Mario and Meta Knight had ran through at least five rooms with no sign of their attacker. Even as they fended off the ice, the sheer cold was starting to get to the two. Mario's lips had turned blue, and Meta Knight had to peel his cape off of his back. He wrapped the cape around himself and Mario, engulfing them both in a starry void.
"I'll try to warp us past the door," Meta Knight said. A dark surge of energy pulsed from his body, radiating throughout the rest of the void. But when Meta Knight threw open his cape, they were just in another version of the room.
"That-a fiend," Mario said, "is probably-a waiting in the cockpit, while we exhaust ourselves in this-a maze."
Meta Knight nodded. "You're probably right. But perhaps it's just the doors that have this curse on them. Do you think you can thaw the windows with your fire power? It'd be dangerous, but we could crawl along the side of the plane to the cockpit."
Mario looked over at the frosted windows - the simple turning of his neck cracked his skin in several places. He slugged a dozen fireballs at the window to melt the ice, and then struck it with a wheel kick. In the half second it took for his boot to hit the window, though, the ice had already grown back. The window didn't even budge.
"This ice is-a too fast. Meta Knight, you teleported into the overhead bin. Can't you just-a teleport out the window?"
"My warping isn't perfect. You probably didn't notice it since we were standing still, but there's a brief delay after one warps with my cape, where they can't move for a split second. It's not usually a problem on the ground, but if I spent that split second outside of the plane, the plane would fly miles ahead of me before I could warp again."
"So then what do we-a do?"
"If we can't get to them, we'll have to get them to come to us."
The two went silent. They had their goal, but the path wasn't clear. Mario tried to think of an answer, but he could barely think at all over the sound of his feet. The alternating hopping of his feet had not only grown painful, but also quite noisy.
Just then, a spark flickered in Mario's eyes. He stopped hopping, allowing the ice to travel up his feet.
"Keep moving, Mario!" Meta Knight warned, "Your feet are-!"
"Shh!" Mario whispered, "I know what I'm-a doing."
And that was when Mario bent over and set the bottom of his pants on fire.
"...I'm still not sure I understand your reasoning," Meta Knight whispered.
"If our enemy really is-a waiting for us to die in the cockpit, he has to have some-a way to know when we actually-a bite it. And he definitely isn't-a watching us. Even if he put cameras in the plane, they would've frozen and become unusable. The only way he can-a monitor us is by listening. By hearing us move. He's-a waiting until none of us are-a hopping, because that-a means we've all-a frozen. I'll let my feet freeze to lure him out - the fire on my overalls should keep the ice on just-a my shoes."
Mario and Meta Knight turned their gaze towards the door. If Mario's assumption was right, their assailant would step out of that door at any second. Mario readied a ball of fire, and Meta Knight reeled back his sword. The both of them felt a searing pain in their extremities, and the air in the plane felt like sand in their throats. Regardless, their focus was locked on the door, ready to throw whatever life they had left in them at their opponent.
The door swung open. Mario chucked his fireball before he could even make out what was on the other side. The flame made contact, sending ice shards and spurts of water flying. The door began to close, but in a single slash, Meta Knight flew across the entire room and diced the door into pieces. With no other options, the opponent barged through the doorway, leaving the exit frozen solid. Mario kicked off his shoes, slapping the fire on his pants out.
Much to the surprise of Mario and Meta Knight, their attacker was a mere little girl. Her skin was sky blue, and she had fuzzy yellow earmuffs on her head. She fluttered in the air in a dress a size too large for her body, and she'd encased herself in a bubble of ice. The ice was somehow able to squish through the door frame, bending and pinching like a big drop of water.
"Well, well, well," the little fairy said, "I didn't take you two as being smart enough to figure out about the looping spell Dimentio helped me cast on this door. That's the last time you'll surprise me."
"So," Mario said to the girl, "you're-a the one trying to put us on ice, huh?"
"Guilty as charged!" The fairy let out a snorty laugh. "The name's Blizzaurus. Hired hand to the Villainoct, and the keeper of this icy tomb of yours."
"Hired hand?" Meta Knight remarked, "So you're scum who kills for money?"
"No no, Mr. Knight! I was hired, but not with money. It was the thrill of the hunt that sold me."
