Chapter 4:
Back at the party, Mario and Luigi were enjoying the birthday cake and ice cream. Mario had taken two large slices of cake and had also gotten two large scoops of vanilla ice cream. Luigi, meanwhile, settled for one slice of cake and one scoop of Snickerdoodle ice cream. The rest of the guests then got cake and ice cream of their own, Donkey Kong taking two large slices of cake along with a Banana Split. The guests all ate to their hearts' content and when they were finished, most of the cake and ice cream were gone, leaving only a few slices that Peach would likely serve as dessert for the meal tomorrow.
Once the guests were finished with the cake and ice cream, it came time for them to present Mario and Luigi with their birthday presents. First came Peach, who had to go back into the storage room to haul out her birthday presents for the heroes. When she came back out, she emerged, lugging two large boxes behind her on a luggage cart. Once she arrived, she presented the brothers with the boxes and said, "Happy birthday."
Mario and Luigi did not know what was could be in the boxes but they had a feeling that it was something big, for she had needed a cart to bring them out. Mario went over to the box that was labeled Mario and proceeded to open it, tearing off the wrapping paper before opening the box and revealing its contents. Upon opening it, he saw that inside the box was a large hammer with a golden head with a red stripe. Mario instantly recognized it as an Ultra Hammer, a powerful hammer that was useful for breaking metal blocks and also was highly damaging to enemies in combat as well. He had obtained several Ultra Hammers during his travels around the Mushroom Kingdom but this Ultra Hammer looked to be of a higher quality compared to the others. Mario took a few swings and noticed that while it seemed to have the same strength and power of the previous Ultra Hammers, it seemed to be easier to wield.
Luigi soon went over to his own box and opened it. Inside, he too, saw an Ultra Hammer. Taking it out and swinging it a few times, he noticed that it was easier to wield than his other Ultra Hammer. He also suspected that, like Mario's, this one was even stronger than the others, too.
After receiving the presents, they looked over at Peach and said, "Thank you, Princess. You didn't have to do all of this."
"It was no problem at all," she answered.
Then it came time for the others to deliver their own presents to the Mario Brothers. Goombella and the other partners from Mario's trip to Rogueport City gave Mario and Luigi a collection of badges that gave them special abilities and even some resistances like the Zap Tap Badge and the Feeling Fine Badge, which electrified Mario and also gave him resistances to various status conditions like poison, sleep, shrinking, etcetera. Since it was the Marios Brothers' birthday, the badges came in pairs so Luigi got a set of badges too. While Mario already had several of the badges that were presented to him, Luigi had none and was thankful for the ones that he received, the younger Mario Brother making certain to graciously thank all of Mario's traveling companions and friends for the gifts.
After Mario's traveling previous traveling companions had offered the brothers their gifts, the rest of the parties then gave the Marios their presents, mostly consisting of healing items and power-ups, but Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong gave the Marios some Star Pieces, valuable jewel-like stones of unknown origin that could be traded for other items. When asked how they had managed to acquire such items, they told him that they got them on a recent adventure.
Once the group had given the Marios their presents, they were about to get back to celebrating and talking when one of the Toad Guards came rushing into the main hall, crying, "Princess Peach, we've received a report from Securi T. Our forward listening post just detected the entire Koopa Airship Fleet headed towards us! Securi T. has scrambled all available fighters to try to intercept them and slow them down, but there's no way we'll stop the entire fleet. We've gotta prepare for battle!"
That was all Mario, Luigi, and their friends needed to hear in order to leap into action. Immediately rocketing up from their tables, the Mario Brothers, their allies, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong went to join Princess Peach in order to learn everything they could about the impending attack. Once they joined Peach, she went over their plan of defense.
"Mario, you and Luigi are going to be lookout and our first line of defense," she began. "Go and get some Cape Feathers, Raccoon Tails, or other flying power-ups and fly patrol around the castle grounds. Once you spot the airships, radio down to us that they're coming and get back here. Ever since Bowser's last kidnapping attempt, we've installed some extra defenses for the castle so we can slow them down, assuming the rest of the military doesn't do enough damage to them. Don't start engaging them directly until all of our ordnance has been expended."
Mario and Luigi both nodded.
"Lakilester, you, Lady Bow, Parakarry, Flurrie, and Vivian are going to aid Mario in patrolling the skies." She then turned to Vivian. "Don't hesitate to use your Fiery Jinx on any enemy airships or fighters. In fact, that might be enough to slow down a lot of them, if not outright take them down."
"Got it," Vivian and the others responded.
"DK, did you and Diddy bring any planes with you?"
"I've got my plane from the races on Timber Island," Diddy volunteered. "It's armed with five seeker missiles and ten weaker non-homing missiles."
"Great," Peach exclaimed. "You assist Mario and Luigi in the sky." She then turned to Donkey Kong and told him, "You stay down here and provide ground support. There's no way this'll just be an aerial battle. They'll eventually land if it's me they want."
"You got it," Donkey Kong exclaimed. A part of him could only chuckle. He wondered what Cranky would think of him protecting the maiden this time.
"As for the rest of you, you're with Donkey Kong. Get your best items and weapons. The aerial combatants will need all the support they can get."
"Right," the rest of the companions responded.
"Toadsworth," Peach then called, looking directly at the elderly Toad. "Ready the castle's defenses and get the guards to their stations. You're in charge while I'm out there with the others."
Toadsworth's eyes went wide with shock and horror, despite the fact that in the back of his mind, Peach's order should not have surprised him, especially since she had been training under Mario's direction. "Milady, you're going to leave the safety of the castle?"
"I'm going out to help my friends fight Bowser," Peach answered forcefully. "It's me he'll want anyway. If I can distract him and allow Mario and the others to have a better chance against Bowser's forces, then I'll be a decoy."
"But Princess, wouldn't it be better for you to retreat?"
Peach shook her head. "Bowser may be in love with me, but he hates Mario almost as passionately. Besides, if Kevin's there, he'll focus on Mario and Luigi, which will ultimately give us a better chance of driving back Bowser's forces."
