StarlitDuck

You're welcome! You did a great job on the last chapter!

FairyTalePrincess16

You know what? Yeah, that is a good idea. Since your OC is from Pillo Island, Dream Team would make the most sense. I'll make sure to hold on to that.

LiamTheYoshi

Thanks, dude! StarlitDuck was a big help and I like the ideas she included here. It's nice to take a break from the angsty stuff for one chapter.

nintendoscript15

Woah! How did you type two profile reviews in the same chapter? That shouldn't be possible.

Eh, it doesn't matter. No, Alex is not quite better yet. He's still healing from the trauma, which the Lumas are helping him with by playing with him. But he'll be ready to help soon.

Well, we all know Mario with his italian food. Lasagna for everybody!

KazamaFam2006

Yes, the parts are still on Alex. Unfortunately, removing them will not be easy. But mentally, he is slowly healing. As for which galaxy we'll be heading to next, you'll find out soon! ;)

breath20k

Yeah, but I'm letting them have a well deserved rest in between domes. After all, this is a long and tough journey for all of them.

SleepingBeautyRocks

I don't think Bowser would be willing to tell Mario anything. After all, that moment was when Bowser stopped being sensitive with others besides his loved ones and became an impulsive and egotistical ruler. His archenemy would be the LAST person he'd ever want to tell about his insecurities.

Amethyst Goldenwind

It's okay if you feel bad for him. I kinda intended that reaction. Because I realized that due to his notable lack of screentime in my last story, I didn't really have time to treat him as, well, a character and not just a conflict starter besides the ending. But now he's once again the Big Bad in the spotlight, so I can flesh him out more.

Yes, there's no doubting they are both in the wrong for what they did, but had understandable reasons for what they did. Making it pretty much a Grey and Grey Morality dynamic.

Let's face it, if the Mario series had realistic character development and continuity, Peach would've gone insane by now with how much Bowser kidnaps her. But she never does. Fixing that issue!

Yes, what Bowser is doing is unhealthy. But from his perspective, he sees it as what a proper king should be doing. More information on that in a bit.

Glad you asked about the dinner date, cause you're about to see it.

Well, we'll worry about their parents later. Nice spotting on the double meaning title!

Nataly Guardado

Bowser: Sorry, but I don't watch anime!

(You typed your sentence twice, by the way.)

DeltaGuest

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying this!

SilverNova

Hi, SilverNova. Thank you for your constructive criticism. Let me try to break it down.

I included Alex and Leah in this story because nintendoscript15 included Aqua in his stories, and I felt like I should return the favor. I will be honest, I did consider including Aqua in this story for a while, but I decided on relegating her to cameos and mentions because I wanted to take a break from her character arc in favor of introducing new concepts. Besides, she's already in my Superstar Saga story, so it would feel like I'd be oversaturating her into stealing the spotlight from Mario. It's too late to remove Alex and Leah, as I do not want to start this story over. I don't think I'll be able to change your mind on them either, but I will try to improve them the best I can. I did agree with what you said about Luigi and Peach, and how I made the three main characters too emotional though. So by the time I upload this chapter, I should already have made some necessary changes to those chapters which you mentioned had problems. Feel free to check them out if you'd like, I marked the edited chapters with the date they were updated. But don't worry about Aqua and Daisy. I will consider the ideas you presented in a future story. ;)

As for how you mentioned making things a little more 'realistic', I see where you're coming from. This is supposed to be a long and tough adventure. However, I want things to still be accurate to how they were in the original game. I created the Super Rocket because I felt the cannons in the original that made Mario defy gravity were a little weird, and I wanted more space-esque powerups. I could've had it attached to something, but I wanted to treat it like every other powerup and have it there ready for Mario and Aster to grab it. And don't ask about ? blocks. Powerups don't come out of ? blocks in Super Mario Galaxy. For the traversal and Power Star placements, maybe I could add some extra segments like I did with Battlerock, and I could maybe have the bosses store the Stars somewhere. For the bosses I presented so far, you could just say the boss ate them or something, as most of them are being used to power up said bosses anyways. I guess I'll try to loosen up and add a little more original flair, but not to the extent that it doesn't feel like the original level anymore.

Okay, now on to your positive feedback.