"What?"
Blizzaurus took out a golden wand and embraced it, much like you'd hold a lover.
"It's true, it's gotten so lonely in my glacier; everyone there has been frozen solid. Some by the hands of mother nature. Some by my own. Either way, no one wants to play with poor Blizzaurus anymore. So when I got the opportunity to have some fun with the rulers of the two biggest kingdoms on this side of the planet, as well as the one and only Super Mario, I couldn't refuse! The Villainoct even agreed to let me keep you once I've turned you all into popsicles. The three of you, plus this strange knight from another world, will make wonderful additions to my collection!"
Her face bent into a twisted grin, and the manic pixie waved her wand in the air. Mario and Meta Knight stepped back as the crystal tip of the wand glowed a vivid blue. The ice on the walls rumbled, throbbing like the insides of a living being. An icicle shot out! Mario jumped just in time to avoid his head being impaled by the frozen spear poking out from the wall.
"Let's dance!" Blizzaurus laughed as she waved her wand in the air, like a conductor leading her band. At her command, the plane's frozen teeth gnawed on the heroes without relent. Mario's portly figure did a surprisingly good job avoiding the ice, jumping over and around the frozen waves. Meta Knight weaved his squishy body through the torrent of icicles and struck the fairy's bubble, but his sword merely bounced off of it without leaving a scratch.
"Mario, give me an opening!" Meta Knight cried, "We just need to pry that wand from her hand, and we can use it to reverse the spell!"
Mario took a break from dancing through the blizzard to fling a fireball Blizzaurus' way. Blizzaurus rolled out of its path, cackling as she readied another icicle to throw at Mario. He took a step to move out of its way, but it was one step too late. The glistening point pierced Mario's shoulder, pinning the plumber to the wall behind him. Mario lunged forward to rip himself off the wall as quickly as he could. Still, the wall managed to take off the back of Mario's shirt, and even some skin.
"I'm not going too easy on you boys, am I?" Blizzaurus whipped her wand around so hard that she began to sweat. The ice wall snapped forward, racing to crush Mario into a thin red paste. Before it had the chance, though, Meta Knight leapt and kicked Mario in the jaw, sending the plumber flying out of the way. Blizzaurus growled as she charged the knight with a ring of spears, but Meta Knight blocked every one, shredding the ice with a flurry of slashes.
"Ho ho! Predictable predictable, Mr. Knight!" Blizzaurus taunted, "You reacted exactly the way I expected you to, forgetting that the ice is completely under my control! It doesn't just freeze; it does whatever I wish!"
Meta Knight watched as the flurry of ice trimmings he'd made floated in the air. With a snap of the sprite's wand, the cloud burst into two. One half engulfed Meta Knight, with every shard of ice digging into his soft blue skin. The knight cried out in pain, bumping into the wall before falling onto the floor. The other storm of blades flew towards Mario. He jerked his head around to find an escape route, but the mist morphed as it soared through the air, ready to follow its prey.
"What's the matter, Mario!?" Blizzaurus hissed, "Got cold feet! Hahahahaha!"
But Mario's stare suddenly burned with tenacity. Reaching behind his head, he unfurled a yellow cape from under his shirt collar. And with a hearty whip, he blew the cloud of ice straight back at the fairy! It fogged up her ice bubble, bringing her flight through the air to a halt.
"What!?"
Blizzaurus spun her ice bubble around to get a clear look outside, but only did so just in time to see Mario fling another fireball her way. It made contact, fracturing the fairy's bubble. Meta Knight wasted no time in hurling his sword at the sprite. It landed right in one of the cracks on her shield. The bubble burst open, shattering into several large fragments, even blowing a window clear open. Blizzaurus was sucked out of the jet before the ice grew back and sealed the hole shut. Mario let out a deep sigh, not realizing how much air he'd been holding in his lungs.
"Don't relax yet, Mario," Meta Knight said as he was consumed by the ice on the floor, "I need you to hit me with one of your fireballs."
"Head on?" Mario replied, "I don't-a think that's a good idea. It could do more harm than-a good."
"No no, I can take it. Just hurry up and do it already."
"What if we just light another chair on fire?"
"Not enough time, hurry up, Mario."
