Mario's Theatre (finale): The Last Step
Time to finish this theatre, once and for all.
Mario and his group are so close to the piece and now there are only a few things that they must do to obtain it, among them the elimination of the mutated Boom Boom, which you will see in a moment.
Let's-a go!
There are souls in the world that are said to be pure of heart…
Having strong defenses against the temptations of the world…
They serve as shining examples for the societies they represent, revered by many…
Innocence is their charm, peace their passion…
But, their purity is what renders them the most vulnerable to evil forces…
Many criminals and tyrants have sought to use or even outright corrupt them for their dastardly purposes, especially when the pure hearts hold special, world-altering attributes…
Most have failed…
The few that have succeeded have brought tragedy and disaster beyond imagination…
Sorrow, anger, violence, and even death are the by-products of such exploitations…
Angels can permanently lose their wings to forces beyond their control when such corruption of the heart occurs…
Mario rushed forward to deliver a flame-fueled fist to the magically enhanced Boom Boom, but was quickly swatted out of the air. As his body painfully collided with the hard pavement of the castle, he noticed, for a moment, Bowser launching his shell into the monster's face, with an impact following afterwards. But a combination of a cracking sound and a yell of pain from the Koopa King himself led the plumber to assume that the attack was not enough to ever stagger the threat. Dizzily regaining his composure like a slow sloth, Mario could feel a sharp, throbbing pain coursing through his form, affecting every single area possible from head to toe. Of course, the Boom Boom's strike was on par with Bowser's usual attacks for being one of most painful things ever experienced. Of course, he was not one to give up simply due to sheer pain; if anything, he would battle it out until he or his opponent was either dead or incapacitated.
"Let's-a do this!" Luigi yelped. Closing in on the monstrosity, he leaped up to deliver a rising uppercut of surprising power, with a flame effect to boot. The creature unleashed nothing but a low growl as it slightly recoiled from the blow. It then utilized its sharp claws to perform violent surgery on the younger brother, but the effort would be in vain when he performed an arching backflip to escape. Grunting with frustration, it decided to satiate its thirst for blood by targeting the two Smashers closest to it: Yoshi and DK. DK began to simulate the effects of an earthquake by pounding the nature-granted tools known as his hands to the ground, while the dinosaur prepared to leap into the air. Their efforts ended in misfortune; not only was the Boom Boom unfazed by the ground-shaking, but it was also able to slash Yoshi in four different places before smashing the off-guard ape into the floor. Soaring backwards into a wall, Yoshi was partly coated in his own blood now that parts of his skin were torn open. Staring down at his body, the blood-soaked sight disturbed him to say at least; the deepness of the wounds forced his mind to believe that he could bleed to death if he was not patched up soon. Regardless, the benefits of treatment would have to wait until later, for a greater problem was still lingering. Dazedly standing back up, he limped towards the others to rejoin the fight.
Rosalina, as per her magical ways, summoned a red-tinted Luma to assist her in the battle. In a second, the newly-formed duo separated to attack the monster from different angles while also assisting Bowser, who was ready to launch a stream of fire from his gaping mouth. Flames rushed into the battle area to scorch the Boom Boom's skin, while magical blasts and rapid-fire punches added on to the assault. Wario, in a quick second, whirled into the air with hands extended upwards, smacking his opponent numerous times. Yoshi encased an egg around himself to batter the monster's legs numerous times, while DK, who had just recovered, leaped into the air to deliver a crushing haymaker to the skull. As a final addition to this layered cake of violence, Mario and Luigi unleashed blasts of fire and electricity to roast the gargantuan Koopa's skin cells, overwhelming the creature even further. It, overall, seemed that the monster was doomed to be overpowered by the efforts of the fighters, but then…
BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
"MAMMA MIA!" Mario yelped as he was unexpectedly launched backwards from a sudden explosion of darkness. His party members were blurs to his eyes as all tumbled towards the continuous wall that stabilized the room. As he attempted to stand up, he noticed that the Boom Boom had slammed one of its fists to the ground to produce a rather large, radius-clearing blast to launch all the Smashers backwards. Ordinary Boom Booms could not perform such an attack, he recalled. The Orm's Lords, Agnetha specifically, had truly altered this creature, but the full extent of the mutations was left unknown for the moment. For now, caution would have to be exercised in this sort of situation.
"That… hurt…" DK groaned as he struggled to recover.
"Oh," Bowser growled, flaming eyes directed towards what used to be one of his loyal soldiers, "You think you're so tough, huh? Let's see if you can handle this."
The Koopa King rushed forward like a Bullet Bill to aggressively strike down the Boom Boom. Leaping into the air, he quickly forced his entire weight down in the form of a butt-stomp aimed at the top of the cranium. Only mild success was awarded; the blow inflicted a slight dizzy spell, but otherwise had no visible effect. Claws were brandished to tear through the creature's mildly charred skin, and slash marks were thus produced. But the wounds regenerated with surprising speed.
"That thing's-a under the effects of Återuppliva," Mario muttered to himself, being one of the first to notice this property of the Boom Boom. "I hope it's-a not the advanced version that we're-a dealing with here."
DK skidded underneath the enemy to grasp one of its legs tightly, tapping into every ounce of his strength to topple it over. As soon as the creature noticed that it was being attacked, it proceeded to swat at DK. Luigi leaped into the fray to assist his partner by distracting the monster. The extreme weight of the Boom Boom meant that the simian was straining his own body just to pull a leg out, strong as he was. Lactic acid was spreading throughout every muscle, with a sheer burning sensation occurring not too long after. Lightheadedness was an unseen phantom slowly crushing his head. Nevertheless, one grand yank was effective enough to knock the mutated Koopa down and leave it vulnerable to attacks. Mario, ready to deliver an execution of fire, formed a massive fireball in his hands, then launched it at neck-breaking speeds. In the moment that the projectile impacted its target, a fiery inferno resembling a lava pillar from a volcano showered the center of the room with embers, with the resulting orange glow contrasting sharply with the violet-colored area. The Boom Boom roared loudly as fire coated its whole body, but it still found the strength to leap back into a standing position. Its skin was now significantly roasted, intensifying its already hideous appearance and matching its eyes more accurately in terms of color alone.
"Damn!" Mario grunted, unsatisfied with his failed kill move.
Luigi executed his Green Missile maneuver quickly, but the Boom Boom successfully stopped his attack and, with a head-smacking punch, tossed him towards Bowser, who was in the process of performing a body slam. The two Smashers were compacted into a ball that rolled across the floor, inflicting significant injuries to both. Luigi specifically suffered the full brunt of this painful event, as he lacked the protection that Bowser's shell could offer. In fact, the initial attack and the subsequent collisions with the floor left him unconscious before long.
"Get off me…" Bowser snarled at the unconscious plumber, "Right now."
Meanwhile, Rosalina gradually powered up the Luma for an attack aimed straight for the Boom Boom's head. Focusing her power into the star being, she let loose these words from her mouth:
"Luma… GO!"
The Luma erupted into a burst of stars like a rocket, soaring quickly into the monster's cranium to deal a concussive blow. Given that it was distracted with Mario, Wario, and Yoshi, the Boom Boom failed to realize in time that a much smaller star creature was about to slam into it.
CRACK!
The Boom Boom was once again in a dizzied state, albeit for a longer length of time. Wario immediately exploited this period of weakness to release an explosive pillar of flatulence, followed by a fireball from Mario to ignite the gas. The finale to this hellfire was a specialized, highly explosive egg from Yoshi. The amount of burns increased as quickly as a set of cancer cells during the meager number of seconds required for the resulting fire to smear itself across the skin. Återuppliva was keeping the creature intact, but it seemed to Mario that it would falter if subjected to any more burning attacks.
"Won't-a this thing simply go down already?" Wario puffed, frustrated that the Boom Boom was still standing. Before he could strike again, however, he and Mario were slashed across the chest with claws. As with Yoshi, blood poured out of the wounds and partly coated both cap-wearing men in seconds, discoloring the clothes with a dark red shade. While stumbling back from the pain, Wario was snatched by his enemy and soon found himself being crushed to death by large, bulky hands. Sinking his teeth into the fingers proved to be fruitless, as the monster was unreactive to whatever painful sensation was being inflicted; in fact, such an action only provoked it to squeeze him even further. He shook back and forth to free himself from this death grip while yelling loudly, but progress was essentially non-existent as the hold was far too tight for him to even wiggle around. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going to die if nothing interfered, despite his higher pride and arrogance. But there was no way that he was going to give up now. He just needed to keep on trying…
"Let me… go, you-a son of a-"
SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!
Wario was suddenly dropped to the floor in the aftermath of a slashing attack directed at the Boom Boom. A highly explosive roar of pain punctured the sound barrier, nearly causing the ears of those nearby to bleed. In fact, the Smashers were forced to shield their ears to not lose their precious sense of hearing. As Wario analyzed the instantaneous changes in the group's situation, he caught glimpse of a surprising sight.
One of the Boom Boom's arms, the left one specifically, was lying right next to him, soaked in black blood and separated from its owner.
"What the hell…?" Wario muttered, unsure of what exactly caused the arm to be torn off violently. But it was not until a few seconds of searching that he witnessed his answer: Bowser, his now-extended claws stained with the monster's blood.
"That's what ya get for disobeying me!" the Koopa King roared, seemingly under the notion that the creature was technically still one of his own workers. He lunged forward for another strike, but the enhanced Boom Boom retreated into its shell and dashed out of the way before it could get mauled. Due to his slow recovery speed, Bowser could not twist his body around in time to avoid having a foot slam into his shell. One loud crack and a burst of pain later, Bowser came to realize that he was now buried at least a few meters into the floor, surrounded by stone and isolated from the others. By this point, he was now a bruised mole that had just been hammered back into the ground, with the Boom Boom acting as the hammer. A struggle to regain a standing posture ensued; besides the difficulty of rolling off his rounded shell in spite of the spikes, the tight radius of the hole was a malefactor that sought to impose pure fatigue and pain on the Koopa King.