I'm glad you enjoy how I wrote Bowser! I had a lot of fun writing him as well, as he's definitely one of the best characters in the series. After being mostly absent in 'A Sprite of Light', this was long overdue.

I'm glad you enjoy Aster as well! I was nervous that you didn't like him at first when I saw your criticism about the emotional part, so good relief. I honestly never thought I could make another OC as good as Aqua, so call me surprised by… well, myself! Aster is a master mechanic. He learned everything about robotics and machinery from his dad after all, so he uses this skill to solve just about every problem. Of course, he's not perfect and some of his work will backfire, but still, you gotta give him massive credit even if he made some serious mistakes in the past.

I created backstories from some of the bosses because I'm trying to flesh out this game's universe and make these guys more than just 'generic bad guy trying to stop you for no reason'. I couldn't do this for Sunshine because with the exception of Eely-Mouth, the bosses there were little more than just creations of the Magic Paintbrush. Now I can! Obviously, I'm not gonna do this for every boss (e.g. Dino Piranha, Tarantox, etc.), but I've got quite a bit more in store. The NPC idea, I might consider. Not sure about the army idea, though. The Observatory could only fit so many people on it, and I can't run too many character arcs at once. I'll figure something out.

Thank you again for sending me this review. I appreciate your feedback and I hope you have a great day!

Angryguy

Yeah, we all need one every now and again.

Chapter 26: A Very Sticky Situation

A green toad approached a red toad.

"Oh, hey Red Toad!" the green toad greeted as he waved.

"Hello there, Green Toad!" the red toad replied.

"Hey Red Toad, do you know what really makes me scream?" asked Green Toad.

"I don't know, Green Toad. What would that be?" said Red Toad.

"When I get slapped in the face!"

"Oh! You know what makes me scream?" remarked Red Toad.

"I don't know!" Green Toad moved his face close to his friend. "What makes you scream, Red Toad?"

"When other people scream!"

The two toads laughed together like horses up until Red Toad noticed something.

"Oh, hold on a second man. You got a fly on your face." Red Toad slapped his green friend's face so hard that he released a loud shrill.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Red Toad followed suit and fell off a bridge.

"The Red Toad and Green Toad show will resume shortly after these important messages."

[BGM: Rosalina in the Observatory 2 - Super Mario Galaxy]

The skit was revealed to be a show that Mario, the Toad Brigade, Alex, and the Lumas were watching on Mario's iPad. And they fell to the floor laughing like there was no tomorrow. Alex even seemed to forget about that for a moment thanks to this, which was pretty much Mario's main goal from doing this.

"Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" Seth T. giggled. "It gets funnier every time! Bob, you gotta wake up and see this!"

Bob was still sleeping.

Aster also witnessed the show, but he wasn't laughing. In fact, his face was entirely frozen like it was hit with a freeze flower, complete with a furrowed brow, a gaping mouth, scrunched cheeks, and a mind that seemed to have been sucked in a black hole.

Mario caught his breath and wheezed a bit. "Ohohohoho! Mamma mia! That was rich! What did you think As-... Aster?"

Aster took a deep breath as his interstellar mind began to comprehend what he was watching and faced Mario calmly.

"Is this what you modern worlders do for entertainment these days? 'Cause I don't see the appeal," Aster criticized.

"C'mon! It's funny!" Mario laughed. "And this is only the beginning! Just go on YouTube and watch all those adorable cat videos."

"Why would I want to watch a video about cats?"

"Cause they're entertaining!"

"You call this entertainment?" Aster scoffed. "Back in my day, the only entertainment we needed were elegant class theaters with historical plays, classical music street performers, and the festivals held. That was all we got and we were satisfied by it, so what's the point in this… this… stupidity?!"

"Maybe you'll understand next time you come and visit the Mushroom World…" Mario trailed his mind off as he looked around the now fully lit lower floor of the observatory. He was thinking about exploring the newly lit half, until he caught something at the corner of his eye. A lone pink luma floating next to the fountain, smiling cheerfully with two sticks with Star Bit candies at the end. His face beamed with the anticipation of transforming. Mario knew exactly what to do.

"Aster, we got ourselves a job." Mario pointed towards the Hungry Luma.