"But what if-"
"Mario, if you don't hit me with that fucking hand right now, I'm gonna cut it off!"
Mario recoiled at Meta Knight's outburst, sending a fireball his way. Meta Knight bit back a scream of agony, but sure enough, the fire freed him from the floor.
"I didn't know you were so-a vulgar," Mario said.
"I didn't know you were wearing a blanket." Meta Knight pointed to Mario's cape as he pulled his sword from the ground.
"Oh, this?" Mario chuckled as he tucked his cape back into his shirt. "It's-a handier than you'd think. It's a power-up I always keep on-a hand."
"If it's so handy, make it bring back the wand that just got shot out of the plane along with that little goblin."
Meta Knight had a point. The ice only seemed to grow faster with Blizzaurus gone, as if it were vengeful for its master.
"We opened up the cockpit. How about we try to just-a land the plane, and get everyone out?"
"I can land it," Meta Knight said, wrapping himself in his cape to warp, "You should go check on the princess and Bowser."
Mario nodded and ran back through the door. Meta Knight warped past the frozen doorway, and into the cockpit. The cockpit seemed to be safe from the frigid infection within the rest of the plane, with the dashboard being free of any ice. Meta Knight fluttered over the dashboard to get a look below the plane out of the window. The plane was just approaching a dolphin shaped tropical island, covered in greenery and with a volcano crowning its head. A thin white airstrip hung off by the shore of the island. Meta Knight grabbed the controls, dipping the plane down towards the strip.
Just as the plane descended, however, a surge of blue energy crackled out from behind! The descent of the plane kept it from taking the full brunt, but the sheer momentum of the blast knocked Meta Knight off of his feet. When he regained his bearings, he kicked open a window, grabbed onto the sill to keep himself inside, and looked behind the plane. It was Blizzaurus behind them for sure, but her form had changed. Her body had swollen, nearly to the size of the plane itself. Her mouth had contorted into a jagged maw while leathery wings carried her through the air. Slushy snow dripped from her muzzle as she prepared another beam of ice.
Meta Knight leapt back to the controls and sent the plane diving down; swerving left, zipping around, doing whatever he could to get out of her path. But the ice dragon only gained on them, throwing grace to the wind as she barraged the island below with frosty shots. The plane was starting to skim the surface of the island now, and they were fast approaching a lively rustic little city. Meta Knight gripped the controls and took in a deep breath.
"Never let it be said," he said to himself, "that I'm not a man who enjoys a little danger."
Meta Knight sent the plane flying full throttle into the plaza. Vibrantly dressed locals leapt out of the way, but Meta Knight could only focus on lacing between houses and statues. Blizzaurus scraped her underside against the town hall building, knocking off a few shingles, but the distance between her and the jet hadn't grown an inch. Not backing down, Meta Knight eyed a bell tower by the shore as he barreled past it. With his hands racing a hundred buttons per second, he looped the plane up into the air and back around towards the bell tower. Blizzaurus was only a few feet away from them now, and Meta Knight was counting on it. He cut the wheel, forcing the plane into a sharp turn around the tower. Blizzaurus tried to roll to dodge the tower, but she crashed straight through it anyway. The bell was knocked into the water with a salty splash.
"Come at me!" Meta Knight cheered. Just as quickly as it came out, he wrapped his wings around his body to contain his excitement. The plane took off from the plaza, leaving Blizzaurus behind. But Blizzaurus only snarled, shaking off the rubble from the tower as she shot out into the air. Her massive form dove surprisingly quickly into the water off the shore. She burst out a few seconds later, bringing a cascade of water up with her; with her subzero breath, she froze the wave solid, creating a wall right in front of the Toad Express. Meta Knight heaved on the controls, just gracing the ice wall as he swerved the plane away. Evading the ice wall, however, set the plane dead on a collision course with a shoreline harbor. He turned to the left to dodge a moss covered storage unit, but the plane crashed into the steam stack of a docked cargo freighter. The turbine on the right wing burst into flames on contact.
"Damnit!" Meta Knight slammed his fist into the dash as embers trickled past the plane. Blizzaurus hadn't even taken a scratch from her crash with the tower; without Mario to lower her guard, could Meta Knight even combat the ice dragon?
