Chapter 17: War of the Jabbies
Luigi, Flurrie, and Punio reentered the fourth level to see Mario standing next to the other Warp Pipe on the left end. All Mario did was gesture for them to follow him downstairs, not saying anything.
Everyone made it to the ground level where the Puni elder and the first set of Punies awaited. Puniper stepped forward toward Punio.
"Well, if it isn't Punio... Hmph! You heard me! Hmph! I can't say I expected you to manage to rescue the elder..." Puniper stated.
"I told you I could do it!" Punio replied.
"Don't get a swollen head! This doesn't mean I'll accept you as our leader... And it definitely doesn't mean I completely trust those mustached guys either. For starters, you still haven't rescued the other Punies yet. I'm not lifting an antenna to help-"
"You stubborn imbecile!" the elder shouted from behind, growing big for a second. "Deplorable! How dare you talk like that, knowing what we're up against?! We must stand together now! We must take back our tree! Don't you understand that?"
Puniper stood at a loss for words, having been silenced by the elder. "But... But, Elder-"
"Shut it, Puniper!" the elder ordered. "And mind me, you hear? You'll help Red and Green Mustachio here…" The elder turned to Mario and Luigi. "What'd you say your names were again?"
"I'm Mario, and this is my brother Luigi," Mario said.
"Yes. You will help Marty-o and Lougie clear out our tree along with everyone else!"
"Excuse me? It's 'Mario' and 'Luigi'," Mario butted in calmly.
"You said that already, Marty-o."
Upon hearing the elder remind him of introducing himself and Luigi, Mario frowned. You know what? Screw it. I'll question it later when this is over.
"To tell you the truth, Elder, I'm not heartless or anything," Puniper admitted. "I'm worried about Petuni too. And you're right, we have no choice. We must fight! Right, everybody?"
All the Punies except the elder cheered with agreement. Mario's frown slowly disappeared.
"There you go, my Punies! That's the spirit!" the elder exclaimed with glee. "Now let's see… How many of you are there?"
The Puni elder counted all the Punies present including Puniper and Punio. "Ten. Good start."
"Thank you, guys," Punio thanked the Punies.
"Say, if you have a moment…" Luigi said, approaching the elder. "Can I ask you a question? We're looking for this treasure called the Crystal Star. Do you know about it?"
"The Crystal Star, eh?" The elder thought it over for a moment. "Yes, perhaps... Hidden down, down, down at the bottom of this tree is a funny-colored stone. But what do we do with it?"
It took a few seconds for the elder to realize what to do with the Crystal Star. "Oh, right. 'Guard it against evil and give it to a pure heart.' That's what generations of elders have been taught. Might be the Crystal Star."
"Okay," Luigi responded.
"Now, Marty-o and Lou-" The Puni elder stopped to correct himself. "Excuse me. Mario and Luigi…"
Thank you. That's more like it, Mario sighed silently. We're cool with each other now.
"…I'm thinking you better get it before those goons do. I don't quite see how just yet, but I bet it's connected to us getting our tree back. You got all that?"
"Yes, Elder," Mario and Luigi said in unison.
"Crystal Star is at the bottom of the tree. Good luck."
"Weren't we supposed to save all the Punies first?" Mario asked.
"Oh! I remember now," the elder said. "Before you can get the Crystal Star, you must save all of the captured Punies. Yup, you'll never get to that gem without the help of the Punies. Not a chance. So here, you'd better take this."
The Puni elder took out a gem resembling an orange and yellow sun. "This is the Puni Orb. It's the symbol of our leader."
Mario immediately took the Puni Orb and stowed it in his overalls pocket.
"If you place this in the pedestals you see around the tree, the Punies will gather. Just remember to take the orb with you when you're done using it."
"All right-y," Mario replied.
Punio turned to the Puni posse and asked, "Ready to rescue everybody?"
All the Punies cheered in response and the Mario Bros began to lead the way through the Warp Pipe up to the second level.
After exiting the pipe, Punio examined a black and white square in the middle of the room with two black pedestals next to it. The right pedestal had a sun-shaped hole in it.
"Hey, guys! I've got an idea!" Punio exclaimed.
"What is it?" Flurrie asked.
"I want all the Punies to step on the square first." The Puni group made their way to the square, whose white sections turned different colors of a rainbow. "Now, Mario, put the Puni Orb in the statue."
Mario followed Punio's order immediately, forming a white glow around the square. Another Warp Pipe rose next to the right pedestal.
"Would you look at that!" Flurrie gasped as Mario recollected the Puni Orb. "Let's see where that pipe leads to! Hopefully, down another floor or two."
Everyone went down the pipe to the other side of the red door guarded by a single X-Naut.
"Yo! Hold it right-" The X-Naut started to say before Mario threw him into an endless pit next to the Warp Pipe. Everyone turned to face the pit, having heard the X-Naut scream.
"How are we getting across?" one of the Punies asked. "This pit is too long!"
"Don't worry. I'll make it work," Flurrie said. She walked behind the Punies and blew them over the pit to the other side.
"Our turn," Luigi said. He raised his hands up for Mario to jump onto them before Spin Jumping over the pit. Flurrie had no trouble floating across.
Immediately after landing, Mario spotted another pedestal to his left and inserted the Puni Orb. This created a white glow on the ground that gathered all the Punies together.