"Good. Anything to get away from this."

The two approached him.

"Hey, you! Yeah, you! Got any tasty Star Bits?" the Luma asked in a hyper fashion like the others before him.

"Yeah, how much?" said Aster.

"Sweet! I'm famished! I need 400 Star Bits to curb the hunger pangs!"

Aster got to feeding him the Star Bits. Mario watched and despite already seeing this before, he felt like barfing seeing how many were being thrown into his mouth at once. When the 400th Star Bit came into his mouth, the Luma wiggled his arms in glee with a bright smile.

"That's it… I'm stuffed! Here we go! TRANSFOOOORM!"

The Hungry Luma flew off into space. Mario and Aster covered their eyes as a huge blinding light coursed over the Observatory once again. Once they opened their eyes again a new portal was seen leading to a newly born galaxy. A Pink Launch Star appeared to take them there.

The Sling Pod Galaxy has appeared!

"Well, another brand new challenge to overcome." Aster fixed his eyes onto Mario. "Hopefully this one doesn't make your mouth water again."

"Oh, shut up! You were aroused by it too. Admit it!"

Both took off toward Sling Pod Galaxy like shooting stars in the night sky.

Sling Pod Galaxy

[BGM: Course Intro - Super Mario Galaxy]

As the two flew over to the galaxy, Mario was met with disappointment. This was yet another galaxy with not much to offer. The stellar background was the same as that of Space Junk Galaxy. Space rocks could be seen floating about the area, but thankfully didn't pose any harm. There was a large white star in the distance providing warmth and comfort to the heroes as well as keeping the ground they were standing on stable.

[BGM: Space Fantasy - Super Mario Galaxy]

Speaking of the ground, there wasn't much of it to speak of. The piece Maro and Aster landed on probably wouldn't even qualify as a planet, as it was just a chunk of dirt with a Sling Pod, dead grass, and even roots sticking out the bottom. In fact, there were several of these scattered throughout the galaxy surrounded by floating cannons which were there for some reason. This galaxy was just born, yet it looked more like the aftermath of the destruction of a planet. There was even a roaring black hole just below the area, in which the orange rim on the outside made it resemble a mouth trying to inhale the remains above it for lunch, with no foreseeable end to its insatiable hunger.

Aster liked it a bit more than Mario, though, as it shared the same general atmosphere as Space Junk Galaxy. However, the cannons constantly firing and blasting loud booms in his ears ruined it for him. Ah well. This was what the Luma wanted to transform into, and Aster couldn't be more proud of him either way.

Mario stared back down at the black hole, which looked ready to gobble up everything that made up this galaxy. Honestly, he was surprised it hasn't eaten everything here yet. Black holes do have infinitely-sized appetites after all. Though there was one thing he's always wondered.

"Hey Aster. Since you're the space expert and all, do you know what's inside a black hole?" Mario asked.

Aster blinked and put his hands behind his back in a conservative manner. "N-No… I don't… No one who's gone in a black hole has ever come out to tell the tale. Not even those with extra lives."

"Pffffth!" Mario dismissed. "Come on! Are you sure they don't say… lead to the other side of the universe? ANOTHER universe, even?"

"Mario, that's a WORM hole," Aster corrected. "And believe me. If they did, Rosie and I would be able to visit your planet more often than 100 years."

"Oh…" Mario sighed. "Well, there goes the theories that me and my childhood friends came up with back in fifth grade."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't believe in random myths. The best word I could use to describe a black hole is eldritch," explained Aster. "It just completely defies all of me and Rosalina's laws of physics and space-time."

"Oh…" Mario quietly responded. "Yeah… I guess it's like when you divide by zero."

"Oooh! Speaking of which…" Luma perked while peeking out of Mario's cap. "My sister once told me her theory that a black hole spawns whenever someone in the universe divides by zero."

Mario giggled. "Wouldn't be surprised if that were the case."

Meanwhile…

Bowser Jr. witnessed this conversation through Kamek's crystal ball and wondered. He hummed with curiosity as he took out his school calculator and typed "2007 divided by 0". He waited after pressing "Enter".

…

"No good…"

Back to you!