But the corrosive smell of cinder and ash pouring from the right turbine came with an idea. Meta Knight reared the plane's nose straight up into the air. His little body dangled from the controls. And yet he held on, dipping his head out the window. Just as planned, Blizzaurus was still trailing behind - or rather, below now - ready to blast the jet with another ray of ice. Just a few hundred more feet in the air and Meta Knight could take care of this monster once and for all. Steady now, steady.
And when the moment was just right, Meta Knight flung himself out the window. The drag of the air outside sucked Meta Knight down towards the ground, and in the split second he passed by the left turbine, he sliced it clean off of the plane with a single sword stroke! The turbine dropped like a lead balloon, plummeting until it broke over Blizzaurus' head. Her shield burst into snow and steam on contact, and she let out a throaty roar. But Meta Knight had no time to cheer. Looking back into the sky, he watched as the plane ground to a halt in the air. The engine must've stalled. Before he knew it, Meta Knight saw the plane hurtle towards the Earth, spinning through the air like a dreidel. Again, all according to plan. Perhaps the plan could've used some reworking.
Regardless, Meta Knight flapped over to position himself under the plane. He fell perfectly through the front window, slamming into the wall of the cockpit. He leapt over to the dashboard and took the wheel, nearly ripping it out of its socket to try and stabilize the jet. Right now, the plane was stuck in a nose dive for the island below, so Meta Knight got a good view of his impending tropical demise below. But Meta Knight held on with no room for fear in his mind; all he could think of was the hope, the certainty that he and his friends would survive. As if it had heard Meta Knight's resolve, the plane slowly lifted back into a horizontal glide. The underside even skimmed a tree, but the plane was stable. For now.
"We may not be headed straight for the ground," Meta Knight said to himself, "but with no turbines, we're only delaying a horrible crash. We need to leave before that happens."
Meta Knight warped out of the cockpit and zipped over to the back of the plane. The ice was still persisting, and how they'd even leave the plane with the ice around wasn't clear, but Meta Knight and Mario would just have to figure it out.
"Mario! Princess! We-"
Meta Knight had just begun to warn Mario before he realized it was too late; somehow, Mario had ended up on his back on the floor, and was now entirely encased in ice. The princess was also frozen, having slumped over and rested her face against the back of the couch.
"Predictable predictable."
The voice was irritatingly unforgettable, like a bad song from 10 years ago. Meta Knight turned around to see none other than Blizzaurus. She was back in her fairy form, though her ice shield was noticeably absent. Still, she had a bloodthirsty smile on her soft little face.
"You know, you keep talking about how predictable we are," Meta Knight replied, "yet you keep falling for all of our attacks."
"It's simple reverse psychology, Mr. Knight! A simple distraction!" Blizzaurus straightened out her dress as she grinned at her own genius. "Like how I pursued you just now in my dragon form? A distraction! I just needed to chase you so that you'd pull those crazy aerial maneuvers! A vertical stall, a 90 degree angle turn. I can only imagine all the g-forces everyone in here was under! Sure, maybe a being like you with such small extremities wouldn't really mind it. But human beings like Mario and Peach with long legs for all of their blood to pool in could never handle the turns you were making without experiencing G-LOC. G-force induced loss of consciousness. It doesn't last very long, but they only needed to pass out for a second for my ice to capture them. Hehehe! I know everything the lot of you will do before you even do it!"
"Is that so?" Meta Knight absorbed Blizzaurus' taunts, his breathing steady and his stare unrelenting. "I'll save you some trouble then. No need to predict my next move; I'll lay it out for you clearly. First, I'll evade whatever attack you have prepared. I'll then swoop in right underneath your chin. Once there, I'll drive my sword clean through your throat. That's how you'll meet your end. If you're so weak that you can't even maintain your draconic form, then it shouldn't be too difficult to manage."
"Pfft! Some nerve!" Blizzaurus scoffed, her grin whisked away, "Don't take me to be so easily manipulated. I haven't just planned for the one thing you would do, but for everything you could do!"
