I think the funniest thing about this story is that I have no real clue where I'm going with it. Haha! I mean, I know how it's going to end, but I'm not sure what will go on in the middle. Send me your ideas please!

rock4ever: Wicked is truely the best musical in the history of history! Oh, and finish this chapter today? Hm, alright.

shadow-spawn180: Spelling errorsno good. I'll kill my spell check for lying to me, then continue writing this story

G.I.R.'s shadow: The Manta Boss is my all-time FAV! Sometimes, when I'm bored, I'll just pop in SM:S and just beat the things over and over. And yes, the secret levels are uber dumb. CURSE YOU, SHADOW MARIO!

Night had arrived suddenly in Mushroom Kingdom, and only the dim light of scattered candles supplied light for the troubled King. He had been awake for hours now, starring at the moonless black sky. The stars shone brightly and this got Bowser thinking about the Stars. For all he knew, Mario could've found a few by now. He had been in that painting for many hours.

He didn't know what to do. He couldn't just hop into the painting and follow the guy around. He couldn't just go down and destroy the painting either. What if this Mario character jumped out while he was there? What if Mario had a Star with him? What if Bowser couldn't escape and his term ended just like that? Bowser couldn't think about that. All he could do was wait for the princess to wake up again and ask her more questions.

He then heard a triumphant "Ya-Hoo!" as the assassin jumped out of the painting again. However, this time, to Bowser's utter horror, six bright, golden Stars floated next to him, each letting off a beautiful, deadly aura. Bowser's eyes widened as he continued to stare at the horrible image in his crystal ball. He clamped a claw on his chest as he stumbled backwards.

"No…" he whispered, gasping for breath. He was scared, and he was panting so hard that small embers emerged from his throat. The princess heard his terrible gasping, like he was about to have an asthma attack, and began to worry for his health.

Why did she care? She didn't even know, but she did know that, if Bowser got ill, she would still be stuck up in her cage. It would be some time before Mario gathered all of the Stars, and the princess at least wanted to seduce the Koopa King into letting her go for a while. She realized that Bowser was giving her glances that Mario used to give her, and blushed at the very thought of the monster liking her. She found it cute…after all, he was a blood-thirsty tyrant who was determined to rule with an iron fist.

…Or was he?

She couldn't tell. At first, she thought that Bowser was simply a greedy, huge Koopa who was determined to seek revenge on Humans. Now…well, she still saw him as a Koopa with a childish stubbornness about him, but she didn't know much about him other than that. Surely he had a reason to be doing all of this. Surely he wasn't insane, or stupid.

The Koopa King sat down on his throne and sighed heavily. He starred up at Peach, thinking she was still asleep, and he inhaled sharply when he realized that she wasn't.

"When did you get up?" he roared. The princess tried her best to cover her body the best way she could. She hated being suspended over a hopeless-romantic beast like this.

"Just now…when I heard you coughing." She blushed and lowered her head. "I was worried…"

This caught Bowser off guard and he felt his face grow red as well. This time, however, it wasn't out of anger. Was he blushing? He turned his head around and asked, "I need you to tell me more about this Mario. He's already collected six of those Stars. Just tell me one more piece of information."

Peach thought about this. This Koopa was really desperate for information on Mario. She could possibly make him do whatever she wanted. She gave a slight smile.

"Well, I'll tell you what you need to know if you let me out of this cage." She said down at Bowser. The Koopa King lowered his brows, suspecting foul play, but he obliged and lowered the princess down and unlocked the cage door. He helped her out and grasped her shoulders tightly.

"There, you're free of the cage." He growled. "But not from me. Now tell me, what are Mario's weaknesses?"

Peach could hardly stay conscious long enough to answer the question, for Bowser's breath was like toxic. Bowser noticed this himself, and tried to breathe away from Peach to not offend her in any way. He needed her trust, after all.

Peach thought. What were Mario's weaknesses? Well, he simply loved her kisses. He would nearly faint from excitement whenever he saw her in a swimsuit. And every time Peach asked for something, Mario usually got it for her right away.

'Yeah, but that's not going to help Bowser, now, is it?' she thought to herself. She continued to think until, finally, something popped into her head.

"His hat." She said. She could hardly believe she was spilling her boyfriend's only real weakness to a tyrant who imprisoned her, but she couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth for some reason. "I made that hat for him myself. He wears it everywhere he goes. Back in his world, the hat is ordinary headwear, but here in our world it allows him to jump to incredible proportions and makes him stronger, too."

Bowser grinned. "That's all I needed to know." Without giving the girl another thought, he released her shoulders from his grasp and walked into his back room. He was preparing.

Peach, on the other hand, was simply happy to be free of her tiny, airborne prison. She slowly crept over to the Throne Room's main door and gave the knob a pull. Locked. Somehow, she wasn't very surprised.

She walked over and sat down at the King's throne. Her dress was a disgrace. She thought about changing, but with Bowser around, always starring at her features, she didn't think it was that great of an idea.

Still, she didn't mind him looking that much, and she did need to change before her dress set off some sort of fashion alarm…

This might need to be rated T pretty soon...r&r