"Why the hell does this have to happen to me?" he spat, all while shaking in all directions to free himself. During this process, a loud squeaky yell, presumably from Yoshi, echoed from the room above. The tight space of the hole prevented the noise from reaching Bowser's ears in its fullest strength, but failed to block it completely. After numerous failed attempts at shaking around, Bowser resorted to twirling his shell at high speeds to grind up the nearby stone into powder. While it did lower him a slight amount into the ground, it also expanded the shaft's bottom by a considerable amount, allowing him to hop back up to his feet.
"Now we're talkin'," he grunted. Shifting around, Bowser started his ascent into the room to reunite with the others, but a hard sensation of pain acted as extra weight for him to carry. At one point, he was even completely frozen in place when his muscles were on the verge of failing him.
"That fool… just picked the wrong Koopa to mess with," he growled. "I may be down, but I'm not out." Determined to reach the top, he soon overcame his weakness to continue on with his climb.
While the Luma continued to attack with its flurry of Star Bits from a minute before, and Yoshi with his inexplicably infinite amount of eggs, Rosalina was hammered in the abdomen by a bulky fist and was launched right into DK, who failed to notice the celestial maiden flying into him until it was too late. As with Bowser and Luigi minutes before, both tumbled backwards a significant distance. Their bones would have been cracked, possibly beyond repair, had DK not forced his weight into the ground to create friction. They successfully halted when they just inches from a nearby wall, although the simian had received scrapes across his back as a trade-off for his protection. Letting go of Rosalina, he muttered:
"You okay, Rosalina?"
"I'm alright," she replied, preparing to conjure another attack. With a quick twirl of the wand, she created an energy sphere to be launched at the Boom Boom. The impact, unfortunately, did not even produce a visible amount of damage. It did, however, force the creature to turn around and stomp towards the Luma guardian.
"Where do you think you're-a going?" Mario spat, witnessing the Boom Boom fleeing from him to attack two of his cornered party members. Mario rushed to the creature to deliver a surprise uppercut fueled by flames, with semi-satisfactory results. Burns infested skin yet again, but death would still not claim a victim by then. He continued his volley of flames by tossing fireballs in the Koopa's direction, which was boosted by flaming breath from the now-reemerging Bowser. Feeling both overwhelmed and fed up with the Smashers, the enemy leaped a great distance into the air and then violently crashed into the floor. A shockwave tore through the area like an explosion, flinging away all those caught in the radius, including the still-unconscious Luigi. As pain ripped through his body once again, Mario was staggered with an unpleasant feeling. The creature was clearly getting burned by the flames inflicted upon it, and one of its arms was sliced off, as the plumber came to notice. But even so, its resilience was far beyond that of anyone else with Återuppliva, apart from Agnetha. It was not ready to surrender any time soon, and it was still standing strong. Just how much more could it withstand before it succumbed to a maelstrom of fire and dismemberment?
Then, he realized something important. Rosalina was not aware that the only two ways of defeating an Återuppliva-enhanced being were burns and dismemberment, and the lack of such knowledge would be detrimental to her, if not outright deadly.
"Rosalina," he coughed, "Do you-a have a burning or dismembering attack?"
"I can summon an explosive Grand Star," she muttered back. "But, once I do, I will not be able to use the move again until the next day. Other than that, I can use my wand to produce energy beams and short-ranged slashes that can cut through most objects."
"Use those moves. If you-a use any other attack, then that-a thing will never go down."
"Okay."
DK unleashed a full-blown Giant Punch into the Boom Boom's nose, with the sheer force of the attack causing the Boom Boom to drop like a heavy sack of potatoes in what might be considered a few seconds. Yoshi, leaping into the air, followed it up with a series of ground pounds that would curse any normal target with a headache. But after ten blows in, he was impaled in the stomach by one of the monster's razor-sharp claws. DK, Rosalina, and Mario gasped at this horrific sight as they watched blood pour out of the gaping holes poked into the dinosaur's body. Bowser and Wario did not appear to visibly react, but they too were somewhat shaken by the stabbing.
"Yoshi!" DK yelled.
"Oh, no…" Mario whispered. Yoshi was soon tossed across the room, eventually landing near a now-awakened Luigi. As the green-clothed plumber regained full visual clarity, he noticed several blood stains off to his left, with them leading all the way to the center of the chamber. Horror would dawn upon him as he glanced at the opposite end of the trail, only to catch a glimpse of a wounded Yoshi.
"Yoshi, what-a happened to you?" he gasped, staring at the ugly stab wound.
"Giant Boom Boom…" the dinosaur croaked, "Stabbed Yoshi… Yoshi need help… Please, help Yoshi…"
"I-a need to get you out of this-a room. You're not-a gonna be able to fight in this-a condition." Luigi picked up Yoshi and proceeded to drag him out of the room via the rusted doors, all while avoiding the heated conflict. The seemingly simple task was complicated by Yoshi's weight; in all truthfulness, he was the equivalent of watermelons stuffed into a bag, filled to the absolute limit. Two hands were needed for the plumber to truly overwhelm the high girth factor of the dinosaur. Inside the cell-filled hallway, a union between two pairs was established when Luigi approached Diddy Kong, who was still attempting to wake Junior up.
"Is Junior okay?" Luigi muttered. Even though the young Koopa was an enemy of the Mario Brothers, Luigi found it quite heartless to wish death upon him. In fact, unlike Mario, he harbored a belief that most criminals of any sort, with a few exceptions like Ganondorf and the Lords, could be redeemed through the power of goodwill, regardless of their crimes. Junior, in his eyes, was no exception.
"He's fine," Diddy answered. "But, he's still not waking up. I'm betting that something really powerful must have impacted him to render him unconscious for who-knows-how-long."
"Right-a. I-a wish I could-a say the same for Yoshi, but he's not-a lucky as Junior…"
"What happened?"
"Look." Luigi laid Yoshi's blood-drenched form against a nearby wall and then partially opened the doors to provide some light. As Diddy strained his eyes to examine the dinosaur, he nearly leaped back upon witnessing a potentially fatal wound at the center of the abdominal area. The blood surrounding it exacerbated the sudden reaction to where Diddy nearly hyperventilated for a few seconds; the complete and horrific image was only a few steps below being equal to the carnage that conquered Toad Town, which was itself quite frightening. Slow to regain mental composure, he was forced to undergo a breather period to calm down before continuing the conversation.
"What happened to him…?" he finally squeaked.
"The Boom Boom that the others are-a fighting stabbed him with-a one of its claws."
"Ouch…"
The remaining fighters continued their assault on the Boom Boom. Mario and Bowser continued to unleash flames; Rosalina fired an energy beam that was barely tearing through a thick leg; the Luma was punching the cranium, and the other two launched multi-hitting attacks to overwhelm the monster. Even with the plethora of attacks, however, the Koopa was still not tiring out, still clinging to life through fire, Star Bits, limb loss, punches, and vice versa. Twirling a fist around, it swatted away all but Bowser and Mario.
"We're not-a hammering it hard enough," Mario puffed, now frustrated with the lack of progress. "We-a need to try something different. Bowser, I-a need you to go after the legs; slice them off-a with your claws."
Bowser did not respond to Mario's comment, his mind only focused on slaughtering the Boom Boom. With a loud roar, he retreated into his shell to spiral around the foe in a fast, continuous loop. As the number of revolutions increased, dizziness wrapped its arms around the monster's burned body and proceeded to tighten its grip at an exponential rate. Posture was losing stability and visual clarity was slowly fading away. A swelling pain within the cranium led to two massive hands applying heavy pressure to the affected place. If this terrible sensation continued to dominate its body, the Boom Boom would topple over and be left in an unfavorable position.
SLASH!
However, Bowser rushing forward at blinding speeds to slice both legs off forced the creature into said position right away. Black blood stained the darkened floor, and the legs were launched at high speeds into the far side of the continuous wall. A loud roar of pain echoed throughout the room for the second time, but this occasion's length was nearly three times the length of the previous one. It was also much louder, which, combined with the longer length, resulted in pure torture to the ears of the Smashers.
"Can't this thing shut up?!" DK yelled, straining his voice in the process. Bowser, undeterred by the noise, sliced off the Boom Boom's remaining limb and followed it up with a decapitating swipe. More blood sprayed onto the environment, and as the supposed death of the creature reached full circle, the noise faced an abrupt end, left to reverberate faintly. As the others stared on, a feeling of relief rushed into their bodies upon realizing that the threat was finally eliminated. They could now return their original mission of reassembling Exor, the sword that acted as the key to reaching Smithy's dimension. It was also an appropriate time for Mario to check up on Yoshi, who had sustained a serious injury in battle. Hopefully, his longtime friend was alright…
"Let's-a get going," he ordered. "We-a still need to reactivate the portal in-a Exor's mouth before we can obtain the staff piece inside-a Smithy's."
"Yeah," DK muttered. "But, the question is: how-"
Following a small cracking sound, an abrupt jolt rocked Mario's body, followed by him suddenly being pulled away from the others. Sliding across the ground at a quick pace, he barely had the bodily coordination needed to twist his body all the way around. But upon shaky completion of the task, he could catch a glimpse of his new assailant: a tentacle emerging from the now-broken shell of the Boom Boom.
Wait.