Blizzaurus waved her wand again, rushing Meta Knight with her ice spears. Meta Knight danced through them effortlessly; even the odd few he couldn't avoid, he slashed into pieces. And with every icicle he evaded, Meta Knight inched closer and closer to the fairy. Blizzaurus felt a lump swell up in her throat as her reflection stared back at her from Meta Knight's sword.
"Stay away from me, Mr. Knight! You may be able to escape my attacks, but your friends can't!"
Blizzaurus trained her arctic blades on the frozen Mario stuck on the floor. Meta Knight jumped to cover Mario, just as Blizzaurus dropped her anemone of icy pain. Meta Knight swung his sword so quickly that it could barely be seen, looking more like a golden ribbon turning the ice into powder. Once the dust had settled, Meta Knight sprung to charge Blizzaurus, but his feet didn't move with him.
"Hah! Just as I planned for!" Blizzaurus snickered.
Sure enough, while saving Mario, Meta Knight had accidentally perched himself on Mario's frozen body. The ice had crawled from Mario's chest to Meta Knight's feet, pinning him to the floor.
"I did want to add your frozen bodies to my trophy collection, but you're becoming more trouble than you're worth. I think I'll just crash this plane...with no survivors!"
Blizzaurus zipped out the door, her grating laugh trailing behind her.
And yet, Meta Knight remained calm. He drew back his sword and threw it through the open doorway. The air whistled as it was cut by the twirling blade. Meta Knight wrapped himself in his cape. The cape began to freeze onto him like a cage, but he was still able to warp. Blizzaurus had just made it to the frozen doorway of the cockpit when she felt a gust of wind blow by her. She whizzed back, just before Meta Knight warped into the room. With his cape stuck to his body, Meta Knight dropped onto the floor like a rock.
"Well color me impressed!" Blizzaurus taunted, "I didn't think you'd be able to peel yourself off the floor. Still, it won't do much to help you win, Mr. Knight; my ice will never let you go, no matter where you-!"
Before Blizzaurus could finish, Meta Knight's sword flew in through the door, impaling Blizzaurus straight through the back of her neck. She dropped her wand and fell onto her knees while coughing up blood. Meta Knight slipped his nub out from the restraints of his cape. He stretched his nub out as far as he could, snatching the wand as it rolled by on the floor. With a wave, he felt his desires resonating in the wand's gem, and the ice vanished in a flash of steam. Meta Knight unfurled his wings and jumped onto Blizzaurus' head.
"Take notes. There's a reason I avoid small talk during a fight." Meta Knight gripped the hilt of his sword and ripped it out of the sprite's neck. She fell silently into a puddle of her blood. Meta Knight unfurled his wings, gave them a well overdue stretch, and flew to the back room of the plane. In the back, Peach and Bowser, while free from the ice, were still unconscious. Mario was just now getting back up to his feet.
"The ice," Mario said, "it's-a gone."
"And so are we." Meta Knight fluttered over to Bowser, poking his scaly face. "Get the princess up. The turbines are shot. I'll try and land the plane, but we'll probably have to jump."
But while they were getting up, Blizzaurus pushed herself up off the floor. She gritted through the tears and snot running down her face. Liquid hate bubbled in the back of her wounded throat, burning down her arm as she retrieved a remote from her pocket. She pressed the remote's one button before collapsing back onto the ground, and on her command, secret charges rigged on the side of the plane went off. With a scorching explosion, the bombs punched a hole through the plane's metal shell. Peach and Bowser were sucked out of the plane, with Meta Knight only hanging on by driving his sword into the floor. Mario latched on to Meta Knight, only to let go a second later.
"Princess!" Mario yelled.
Meta Knight pulled his sword out of the plane, allowing himself to fall out as well. Mario tucked his arms in and dived for the princess. His nose jiggled against the wind, but Mario forced his eyes open as he plummeted towards the princess. When she was just in reach, Mario grabbed onto her arm with one hand and whipped out his cape with the other. The cape billowed out into a parachute, and Mario and Peach ground to a graceful halt.
"Nice work!" Meta Knight shouted as he fell past them, "I've got Bowser!"