"Humorous, but no. That's not the case," the space hero denied. "A black hole is the result of a star becoming so massive that it loses its stability, triggering a supernova. Then it's incredibly large density collapses the star into a singular point. But because it's so dense, the gravity is so strong that nothing, not even LIGHT can escape, which is why the hole is black in the first place."

"As a matter of fact…" he continued. "If you were to cross a black hole's event horizon, AKA the point of no return, you'd experience spaghettification."

Mario perked up at the deliciously unique term. "Spaghetti, you say?"

[BGM pause]

[BGM: Outside the Haunted Enigmansion - Paper Mario: Sticker Star]

"Oh, it's not as tasty as it sounds." Aster spoke ominously. "Not only will your arms and legs stretch out like noodles, but you will have every single atom in your body explode individually. And you WILL feel every explosion because it will happen VERY slowly. And by that, I mean several years because of how slow time flows theoretically within a black hole. And you will keep on feeling explosion after explosion until a major organ in your body were to interrupt you, and only then will your game finally end." Aster lightened up. "But it's just a theory."

[BGM end]

Mario and Luma both had their mouths gaping up wide enough to fit 100 Star Bits, and their eyes were blank enough to draw a picture of a solar system.

"Oh… guess I'm not good with tact either. Go figure." Aster thought. "But c'mon! We're not gonna fall in! As long as I'm around, I'll pull us all back to safety before we even get close to the event horizon. Trust me on it."

Mario swallowed a lump. "O-O-Okay…" Luma meanwhile ducked back into the cap, shivering.

[Resume "Space Fantasy"]

The duo started by getting into the first Sling Pod. Their objective was to aim for the Sling Pods up ahead while avoiding the fodder blasting out of the cannons constantly. Aster handled the aiming since he knew Mario was feeling stressed out. And with good timing and aiming, they could successfully get through this section.

Next thing they knew, they were at a section filled with floating mines, Pull Stars, and Star Bits floating around. Though oddly, they were all white here. Not like it matters since they all taste the same anyways. Aster naturally guided himself and Mario through the Pull Stars while focusing his energy on the Star Bits as well to attract them. Unfortunately, he got a little too caught up in the Star Bit catching and crashed into a mine, causing it to explode and send the two falling towards the black hole.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they both screamed. Luckily, Aster refocused his energy to the Pull Star just before they could cross the event horizon.

"Deep breaths… deep breaths…" Aster repeated as he reconnected to the Pull Star. "We're okay…"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! MY LIFE JUST FLASHED BEFORE MY VERY EYES!" Mario screamed in rage.

"But we didn't die, did we?"

"No, but we almost did!"

"But we didn't," pointed out Aster. "I saved us just in time. You can trust me."

"Hmph!"

They then got to the end of the Pull Star section and back to the Sling Pods. This time it was firebars they were dodging, which required even more precise timing than the cannons. Thankfully, Aster knew what he was doing and aimed with precise timing. There was one 1up mushroom they could've gone for, but it was in a very cryptic spot and both could agree it wasn't worth it.

After that was one final stretch with a full row of fire bars. Thankfully, they were all rotating at the same speed and frequency, so timing it wasn't hard at all. Then all they had to do was get the star floating in the center surrounded by barriers. Thankfully, Aster was good with target practice and got it on the first try.

[BGM: Power Star Get - Super Mario Galaxy]

YOU GOT A STAR!

"WAHOO!"

"YES!"

[BGM end]

Meanwhile…

[BGM: Twilight Town - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door]

"...and then we'll reach the Boo Race Zone where we should find a friend of mine. With his help, we'll break through Bouldergeist's barrier and confront him personally. Any questions, Luigi?" Bootrix finished. She was drawing a map of the Ghostly Galaxy, and marked out a path for her and Luigi. However, by the time she finished her explanation, Luigi was shaking like molded jelly put against a blowing fan.

"Luigi, is everything alright?"

Luigi snapped himself back to reality. "O-Oh me? Yeah, everything's peachy," he lied.

"You're not… afraid of facing Bouldergeist?" Bootrix asked suspiciously.