The elderly Toad was about to protest but Peach's unwavering gaze sealed the deal and he sighed in resignation. There was no arguing with Peach on this, especially when the lives of Mario and Luigi were at stake. Besides, she did have a point. She could at worst use herself as a decoy while giving Mario and Luigi a better chance at beating Bowser's forces, and if her distraction prevented Bowser from joining in battle against Kevin for fear of killing her, or forced Kevin to be off his game for the same reason, so much the better. As such, he did not continue the argument and allowed Peach to go and join the rest of the party.
While he had been arguing with Peach over her choice, Mario and the others went down to the armory and arm themselves for the impending battle. Mario soon emerged as Caped Mario with a Fire Flower in his hand as a ranged attack with Luigi coming up as Caped Luigi with an Ice Flower, figuring that if he could freeze the propellers of the airships, he would be able to take them down more easily. The other allies that would provide air support soon emerged from the armory with various items as well, such as single use Fire Flowers, Thunder Rages, Thunderbolts, Egg Bombs, Ice Storms, and even some Shooting Stars.
Once they were armed, they made their way out of the castle and quickly took to the sky, Mario and Luigi rocketing into the sky once they had built up enough speed on the ground. Following them were Parakarry, Lady Bow, Lakilester, Flurrie, and Vivian, who all went to fly patrol, holding their radios in one hand, and an attack item in the other. Their primary goal was to intercept Bowser's forces long before they reached the castle.
Meanwhile, not too far away from Toad Town, the Mushroom Kingdom's paltry military engaged Bowser's airship fleet and the fighter screen. Despite the Mushroom Kingdom having fighters of their own, the Koopa jet fighters were able to fly circles around them, both due to the advances in fighter technology for the Koopas, as well as the fact that their pilots were better trained than those of the Mushroom Kingdom, despite the fact that fighter technology was a relatively recent invention for the Koopa Kingdom.
The Mushroom Kingdom fighters and airships mounted a valiant fight, but they were too few in number to fight a force like the one Bowser had arrayed against them. The fighters launched their missiles at the enemy, hoping to be able to take down some of the enemy fighters before they, too, fell. Two of the seeker missiles managed to find their mark and detonated against the bodies of their Koopa fighter targets, the explosions splitting the two craft in half as the halves then tumbled to the ground, smoke and flame trailing them as they fell, the pieces eventually crashing into the ground and exploding. The return fire from the Koopas, however, was far more devastating.
Missiles erupted from the fighters and zeroed in on the Mushroom Kingdom fighters. The Mushroom Kingdom fighters immediately went evasive, attempting to avoid the oncoming explosives, but the missiles easily tracked the fighters, matching them maneuver for maneuver. Almost every missile managed to hit its mark, the missiles striking the aircraft and detonating, either blowing apart the aircraft in midair, or merely taking out a wing or a rudder. Fortunately, the Mushroom Kingdom fighters were equipped with ejector seats for their craft, something missing from the Koopa fighters, so once their fighters were hit, the pilots ejected from their doomed craft, those that were not simply annihilated in midair, and once they reached the apex of their ascent, parachutes opened to allow the pilots a safe landing. The Koopa pilots did not care about the surviving Toad pilots, though. They had much bigger targets to destroy.
Once the fighter forces were destroyed, the Koopa fighters immediately began their attack on the Mushroom Kingdom airships, all six of them. The airships mounted the best defense they could, unleashing a deadly hail of gunfire and flak into the air that managed to tag several fighters, but it amounted to stalling the attack for merely a few seconds. The fighters then began their runs on the ships, firing off the remainder of their missiles into the ships, targeting gun ports, cannons, missile launchers, and engines. The airships did not last for long, for the missiles tore apart the ships midflight. Two of the ships exploded in midair, the ships taking a missile directly to their armories. Two more were set ablaze and a series of explosions took down the ships as they fell apart in the sky. The two more fortunate ships only lost their engines, with a number of their guns being destroyed by the attack run, but otherwise, they suffered relatively little damage. These ships still fell, but their descents were relatively controlled. When they hit the ground, their bottoms crumpled into jagged messes and anyone on the lower decks was likely crushed, but those on the higher decks and on the bridge would escape with only moderate injury. Dust and debris were thrown into the air and they skidded along the ground for about a hundred meters or so before eventually coming to rest. They were likely unsalvageable but the survivors onboard those ships were thanking the stars that they were still alive.
Meanwhile, onboard the new Koopa Flagship, Bowser watched as the fighters made their runs on the remaining airships in the Mushroom Kingdom's sky fleet. He grinned as the ship were either destroyed or fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground. In only a few minutes, the last line of resistance to him reaching Peach's castle, and Peach, herself, had been crushed.
"Sire, the last of the Mushroom Kingdom's airships has been destroyed," a Koopatrol reported from his radar station.
"Casualties?" Bowser asked. Despite his gruff exterior he did still care about his troops.
"Six fighters were destroyed with two more suffering enough damage to force emergency landings. One of our forward airships took a couple of hits as well but only suffered minor hull damage."
"Get some flying blocks and Rocky Wrenches to the fighters that had to land so they can get back up into the fight. Also, send out some Amazin' Flying Hammer Bros. out to search for survivors of the craft that were destroyed," Bowser commanded. "We'll need everyone if we're gonna take Peach and finally get rid of Mario."
"On it," came the response.
Bowser waited the requisite few minutes for his commands to be carried out. Once the rescue and salvage forces had been deployed, he told his communications officer, "Open a channel to the fleet."
"Channel open," came the response, along with a soft chime.
"This is Bowser to the rest of the fleet. Our target is in sight. The main sky force of the Mushroom Kingdom has been destroyed and all that's left are the defenses around Princess Peach's castle. It's time to get my new wife, and ruin the Marios' birthday party in the worst way imaginable!"
