Welcome back readers! Sorry for the long overdue update. So what was the reason for this? Like I said in the beginning, College will begin to hamper with me posting chapters but I'll do what I can. I didn't get the time to update until now due to the major preparing I needed to do. I officially start today so I need all the time I can get. I simply can't leave you hanging right?

Last chapter had our hero Mario come face to face with Bowser. Our heroes meeting soon after and an inside view of a brief battle fought in Toad Town. So what would happen now?

I would like to thank Gamehunter for pointing out my mistake. I'll take consideration in to correcting adding spaces between exclamation points but like everyone, I won't be able to always see and correct that mistake. And yes, the main character's name is Pack, more simple then to call them using his real name right?

Chapter Four: The True Fight Begins

April 8, 2018

11:30AM

Pack followed Mario as he used Cappy to process a Sherm and began shooting at anything related to Bowser. In the middle of this, Koopa Troopas, Goombas, and Hammer Bros were fighting each other to take gain the advantage. Some were throwing punches, biting one another, and even shell spinning. It was confusing for Pack to know who was on which side so the only way to tell was seeing if anyone would attack him and Mario Those that didn't had joined alongside Mario to assist him in defeating the invaders. Those that did had tried to grab, bite or shell spin into them. Pack decided to not use his weapon since it would be a waste and just kicked them away.

When it came to Hammer or Fire Bros, he switched the M16 into single burst. As much as he didn't want to harm them, they were threatening to or were already doing harm the Mushroom Kingdom so there was no point in holding out.

Conlan was helping his friends to get the injured inhabitants of Toad Town safety out. So far, the forces of Bowser had been driven away but they'll be back soon. It was worrying already as the defender have taken losses. Thankfully some of it could be reversed. The emergency supply of Super and 1-Up Mushrooms came in handy as the fallen or injured were revived.

As this was finishing up, Toadette was able to get the attention of everyone who were standing. "Thank you for defending Toad Town, Everyone!" She congratulated to the Royal Guards. She was proud to say that they deserved credit for the bravery and determination that was shown. It could have been worse but something told her that it would be in the upcoming days or hours. The east gate was exposed to the outside and soon the south and west would fall as well. If they were going to keep Toad Town, they would need to bring out what they could field. This included more of those troublesome bolt action rifles.

The estimated population of the Mushroom Kingdom was somewhere in the millions. As for the population of Toad Town, it was eight thousand and the strength of the Royal Guard was at three hundred, including the Toad Brigade. It was mere compared to Bowser, who had too many to count. The Royal Guard was spread out within Peach's Castle, Toad Town and the surrounding area. She didn't want to admit it but they were pretty much on their own with the strength of just eighty.

She was just about to order everyone to take a break when a Yellow Toad and Blue Toad had arrived from the sideline. Toadette recognized that these two were Alagold and Buckenberry, they were the ones that fought alongside Mario to rescue Peach. Their expressions told them that it was not good. "Toadette! Mario's been defeated! Princess Peach is in trouble and we need someone to help rescue her!"

Toadette was faced with two things at once, having to organize for another attack and sending someone to help Princess Peach. Captain Toad could handle it but knowing him, he was a bit cowardly when it comes to Bowser. He was already in charge with guarding the castle so the last thing that he needed was to contend to rescuing the princess.

"Anyone want to come with us?"

There was silence among the Royal Guard as none of them weren't going to do it, to help save the princess. Their efforts were on this moment and none would come up.

"We can do it!"

Conlan, Hammy, Kobuto, Kobuti, and Kobi raised their arms up from the left side of Toadette then stepped up towards the three toads. Toadette wasn't sure about this, mainly because these Koopas were young however she had seen efforts from all of them. Because of what was happening now, there was no time to waste.

"Alrighty! You five follow these two and listen to everything they say to you."

"Okay...just take good care of the town for us."Toadette said to the two and they replied with a nod.

"Let's Go! The sooner we get there the better!" The Scoring Six followed Ala and Bucken as they went to the north gate leading to Peach's castle. On the way, they assisted anyone with a mushroom symbol. The two toads had brought fire flowers along so they were throwing short burst at anyone that were approaching them.

"We got this one."

Kobuto and Kobi shell-spinned ahead to knock down a couple of goombas then span around to retreat.

"Nice going guys! Let's keep going!"

As they drew closer to Peach's castle, the two toads and koopas were soon confronted by several sherms that drove appeared from the crest of a hill.

"Aw! Koops! We're in trouble!"

"Ah! Get back!" The sherms began to turn their turrets and look at them to prepare to fire. "We're too late!" A burst of smoke announced the firing with several projectiles headed for them. "Ouch!" As the projectiles exploded, the resulting shock waves threw the Toads and Scoring Six off their feet. The next thing that Conlan found when he opened his eyes was himself on the back of his shell.

"Hey! Everyone okay?"

He called out as he saw everyone except Ala and Bucken stuck on their backs. "We're stuck but we're fine."