Something was not right. If a tentacle just exposed itself from the dead Koopa's body, then…
"I gotcha, Mario," DK puffed as he rushed in to rescue the plumber. Tapping into his raw simian strength, he locked the tentacle in place by squeezing it half to death. Mario quickly escaped, but a complication presented itself in the form of seven more tentacles emerging from the back of the shell, shattering the hardened piece of apparel completely. The blackened tentacles resembled a group elongated snakes, minus the facial features and varied colors, and the way they were arranged closely resembled the hairstyle of the one of the three Gorgons of Greek mythology, Medusa. They all scrambled to capture the ape, but failed to do so when he somersaulted away at the last second.
"What the hell is that…?" Bowser muttered to himself. Confusion would dig even further into his mind as new limbs sprouted from the bleeding stumps of the old ones. These replacements were, in all seriousness, certainly more hideous in appearance; the skin was a very sick brown in color, while wrinkles and spikes dotted it from shoulder to end or thigh to end. The longest of the black-tinted spikes were located on the shoulders, with those attached to the back of the feet coming a close second. At the very end of each finger and foe, a razor-sharp claw was formed from pure bone. In their minds, the observers believed that these skeletal extensions were more than capable of completely tearing an opponent to shreds. The torso's skin gradually transformed to match that of the limbs, completing the uniformity of the new appearance.
But the frosting of this ugly dessert was the head. Emerging from the decapitation wound, it vaguely resembled what originally resided on the top of the neck, but the similarities ended there. Besides the new skin, the teeth were extremely sharp to the point where they could pass off as exaggerated. The red coloring of the eyes was still present, but it was now a natural tint instead of a glow. And to top it all off, the hallowed appearance of the eye sockets resulted in shadowy circles surrounding the eyeballs themselves. It was safe to state that this new creature was an abomination from the blackest pits of Hell.
"That looks very gross," DK spat.
Before the Smashers could act, the monster leaped towards the exit. Mario suddenly remembered that Diddy Kong, Bowser Junior, Luigi, and Yoshi were behind the doors. With the dinosaur injured and the young Koopa unconscious, there was no telling how severe the potential disaster would be if the doors were torn down. With adrenaline kicking in, Mario leaped up to pound the creature's skull with a fire-fueled fist. The attack yielded pitiful results, with no flinching or clear amounts of damage.
"What the-"
BAM!
He was cut off when a wretched hand slapped him into the ground, leaving him with scrapes and bruises. Meanwhile, Bowser performed his aerial butt-stomp once again, but this time, the move inflicted no damage at all. In turn, several deep, bloody scratches were formed across the front of his shell by vicious finger claws. The Koopa King's own claws were ineffective at tearing through the monster's skin; in fact, it was now far too thick to be penetrated.
"Oh, you've got to be freaking kidding me," he growled. After another fruitless strike, he was hammered with a tentacle swipe that tossed him like a ragdoll. A trail of blood was left behind as he rolled across the ground.
"Mama," the Luma chirped, staring at the ongoing violence, "What should we do?"
Rosalina, with nervousness and uncertainty in her voice, replied: "I'm not even sure. That thing is not reacting to what Mario and the others are doing to it, and I doubt that we can affect it either."
"Should we fight it?"
"If the monster either comes close to us or places the others in an unfavorable position, then we should. But please, try to keep your distance when the time comes, my child."
"Yes, Mama."
On the other side of the doors, isolated from the intense fighting, Junior was beginning to awaken after being stuck in an unconsciousness state for an unknown span of time.
"Uhh…" he moaned, clutching the back of his head, "What happened…? How long was I out for?"
"I don't-a know," Luigi answered. "We've just-a got to this place."
Junior soon realized that, despite the low lighting, he was staring right at Luigi and Diddy, the former being one of his primary enemies and the latter serving as a secondary. Shuffling backwards in a clumsy manner, he attempted to reach for his magical paintbrush, only to notice that it was not on him.
"Hey, you little greenie," he spat, "What did you do to my paintbrush?! And what is this smelly ape doing here?"
"Whoa," Diddy interrupted. "Calm down, kid. We're not here to fight you. In fact, we may actually need your help on something…"
The young Koopa was not persuaded by the ape's words. "I don't believe you guys. You're here to invade this castle, aren't you?!"
Diddy slowly raised his hands in front of him while resisting the urge to yell. "Look, I understand that you have no idea what's going on, but I'm trying to explain everything and you just won't listen. Now, can you please control yourself for one second?"
"I'd rather-"
CRASH!
The rusted doors leading into the chamber were forced off their hinges by the mutated creature in a second, crashing against the cells afterwards. As Junior stared at the new threat in terror, his body was quickly frozen in place. The monster possessed a very threatening aura with its characteristics, such that it nearly caused Junior's heart to outright stop functioning altogether. He could not even bring himself to scream, for his voice was lost. His muscles were locked by true fear's influence; not even a twitch could occur because his body was so unnaturally rigid. Breathing became non-rhythmic and very erratic. To top it off, a low growl from the hideous figure exacerbated the noted problems. This loss of control was overwhelming, as he came to realize. Perhaps the only thing that was stable was the one thought piercing his mind:
I am going to die... I am gonna die by this monster's claws…
"What is that supposed to be?" Diddy mumbled, disturbed by the mutant's new appearance.
"Mamma mia, is that-a… the Boom Boom?" the also-unnerved Luigi gasped. A closer examination of the physical features revealed that the monster was indeed the Boom Boom, albeit in a heavily altered state.
"Get away from my child, you bastard," Bowser snarled as he forced his opponent into a chokehold. Locking his hands together, he proceeded to squeeze as hard as possible to direct its attention away from his son. Predictably, the transformed Boom Boom reached towards the back of its neck, but failed to get a proper grip on the constantly dodging Koopa King. The tentacles were no better, as they too could not properly strike him down.
"Papa?" Junior muttered. "Is that you?"
Mario and DK grappled the creature's legs to topple it over while it was distracted with Bowser. Their bodies were pushed to the absolute limit as muscles worked to their maximum capacity, while hearts pumped blood at faster rates than normal. The former rivals' combined efforts allowed for more progress in a shorter amount of time than what DK had achieved alone, but an extreme weight value still prevented quick execution of the self-assigned task; if anything, the monster's weight was comparable to a compacted group of Thwomps, animated cinder blocks that would flatten whatever was beneath them. Two tentacles, in addition, also proceeded to complicate the situation by attempting to tear them off the lower extremities. Seconds passed and the former Boom Boom was now unintentionally approaching the cosmic duo of Rosalina and the Luma.
"Here I go," the Luma squeaked, slightly nervous about joining the battle. Sneaking up from behind, it placed its stubby arms on the Koopa's tail and quickly yanked backwards to aid Mario and DK. In a vein similar to the other two, it was straining its own body to pull a very heavy monster, but the sheer pain of doing so was even greater for the living star because of its lesser strength. Lightheadedness was not only plaguing its tiny form, but it was also sending into a state of near-collapse. To worsen things, two of the enemy's tentacles were wrapped around it for the intent of dragging it away.
"I can't… hold on… for much longer…" it croaked.
"Go down already...!" DK grunted. With one mighty yell, he jerked the left foot abruptly. On the other side, Mario imitated the ape's actions with the right. In the small amount of time required for the living tower of doom to slam into the ground, the Luma quickly fled to avoid death by crushing while Bowser whirled to the other side of the head to continue his frenzied attack. With one massive thud, the creature was down and its tentacles were flattened by its own mass. Bowser, fueled by violent motives, utilized his claws to puncture the devilish, red-soaked eyes of the being that was once a loyal servant to him. Darkened blood spewed from the sockets like hot water from a geyser, splashing all over the tyrant's face; the pattern of drops that formed during this event sharply resembled what would be commonly witnessed on a variant of dog known as a Dalmatian. Not satisfied with his first attack, Bowser dug his hands deeper into the sockets to mutilate the inside of the monster's skull.
"Bowser, watch out-a!" Wario called.
But it was too late. The abomination finally gathered the strength to hoist the Koopa King into the air with almost no effort on its part, only to stuff him into its wide-jawed mouth. Reactions to the event were those of disgust, filled with cringing and shielding of eyes from nearly all those nearby. Mario was the only one who appeared externally unresponsive, but underneath the surface, his reaction was unique, completely set apart from all the others. In all seriousness, he was unsure on whether he was to be glad about Bowser's fate or not.
For the longest time, he had harbored a fiery hatred for the Koopa King, born from the constant kidnapping of the princess and the bouts of troublemaking within the Mushroom Kingdom. No matter the location or time, Mario was always dead set on his defeating nemesis, if not outright destroying him. While there were other foes that had sown seeds of destruction, Bowser's persistence was what singled him out from all the rest. Their numerous clashes had ignited a flame of mutual spite, one that had no regards to time and thus, would never burn out.
However, as much as he detested Bowser, an even greater hatred buried deep within his mind was now emerging. In the few days that this adventure had spanned across, the Orm's Lords had committed more frequent and far greater actions of evil than Bowser, whose relatively lesser crimes were scattered over a period of years. They had killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives in the Mushroom Kingdom, with the number possibly being even greater with all other realms considered. They forced the king and queen of Nimbus Land through torture, as Mallow was so kind to reveal back at the Royal Bus, and, most importantly, were responsible for Peach's unpleasant fate, all for the goal of conquest. Even though he still believed that Captain Falcon was partially responsible for the lattermost problem, the Orm's Lords deserved some of the blame as well. It was safe to assume that they were the ones who truly forced the fate upon the princess.
There was no doubt in his mind that Bowser was clearly the lesser of two evils; in fact, he would much rather let that Koopa live than allow the Lords to conquer the realms.