A chorus of cheers erupted from the comms as well as from the officers on the bridge of Bowser's airship. Bowser then pushed a button on his chair and bellowed, "Hangar Bay One, prepare my Clown Car!" He wanted to be out in the thick of the fighting when the time came.
"Yes, sir," came a deep-throated response.
Bowser then gave a rumble of satisfaction before he stood up. Once he had stood up, he bellowed, "All ships full speed ahead!"
With that, all of the ships in his fleet rocketed forward, along with the fighters that were escorting the fleet. After giving the order, Bowser then departed the bridge and made his way towards the hangar bay. He wanted to be out and in the thick of the fighting during this battle. This time, he would make the Mario Brothers pay for all of the humiliations they had heaped upon him, with their lives. All the while, though, no one detected the fighter coming from the Koopa Kingdom and rocketing towards Star Haven.
Back near Princess Peach's Castle, Mario and Luigi were patrolling the skies around the castle. So far, there had been no indication of Bowser's forces on fast approach, though they could see flashes off in the distance, which they reported to Toadsworth. Upon hearing this, Toadsworth relayed, "Mario Brothers, keep a sharp eye out for Bowser's forces. Reports indicate that Bowser's airship fleet has been spotted south of Toad Town. As of five minutes ago, our sky navy was in the process of engaging them."
"Do you want us to go and help out?" Mario asked.
"No," Toadsworth answered. "Stay here and protect the castle. Besides, we don't want the fight spilling over into Toad Town."
"Understood," Mario answered with a faint note of dissatisfaction. The last thing he wanted was to abandon the Mushroom Kingdom military officers and soldiers to their deaths but he knew that he and Peach were Bowser's primary targets. Bowser may decide to overlook survivors of the airships' destruction if he could get at them sooner. Toadsworth, though, was also right in that the last thing any of them wanted was for the fighting to spill over into Toad Town and kill a lot of civilians. He then looked over at Luigi and nodded. Then, as one, they banked to the left and flew due south straight towards Toad Town, wanting to get a good look at how far away Bowser's forces were and relay that to Toadsworth.
He quickly had his answer when the roar of jet engines could be heard off in the distance. Almost a split second later, the whistle of bullets whizzing past his ear was heard and he saw a squadron of Koopa jet fighters approaching fast. He quickly returned fire with his Fire Flower, scoring a hit on the fighter's wing, while simultaneously yelling into his radio, "They're here!"
With that, he holstered his radio and gripped his cape, opening it up so he could fly with greater maneuverability, followed closely by Luigi, all the while, the duo having to go evasive as more bullets were propelled towards them by the enemy fighters. Looking out over the distance, he saw more and more fighters approaching fast, as well as larger shapes in the distance moving much more slowly. Bowser's airship fleet was coming.
"Get ready," Mario told Luigi, looking over at his younger brother. While Luigi was known to be the more cautious of the two Mario Brothers, when his back was to the wall, he was every bit as reliable as Mario in battle.
With that, the two brothers went to engage the first wave of Koopa fighters. The Koopas opened hostilities in earnest by spraying bullets towards the brothers, but the smaller profiles of the brothers, as well as their constant evasive maneuvers, made them difficult targets. The planes were far less difficult for the Marios to hit, though, as he turned back and fired a volley of fireballs at the lead aircraft. His fireballs scored several hits on the craft, causing the fighter to catch fire and go into an uncontrolled spin as it fell from the sky, smoke trailing the craft. Luigi dealt with his own craft the same way Mario had with his, unleashing a volley of fireballs at his pursuer and taking it down with numerous direct hits. Still, despite two fighters going down, there were dozens more approaching, each of them eager to engage the Marios, knowing that eventually, their numerical superiority would be the deciding factor.
A curve ball for the fighters would soon arrive, however, as Lady Bow, Parakarry, Flurrie, and Vivian came up to flank Mario and Luigi as they went to face down the massive Koopa military machine. Flurrie and Lady Bow revealed their Fire Flowers as they proceeded to use them to unleash massive volleys of fire at the fighters. While the metal skin allowed the fighters to survive individual fireballs, the massive volleys unleashed by the two flowers firing in unison was too much for the fighters to take. The metal skin of the fighters eventually began to warp, melt, and even burn, causing the fighters to be unable to remain aloft and tumble to the ground in uncontrolled dives, the pilots managing to eject before their doomed craft hit. Other fighter jets were not so fortunate, though, as the fireballs managed to pierce their fuel tanks and ignite the fuel, causing them to explode in midair. With the first barrage complete, over two fighter squadrons had fallen. Still, despite the numerous fighter casualties, there were still many more fighters able to continue the fight, forcing Mario and Luigi to fire off another volley of fireballs, taking down two more aircraft but leaving over dozens more for them to deal with.
Parakarry and Vivian soon went to engage the remaining fighters, using their own Fire Flowers to unleash a torrent of fireballs at their enemy. These fighter pilots, seeing the fate of the first two squadrons, broke formation, firing wildly at the allies, hoping to force them to go evasive and/or search for cover; though if they actually scored a hit on them and took them down, so much the better. The fighters soon formed up into groups of two and fired again at the Mario Brothers and their allies. Parakarry and Vivian grimaced, for they knew that their Fire Flowers would likely go to waste if they used them against single fighters or groups of two. Still, Vivian did not want to use her Fiery Jinx to ignite their fuel tanks just yet since she was waiting for the airship fleet to come into range before revealing that little secret about her move.
Seeing little choice, though, the duo drew out their Fire Flowers and used them against a group of two fighters and two groups of two that had come too close together and would allow a Fire Flower to tag all four. The volley of fireballs erupted from the Fire Flowers and spread out through the sky all around the approaching fighters, each of who were unloading on Vivian and Parakarry with their machine guns. Parakarry ducked into his shell and went evasive, rocketing out of the way of the oncoming fire, for he knew that even with his shell, he would not last against the onslaught of hot lead coming his way. Vivian, however, being a Shadow Siren, was in no danger. She simply became intangible, causing the bullets to pass right through her body, and grinned, for the fighters had no weapons that could deal with ghosts. The fighters did not last long, though, for the fireballs were beginning to burn their hulls, two of the fighters having their wings ignite. They immediately went into uncontrolled spins and dives, the pilots miraculously ejecting from their craft before they crashed. Two of the other fighters had their fuel tanks ignite and exploded in midair, the shrapnel from the explosion inflicting sufficient damage to another fighter that it was no longer able to stay aloft and it fell to the ground, the Koopa piloting it managing to eject before the doomed craft hit.
