I was gonna break out of that thing anyway! You just made things easier!" retorted Bowser.

"Riiight…" Mario said sarcastically.

"And who is Luigi anyway?"

"Um…that would be me." Luigi mentioned.

"What? Your real name is Luigi?" said Bowser. "Bwa ha ha ha! That's ridiculous! You seem more like a Manky Kong or Ridley or something…you're a funny guy, Green 'Stache!"

"…it's Luigi." Luigi muttered.

"You know what? I was going to leave you morons, but since Green 'Stache can't even remember his own name, I think I'll go and kill some time with you three. Just to make sure Green 'Stache doesn't get Peach killed."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" said Peach.

"He just wants you alive so he can kidnap you." Mario warned. "But, what the heck? We could use the extra firepower. Welcome to the team, Bowser!"

"I'm not 'part of the team', understand? I'm not now, and I never will be!" said Bowser.

"Whatever. C'mon, guys, let's see if we can find that thing."

As the Mario Bros. and Peach turn around and try to figure out where they could find something to disable the force field in their way, Bowser quietly thought to himself out loud.

"Gwa ha ha ha! They fell for it! Now, I just need to wait for the opportune moment, and then…BAM! Good-bye, Mario, and hello, Princess!"

"Eh? Were you saying something, Bowser?" Luigi asked.

"Uh, no. I was, uh, sneezing. It's cold up here. What did you expect?" said Bowser.

"Um, never mind."