"No! NO! Definitely not! I'd face the whole world if I had to!" Luigi yelled, only for Bootrix to cross her arms and glare at him with eyes half opened. He sighed in defeat. "Okay, you got me. To tell you the truth, I used to be headstrong like my brother, facing every situation I was thrown at head on and getting through without a care in the world. Sure, I didn't get much credit, but at least I could be proud enough being a part of it. But then it all changed one fateful night, when Mario was kidnapped by King Boo."

"Mario got kidnapped?" The Boo giggled slightly. "I thought he was the savior from what your stories told me," she joked.

Luigi quickly took a look directly into Bootrix's eyes. It was a cold, lethal, and merciless stare filled with rage, despair, redness, dynamite, and death.

"Sheesh! And I thought my sisters were scary…"

Luigi's gaze reverted to normal. "As I was saying… he was taken to a mansion, not too unlike this galaxy. I went into the mansion and…" Luigi covers his eyes and Bootrix could hear his whimpering. "It was horrible! Every corner I went, there would be a ghost trying to kill me! All the ghosts were grotesque, terrifying, malicious, and… inhuman… no matter how human they looked. There was only one ghost who was remotely friendly with me, but even then, she wasn't that much helpful."

"My helper, Professor E. Gadd's future self did send a clone of me to help, but he felt more like an extension of myself than a person. He didn't talk, he didn't show emotions, he wasn't even much of a help. I really felt all alone!"

Luigi couldn't take it anymore and fell to the floor. Bootrix, patted him on the back. She wasn't sure if he could feel it or not, but did it anyways.

"F-Forgive me for a-acting like a crybaby, but all of this is t-true…" Luigi concluded.

"Luigi… I…" Bootrix tried to form the right words, but couldn't get that lightbulb lit up. That was until something stroke it.

"Wait! Luigi, you said you were very afraid and felt alone, but you're here now. So you obviously managed to get out alive. And you rescued your brother too, right?"

"Well… yes, but… that was just pure luck." weeped Luigi.

"Luck… you may see it that way…" Bootrix thought. "But the way I see it, rather than trying to douse out the flames, you should just run straight through them."

Luigi stopped crying and stood up straight. Could that be it? Could that really be how he got out of that mansion with his brother alive? Could he not be as fearful as he thought he was? He had to wonder…

Luigi was startled when he heard giggling coming from another room.

"Shoot! It's my sisters! We'll talk more later. We gotta go now!"

"W-Wait!" Luigi called as he dropped something out of his pocket. Bootrix turned transparent with Luigi in her grasp and they both seeped through the floor.

Meanwhile, Boothany entered the room giggling with a photoed autograph of somebody. Boolinda also had one, but she had a more blank expression than anything.

"I can't believe the Spooky Speedster actually gave us his autographs!" Boothany floated with excitement.

"He didn't look very… happy when he did it though. Looked more annoyed than anything. Rude!" Boolinda growled.

"Eh… being a celebrity ain't easy. Which makes me glad I'm not one myself. Must be a hard job."

"Fair point. Anyways, let's get back to our pris…" Boolinda paused when in her vision, she saw dotted lines where Bootrix and Luigi should be and they vanished soon after. "Where's our prisoner?!"

Boothany groaned. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted that waste of space…"

"WE?! You put her in charge, so this is on you!" snapped Boolinda.

"Shut it! No time for arguing, let's just find them! They can't have gone far."

The two began searching for any sign of their disappearance, when Boothany noticed something shiny on the ground. A glowing star-shaped object with two black eyes. Their prisoner must've left this behind.

"Ooh! Now this is something I should add to my collection!" Boothany snickered as she grabbed it.

"What are you doi-? Ooh! Shiny! Gimme!" Boolinda rushed over to try and grab the star, but Boothany slapped her in the face.

"I found it first. Therefore, I own it!"

"You little-!"

The two got so heated up in their argument that they forgot about Luigi and Bootrix.

[BGM end]

A/N: Hey guys, so just to let you know, I made updates to previous chapters after hearing Silvernova's complaints. Luigi and Peach were updated to have more establishing moments during the castle crisis rather than having Alex steal them. Mario, Aster, and Rosalina's strongest moments of emotion were toned down to be at more reasonable levels for their characters. I'm sorry that I went too far in certain moments, and I appreciate the feedback.

Also, the cartoon the kids were watching at the beginning of the chapter is a reference to the second of the They Live in a Castle shorts.