The sixth fighter, and one farthest from the center of the packs, quickly broke off as soon as the allies had launched another fireballs barrage from their Fire Flowers and managed to avoid the attacks unscathed. This fighter quickly targeted Parakarry, knowing that his bullets and missiles would do little good against Vivian, and readied his missiles. A tone beeped inside his cockpit as the targeting reticle lined up with the Koopa Paratroopa. Once the tone became constant and the reticle turned red, he went to push the firing stud of his joystick and unleash the missile upon Parakarry. However, he would never get the chance to do so, for a barrage of fireballs came from behind as Mario had somehow managed to get behind him undetected. The plumber unleashed a barrage of fireballs from his Fire Flower, these balls, while not as numerous as the ones used by his allies' Fire Flowers, were far more powerful. These fireballs burned through the planes hull and ignited the fuel tank, causing the fighter to explode in midair, Mario breaking off once he had scored the hit so as to avoid being caught in the explosion. Parakarry, who had emerged from his shell and had seen the fighter bearing down on him, gave a salute to Mario before searching for more fighters to engage. Soon, though, the group would have other things to worry about, for Bowser's airship fleet had finally arrived in earnest.
Back at the rear of the airship force, Korry's fighter squadron flanked the final line of airships as the assault on Princess Peach's castle had begun. He watched as Mario and his allies had engaged the vanguard of the assault. Much as he had expected, Mario and friends were making short work of the Koopa fighters. He sighed as he looked back at Sephiroth and saw the man almost grimacing with impatience.
"When will we break off and go to Star Haven?" Sephiroth asked succinctly.
"When we get the chance," Korry answered. "And if you can see through the screen, you should study up on Mario and his allies. If they detect us leaving, they may come and give chase."
"But we're faster than them, right?"
Korry nodded. "In this fighter, yes. But there will be defenses up in Star Haven, too; defenses that may take time to break through. If they slow us down enough, Mario may be able to catch us and will likely try to stop us from getting the Star Rod."
Sephiroth then followed Korry's suggestion and studied how Mario and his friends battled the Koopa air force. He noted that while Mario did not seem to be superhumanly fast, he was smart and maneuvered well in the air. He suspected that the cape Mario was using was magical and what allowed him to fly. He noted that Mario seemed to use it to its fullest extent. He would not risk underestimating Mario if he had to fight the plumber. Still, he felt as if this Mario was no threat to him and if he had to fight the plumber, he would win pretty easily. After a moment, he grimaced as he watched Mario take down two more Koopa fighters.
He had been shocked at the ease of which the Koopa Kingdom had dealt with the Mushroom Kingdom's air force and airship fleet, if the few airships that had been sent against them could qualify as a fleet. Now he was beginning to understand what Korry had meant when he said that Mario was the real military of the Mushroom Kingdom. This Mario was far more than a plumber. Heck, he was far more than a mere warrior. He truly was the military of the Mushroom Kingdom. Still, it was not difficult to be more powerful than the Mushroom Kingdom military. However, he was beginning to grow impatient. While defeating Mario was of great importance to the Koopa Kingdom, he was of little importance to Sephiroth at the moment. He was merely an obstacle, and one that was merely an optional one at that, so far. While at another point in his life, Sephiroth believed that he would not have hesitated to simply destroy Mario, he was currently nowhere close to his full strength.
Up in front, Korry was studying the video feed, hoping that his squadron would not be called to face down the Mario Brothers. After seeing another fighter go down, he knew that chances were that he would be called upon to fight the Marios. As such, he was not surprised when he heard Kamek's voice crackle in over the comm., "Zeta, Eta, and Theta Squadrons, form up and attack. The airship fleet is about to make its push!"
Korry could only sigh, something that did not go unnoticed by Sephiroth. "Are we in any of those squadrons?" the human asked.
Korry nodded. "We're in Theta Squadron. Looks like our trip to Star Haven will have to be put on hold for a bit."
Sephiroth gave no response as he simply tried to sit back in his cramped seat. Despite giving no response, he was growing more and more annoyed. He wanted to get the Star Rod so he could regain his full power and go back home, not help these Koopas deal with a duo of humans that he likely could have beaten with one hand tied behind his back. He looked down at his controls and noted that the joystick at the center of his console had a red button on it that he suspected was used to fire the fighter's weapons. For a second, he wondered if it could also take control of the aircraft, itself. Peering over the back of Korry's chair and looking down at Korry's flight console, he saw a stick identical to the one that he had on his own console. Looking at his instruments, though, and seeing that there was an entire squadron of fighters forming up on them, he knew that trying to flee the fight would be suicidal, at least for Korry. He, of course, would survive the crash, assuming he did not just jump out and make a rush for Star Haven, himself, but he suspected that getting to Star Haven would be more difficult than expected if he had to do it from the ground. As such, he simply waited, looking down at his Masamune as he waited for the appropriate time to strike should it be needed.
Back over Peach's castle, the main assault force had arrived and Mario, Luigi, their friends, and the castle's defenses were ready. Cannons deployed from small concrete hills and grates. Controlled from various consoles inside the castle, these cannons had been installed after numerous attacks had been made on the castle and Bowser had infiltrated it on numerous occasions. This was the first time these defenses would be put to the test, and it would be a trial by fire.