"That was a cool jump!" Punio remarked. "I never knew you could 'helicopter' like that."
"Well, it's one of our abilities," Luigi said. "Works every time."
After Mario stowed the Puni Orb again, everyone went down another Warp Pipe to the next level. But as soon as they reemerged from the pipe, he noticed a black mosquito-like insect standing next to an open doorway.
Before Mario could say anything, the insect ran through the doorway out of sight.
"What was that?" Mario asked. "That looked like a mosquito!"
"That's a Jabbi!" Punio explained. "Based on what Puniper said, they're helping the intruders and trying to seize the tree. Our tribes have been enemies for a long time now. Every time we meet, we fight a lot. Not even joking. But I used to get along with Jabble. He's one of the Jabbi tribe... I wonder if even Jabble is my enemy now..."
"Maybe he was forced to betray you," Luigi said.
"That's possible."
Again, Mario and Luigi led the Punies and Flurrie through the doorway into the next room. On the other end was a giant hive with two honeycombs hanging from the top.
"Is that a Jabbi hive or something?" Mario asked.
"Yeah," Punio answered.
Seconds later, a buzzing noise sounded from inside the hive and a group of ten Jabbies emerged.
"Everyone! It's a ten-Jabbi squadron!" Punio announced. "Let's get them!" He turned to Mario and Luigi and said, "Stay right here. We got this."
All the Punies charged the Jabbies while the Mario Bros and Flurrie stood by. The Punies swung their orbs like baseball bats to attack the Jabbies, who had needle-like noses as their weapons.
"Go, Punio!" Flurrie cheered.
Since there were only ten Jabbies, the Punies had no trouble pummeling them against the hive wall.
"Whew! We did it!" Punio said after all the Jabbies were defeated. "We defeated every last Jabbi here! Now we have to destroy the Jabbi hive fortress!"
Right on cue, Punio led the Punies inside the hive, which shook violently. The Mario Bros and Flurrie braced themselves in case pieces of the hive could hit them. Then, the hive exploded, revealing a black tree trunk with a hole in the middle. All the Punies exited, cheering with joy. Mario, Luigi, and Flurrie didn't hesitate in clapping for the Punies.
"Great work!" "Bravo!" Mario and Luigi exclaimed.
"Thank you!" Punio replied. "You're never going to believe what I found after we destroyed the hive." He pulled out a blue key similar to the red key found near the two cages on the fifth floor.
"Oh yes!" Flurrie cheered. "With that key, we should be able to open the cell those precious Punies are locked in."
"Well, why are we just standing here? We have to free my sister and the others!"
Everyone quickly left the battle arena and arrived back at the cages within less than a minute. Upon exiting the Warp Pipe, Punio ran up to the blue cage and unlocked it using the blue key.
"Big brother!" Petuni squealed before hugging Punio. "You just freed all 90 of us!"
90? Mario asked himself. That's a lot.
"Little Petuni! Are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?" Punio asked.
"Nope! I'm perfectly fine. I was just scared."
"That's understandable," Punio said. "In case you don't know already, there's a boatload of Jabbies that are hording the tree down below. All of us need to get rid of them."
"But what if they kill us?" one of the Punies asked.
"They won't. Those Jabbies have no chance of winning."
"Exactly!" Flurrie agreed. "I might as well help out for good measure."
"Us too," Luigi added in, referring to himself and Mario.
Mario gestured for everyone to follow him into the Warp Pipe to the fourth floor again. From there, they made their way to the long pit next to the red door and crossed it safely.
In the room whose right side led to the former 10-Jabbie hive, there was a narrow pathway leading to another open doorway on the left side.
Some of the Punies nearly fell off the pathway, but Mario made sure to pull them up immediately. Next to the doorway was another black and white pedestal that Mario used with the Puni Orb to gather all the Punies together.
"All right-y. There should be another Jabbi hive ahead of us," Mario stated. "All of us need to work together this time around. None of us should be bystanders."
Mario led everyone into the next room, which had a Jabbi hive larger than the 10-Jabbi version. Seconds later, true to Punio's word, a huge number of Jabbies emerged and gathered in a square.
Punio counted the number of Jabbies based on the rows they stood in. There were 100 standing in front.
"Heh! Big deal! 103 against 100?" Punio boasted. "We've already won."
"Charge them!" Flurrie called out. The first ten Punies showed off their baseball bat attack before the other 90 joined in.
Any stunned Jabbies were blown against the hive with Flurrie's powerful breath. Finally, Mario and Luigi stomped on the Jabbies to officially defeat them. Miraculously, nobody besides the Jabbies was injured at all.
"Yeah! We beat every last Jabbi here!" Punio cried, prompting all the Punies to cheer with victory. "You know what to do now! Let's destroy the hive!"
All the Punies went inside the hive while the Mario Bros and Flurrie stood by to watch the destruction. Within seconds, the hive blew up into smithereens, revealing an open doorway.
"Guys! Come on inside!" Punio called out from the other room. Mario, Luigi, and Flurrie rejoined the Punies, who stood next to another Puni Orb pedestal. Mario inserted the Puni Orb in the pedestal, hoping for another Warp Pipe to spawn.
Suddenly, a giant metal cage fell from the ceiling and trapped everyone inside.
"Whoa, nelly!" Punio cried over the screams of the Punies. "What just happened?!"
"I don't know, Punio!" Mario replied.