"Aw no..." Ala expressed his disappointment not only to him being hit and losing the fire flower but having to now help with flipping the koopa troopas back on their feet. They began to quicken the progress as they could see the Sherms rolling forwards towards them fast.

"Koops!" Conlan struggled to get back on his feet but his couldn't due to his shell. Both the Toads managed to get Kobi and Kobui on their feet but it was not enough. The Koopa Troops were now panicking as the tanks rolled closer. Unknowingly, not far from them. Mario who was still in procession of the Sherm had came over a hill and saw the struggling Toads and Koopas.

With the Sherms distracted, Mario began to aim and fire until he destroyed the tanks. It was just then that Cappy had gasped for breath, causing the procession to end.

gasp* "Well! That was it for me!" He said as he transformed into his normal self, hovering close to Mario.

"Not to worry, Cappy!" He reassured the bonneter by giving a pat on the top of the head while giving a friendly covered smile. Both of them turned back towards the group that was now being helped by the Koopas that had fought alongside him. Once the group was helped up, they began to come towards him. While so, Pack had finally caught up with Mario due to being slowed down by the sheer numbers of Bowser's army. So far he had used fifteen bullets in his M16, half of the magazine used. Some of those Hammer Bros he fought ached from the pain when the bullet passed though their shells but they were able to shake it off then continued to throw. This required him to fire another bullet but for some of them, this was a new feeling of pain for them to encounter so he just wanted to end it quickly for them.

"Mario! Your here!"

Mario recognized the yellow and blue toad as they had attended alongside him. He couldn't help but give a handshake to the two in a friendly greeting.

"I am here alright."

The Koopas that were with Ala and Bucken gathered around Mario. All of them were wearing bandanas of different colors. "Thanks for saving our backs, Mario! We thought we were done for!"

"Mhm." The Koopas began introducing themselves to Mario and Cappy as it was known that they tended to not run into the hero that much. While they were running to the castle. One by one, The Scoring Six then began to explain what they were doing.

"We were on our way to rescue the Princess as we heard that you were thrown off of Bowser's ship."

"No one wanted to go so we volunteered."

"We didn't count that it would be difficult just trying to reach it."

"Now it would be easy now that your here." The koopas now had their attention towards the strange dressed human. "Who's this?"

"Oh yeah, we hadn't got a name from you yet." Cappy explained, remembering that it was the other question he was going to ask.

"It's Walker Sanderson but you can call me Pack for short."

"Pack huh?! Seems fair!"

"Let's keep going! Our help is still needed!"

Back at the castle roof, Peach and Tiara began to step back as Bowser jumped down from his ship. The look on him told her Hammer Bro Guards that it was not going to be pretty.

"Run! Princess! Run!"

Both the guards stood in front of Peach as she turned and ran towards the door leading into the inside of her castle, Tiara floating after her. The Hammer Bros had something different about them, unlike all the others who threw and hoped a hammer would get lucky. They instead waited, taking careful aim before throwing. This skill was one of the main reasons she chose them as her guards. They threw their hammers perfectly but Bowser countered their attack by putting out his arms forward. They didn't expect their hammers to be thrown aside like nothing but who says that the king of Koopas wouldn't have common sense.

"Get out of the way!"

The two guards were thrown to the side as Bowser charged and broke into the castle. The two hammer bros shook off the pain and followed down as the Koopa broke through several walls in search of the Princess. With the Castle still under attack from Bowser's Minions and a new enemy, the guards could spare no one. It was worse as new ships were entering firing range.

The ships that anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom didn't know how to take down, the ships of the Eggman Empire. The Royal Guard tried firing the remaining cannons at the ships but they could see that it barely had any effect against the armor. In response, the ships fired lasers and missiles at the defenses. Not much could be explained as Toads and Koopas were blown away brutally.

Eggman laughed at the sight as the defenders tried to organize everything they could but they were falling. His robots began to deploy down to the ground, attacking anything that was considered hostile. Spears, Shields and even the Rifles had little effect against hardened metal. He didn't decide to help as the battle was already won. Captain Toad and the Toad Brigade was what was happening while hiding behind a stone wall, their attackers were far more then they could handle. They thought nothing could have matched past Bowser but this was something else. The castle wasn't going to be able to be defended as it was already seen as hopeless. He hadn't got much of a choice left but to retreat to Toad Town, they will get obliterated if they stay longer. If only Toad was here, he would know what to do.

Toad has been at Peach's side for the most part, he has been at it most of the time when Toadsworth had somewhere else to attend. He was a bit cowardly but he did the job. He and Toad had knew each other for the most part, he even was the one who introduced Toadette to him. Toad was reluctant to let Toadette join the Toad Brigade after he heard about how she was taken as a hostage by a giant bird. But after seeing how the two worked together, he finally accepted.

So where was Toad in the middle of this? Well, he was helping Luigi selling balloons at Sarasaland with Princess Daisy. Kinda bad timing at that as well since they wouldn't be back for another three months unless they were given a call. It was just then when he saw a large group coming from the path to Toad Town. He could tell who was in the group, the most recognizable was Mario for sure.