Once the first of the airships was in range, the castle's cannons opened fire on the airship. Cannonballs leapt from the cannons and soared towards the airship. The first volley crashed into the front of the airships and exploded, breaching the hull, shattering weapons emplacements and causing massive damage to the ship. Despite the damage, though, the ship still stayed aloft. It soon went to turn to its starboard side so that its broadside cannons could be brought to bear against the castle's defenses, but the ship was surprised when Diddy Kong, piloting his plane, targeted one of the holes and fired an unguided missile into it. Unfortunately for the ship, this hole was close to a powder magazine and when the missile entered the hole, it impacted against an inner bulkhead and detonated, breaching the bulkhead igniting the powder and ammunition stored on the other side of the bulkhead. That brought about a swift end to the ship as the resulting explosion blew apart the front half of the ship. Flaming wood and metal rained down upon the castle grounds below, forcing Donkey Kong and Mario's ground-bound allies to carefully avoid the falling debris. As for the ship, itself, with its front half missing, it promptly fell to the ground and crashed, the superstructure crumpling upon impact and several more explosions erupting from the ruined ship. With the first airship destroyed, Diddy went to search for more targets, which were quickly filling the area.
Onboard the Koopa Flagship not too far away from the front lines, Bowser grimaced as the lead airship was destroyed. It was not as big a loss as it could have been, for the ship had merely been crewed by a few Magikoopas and many Zombie Koopas, blocks that Magikoopas transformed into Koopas via their magic wands. Such Koopas had once been rare, but with the mounting losses during the endless war between the Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom, they were seeing far greater use, especially since it saved a ton on training new troops to replace the ones lost in the various battles. The losses of the Zombie Koopas was no big deal and chances were that the Magikoopas had teleported off of the ship before its final destruction, so there were no real personnel losses resulting from the destruction of the ship. Still, the Koopa King did not like the fact that one of his airships had been destroyed so easily.
He spied Diddy's plane engaging several Koopa fighters and he quickly grabbed the radio from the console on his chair and bellowed, "Zeta Squadron, break off and target that plane. All other frontline airships, target the castle's cannons and missile launchers and destroy them!"
A chorus of affirmatives answered the Koopa King as he watched his forces begin to pound the castle's weapons emplacements. Missiles and cannonballs erupted from the cannons and missile ports of the airships, but Mario and Luigi had other ideas. Quickly disengaging from battle against two fighters that had suffered minor damage, they banked towards the airship fleet and positioned themselves below the airships. From there, Mario took out a Thunder Rage and deployed it. Almost immediately upon deploying the Thunderbolt-shaped object, lightning erupted all around the battlefield, crashing into the Koopa airship lines and into the fighters. The airships had protection from lightning so they only suffered relatively minor damage. The same could not be said about their fighters, though. Most of the fighters had no protection against lightning and their systems overloaded. The pilots' consoles sparked and the propellers stopped or jet engines sputtered before giving out and the planes went crashing down to the ground, where they crumpled into heaps, the fortunate pilots managing to jump out of their doomed craft before they hit. Even worse, in Bowser's eyes, the missiles and cannonballs had been shot out of the sky, Bullet Bills falling to the ground while the cannonballs either exploded in midair or missed their mark entirely and crashed into the ground well away from their targets. Reports soon came in over the radio that the lightning had shorted out their targeting systems and they would be forced to use line of sight to target anything on the ground. Bowser gave a grumble of disapproval. This battle was costing him dearly and he had not even scored a real hit on Mario or the castle's defenses yet.
"Eta Squadron, make attack runs on the castle's defenses. Theta Squadron, deal with Mario and Luigi now!" Bowser roared. "All airships that still have their targeting systems intact, form up. We're pushing through!"
A chorus of affirmatives greeted him once more as he turned to the ship's executive officer, a Koopatrol, and told him, "Koopallica, take over here for me. I'm going out there to finish this myself."
"Yes, my lord," the Koopatrol answered, rising from his chair as Bowser rose from his and went towards a door in the back of the bridge.
Outside the flagship, Eta Squadron banked and headed towards the cannons and other emplacements that dotted the landscape around the castle. On their first attack run, they unleashed hails of gunfire at the cannons, but failed to inflict any significant damage on them. Still, most of the cannons were unable to shoot down the fighters, being designed to deal with large airships and tanks. However, the castle did have several anti-aircraft cannons that were targeting Eta Squadron as they made their attack run. The anti-aircraft cannons swiveled into position and proceeded to unleash a torrent of flak towards the Koopa fighters. Clouds of lead chewed through the lead fighters of Eta Squadron and four fighters were instantly shattered in the opening shots of the volley, being reduced to nothing but flaming debris as their fuel tanks ruptured and fire engulfed the planes. It was not long after that two more fighters fell from the sky, one of them crashing into a cannon emplacement on the ground below and destroying it. The subsequent volley of fire destroyed all but two of the remaining fighters of Eta Squadron, the survivors breaking off and trying to get out of range of the anti-aircraft guns before they, too, were destroyed. However, before doing so, they unleashed a volley of missiles against several cannons, managing to destroy two of them before being forced to break off.
Elsewhere on the ground, Donkey Kong, Goombario, Goombella, and Mario's other ground-bound allies assisted Mario and friends in dealing with the airships and fighters. A Thunder Rage deployed by Goombario lashed out at a squadron of fighters that was making an attack run on them. Bolts of lightning struck the fighters and shorted out their systems, causing them to spark and engines to stall out, turning the planes into little more than gliders. However, the Koopa fighters were not very aerodynamic and, as such, were unable to stay in the air. They came crashing to the ground, where they crumpled and broke apart. So far, there were few ground forces for the likes of Donkey Kong and allies like Kooper, Koops, and the other ground-bound allies to deal with, but they were making good use of their items against the fighters and any Koopa Paratroopas that attempted to attack them. The Paratroopas made run after run on the ground-bound allies, some of them tossing Bob-ombs down into the allies' lines, only for Donkey Kong to catch the bipedal bombs and toss them back up at the Koopa Paratroopas. He then added more support by drawing his Coconut Shooter and unleashing a barrage of hardened fruit on the Koopa Paratroopas, knocking them out of the sky with single hits.
