After the battle was won, Mario was returned hack to the castle. No weird ring stadium in site either, so thankful that messy battle system cleans up after itself. The yellow shy guy wasn't nearly as impressed.
"So you have defeated your the first goomba. Bravo. I assure you that it is far from the most deadliest creature in this realm. Which is exactly why I am borrowing some fighters from the other part of this realm. Trust me, most of the paper garbage in the Mushroom Kingdom isn't very amusing."
So that explained those Sarkaz from earlier. The shy guy was hiring mercenaries to take him out! Mario couldn't tell if he should be honored or frightened by the revelation.
"I suppose there is no point in maintaining this charade anymore..." The shy guy, levitating in the air, unfolded himself. He somehow recorded himself into a similar form as Olivia, but with purple clothes and a somewhat tacky hairstyle.
"Brother!?" Olvia exclaimed. "Sorry Mario I would've warned you sooner but things were just too chaotic. How many times must I tell you to stop, brother! I knew something was up after you folded every shy guy from the weird toybox!"
"Drat, that's why General Guy hasn't been speaking to me..." Bowser muttered.
"Please! You have to stop now!" She pleaded, but King Olly chuckled darkly.
"Sister, I'm afraid if you continue to stand in the way of my ambition, you will not share my glory as family. Oh, and by the way, I am no longer your brother Olly..." He flipped his hair backwards for dramatic impact."I am KING Olly!"
"You pompous piece of garbage!" The black haired catgirl spoke. "Once I get free, I will shred you into a million pieces of scrap! I dare you to fold yourself back together after that."
"It's horrifically ignorant of you to think that our world would just bend over to your rule, Olly. These mushroom folk are honestly lacking, but you have the powerful militaries of Terra to deal with." The bunny girl spoke.
Olly scoffed at the Terrans, flying up into the air for even more dramatic impact. "Silly rabbit, by the time I am done, all of those miserable Toads will be folded nevertheless... You think your silly hospital will change anything? Your Doctor... no, both of your precious doctors are out of commission! You have no plan to stop me!"
"Why... You..." Kal'tsit muttered under her breath.
"Bowsers loyal minions will be folded, any useful Terrans will be folded, and then I will fold, crease, and bend this world to my whims, to the birth of my new origami kingdom!"
Olly casted a strange spell of sorts, causing 5 streamers scattered across the Mushroom Kingdom to approach the castle. Red, blue, yellow, purple, and green, all begun to wrap up Peach's Castles like a giant birthday present.
Obviously, Mario and his pals had to escape, and fast. The Rhodes Island operators who were held prisoner escaping from their captives, using weird magic and weaponry to defeat the Sledge Bros. The rabbit shot grin on projectiles, and the two others had a chainsaw and a rapid-fire crossbow. The little cat girl simply picked up one of the Bros with some kind of telekinesis and chucked him off the castle. Cue Wilhelm scream.
They all dogged and weaved away incoming streamers, but there was no escape, unless Mario and co. could survive a several hundred foot drop from the castle. Thankfully, help arrived in the form a shy guy piloting a Koopa Clown Car, who also had a young Sarkaz girl with him.
"This stupid car better have enough room..." She grumbled as everyone piled in.
After everyone was loaded in, the shy guy took off again. The streamers completely wrapped up the castle, and were now lifting it off into the volcanoes in the distance. Yep, even Olly wasn't above lava lairs.
A green cap floated down from the castle. The "L" on it made things obvious. Mario couldn't help but worry about his brother, but when you are sharing a car with a billion other people, you tend to loose focus.
Eventually, the shy guy's piloting skills begun to slip. A streamer hit the car, and the next thing Mario knew, everyone was flying everywhere like confetti.
The next thing Mario knew was floating gently into the forests below the sky. He landed in a pine tree, and jumped out with an explosion of confetti. Adjusting his cap, Mario begun to digest what had happened.
Bowser wasn't behind the madness this time, which was refreshing in a way, but the replacement seemed many times worse. Olly brainwashed Peach and that Kal'tsit woman, and seems to have an obsessive hatred for Toads. This was honestly silly compared to other threats he faced, but Olly was prepared. With the power of the Things and a standing army, this may one of the Mushroom Kingdoms toughest threats yet.
Mario couldn't thwart Olly's plans by talking to himself, obviously, so the flat plumber begun to explore his surroundings. He was in a forest, which was nothing knew for our hero. There was a 1000 Fold Arms circle next to a tree, but when Mario tried to activate it, nothing happened. He needed Olvia to use the strange origami magic.
While looking for her, Mario nearly stumbled into a pit. It wasn't a typically bottomless hole, the patch looked like something big took a bite out of the floor. Who knows what it does to paper beings.