"Well, he's gonna get digested soon," DK sighed, referring to the sight of Bowser being swallowed whole.
"You're-a going down, sucka," Wario taunted. His uppercut was far-reaching and fast, but lacked the power to cause the monster to even flinch. This left him vulnerable to a slashing attack aimed directly at his back, with great accuracy despite the creature's newfound blindness. With the claws tearing through his skin, Wario was soon bleeding across his back, further soaking his overalls in his own blood. Rosalina focused her wand's energy beam at the neck of the monster, but the thick skin shrugged off the attack altogether.
"Guys, watch out-a," Mario announced. "I think that-a thing's going to go crazy."
Indeed, the creature was now beginning to exhibit signs of entering an erratic state, marked by uncontrolled roaring, twitching, and violent shaking of arms and flattened tentacles. But not one second had passed before it was violently attacking without regards to itself or anything around it. Luigi, now rejoining the battle, launched fireballs to halt his enemy, but to no avail.
"What?" Luigi gasped. "Fire doesn't-a affect it anymore?"
Five claws quickly lunged at him, ready to shed blood. Luigi avoided most of them by ducking, but one instantly created a gash on the upper part of his right shoulder.
Bowser slipped down the esophagus of the creature and was quickly dumped into the acidic environment of the stomach. This new environment was very organic in character, as it was composed entirely out of damp, living tissue. It was also very rancid; besides the appearance of the tissues, the acid harbored a sick, nauseating appearance that would cause any normal person to cringe or even vomit, and its horrid scent was so intense that it nearly killed off Bowser's sense of smell. The stomach was a nasty environment in general terms, but Bowser soon found it ironic that such a thing was important for an organism to function properly in the first place. To him, it was a love-hate relationship. Its environment was absolutely disgusting and was one of the last places that he would ever consider traveling in, but without the organ itself, a heterotroph, a creature dependent on outside sources of food, would not survive.
"Yuck," he puffed. "I would not wanna be in this craphole for too long." His comment was not referring to just the sickening environment. He was not the smartest being around, but he was also not unaware that stomach acid was corrosive enough to dissolve nearly anything that was dipped into it. If he remained where he was, he would be monster food in minutes. Using his claws for traction, Bowser proceeded to climb out of the pit. Due to the creature's erratic state, constant shaking was threatening to knock him back down, which could potentially seal his fate. Through his claws were still clinging to the inner walls of the esophagus, they could barely withstand the spasms to the point where Bowser would slide down every few seconds. Inner strength was the only savior that was lifting him out of this organic inferno.
"I'm not going down that easily," Bowser slowly growled. With all his might, he successfully covered the clear majority of the food-consuming tube, enough to where he was within approaching distance of the mouth. But obtaining a solid grip on the tongue was rendered impossible when a spasm from the monster forced him off the wall. Falling at a blinding pace, Bowser desperately plunged all his claws outwards, creating deep, bleeding scratches on the interior of the tube-like environment. Not one to back out of a challenge, he continued his climb, but stopped when he noticed a faint, purple glow from one of the wounds.
"What's this?" he mumbled to himself. Digging ever deeper, he liberated himself from the esophagus to enter a new area of the monster's body: the chest region. Many important internal organs were inside this region, such as the lungs and the rib cage; all were required for most animal-based forms of life to be possible. What stood out the most, however, was the heart. The constantly pulsating component of the cardiovascular system held an abnormal glow of purple, in contrast to the lightless, pink-coated appearance of the normal sort, and it was quite swollen, almost as if it was about to burst. As Bowser examined it, a thought impacted his mind. Something had to have transformed it into its current state, but what? Magic from the Orm's Lords was involved, no doubt, but his mind somehow believed that Återuppliva was not used for the alterations present. Determined to search for answers, he decided to contact Lillian, all while clinging to the outside of the esophagus to avoid falls from the monster's spasms.
"Bowser?" Lillian's voice resonated a few seconds later, "What's going on?"
"Hey, Lillian," Bowser answered. "What sort of magic is being used to transform one of my loyal soldiers into hideous monsters?"
"What do you mean?"
"My group is currently fighting a mutated Boom Boom that was heavily altered by Agnetha. I killed it once, but it soon came back to life as an even uglier version of itself and is now attacking us again. I'm on the inside of it right now, looking right at its purplish heart."
"Interesting. A few days ago, Falco and Samus both reported to me that they had encountered creatures almost identical to the one that you are battling right now. I need to consider this matter as soon as possible. As for the heart, you should attack it if possible. The two group leaders found out that attacking the heart was able to defeat the creatures, which is useful information when considering that their skin is immune to most attacks."
"Gotcha," was Bowser's last word before closing the mental communications channel. Brandishing his claws, he slowly climbed upwards for the kill.
The situation was becoming very bleak for Mario and his allies. Luigi was bloodied and noticeably injured after sustaining numerous deep cuts from the claws. Rosalina was incapacitated when the aftermath of the creature destroying her normally resilient shield produced a violent reaction to outright stun her. In addition, the explosive Grand Star summoned from before could not faze the creature at all. The Luma was crushed into the floor by a devastating punch. Wario was horribly scratched thanks to a couple razor-sharp claws. Mario himself was also injured, though he was generally faring better than the others. As well, the problems with Bowser and Yoshi, along with Diddy being unable to help, persisted. This enemy was immune to nearly all attacks, including those involving fire and cutting. Maybe now was the time to flee, as there was no way that they would be able to defeat their foe without losing their lives. A few minutes earlier, he had commanded Diddy to check any possible routes of escape, which would be vital if the group was forced to retreat. But until then, the fighting would have to continue.
"Alright-a, big guy," Mario spat, voice low and angered, "Let's-a see if you-a have any more tricks up your sleeves."
In a split second, he was now on defense, avoiding every attack that was thrown out at him. Claw swipes, punches, and tentacle whips sought to break his beaten body, but dodging motions prevented the reaper from stealing his soul. If he could not kill the monster, then the next best thing was to hold out until Diddy could pinpoint an escape route. A minute passed and the excessively long battle was still going, with Mario still not attacking and the monster still failing to spill his blood. By this point, his body was beginning to tire out, with the pain of his injuries and low energy levels causing his performance to slowly deteriorate. He was utilizing every ounce of his endurance to resist the temptation of collapsing, but it seemed that he would inevitably fall and leave himself vulnerable to the monster. This worried him greatly, for if he did succumb to his weakness, then he would not just be making Diddy's search worthless. More importantly, he would fail the quest prematurely.
Time was slowing down in his mind. A headache was pound on the inside of his skull. His muscles were on fire while his wounds ached horribly. The followed words played in his head like a broken vinyl record:
When will this ever end…
"Mario!" a voice suddenly called. The rusted doors whirled open to reveal the cap-wearing ape, ready to present important information.
"Did you-a find an escape route?" the weakening plumber questioned, still avoiding strikes.
"I'm afraid not. The stairway to the upper floors is blocked by a huge mound of rubble, so we're basically stuck down here."
"Are you-a kidding me-"
CRACK!
Swatted across the room with inhuman force, Mario's body was wrapped with suffocating pain, with the pressure of it all skyrocketing upon being buried into a wall. Close to blacking out, the only image present in his eyes was the creature slowly approaching him, dead set on finishing him off. His body could barely function anymore. Death was slowly coming for him. This time, it was not possible to search for a way out of this mess.
There was no escape from Death's arms this time around.
"Well…" he croaked. "I'm-a dead…"
Claws were raised into the air, ready to rip apart flesh…
But out of nowhere, an unexpected twist of luck appeared. The monster suddenly unleashed a massive roar as intense pain swarmed its chest like fire ants. Clenching the affected area was utterly useless in blocking the sensation out, as the nerves were simply overloaded to the point where outside interference would have no effect at all. Stumbling backwards, it eventually tripped and collapsed to the floor, too battered by agony to even stand up.
"What the heck… is-a going on?" Mario spat, coughing out blood as he did. But not much time had passed after the comment before he realized that part of the monster's chest was expanding upwards. As the bump increased in size, the constant roaring increased in volume, eventually forcing Mario to shield his ears and shut his eyes. And through it all, the plumber could not even notice a squelching, gushing noise from approximately the same location as the roar. Only when the roar had faded away was the secondary noise audible.
And it was originating from a Koopa King emerging from a newly-forged hole in the defeated monster's chest.
"Bowser?" Mario mumbled, surprised to witness his longtime enemy still standing, albeit coated in stomach acid and black blood. A grand expression of triumph was painted all over Bowser; such expression consisted of a wide grin, hands glued to his sides, and an upright posture. Combined with the liquids on his body, it gave the others the impression that he had been to Hell and traveled back to the living realm alive.
"Oh, yeah!" Bowser shouted. "You just can't beat the BOWSER, motherfucker! Did you honestly believe that you were going to beat ME, the awesome king of the Koopas? I didn't think so! And your mutations? Tsk tsk. I'm still better than you, regardless! And that's a fact!"
"He's-a too full of himself sometimes…" Mario whispered to himself. His legs wobbled as he gathered whatever strength he had remaining to regain a standing position. Wracked with serious pain, he slowly limped over to the Koopa Kingdom's ruler to ask a question out of curiosity.
"How did you-a kill that thing?" he spoke, his voice ready to give out.
"Isn't it obvious, pasta lover?" Bowser chortled. "After I broke out of the esophagus, I completely tore that S.O.B.'s heart apart. Lillian told me that it was one way to kill it, as per information from Samus and that bird-boy Falco."
Mario shrugged as he absorbed the comment. "That's-a good to know. But I-a still would rather not-a face that thing again. Now, we need-a Rosalina to lift us out of this place."