The commanders on the airships, as well as Bowser, who had just emerged from his the flagship in a new Koopa Clown Car, could only grimace at the battle scene. The damage done to the castle's defenses was minor at best, while they were suffering significant losses. They soon saw another squad of Koopa Paratroopas fall as Donkey Kong unleashed a barrage of coconuts at them from his Coconut Shooter, with Goombario and Goombella finishing off the rest of the Paratroopas as they attempted to dive bomb the ground allies. And things were about to get worse.
Seeing that the airships were beginning to close ranks and form up on each other, Vivian could only grin. This was perfect. The time was had come for her to show off some improvements to her already formidable skills, skills that could end this invasion in moments. Having already helped deal with another squad of Koopa Paratroopas, she proceeded to make her way to the middle of the formation of airships situated above the castle grounds. However, her approach did not go unnoticed by some of the airship commanders.
Onboard one of the airships on the outside of the formation, Bowser's oldest son, Kevin, looked out the forward viewport as the battle raged on. He watched as Mario, Luigi, and Diddy Kong were making a mess of the Koopa air force. A few gunners from his airship had taken a few potshots at the Marios and Diddy Kong, but they were designed as to deter the heroes from making attack runs on their ships, rather than do any real damage, though if they did score a hit, the gunners would not complain. So far, though, their fire had hit nothing but air.
Soon, one of the radar operators, a red-shelled Koopa Troopa, saw a small blip appear on his screen. It was larger than a bird, but too small to be an aircraft of any kind. At first he had thought that the blip was one of the Marios, but looking out the window, he saw Mario and Luigi engaged in a dogfight against members of Theta Squadron. The officer grimaced as he saw one of the fighters catch fire and begin an uncontrolled dive, another casualty in this so far disastrous invasion. Checking his instruments, he saw that the blip's location on the screen did not correspond to Mario and Luigi's current locations.
"Sir, I've picked something up on radar," the officer alerted.
"What is it?" Kevin asked.
"I don't know, sir," the officer answered. "It's too small to be a fighter and I've already accounted for Mario and Luigi's location."
This piqued the Koopa Prince's curiosity, and concern, and he rose from his chair went over to the radar station to get a look at the blip. Seeing the blip with his own eyes, he suspected that it was the size of a Koopa Troopa, give or take. Extending his magical senses, he scanned the area and found the presence of a Shadow Siren. While he had never fought any of the Shadow Sirens in the past, he had heard of them and had seen one of them, Vivian, in action with his own eyes during a rescue attempt of Mario a year ago. He knew she was dangerous.
"It's Vivian," he muttered. At first, he did not think much of it until he thought back to the abilities that the Shadow Spirit had demonstrated in the rescue of Mario a year ago. He then remembered her magical fire abilities, particularly Fiery Jinx, and realized what she was doing.
"Helm, Navigation, get us away from the main fleet now! Comm, open a channel to the rest of the fleet. Tell them to split up and take out that Shadow Spirit now! She's going to use her Fiery Jinx to try to take out the fleet!"
"Yes, sir," the helm, navigation, and comm officers replied in unison as they went about their tasks. Outside, the ship began to peel off from the main fleet and the fleet began to swivel their guns towards Vivian. However, it was too little, too late. The Shadow Spirit raised her index finger and twirled it once.
The instant she twirled her finger, magical fire erupted in the powder magazines and fuel tanks of all of the airships within a three hundred meter radius of the Shadow Spirit. As Vivian went intangible a dozen ships and countless fighters promptly exploded in midair, ejecting debris and shrapnel in all directions. Some of the debris rained down into the battlefield, forcing the ground-bound allies to search for cover, while other debris, shrapnel, and even explosives were launched into the ships and fighters surrounding them. Some of the ships were too close to the destroyed ships and they, too, suffered the same fate, the stricken ships losing power and listing downwards, descending to the ground and eventually crashing and either exploding or crumpling into misshapen, virtually unrecognizable wrecks.
Ships farther away from the destroyed fleet, however, did not emerge unscathed, either. Still, the fact that they were farther away meant that they did not have to deal with as much debris, or the concussions of the blasts from the destroyed airships. The smaller pieces of debris glanced off of the ships' hulls, or stuck in the hulls but inflicted nothing more than superficial damage. The few explosives that reached the outer ships, on the other hand, inflicted far more damage. Explosions and fire erupted from the ships as they suffered significant damage from the previously undetonated explosives from the destroyed airships. In addition, some debris found its way into the ships after holes had been opened by the ejected explosives. This inflicted far more damage to the ships, with some more not managing to stay aloft, though these managed to soft land so the crews could be picked up by evacuation vehicles, or at least fight on the ground. Still, when all was said and done, an additional eight ships were either mission-killed or destroyed and four others were heavily damaged enough that they began to withdraw due to damage and would likely have to be scuttled. In all but an instant, four-fifths of the airship assault fleet had been destroyed or forced to withdraw.
Outside the airships, Bowser could only watch in horror as all but six of his airships were either destroyed or damaged badly enough to either crash-land or withdraw due to damage. Even worse was that two of the downed ships were commanded by his children, one of them being under the command of his namesake, Bowser Jr., no less. He immediately got out a cell phone with spikes on it and activated it, screaming, "Bowser Junior, Ludwig, anyone, respond at once! What's your status?"
"I'm here, Dad," he heard his youngest son, Bowser Jr., answer. "My ship crashed but I'm okay."
"I'm fine too, Dad," he heard the deeper voice of his second oldest son, Ludwig, answer.
"What about Kevin and the others?"
"We were far enough away from the fleet that we didn't suffer severe damage," he heard the voice of his oldest son, Kevin, answer. "Still, there are only six airships left and there's little we can do to stop that Shadow Spirit from doing that again to the rest of the ships."