Meta Knight stretched out his sword and began to twirl through the air, the tip of his blade acting like the point of a drill. The island was only a thousand feet away and Bowser's eyes shot open with terror, but Meta Knight kept on his dizzying pursuit, getting closer and closer. It wasn't very encouraging to watch Bowser resign to his fate and fold in on himself like a pill bug. But when he got to see the koopa's confusion as the former pulled him into the cape's dark void, Meta Knight felt he earned the tiny chuckle that came over him. Meta Knight opened up his cape, and the Koopa King gently flopped onto a shingled roof. Mario and Peach drifted onto the rooftop shortly afterward.
"Is everyone alright?" Meta Knight asked.
"Well, other than just being dropped hundreds of feet in the air and sucked into some sort of abyss, I'm alright," Bowser replied, "I'm a little cold, too."
"Well, if everyone's here, than I guess we can-"
Meta Knight was cut off by a visceral scream. Two, in fact. The gang looked up and saw the two Toad flight attendants plunging to their doom.
"The flight attendants!" Meta Knight grabbed his cape, ready to warp, but Mario placed a hand on his shoulder. Or wherever a shoulder might exist on a being with no arms.
"Don't worry, they'll be-a fine."
The Toads crashed into the ground, only to bounce off with their chitinous mushroom heads. Once they landed, they stopped screaming and deactivated as they usually do.
"Sometimes, you'd wish they could die," Bowser said, "but they were here before us and they'll be here long after us."
"Ugh…" Peach grumbled, rubbing her eyes as she awoke, "where are we?"
"Yeah, where are we?" Bowser looked around the island. They had ended up back in the plaza from earlier. "Certainly doesn't look like Hyrule-...oh no. Oh Goddamnit, no!" Bowser held his head as he stared at the sun shaped monument in the center of town. Its glossy metal shined like the real deal, and it was propped over a canal by a massive stone gate.
"What's the matter?" Meta Knight asked.
"What's the matter!? That's the Shine Gate! We're on Isle Delfino! These people are gonna kill me!"
"Why's that? Are the locals unfriendly?"
"Oh, no, they're very friendly. I just invaded this place a while back with my son. Released a giant squid, caused a lot of property damage, somehow I even made gambling go up. It was just a nightmare."
In the middle of Bowser's tale, Meta Knight heard a light clinking sound behind him. It reminded him of the sound Blizzaurus' wand had made when she dropped it. Perhaps that was the noise; Meta Knight had unknowingly dropped the wand during his freefall. He turned around and peered over the edge of the roof. Strangely, nothing was on the floor. Maybe something hit the gutter pipe along the wall, and bounced into the canal a few feet away? It seemed unlikely.
"As long as that fairy is-a done with," Mario said.
"Our attacker was a fairy?" Peach asked.
"Yeah, a pretty nasty one, too."
"Huh. Fancy that." Peach looked over at Meta Knight on the edge of the roof. "What are you looking at, Meta Knight?"
Meta Knight didn't answer. He didn't even turn to look at the gang.
"Meta Knight?" Peach sauntered over to the knight and turned him around.
And Meta Knight's entire body was plastered with ice.
"What!?" Peach jumped, as the three of them went ghostly pale. Peach froze with fear. And then, she froze with a splash of water from the canal, hardening in an instant into a carapace of ice. She nearly tipped and fell over, before Bowser caught her by the arm.
"Uh oh. Bad news, Mario," Bowser said.
"I can see," Mario replied.
"Not from there. Come take a look."
Bowser pointed over the edge of the roof. Mario carefully slunk to the edge and peeked over. The canal had frozen over, as had the rest of the surface level. Ice was rapidly creeping up the walls.
"How is this-a possible?" Mario said, "We-a took care of that fairy on the plane."
"Did you, now?"
Mario could recognize that voice even as it reverberated through the ice down below. It was much less sweet, now sounding as if it were smoked in bourbon and left out to dry. But Mario knew who it was. Blizzaurus poked her little head out from the icy canal. She'd shut the holes in her neck with ice, and her grin had returned.
"Mario, this is who you were talking about?" Bowser laughed at the ice sprite. "Give me five minutes, I'll take care of her." Bowser opened his maw, with fire brewing in his throat.
"Is that right, Bowser? You think I didn't expect you to do that? Turn up the heat all you'd like, but my ice will never stop coming for you. That's the funny thing about water. Most substances shrink when they get colder. But water expands."