Bowser interpreted Mario's last sentence as vague in character; what was it about the celestial woman that was important? "Why is that?"
"She's-a the only one who has powers of levitation and if I can't-a wake her up, then we're-a screwed. Diddy just-a revealed to me that the stairway leading to the upper floors is-a blocked."
"Well, in that case, why don't you wake her up?"
Disregarding the rude tone of voice, Mario staggered over to the resting Luma guardian to gently shake her back into consciousness. The effort was marked by Mario slightly distancing himself from her to avoid dampening her delicate body with his blood. A minute later, she was slowly awakening from her forced slumber.
"Are you alright-a?" Mario whispered, unsure about Rosalina's status. The shockwave could have possessed the potential to inflict invisible but possibly serious damage on her body and he would not even notice it before it was too late. His question was his way of ensuring that she was not harmed in any way.
"I'm fine," the motherly protector sighed. Gripping her wand, she levitated herself off the ground to check up on her Luma. Upon approaching the tiny hole created from it being smacked by the monster, she cradled the star creature into her arms while examining it for injuries. Meanwhile, a reunion between father and son was unraveling on the far end of the chamber.
"Papa!" Junior squealed, tears of joy streaming down his face. "You're back! I'm so glad you came back… I thought you were never gonna save me in time."
"I'm glad to see you too, son," the Koopa King replied, comforted by his son's status as being alive and well. "Now, I need to see if you can help me on something."
"What is it, Papa?"
"Up on the roof of this castle are the remains of a sword known as Exor, who was part of the Smithy Gang that invaded my castle many years ago. I need to have him reassembled so that we can enter Smithy's place and get one of the five pieces of the Staff of Björn."
Junior's curiosity spiked upon his father mentioning the ancient artifact. "Wait, what is the Staff of Björn?"
"I will tell you in a bit."
Examining those wounded in battle, Mario was significantly concerned. Serious injuries were present on the Smashers that had fallen behind in the luck category, with Yoshi, now being carried into the chamber by Diddy, being the unluckiest of them all. They all appeared as if though the reaper was approaching them at a slow but alarming rate, which truly was the case. Worse yet, no one else appeared to be in possession of an item that could mend wounds. To his knowledge, the only healing equipment available was a Mushroom stored in his pockets, but there were two problems with that item. For one thing, it was only large enough to fully feed one person, so choosing who to heal was a decision that was to be made carefully in regards to injury severity. An indirect but still unwarranted casualty could happen if his decision was made without consideration. Secondly, even if it was not split between two or more people, it still would not offer the same benefits as a full-fledged medical kit or perhaps a very rare Ultra Shroom. The plumber soon spent over a minute to reach his decision before finally locking his eyes onto a certain green dinosaur.
"Hold-a still, buddy," he sighed.
"I don't-a feel well…" Luigi moaned. Besides bodily weakness, the total blood loss was imposing a blackout period of about several seconds, where vision was clouded by a darkened veil. Lightheadedness also gripped his cranium during that tiny moment in time.
"I might-a need a shower now," Wario grunted, staring at his blood-soaked form.
Yoshi could barely even operate his muscles without pain tearing through his nervous system. His wounds, especially the hole in his stomach, formed a straitjacket that crushed his whole body together, leaving it unable to perform most actions requiring motion. Staring at the approaching Mario was perhaps the only thing that was not restricted, but that was adversely affected by clouded vision, in part due to hemorrhaging.
"Alright-a, just hold still," he could hear Mario mutter. The next event was a bit blurry to him; he was lapsing in and out of consciousness as a Mushroom entered his mouth. Consuming the hearty fungus quickly brought out healing effects, minor as they were, to slightly alleviate the crushing pain, but the minimal level of treatment meant that he was still considerably injured and, therefore, would still die if a greater method of assistance was not administered soon.
"Rosalina," Diddy asked, "Can you give us a lift to the roof? The stairway to the upper floors is blocked, and some of us, including me because the Lords stole my jet pack, can't go back up the way we came from."
"I will," was the celestial woman's response. But she was prevented in initiating her teleportation process when a higher-pitched voice, Junior's specifically, echoed across the room.
"Wait! I need to get my paintbrush from my room. It's where I left it before the robed guys attacked this place."
Absorbing Junior's comment, Rosalina conjured a magical field resembling a milk-tinted bubble around the entire group before teleporting to Junior's heavily decorated room. With the aid of Mario's Firebrand, Junior then spent only half a minute searching for his Gadd-designed paintbrush before retrieving it from one of his cabinets. Teleportation occurred once again, this time bringing the group to the roof, Exor's resting place. Once again, the foreboding atmosphere of Dark Land, with its smoky volcanoes and darkened terrain, was present in the eyes of all. Its heat still reduced, but did not eliminate, the impact of the winter's cold climate.
"Okay," Junior announced to the others. "I'm gonna use my paintbrush on this Exor guy and see if he reassembles. If he does, then we can enter Smithy's dimension."
Wasting no time at all, Junior splashed a rainbow-colored paint all over the shattered remains of the Smithy Gang's giant sword. The resulting puddle expanded across all fragments, displacing the dull gradients of each in favor of the entire color spectrum. Once the paint job was finished, everyone waited with anticipation and eagerness in their hearts. Nothing happened for the next couple of seconds.
"Hey, Junior," Luigi started, "I don't-a think this is-a going to-"
His voice trailed off when the puddle began to animate, swirling the fragments around in seemingly infinite directions; this mysterious action was as if though an invisible artist was utilizing his grand paintbrush to mix everything around. As the paint oozed around, the pieces were arranged in the format that they originally possessed before the demise of Smithy, appearing less like a pile of scrap metal and more like a massive blade of terror. Connecting like pieces of a puzzle, the bond between all components was soon restored, which was the precursor for the paint to hoist the completed product into the air.
Mario was now staring into a familiar face of terror, one that had not been witnessed in long years. Jaw forced against the upper mouth, closed eyes alight with a demonic, mechanical aura, Exor's facial area was truly an embodiment of evil, one out of many that the plumber had witnessed in his lengthy career. It was something that he had hoped to forget, but the sight of it all caused the memories to resurface against his will.
"Now I need to get the mouth open," Junior's voice knocked Mario out of his mesmerized state. "Papa said that the portal had to be willingly opened up by the sword himself, but since he's dead, I'll have to pry it open myself."
Junior pointed his paintbrush at the mouth, with the action magically ordering the paint to slime over the specified location. One quick downward motion later, the mouth was fully open. The Smashers peered inside, only to realize that it was pitch-black, just like the inside of the previously-attacked castle. What differentiated the two, however, was that the mouth's interior had no environment at all: no walls, no floors, nothing. It was just empty space.
"Where is the portal?" Luigi muttered. "I can't-a see it."
"Me neither…" Yoshi whimpered, his voice weakened by his deteriorating condition.
No one else could add onto the conversation, for an intense red light radiated from the depths just seconds after Yoshi's comment. Overwhelmed by the new sight, the travelers shielded their eyes to prevent blindness, but it was only a matter of time before they felt a pulling sensation accompanying the powerful illumination.
"Wait-a," Wario grunted. "What's-a going on?"
"We're-a being pulled into the portal," Mario answered, bracing himself for the forced transportation. Eventually, all were sucked into the darkness of the alternate dimension, the red light disappearing as soon as they passed up the mouth itself. In Mario's mind, this event was a near-repeat of what occurred many years ago after Exor's initial defeat, with the only differences being his party members and the fact that he and Bowser were prepared for a situation like this, resulting in no screaming from either one of them. Eventually impacting a nearby floating platform, the Smashers were introduced, or reintroduced in Mario and Bowser's case, to a darkened land floating in the middle of a dimensional canvas with equal hues of dark coloring. Up ahead was a trail leading into an ominous structure in the far distance, with the building's outlines being the only thing describable about it. All other characteristics were recessive alleles suppressed by the dominant darkness, unable to be revealed except with the right combination of traits regarding light and distance.
An older, long-forgotten stronghold of evil was once again present in the eyes of the older plumber and the Koopa King…
"Well," Mario muttered, "Let's-a go."
At Mario's command, the stroll towards an abandoned fortress soon began.
At the unknown realm…
The young man woke up with a splitting pain across his entire body, his vision blurry as he tried to force his eyes open. He shifted his beaten body around, rubbing against a smooth, seemingly soft substance in the process. When he was fully awake, he was greeted with a scene drastically different from the one that he was in previously. For one thing, the area was mostly composed of polished, brightly-colored marble, from the floor to the highest point in the ceiling. The only exceptions to this were the windows, a nearby wooden cabinet, the lamp on the ceiling, and the bed that he was resting on. Curtains were draped over the windows, blocking out whatever amount of sunlight was outside and preventing outsiders from peering inwards. A warm air filled up the room, its gentle touch blocking out some of the pain from his inflicted injuries. Upon staring down at his body, his eyes were presented with an image of partially soaked bandages wrapped around his wounds. The bandages were not there before.
Someone decided to lend him a hand while he was out; at least that was he believed in. But before he could drag himself out of the comfort of the bed, the door slowly swung open, revealing his possible savior.
"Where am I?" he asked.
Now inside the extinguished inferno that was Smithy's residence, the group slowly proceeded through a hallway of inactive machinery and total darkness, with Mario, Rosalina, and the Luma serving as light-producers. The cold air silently breezing through the area sent continuous chills in the spines of all, with the chills being amplified by the slight nervousness spreading throughout the Smashers' minds. With no other source of light around, and with such a large amount of space available in this factory, there was the possibility that something could be hiding in the darkness, waiting for the right time to strike.