"Oh yes there is," Bowser roared in answer, but his tone was not just one of rage, but of a calculating anger. "We can kill that Shadow Spirit. Call in the Ghost Brigade and Magikoopas and tell them to engage that Shadow Spirit and all of the other ghost and spirit allies of the Marios now! The rest of you, go get Peach. We need to get her now and get out of here!"
"Yes, Father," Kevin answered.
In mere moments, a force of Magikoopas along with Boos materialized outside the remaining airships and in the same location where Vivian had been when she used her Fiery Jinx. Scanning the area for any signs of the former Shadow Siren, they spotted her on the ground below, catching her breath after performing such a taxing chore. They gave her little chance to catch her breath further, though, as they rocketed towards her, firing blasts of magic from their wands, prompting her to take refuge in the shadows. Then the Magikoopas waited, for they knew that she could not hide in there forever. The Boos, on the other hand, decided not to wait and they went into the shadows after Vivian, hoping to be able to deal with her there.
Elsewhere in the battle, Mario, Luigi, and Diddy Kong continued their attack on the remaining Koopa fighters, knowing that their ground-bound allies would be easy pickings if they did not keep the Koopa air force occupied, despite the presence of several anti-aircraft guns around the castle still functioning and spraying lead and fire at the aircraft. The destruction of most of the airship fleet was making their job much easier but they knew that the battle was far from over. Mario and Luigi unleashed another fireball barrage on two fighters that were pursuing them, taking them both down, one of them exploding in midair as the fighter's fuel tank caught fire. He soon heard a call for help from the ground and banked downward to see a small army of Koopa Troopas and Goombas converging on the Toad Brigade.
"Luigi, can you and Diddy hold out up here? I have to go help the Toad Brigade."
"No problem!"
Mario then saluted Luigi before diving towards the Koopas. As he did so, he called out to the Toad Brigade, "Jump!"
The six Toads of the Toad Brigade looked up and, seeing Mario go into a dive, each jumped the moment the plumber crashed into the ground. His crash produced an earthquake that shook the ground and sent seismic waves into the onrushing Koopa Troopas and Goombas. The shaking of the ground was enough to cause them to bounce up into the air and come crashing down to the ground, defeating most of them. Those that were still able to fight proceeded to try to produce a Thunder Rage to use against the plumber and the Toads. Mario would have none of it, though, and he pointed his Fire Flower at them, unleashing a barrage of fireballs in the process, each one incinerating a Koopa or Goomba. When the skirmish was over, none of the Koopas or Goombas were able to continue fighting, those that were still alive.
Not too far above the site of the battle, Kevin had watched from his airship as Mario had dealt with the Koopa Troopas and the Goombas. He soon saw Mario looking for other ground-bound Koopas to deal with, figuring that Mario was viewing the ground forces as the most significant threat at the moment with the airship fleet being all but destroyed. He watched as Princess Peach fought off a squad of Goombas and Koopa Troopas. Seeing an opportunity to fight Mario while his allies were distracted, he turned to his executive officer, a Dark Koopatrol, and told him, "Captain Scarlegan, I am placing you in command of this airship. I'm going down to deal with Mario, myself."
"Understood, sir," Captain Scarlegan answered. With that, Kevin vanished from the bridge.
The Koopa Prince reappeared right in front of Mario as he was headed towards Princess Peach. "That's far enough, Mario," the Koopa Prince growled. "It ends today." With that, the Koopa prince went on the offensive.
Kevin drew back his head and promptly unleashed a massive stream of flame towards the human plumber, forcing Mario to go evasive. The plumber dove to the left, barely avoiding the stream of flame, but that would not be enough against the Koopa Prince. The prince swept his head towards Mario, forcing the plumber to scurry towards the rock outcropping of a destroyed cannon mount for cover. He pinned himself to the ground as he attempted to avoid the flame but it was too hot. The flame was already superheating the rocks, causing them to glow and even melt. All he could do was hold out until Kevin was out of breath. Fortunately, the Koopa Prince ceased his attack before the rocks completely melted and the heat got to Mario enough that he would lose his cape.
The plumber quickly emerged from cover and took a series of shots at Kevin with his Fire Flower. Unfortunately, Kevin was not out of breath and was prepared for Mario's counterattack. Drawing out his wand, he raised a shield over himself, a blue field of electricity forming in front of the Koopa as Mario's fireballs hit it. Kevin then pointed his wand at Mario and, without a word, unleashed a blast of lightning on Mario. Mario was caught off guard by Kevin's attack and took a direct hit. Electricity arced across his body as his cape promptly disappeared, turning him back to normal. However, the plumber was not out of options.
Gripping his Fire Flower, Mario quickly turned into Fire Mario and retaliated with a volley of fireballs. The first few struck Kevin's shield, but it was beginning to flicker and fluctuate. Mario's fire was getting to it. Kevin raised his wand to fire off another volley of lightning bolts when Mario unleashed another volley of fire on the Koopa Prince. The first two balls collapsed Kevin's shield while the other final two struck the head of the Koopa Prince's wand. While the fireballs did not destroy Kevin's wand, they did inflict enough damage to force him to power down the spell. Checking his wand, Kevin could see that the head was cracked. He grimaced. Much of his magic would not be available to him for this battle. However, he still had several options available to him.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Diddy Kong and Luigi were making a mess of Theta Squadron. Diddy unleashed two homing missiles from his plane. The missiles streaked towards the closest two fighters, one of them being Theta Leader. The jet fighters went evasive in a vain attempt to evade the missiles. The two missiles crashed into the fighters and detonated. Theta Leader was reduced to shrapnel as the missile explosions punctured its fuel tank. The second fighter was slightly luckier in that the missile merely impacted a wing. The explosion tore off the wing, causing the plane to spin, but the pilot was still able to punch the cockpit canopy and jump from his doomed craft, a parachute opening and allowing the pilot to slow his descent to the ground.