Just then, Mario heard a low rumbling. He followed the noise over to the gutter pipe along the wall. The rumbling got louder and louder, and he could almost see something glistening from its inside.
"Bowser! Look out!"
But it was too late; just as Mario warned Bowser, water tore out of the sides of the gutter. It spurted over Bowser's mouth, freezing it shut. Mario watched the muscles of Bowser's neck flex as hard as they could, but no sound came out.
"You're finished, Mario!" Blizzaurus pulled her wand out from her icy bath and waved it at the rooftop, and the ice raced up the walls. Bowser looked to his left. The Delfino Town Hall building had yet to be assaulted by the ice. Bowser ran and jumped for the roof of the Town Hall, only to tumble down the side and crash into the canal. Mario looked over the edge, but Bowser was already frozen solid. With the ice circling around him, Mario had no choice but to jump for the Town Hall. He made it, but his feet throbbed upon landing. All of his hopping was getting to him, and the hole in his shoulder wasn't helping. It was an effort just to stay on his feet.
"I'll give Mr. Knight some credit!" Blizzaurus swum down the canal, her wings poking out of the water like the fin of a great white. "I didn't expect to be pushed this far to my limits! I don't even have enough energy left to fuse with my wand into my draconic form. But I was expecting to not expect something, and look how far I've come! I've finally gotten Mr. Knight out of my hair, and with Peach and Bowser having been on ice for so long, who knows how much longer they'll last? Here's something I can't predict, Mario; what could you possibly do? Me and my ice bending wand are a match you can never beat!"
Blizzaurus was right, there wasn't much Mario could do from his position. Knowing this, however, just made him more determined to stomp the fairy into oblivion. It couldn't be that hard, not with her bubble guard down, could it? But the ice had already overtaken Town Hall, shining with a powerful yellow glow and approaching its wounded target.
Wait, yellow? Where was that yellow coming from? Upon closer inspection, Mario could tell that the glow was being reflected off of the ice. But reflected from what? Mario stared deeper into the ice, but saw only himself staring back. That's when Mario realized that he was the light. His eyes were radiating a powerful yellow, and multicolored smoke wisped off of his skin. Come to think of it, that determination he was feeling was growing more and more tangible. His insides were on fire. Something was ready to come out. But what?
"Whatever's coming over me, it-a might be my final chance to win this fight. I'll make myself vulnerable making an attack, so if the first-a blow doesn't take her out, she'll have a clear shot to strike me down. I need to-a make this count!"
Mario hopped up to his feet and bolted down the rooftop. Blizzaurus sent icicles ripping through the ceiling, but Mario jumped over all of them. Mario leapt from building to building, getting closer to his destination; the Shine Gate in the center of town. Mario pulled out his cape and deflected some flying shingles down towards the ice sprite.
"Ack!" Blizzaurus recoiled from the flurry of dust and drywall. In response, she threw a coat of ice onto a nearby wall and shot out a glacial pillar. The pillar swept across the plaza, knocking over the building Mario was standing on. He toppled down to the ground, sliding across the frozen canal like a hockey puck. He hadn't been on the ice for a second before Blizzaurus was torpedoing her way to the plumber. Mario peeled himself off the ground - losing a bit more skin to the ice - and skated towards the gate. Blizzaurus was gaining on him, hail was pounding on him, but none of it would matter as long as he made it to that gate. Blizzaurus pounced into the air at Mario! Mario dropped to the floor, allowing Blizzaurus to fly over him. They were right under the Shine monument - this was his chance!
"Hiyah!"
Mario drew his arms back and thrusted them forward, channeling all of the determination burning inside of him. Two streams of flames spiraled from his hands, swirling out and forming a smoldering vortex. Mario felt as though his arms might melt, but he persisted. The flaming dragons consumed the sky, blinding Mario and thawing the ice beneath him.
When the flames had settled, Mario felt himself drop into the newly melted canal. The yellow glow had faded from his eyes and his body was no longer smoking. Pulling himself above the surface with his right arm, he looked up into the sky. The walls of the gate had been scorched black. Blizzaurus was nowhere to be found.
Mario had just turned to look up when a blast of ice captured his right arm. Blizzaurus popped out from behind the gate wall, snickering as she fluttered over to the plumber.