But that would be a rather far-fetched belief, right? The factory had been isolated from the Mushroom World for many years since Smithy's fall, which would reduce the chances of enemies hiding inside to almost zero. In fact, the only factor could prevent the percentage from reaching the absolute bottom would be realm-traversing forces, of which there were only few: Lillian, the Lords, and the inhabitants of the Flipside-Flopside world. But even so, only Lillian was aware of this place's existence; the others supposedly were not. It only had to be the sheer darkness of this place that was causing the chills.
"Am I the only one who's being a little jumpy about this place?" Diddy mumbled.
"No, I'm-a nervous myself," was Luigi's response. "But at-a least it isn't-a filled with gore."
"I have to agree with Luigi here," DK added. "I would not want to see another scene like that again…"
Passing by the various segments of the factory where numerous enemies, like the Gunyolk, were encountered, the Smashers continued their stroll down the mechanical palace of a now-dormant terror. Aside from Mario and Bowser, who were returning visitors, they all examined the numerous properties of the seemingly monochrome area as their steps carried them forward. Pipes littered the walls and ceiling, crossing over each other and blocking out what was behind them. Massively long belts stretched across nearly the entire width of the place and surrounded both sides of the cold floor. Claws loomed overhead, decorated by the long-gone smith king to resemble sinister faces. The floor was elevated in certain areas, which were marked by a repeating yellow-and-black stripe pattern. With all information absorbed, there was but one mental comment forged in the minds of the observers:
This must be what the mechanized version of Hell looks like.
Eventually, the lengthy path ended with three shafts close to the end of the floor, with one being taller than the rest. Just before the edge was a belt that stretched lengthwise, the opposite situation to the other belts in the area, and it was attached to a metallic slide extending out of the tallest shaft. This was the pathway leading up to where Smithy himself formerly resided; Mario's still-vivid memories had, of course, assured him of this fact.
"That's the path we should-a go into," he announced. Carefully trending up the incline to avoid slipping, he inhaled a large amount of air before performing his leap into the narrow abyss. Air rushing up to his face to pierce through the silent atmosphere, Mario was now at the full mercy of the inescapable gravity of nearly all worlds. He was descending at hundreds of meters per second, the exact rate lost due to a lack of calculations. Eventually, he would slam into metallic grounds, to the same platform where a furious duel raged between his group and Smithy. It would only be a matter of time now…
After his descent continued for nearly half a minute, something appeared off to him. He had not made his landing yet, with his feet still free in the air. Keeping his Firebrand illuminated, he intensified its flames to examine the surroundings for any clues to the unusual turn in his situation. All that was visible was the typical assortment of pipes coating the walls, nothing else. That had to be something in this place to notify him of his approach to the platform. He drilled deep into the mineral mine of long-lost memories, but nothing was visibly recognizable to him at first. He continued to search for long seconds.
And that was when he unearthed a precious diamond inside his mind.
With all his might, Mario fiercely kicked a winged Red Shell at Smithy's face. The impact, besides dealing heavy damage, provoked an irresistible urge from the mechanical Santa Claus-lookalike to fire a demonic scream at the boundaries of the room, almost causing the platform to rumble in the process.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO…!"
The pounding of the hammer echoed continuously to overwhelm the opposing warriors with a cacophony of metallic noises. Staring deep into the eyes of the warmonger, Mario could only sense a raw, white-hot anger that was unable to be suppressed by anything else and would likely continue for a long time. The former detail was soon verified when an Aero leaped into the battlefield to cool its master's temper.
"Calm down, Smithy!" it squeaked. "Your head looks like a geyser!"
The raging madman disregarded the comment and continued to indulge himself in his violent behavior. But the minions were not willing to witness their creator be driven into this state of uncontrolled fury. A Drill Bit, acting as assistance to the Aero, hopped into the chrome-colored arena and ended up on a spot off to Smithy's left.
"Don't get so worked up!" it begged. "Think of your blood pressure!"
It was not very effective, as Smithy was not exhibiting any signs of letting his temper go. In fact, it appeared that he was being pushed even closer to the verge of absolute instability. A Shyster quickly landed in front of him, ready to inform him of something important.
"We just built this yesterday," it muttered, "And the foundation's very weak. So… STOP SHAKING THE FLOOR!"
All three minions tightened up their semi-circle to observe their leader's reaction to the last comment. A second zipped by and a reaction was produced. But it was not what they had hoped for.
"How utterly annoying!" Smithy roared. Raising his hammer one last time, he smashed the floor to successfully incapacitate his subordinates, but the blow also provoked a sudden reaction from the now-weakened platform. As the period of rumbling spanned across long seconds, segments of the ceiling rained down like hail, with a few pieces nearly crushing Mario and his allies. The heroes were shocked by the unraveling events; the fact that the platform was ready to drop meant that they would be falling to deaths, and there was nothing that they could do to save themselves. Smithy, on the other hand, was overwhelmed with confusion.
"Huh?!" he gasped. "What the…?! How in the heck…?!"
But nothing else was spoken, for the platform finally lost its integrity and snapped off the chains.
The platform was destroyed during the final battle.
How could he have not realized this before? Now, if the fall was not lethal, he was certainly going to suffer from broken bones and other severe injuries for the rest of his life… unless there was something in his possession that could assist him in any way.
Quickly digging through his pockets with his free hand, he ended up gripping onto something very soft. To his knowledge, it could not have been purchased from the store; he had near-photographic memory of where he placed his earned items at, and none of them were previously inside the pocket that his hand was currently in. Then, it occurred to him that this object was his cape, a specialized piece of equipment useful for not only deflecting enemy projectiles away from him, but for slowing down his descent when the occasion called for it. This would be a lifesaver in this situation as well. Disabling his Firebrand to avoid setting it on fire, he swiftly brandished the handy tool and raised it over his head while gripping the twisted ends tightly. Air resistance drastically decreased his falling speed to achieve a much safer landing, one that ended with him stepping onto a surface recognized by his feet as uneven. His curiosity provoked, he forced the yellowish sheet back into storage and rekindled his Firebrand, only to discover yet another area long-neglected by outside forces. Surrounding him was a metallic junkyard filled with numerous gears, wires, and robot heads scattered in no defined order. All the heads were identical to each other in every way possible; they possessed the same bulging red eyes, the same set of awkward teeth, the same head shape, and the same yellow crown. Such properties were characteristic of Smithy's true form, which was more powerful in comparison to his standard body.
"It's-a been awhile since I've-a down to this-a hell," Mario whispered to himself. He continued to remain frozen in place, until a distant shriek from Luigi reminded him that the others were still falling. The darkness would surely pose a lethal problem, he believed, as it was currently preventing his party members from knowing when they were going to crash into the floor. If he remained idle…
With no time to waste, he boosted the flames of his Firebrand to the point of creating a small column of fire over his head, hoping that the sign would be effective enough to be visible at long range. And by sheer luck, it was; a white light, most likely from Rosalina's magic, shined from dozens of meters over his location. As it gradually descended to the unstable ground, nine figures of different shapes and sizes were rendered visible to his eyes. Luigi was no longer screaming, but his face was frozen into an expression of unbelievable shock because of the sheer terror of falling down a great height. On the other hand, Bowser appeared to be annoyed, likely due to the younger plumber's previously uncontrolled shrieks.
"I swear," the Koopa King growled, "If you scream like that again, I will personally make sure that your voice box gets torn out, one way or another."
"Save that for-a later, Bowser," Mario sternly remarked. The next image flashing before his eyes consisted of Rosalina disabling her energy field, dropping most of the other eight a small distance to the floor; thankfully, she did not drop them on the painfully sharp crowns that could impale an unlucky living being. All nine of his partners performing what he deemed several cuts below imitating his earlier actions. What many would consider a minute soared by before expressions of interest on the faces of all except for Bowser and Mario surfaced like dolphins leaping out of the water. To add, DK, wishing to satisfy his curiosity, asked the plumber one answer-worthy question:
"What is this place supposed to be? It looks like a junkyard to me."
"This is-a the place where Smithy's true form was-a fought," Mario answered. "Smithy, in case you aren't-a aware, was-a the leader of an army of machines, called the Smithy Gang, that-a wanted to rule the Mushroom World by destroying the Star Road to-a vanquish all dreams and create an endless supply of-a destructive weapons."
"That seems like a disturbing thing to deal with: no wishes left and being surrounded by weapons of murder."
"It-a sure is… Now, we must-a find the staff piece in this-a area."
The search initiated with Mario's comment, with each member trending through steel to locate the diamond of the Staff of Björn. Junk from all sides served as significant obstacles, its presence able to easily conceal smaller objects such a chunk of a precious mineral. Caution was strictly exercised, as the crowns, equipped with razor-sharp spikes on their tops, were scattered throughout the floor; in all seriousness, this place was like a minefield due to the danger present. The sounds of crunching and scraping echoed endlessly as feet pounded against metal to disturb the otherwise silent atmosphere of the deactivated factory. Manual labor, represented by the lifting of gears, digging, and other appropriate physical actions, had to be utilized for the occasion. The diamond could be anywhere in this place, the Smashers believed, and would be easily missed by searching eyes if some degree of rearrangement was not performed. About two minutes into the search, Luigi nearly lost his footing when he stepped into a miniature pit formed by several Smithy heads. This would have been lethal to him had he completely toppled over, for he was near a upturned crown.
"That was-a close," he mumbled.
"Man, it is sure going to take us a while to find that staff piece," Diddy commented.