"Mario!" Captain Toad said loudly for the other defenders to hear. "He's back!Everyone!" Cheers began to grow among the defenders as the large group caught up and was able to join the defenders behind cover. He took note of who was in the group; there was Yellow and Blue, a bunch of Troopas, Hammer Bros, and Goombas. Oddly enough there was a strange dressed human was with them as well. The strange human climbed over the stone wall, looked back to the battle. Moments later, the strange human finally turned his attention to him, surprised as ever.

"Captain Toad?"

Pack overlooked the clothing the toad was wearing, exactly his appearance within Odyssey and Treasure Tracker. He have not notice that Captain Toad was beside him until now. He could just barely hold himself from having the temptation to ask questions or even fanboying. The theme of Captain Toad began playing in his head as the Toad looked at him dumbfounded.

"Umm, who are you?"

"Just call me Pack."

Cappy eyed Pack at he had noticed that the human had called on Captain Toad as if they already met, just like when he was called by his name. He was now getting the feeling of asking that question again but however this wasn't the time to do that.

"Mario! I thought we were done for! Now we can fight back!" Pack looked towards the slow approaching robots and shook his head. Once this was over, he is gonna have to explain to them about this.

"Mario! Go find the Princess! I think we can handle this!" Captain Toad declared towards the hero as the Princess would need Mario's assistance because of Bowser. Mario agreed and motioned for Alagold, Buckenberry and the Scoring Six to follow him into the castle to search for Peach.

Once Mario along with Cappy disappeared into the castle, Pack took a look at the battlefield from his standpoint. Eggman's robots were made of materials that were thankfully weak if he was correct, but that was the problem. Mario or any of the power ups wouldn't do anything to them. The things that were needed were explosives but the defenses were all but destroyed. His bullets should be able to penetrate them but it was going to take a lot to disable them. His seven magazines would quickly be used up in no time flat but he hadn't got much of a choice. Everyone watched as Pack looked over the wall, switching his gun to burst and began spewing out fire towards an Egg Bomber.

The toads looked as Pack fired his weapon with accurate aim, unseemly to fire without relent. The bullets sped towards the robots, penetrating a Moto Bug. Pack didn't stop firing until the Robot was disabled then switched to another one that was approaching. A click from his gun after firing five shots had indicated that magazine was spent. Quickly, he ducked behind the stone wall to change to a loaded magazine. Amazed by his actions, the defenders fired their bolt action rifles at the Koopa army that was still standing. Pack continued on with disabling of destroying the robots while occasionally changing as the mags went dry.

Seeing that this was hopeless, the Koopa army ran out and booked it just like those that were attacking Toad Town. Eggman's Robots however were unaffected due to their programming and continued attacking forcefully. Eggman watched everything from above and now found a reason to enter as he saw Pack knocking down robots. Pack saw the floating vehicle approach and immediately knew who it was. "Eggman!" The Egg Mobile stopped high above all of them and the glass covering the upper half slid back to reveal the scientist full in the flesh. The robots stopped in place as the Egg Mobile approached.

"Oh! Ho! Ho! Someone who knows me! I am honored!" Eggman boasted over his status while being cocky as always. He knew that talking some sense into the scientist wasn't going to work but it was worth a try. Pack just readied his weapon to prepare for the imminent battle.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh! I am sure you know what I plan to do, you can thank someone for that."

"Someone? Was it the scientist that escaped?" Pack said within his head. It just had to be, it would explain why Eggman was in the Mushroom Kingdom. The scientist could be nearby somewhere just watching right now, waiting for the gaming universe to fall.

"Enough said! Time for the Mushroom Kingdom to meet it's end to the great and powerful Eggman Empire!" The glass slid back in place and he began to deploy his missile launchers from the side of the Egg Mobile, pointing them towards the defenders.

"Take this!"

"Here we go, just as I suspected." A total of eight small portable missiles launched, aiming towards all of them. Some toads stood in fear as they saw the missiles coming slowly towards them. Pack however knew that these missiles were pathetic by his standards. He aimed carefully and squeezed the trigger to spew out fire. The bullets flew faster, penetrated through the front of the missiles and effectively creating explosions.

As the smoke cleared, Eggman clinched both his hands on the controls. The human was smirking like he had done that before. Remembering what the scientist had said about him being a video game series, he knew the human had knowledge of his every move; even the best ones. He was going to have to think this through for a while as if there were more of him. He pulled the Egg Mobile back as several bullets penetrated though the glass and scattered fragments all over his red jacket.

"Well! Two could play that game!" The scientist pressed a button to his left, floating further away to get out of range for Pack to aim his weapon.

"Ugh, he got away." Just as he aimed his weapon down, the ground began to shake abruptly causing some of the toads and koopas to lose their balance. "Ah! What's this shaking coming from?" Captain Toads' voice cried as Pack took out his binoculars and searched around. He quickly found what was causing the shaking; there were a couple of grey colored Death Egg Robots, fully visible and approaching from the east; a few miles at best. He could only breath out a few words to himself.

"Mother of God, we're truly in trouble."