"Aw, Mario, that wasn't your coup de grâce, was it?" Blizzaurus booped Mario on his fat squishy nose as ice consumed the plumber. "Trying to hit a moving target while pinned to the ground? Don't need to be me to predict that failing! Hahahaha!"
"Yes. You're-a right."
Mario grabbed Blizzaurus by the wrist and pulled her close.
"It would have been a bad idea to try and-a hit you from the ground. Where you're wrong is assuming that's what I was-a doing. That was your-a downfall. Assuming. It's not-a good enough for you to just come out on top. You can't-a stand being at a disadvantage, even for a moment. Risk terrifies you. That's why you come up with all of these predictions and assumptions, so you can act like everything's going according to plan, no? But in your rush to figure out what I was-a doing, you came to the wrong conclusion. Risk terrified me too, but I still took it and hoped that final attack would be a fire blast. But I wasn't aiming it at-a you. I was-"
Mario's head froze over before he could finish. As Blizzaurus pondered the plumber's response, she heard the sound of something dripping into the canal. Something sizzling. Blizzaurus turned her head up. The glooping was coming from the Shine Monument - it was glowing bright red, turned molten from Mario's ultra flame.
"The monument?" Blizzaurus said to herself, "Did he aim for that, hoping it'd melt and drop over my head? That sneaky little-"
Blizzaurus flitted her wings to move out of the gloopy star's path, but felt herself tugged back into place. She looked back at the arm Mario had grabbed. When he'd grabbed it, he pulled it beneath the water, which had now frozen over. Not only that, but while Mario was giving his speech, he'd squeezed the wand out of Blizzaurus' delicate hand. It hadn't gotten far, less than an inch. And Blizzaurus couldn't even move her fingers that insignificant distance.
"No, no!" Blizzaurus yanked on her arm, slamming her free fist on the ice to no avail. More and more of the monument dripped onto the canal, a few drops splattering onto the fairy's back. She couldn't even register the pain of the burns over the pain of her teeth digging into her arm. She gnawed and gnawed, working so desperately to free herself. The pain was excruciating and she nearly wretched at the taste of her own blood, but she fought her better judgement and kept on chewing. She hadn't even made it to the bone, however, when the rest of the monument finally came down upon her in one massive blob.
"Damn you, Mario!"
And then, there was silence. The ice disappeared. Blizzaurus was gone.
When Mario awoke, he was laying on the sidewalk next to the canal. His clothes were soaked, his body ached, and his skin was red all over. But, thankfully, there wasn't a snowflake to be seen. Mario sat up; Peach and Meta Knight were standing over him.
"Mario, are you okay?" Peach asked. Her skin was red like Mario's, but even still, her face looked soft and warm.
"I'm-a fine," Mario said, "And you?"
"I'm well, all things considered." Peach extended her hand to Mario's rugged own. He grabbed it and rose to his feet.
"Blizzaurus," Mario said, looking around the plaza, "is she-a gone?"
"Looks like it." Bowser was standing by the edge of the canal, next to the remains of the Shine Monument. It was warped and deformed, with something shaped like a hand reaching out of its top. Bowser drummed his knuckles against the metal figure. "Hello! Earth to ice witch! Anybody there?...No, I think we're good."
"Nice work handling her, by the way," Meta Knight congratulated.
"It was easy once I-a figured out it was her wand doing the ice magic," Mario admitted, "But I-a still can't believe that Dimentio snuck onto that plane and put that-a curse on the doors."
"I thought the quickest route would be the safest for us," Peach said, "but it looks like we'll have to be more conspicuous than we imagined."
"We should rest before we consider our next step," Meta Knight said, "I'm sure the locals will be more than willing to help once we explain the situation."
Just then, some of the colorful locals ran onto the scene. Their bodies were conical, and they wore leafy skirts. All of them had stern expressions underneath the palm trees on their heads.
"All of you," one of the locals - law enforcement, he looked like - yelled, "are under arrest for felony vandalism!"
"What!?" Meta Knight drew his sword and unfurled his wings. "I thought you guys said they were friendly!"
"'Friendly'," Mario explained, "might've been a bit of an exaggeration."