"Watch Out!" Olivia,who was on the other side of the hole, sighed with relief. "Good thing you saw that hole in the ground, because it's bottomless. I'm sure you won't like that. Catch this Confetti Bag Mario!"
Olvia threw a small bag at the plumber. "Do you remember the confetti that flew out of the tree you landed in? Since everything is paper, each piece of confetti is a small piece of our world. That's why I think if you gather enough of it, sprinkling it over the hole might fix our problem!"
Fair enough. Mario went back to the trees and collected some confetti. He sprayed it as best as he could, sound effects not included because he prepared to be mute. As expected, the hole fixed itself, eerily similar to his adventures on Prism Island...
"Oh Mario..." Oh dear indeed. Olivia was hurried in the ground, headfirst. "I hope you don't remember me for this moment alone."
Of course not, rang through Mario's mind. He yanked Olvia out from the ground like a Subcon turnip. Who then blinked Mario in the head while landing. Gee, thanks!
"Hmm... Where are we? There's no one to ask for directions, so this could be a problem." Olvia started, but a voice in the distance made her stop.
"Help! Anybody!" The voice sounded awfully similar to the bunnygirl at Peach's (Now Olly's) Castle. Could she be in trouble.
"Oh dear, it must be one of those prisoners my brother took!" Olivia spoke. "They all had strange animal parts. Was one of them supposed to be a donkey or something? Nevermind, we got to help her out!"
After using the Thousand Fold Arms to knock down the tree, Mario crossed the makeshift bridge. One the other side was the rabbit girl from before, fighting a couple of Folded Goombas. She seemed to be holding out quite well for a such a young girl, but Mario isn't the kind of guy to ignore a damsel in distress.
You know what time it is.
"Huh, what's going on here?" The bunny girl noticed the new surroundings. "Where did this stadium come from..."
She turned around and saw the red plumber standing behind her. "You're that man in the overalls from the castle, right? Mario?" He nodded his head. "Ah. I'm Amiya, the representative of Rhodes Island. I wish we could talk more, but there's those enemies we have to defeat. Also, what in the heck are we doing on a stadium?!"
"It's called a Ring Battle, Miss Amiya!" Olivia popped out of Mario overalls. "You try and line up all the folded soldiers so you can take them down in one swoop. They prefer fighting like this for some strange reason."
"Got it. I would say this is way too much like a video game, but the way Rhodes Island does things is no better."
Mario spun the rings to organize the goombas into two columns. His jump attack took down the first column with ease.
"So this really is an efficient way to take down groups of foes..." Amiya commented. "I can handle the rest, Mario"
She raised an open palm into the air, fire bursts of crimson matter at the Goombas, easily defeating them.
"Wow! That's some impressive magic you got there, Amiya." Olivia complimented.
"We call it Origium Arts, but it can easily be mistaken as magic." Amiya clarified.
"Oh, sorry about that! Anyways, it seems that Mario attacks with his boots and hammer and you use Arts to fight. What do you call this again... Partners?"
Even though Luigi couldn't be present, Mario was still willing to collaborate with Amiya and any other memebers from Rhodes Isalnd. Mostly because he was itching to finally have a partner for once...
After the battle, Amiya (Who's species was a Cactus, aka Rabbit) explaining the situation. Rhodes Island's super hospital was docking in Toad Town, but huge, paper-mache monsters were tearing up the town. Literally, as they left strange holes in the ground that lead to who-knows-what. Most of the Operators stepped in and cleaned up the mess, but it was a diversion.
After Amiya and her team returned to their landship, Kal'tsit, who had been folded earlier, ambushed them. She may look frail, but Dr Kal was one of the strongest members of Rhodes, due to the freakish monster that was part of her spine. Amiya's was captured and brought into Peach's Castle. The most concerning issue was that their commander, simply the Doctor, was nowhere to be found on the landship. Without his strategic skills, future Operations would pose a significant challenge.
"I understand now." Olivia said. "That Kal'sit, Kal'tis... I will just call her Ms K. You Terrans sure have weird names! Anyways, she always seemed like a freak when I first saw her, but... did she really summon that from her spine?"
"Yes, Dr Kal'tsit doesn't like to it often cause she wants to keep things under wraps. She has plenty of secrets to hide." Amiya responded.
Even Mario didn't think he could handle seeing that woman summon her pet. It would've made him throw up his spaghetti lunch.
"Let's make our way back to Peach's Castle. We can meet up with those Operators and plan our next moves." Olivia suggested.
The party set off into the woods to make their way back to the landship. But in the Whispering Woods, all is not as it seems...