The smaller ape's comment could not have been closer to the truth; after long minutes of searching, the diamond was still nowhere to be found. Searching for a needle in a haystack; that was the situation the Smashers were stuck in. Impatience was reaching fever pitch in Wario and Bowser due to their very low tolerances for long searches and long processes in general, but that was not to say that the others were immune to a slowly growing frustration either. Mario, pushing gears up and knocking heads aside, was being plagued by a sickness of irritability that only worsened with time. His efforts so far were without any real degree of success and a temptation to quit was starting to build up inside his mind. Pure determination was the only thing pushing him and his allies to continue both their search and their mission, for if they backed out now, then they would be failing the Smash Brothers, Lillian, and the realms depending on them.
There was no room for quitting when they had come this far, Mario believed. They had to keep pressing forward…
"Where is-a the damn thing?" Wario grunted, his irritability revealed by his tone of voice. "I just-a want to-a get the hell out of this-a place ASAP!"
"Papa, how am I supposed to know what the diamond looks like?" Junior questioned, unfamiliar with the staff piece's appearance.
"I think we may be searching in the wrong part of the factory," Rosalina sighed, losing interest in the search.
"Rosalina may be right," Yoshi squeaked. "We should head back up to upper part of factory."
"This is really starting to piss me off," Bowser snarled. "We've been down there for who-knows-how-long and there's no sign of the freakin' diamond. I want out, now."
"Bowser-" Luigi started.
"I don't wanna hear it, greenie! This search is a waste of my time and I wanna leave this place now! How are we supposed to find the diamond in this place with all this junk lying around, huh? You tell-"
He was cut off mid-sentence when Mario, after closing in on his location, powerfully socked him in the nose with a flame-fueled fist. The others could only watch as the Koopa King was launched into a Smithy head right behind him, the object suffering a massive dent as a spiky shell was forced against it. Not finished yet, Mario approached his long-standing enemy and shoved him into the floor with great physical strength.
"We're not-a leaving this-a place until we have-a the diamond," he spat, eyes filled with fire and teeth bared. "Do you-a understand me?"
"Oh, blah blah," Bowser responded. "Listen to yourself for once, pasta head. Do you honestly believe that you can force me to stay down in this hellhole for another-"
Mario utilized his lightning-fast reflexes to shove an elbow against Bowser's throat. The amount of pressure applied by the plumber was so great that suffocation was now a legitimate threat to the king; it was thus natural that he would offer some resistance, but each attempt only tightened the plumber's hold against the neck. If this continued, Mario would choke him to death.
"I don't-a care how badly you want-a to leave," he heard his rival hiss in a low, threatening tone. "If you-a try to ditch our-a group for any illegitimate reason, I will-a beat you to a pulp. Got that?"
Bowser was about to shove Mario off him but restrained himself at the last second. As much as he so desired to attack his longtime rival, he realized that there were more important matters at hand. But by this point, he had forgotten about that on multiple occasions due to one important reason. He was allowing himself to be influenced by trivial things, no doubt about it, and the fact that he was forced to work with Mario and his allies only worsened the problem. He would need to show better control over himself to avoid compromising the group's efforts. He was left with no choice but to force this one word through his mouth:
"Yes." The chokehold was quickly released, and the Koopa King slowly rolled back up to his standing position. But he was not able to stumble more than a meter from his initial position before a comment from Luigi shot into his ears.
"Wait-a. What's-a that?" The younger brother of Mario pointed his right index finger to the Smithy head damaged by Bowser's shell, which was now exhibiting an unusual characteristic. The crack created by the deep dent was releasing a white glow, one that could illuminate the bottom of the entire shaft... and one that outshined whatever Mario and Rosalina were currently using. Approaching the head, Mario had to place a hand over his eyebrows to avoid blindness. Something noteworthy was happening, he pondered, and this was without any doubt. But what was it exactly?
"Be careful, Mario," Luigi called, worried that his brother might trip and possibly fall on a crown. But Mario's traction was strong enough to withstand the unstable terrain and thus, allow him to reach the head. Combining raw strength with his heat-based powers, he tugged on one side of the opening to reveal the inside of the mechanical cranium, only to be exposed to the one thing that he and his allies had battled long and hard for. At the very center of the cranial cavity was a glowing diamond carved into a rounded sphere, an atypical form compared to what would be witnessed on many pieces of fabulous jewelry. The seemingly holy glow was also very unusual, as minerals were incapable of releasing any sort of light without reflecting some from a nearby separate source. Such properties could only mean one thing.
"That's-a the tip of the staff," were the only words that escaped Mario's mouth. What it was doing inside the dismantled Smithy copy was beyond him, but such a question was overshadowed by the sheer satisfaction rushing through every area of his mind. Collecting this piece would certainly mean taking a step, even if it was a small one, in preventing the dreaded Svärtad Orm from being resurrected. And collected it he did; it was yanked out of its resting place in less than a second and subsequently stuffed into one of Mario's many pockets.
"Finally," Wario grunted, wrapped in relief. "We-a now have the piece. Now, let's-a leave this rusty dump."
"How did that-a thing get inside the head?" Luigi curiously asked.
"You've-a got me," his brother replied, completely unsure of the answer. "I'm not-a sure how it ended up inside the Smithy copy, but we can-a worry about that later. We should-a head back to the Smash Mansion right-a now."
At Mario's command, Rosalina conjured an energy field around the fighters to transport them out of the dark dimension and back into the Mushroom World. Following the group's return, Bowser Junior dismantled Exor's corpse by using his paintbrush to magically command the paint to disappear. A short but ear-shattering cacophony coincided with the paint seemingly vanishing into thin air, forcing the Smashers to cover their ears with hands. Preparing to inform Lillian of his successful retrieval of the staff piece, Mario pressed his right hand against the corresponding side of his cranium, patiently waiting for her voice to echo inside his mind.
"Alright-a," he whispered. "Where are you, Lillian?"
"Mario," the maiden's voice suddenly spoke. "What do you need?"
"I've-a got the staff piece from my world." Mario eyes were locked on the spherical diamond, which he just removed from his pocket.
"Excellent work, Mario. Now I must inform Master Hand about this so that he can create a portal for you and your group. Also, I am noticing that some of your members, especially Yoshi, have recently been injured. The monster was able to injure them, am I right?"
"Yes. I need to-a get them back to the Smash Mansion so that they can-a receive some medical treatment from me. Just-a let me know when the portal is-a ready to be opened."
"Okay."
The telepathic link was disrupted by Lillian and all was silent in his mind once more. As he continued to remain where he was, a cold wind breezed through the otherwise-heated atmosphere of Dark Land. The chills that crawled across his spine were relatively minor, but they were not negligible. In fact, they were the reason why some of his muscles were becoming tighter within the last few seconds. To shake this sensation off, he quietly inhaled a great amount of air and then exhaled at a rate much slower than normal. The process relaxed the tension-ridden part of his body almost instantly.
"You okay, bro?" Luigi chirped, noticing his brother's most recent actions.
"I'm-a fine, Luigi," Mario yawned, stretching out his back as he did. "There's-a nothing wrong."
"We got staff piece," Yoshi squeaked, trying to sound joyous but failing in the process due to his still-weakened physical state. "Now we can go back to Smash Mansion."
"So you have the staff piece, eh? Well, too bad you will not be leaving this realm with it."
Mario suddenly performed a half-circle spin in a clockwise direction and was soon confronted with the source of the voice standing at the very end of the staircase: a woman with dark-colored clothing and a sword in one hand. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he instantly recognized her; she was the one person that he had hoped to never cross paths with again.
"So you're-a back for more," he growled, bracing himself for a potential battle. "You just don't-a ever give up, eh, Agnetha?"
"Wait a minute," Junior mumbled, recognizing Agnetha's face from the earlier assault on the castle. "I remember her… She's the lady who led the attack on the castle…"
"Why should I?" Agnetha spat, her attention still focused on Mario. "There's no reason for me to be backing out on the intent to revive the Holy Serpent. That would be disgracing the sacred organization that I proudly serve. Now, hand me the staff piece… or I will kill all of you on this spot."
The greatest hero of the Mushroom Kingdom was unfazed by the threat. "Forget it. I'm not-a letting you and your stupid cult revive that-a monster. Now-"
"Mario," Luigi interrupted. "I don't-a feel good…"
"Wait-a, you what?" Mario glanced back at his brother, only to notice him and a few others gripping their stomachs tightly. This sight brought immediate concern to the older plumber's mind; something was wrong with them for sure. But he was not sure of the exact problem, and if he could not its source in time, then it could possibly spell doom for his affected partners. Confusion was the only thing occupying his mind during the initial observation.
"Papa," Junior squeaked, worried for his father's well-being, "Are you alright?"
"What's-a wrong with you guys?" Mario asked. But only one second had passed before Luigi, Yoshi, DK, Bowser, and Wario quickly dropped to the floor, their bodies completely compromised by pain. Alarmed by this sudden event, Mario's mind was thrown into panic mode. His allies were now in serious trouble and could possibly die in the next couple of minutes, but what could he do to help them?
Then, after further examining the exact symptoms of the unknown condition, he was immediately reminded of the one thing still lingering in their bodies via an earlier conversation with the Star Spirits. Misstar had informed him that the poison, dubbed "Igel" by Lillian, was merely halted by the combined efforts of her and Eldstar, along with a Tasty Tonic fed only to Mario. She also warned that the poison would become malignant again once several hours had passed, with Mario himself being granted more time due to the aforementioned Tasty Tonic. That time was enough for the group to retrieve the staff piece from Smithy's residence, but now it was quickly ending, and with Agnetha nearby, a serious predicament was being forced upon Mario.
"You've-a got to be fucking kidding me…" he harshly puffed, slowly approaching his enemy in the process.
"Aw, some of your teammates are dying already," the captain jeered. "That's good, because I will be able to crush your resistance with ease. Now allow me to introduce your new partners, and reintroduce in your case, to a specialized move that can conquer large armies with little effort on the user's part: Skugga Dimma!"
WHOOSH...
Agnetha, for the second time since the start of the adventure, conjured a black mist to blind the Smashers. While confusion generally plagued those caught within the affected area, Mario was better prepared for the incoming attack and proceeded to create a small, mist-dispelling tornado by spinning his fists in a haphazard manner. His vision now clear windows to the world around him, he tried to search for the others via their bodily outlines, but the mist was so dark that it prevented him from executing such an action. Instead, he brought his cape out so that he would be able to deflect the needles when the time was right.
"What is going on here?" Rosalina coughed. Still maintaining her grip on the wand, she attempted to conjure a shield for protection purposes. But, as she came to realize due to the lack of a distinct sound, her magic was somehow being suppressed. That was not a pleasant sign to her, but worse still was the sound of her Luma crying out for help.
"Help me, Mama!" it squeaked, unable to locate its mother. "I can't see…"
"What is this…?" Junior gasped, all while constantly stumbling due to his blindness. Scrapes and minor bruises were building up on his body by the minute, but this event would only be the prelude to something more terrifying. A sharp pain, the kind often felt from being shot with a firearm, suddenly tore his chest and forced him down to his knees. In fact, it was so severe that it instantly removed his ability to scream at the top of his lungs, a natural stimulus to such a horrible sensation. Only when he stared down at his chest was the source of the sudden agony revealed to him in the form of long, skin-piercing needles, all of them very close to rupturing his heart. With the mist fading away fast, he soon noticed that Rosalina and Diddy were also victims of the attack, having been impaled in the chest several times over. What he was not expecting, however, was the presence of an unharmed Mario and an injured Agnetha, the latter damaged by her own weapons.
"How did you-a like that?" Mario teased, forcing the cape, the sole reason why he successfully deflected the needles, back into his pocket.
"This is only an injury of no real consequence," Agnetha responded, ripping the poison-tipped needles out of her chest. "It will not stop me from killing all of you."
"We'll-a see about that."
A furious between plumber and captain ensued, with sword swings and fire raging across the castle roof. The others were forced to back away to the edges to avoid injury from either combatant, which was especially important to those that were deteriorating quickly.
"I can't… feel… my arms…" DK croaked, his strength starting to fail him.
"Hold on, buddy," the still-stable Diddy reassured. "Help is on the way." Not one to waste any time, he proceeded to contact Lillian via telepathy.
"I-a feel… like crap…" Wario weakly grunted, lying on his back.
"Yoshi can't… feel body…" the dinosaur squeaked.
"Diddy?" Lillian's voice was only heard in the smaller ape's mind. "What is going on?"
"Something is wrong with my cousin," Diddy mumbled. "Do you know what is happening to him?"
"Yes; he and the others are affected by a fast-acting poison from Agnetha's needles called Röda Blodigel. I am currently working on a cure to save them from certain death."
"Hold on, the needles that just struck me down are poisoned?"
"I wish I could say otherwise. Now, the portal should be open up in just a few moments…"
Diddy was both curious and frustrated upon hearing the comment. "Why can't you open it up now? That Agnetha lady is going to kill us all if we wait any longer."
"Master Hand is still trying to pinpoint your location; the Mushroom World is such a vast area that it is going to be difficult for him to find you."
"Fine. Just tell him to hurry up."
"Okay." As Lillian closed off communications, Mario was still dueling Agnetha to no success. The plumber's thrown fireballs were immediately shredded to pieces by the captain's blade, and his physical blows were dodged by her athletic prowess. His mind, negatively impacted by the still-lingering fatigue from the previous battle, was leading him to believe that the battle was continuing for long hours when it had only lasted for a few minutes. The fatigue was also causing his energy levels to fall out of normal ranges and into a very dangerous low point, which could be fatal in his current situation.
"Are you ready to give up now?" Agnetha giggled, taking note of Mario's weakened physical state.
"Why don't-a you answer your own question?" the plumber retaliated.
"Oh, Mario… What keeps driving your mind into believing that I will submit to you? You are even more of an arrogant fool than I first believed, stuck to the thought that you are better than the Lords. Well, I will show you that such bravado is punishable by death. Prepare to-"
Agnetha suddenly froze as a strange feeling was beginning to invade her stomach. While clenching the affected area tightly, her mind was initially boggled with confusion as she attempted to single out the cause of the sudden event. But it was not long before true horror dawned upon her.
Her poison was being used against her. And it was now eating away at her body.
"What's-a wrong, Agnetha? Is-a the poison getting to you?" Mario puffed. "Oh, well… It's just-a going to-a make things a lot easier for me."
Tackling the poisoned swordswoman to the ground, Mario extended a hand towards the blade and yanked out of her now pain-infested hands, which were too fragile to even maintain a solid grip anymore. Then, utilizing nothing but raw strength, he proceeded to sever her right arm with surprising precision for one unfamiliar with using a sword.
SHINK!
A loud scream echoed across the landscape of Dark Land as black blood oozed out of the stump and poured onto the stone floor of the roof; it was something that provoked feelings of both triumph and disgust in Mario, with the former arising from his successful attack and the latter created from the sight of the oozing blood. Also of noteworthy interest was the fact that the limb failed regenerate.
Hold on. If the limb was not regenerating, then it could only mean that Igel was somehow stopping whatever the captain was using from performing its duties…
"How…" the weakened captain sputtered. "How did you… stop my magic…?"
"Alright-a, Miss Lindgren; this is-a the end for you," Mario muttered. Conjuring a massive fireball in his free hand, he delivered to the captain a fiery death, complete with flames consuming her clothing. Such a scene brought sheer relief to the plumber; Agnetha would no longer threaten him or any of his allies, thus allowing the rest of the adventure to progress more smoothly, if only by a small amount. But said relief was instantly shattered when he noticed almost all his allies, including the newly-acquired Rosalina and Bowser Junior, lying on the floor in a near-unconscious state due to the poison from Agnetha's needles.
"Mama!" the Luma shrieked, terrified by the sight of its unconscious guardian.
"This is-a terrible…" Mario whispered, shocked at the scene in front of him. He was about to approach his party, but a strange portal suddenly appeared off to his left. The portal itself contained an image of the Smash Mansion, which, by Mario's judgment, could only mean that this was the path back to the World of Trophies.
"Mario," Lillian suddenly whispered, "The portal is now open."
"Good thing…" Mario whispered to himself. Not too long after the comment, Master Hand rushed out of the portal.
"Do you need some help, Mario?" the commentator asked, his voice filled with concern.
"Yes, I-a do," Mario sighed.
"Well, let me give you a hand… literally." Master Hand swiftly scooped up all the poisoned fighters, who were now completely unconscious, and traveled alongside Mario and the Luma into the portal. Once again, the plumber was subjected to a screaming noise that nearly caused his ears to bleed and erratic motions that pushed him dangerously close to the point of complete nausea, but the screams present from last time were now absent. Once he was launched back into the front yard of the Smash Mansion, his body was instantly buried in snow, albeit for a very short time as he quickly hopped back into a standing position; within seconds, he proceeded to stroll into the mansion with the giant hand and the worried Luma. Inside, Lillian was standing in the main hall, waiting for Mario to arrive.
"Mario," she started. "I have the Vit Hjärta ready for your group. It is out in the medical wing of this mansion."
"Thanks-a, Lillian," the plumber responded, but he paused for a few seconds as the thought of his loved one entered his mind once more. The fear of Peach not surviving the adventure was rampant inside his mind; there was no choice but to ask the maiden about the threatened princess's status so that the fear could be quelled for now. The followed words exited his mouth:
"How is-a Peach?"
"She's still clinging to life," Lillian sighed, "But Falcon had reported to me that she may not survive what she is going through right now. He also told me that he wanted to apologize to you for what happened earlier, in person."
"Really…?" Mario was not sure if he still had a reason to be upset with Falcon anymore. In all seriousness, the fact that an apology was ready to be delivered to him seemed to provoke a slight sense of forgiveness. Maybe Falcon was not as responsible for the disaster as he initially believed.
"Of course, Mario. He wants you to know that he cares about her as much as you do."
Mario remained silent for another few seconds before answering. "Alright-a. As-a soon as he gets-a back, I'll-a let him give his apology. By the way, I was able to-a defeat Agnetha by using Igel against her."
"That's... interesting... Maybe this will be helpful information in the future..."
The plumber then proceeded towards the western segment of the mansion, which was where the medical area was located, but he was unable to take another step when Lillian's voice spoke to him again.
"And, Mario… Just to let know, Falco and Samus's groups arrived at this place before you did."
Mario let out a nod of acknowledgement before strolling away.
Can't… feel… body…
-Yoshi
And that concludes Mario's theatre. Sorry if this chapter seems rushed in any way.
I kinda lied on revealing the cause of Peach's condition at this point in the story. That will be revealed in Captain Falcon's theatre. As for the mysterious man that we have originally seen in Part 1 of this theatre, we'll learn more about what happened to him in the later chapters.
And did you know that this is my first chapter released on an odd-numbered month?
Whose theatre am I going to do next? That's up to you, the readers, to decide. Send me a message if you have any suggestions.
(EDIT: On second thought, I'm going to start on Falco's theatre next. The reasons: I want to keep Peach's exact condition hidden until the time is right, I do not have enough information about the older Fire Emblem games to get started on Marth's theatre, and I haven't brainstormed any ideas for how Samus's theatre is going to turn out.)