Inside his fighter, Korry guided his aircraft towards Diddy Kong's plane, which was currently engaging in a dogfight with another jet fighter. Despite Diddy's plane merely being a propeller plane, it was still able to keep up with the jet fighter in terms of maneuverability. Korry's fighter, however, was far faster than either plane, being able to go supersonic if necessary, and he quickly fell in behind Diddy.
"Got one right in front of us," Korry alerted Sephiroth "Get ready."
Sephiroth gave no answer as he was studying Korry's controls on Korry's console and comparing them to those on his own. He was growing tired of this battle and wished to make his way to Star Haven. Unfortunately, Korry seemed to be too engaged in the fight for him to break off the engagement any time soon. He glanced down at Masamune and contemplated making a move against Korry but thought against it as he still did not know how to gain control of the plane should Korry be killed.
"Hey Sephiroth, wake up! We've got an enemy in our sights! Take him out!" Korry blurted, looking back at his human copilot and gunner.
"Understood," came the answer. Sephiroth then guided the reticle until it was close to Diddy Kong's plane. The beeping tone soon became solid, indicating a target lock. As he was about to fire, though, the plane shook and jostled both him and Korry. He then pulled the firing trigger but nothing happened. Sephiroth pulled the trigger but again, nothing.
"Hey, wake up back there," Korry blurted. "Fire on that plane!"
"I'm trying," Sephiroth said in an unnaturally even tone. "The guns won't fire."
Korry then looked ahead as Diddy shot off one of his homing missiles on the fighter he had been tailing. This missile almost instantly cross the distance between Diddy's plane and its target and it struck the enemy fighter right in the engine, literally flying right through the fighter's tailpipe. The missile detonated and blew apart the plane but Korry was worried less about his comrade's destruction than he was about the condition of his own plane.
Checking the readout on the console in front of him, and on an outline of his plane, he could see that the he could see that the nose of the plane was outlined in red. Looking outside, though, he did not see any smoke issuing from the nose. When he input another command to see how extensive the damage was, he saw that the guns had been reduced to slag and were unusable. He gritted his teeth. Either Luigi or Mario must have taken a potshot at the plane and had gotten a lucky hit. No wonder Sephiroth had not been able to shoot down Diddy's plane. Still, there was no reason the human gunner could not have switched to missiles to do the job. Looking ahead, he saw that Diddy's plane was no longer in sight.
He proceeded to bank the plane to his left to search for Diddy or any other target of opportunity when he saw Mario on the ground engaged in a battle against Kevin. He did not see much point in engaging Mario since Kevin was so close to the plumber but Sephiroth did not see things that way since the moment the plane was even closely lined up with the two combatants, every missile erupted from the jet fighter and streaked down towards the dueling warriors. Korry's face went aghast as the missile struck the ground, gouging massive holes in the ground where Mario and Kevin used to be. The explosions propelled both Mario and the Koopa Prince into the air away from each other. Mario instantly de-powered and was reduced to normal while Kevin was winded by the missile detonations. Fortunately, though, neither combatant was killed or even seriously injured as Kevin tucked himself into his shell and while Mario landed on his back, he quickly rolled and managed to stand, looking up into the air to see who had fired on them. Korry, however, had pulled the fighter away from the scene and was less than thrilled at Sephiroth's initiative.
"What the hell was that?" the Magikoopa roared. "We'll be charged with treason for that?"
"Why?" came another unerringly calm response from the human gunner. "Isn't Mario your primary target?"
"Yeah, but that was Prince Kevin he was fighting! Kevin can handle Mario. He's beaten him before. And besides, he's the Crown Prince of the Koopas! You don't just fire on someone without worrying about collateral damage, especially if Prince Kevin is the collateral damage!"
"He looks alright to me," came Sephiroth's all too calm and callous retort. "And Mario looks to have changed a bit. One more run and he can be finished off."
"Too bad you wasted all of our missiles in that mad strike! The magic of this world allows Mario to ignore subsequent damage for a few seconds after he take a hit that hurts him. If you had kept a couple missiles waiting, we may have been able to finish him off. As it is now, though, without guns, we'll have to go back to one of the airships for reloading, which will take a long time, basically pulling us out of this fight."
"Then now is the perfect time for us to go to Star Haven and get that Star Rod."
"Oh no we won't," Korry retorted. "If we retreat now, they'll hunt us down until we're dead for that little stunt you just pulled. And I have no intention of just leaving without explaining that I was not the one who pulled that trigger."
Korry then went and input a series of commands on his console. A series of messages, including a map of the area appeared on his screen, as well as Sephiroth's. Sephiroth looked down at his console and then over at Korry's console to see if their layouts corresponded with each other's. Surprisingly enough, they did and Sephiroth began to grin. He was losing patience with Korry and this battle. This plane was out of missiles and its guns had been destroyed. The plane soon shook again as both he and Korry saw series of fireballs flash past the cockpit across the plane's nose. They had suffered another hit. The Magikoopa went to check the readouts and soon saw that the nose had taken another hit, likely from Luigi. Fortunately, though, the damage was merely superficial. Still, Korry decided that it was time for him to ready an autopilot destination should the situation get out of hand.
"It's time for us to go, Korry," Sephiroth stated more forcefully. "This damage gives us a chance to get to Star Haven without either side asking too many questions or interfering. They'll think our navigation systems were damaged by that last fireball."
"Not yet," Korry answered.
"Then what are you doing?"
"Readying the autopilot to take us to Star Haven should things get out of hand. Still, we're not finished yet. We can still take down Luigi."
"And why would we want to waste time doing that?" Sephiroth inquired.
"Because we don't want him tailing us to Star Haven," Korry answered.
Korry then banked the plane to the right in search of the green-clad plumber when he heard a series of thumps and clangs. Suddenly, the canopy window to his left cracked as if it was hit with a bullet. Blast it, the Magikoopa seethed. One of the remaining anti-aircraft guns was raking him with fire and had gotten lucky. Still, he was impressed with the jet fighter's durability. Unfortunately, for him though, the plane was pointed straight towards Star Haven and Sephiroth had learned enough about the plane's controls to know that all Korry had to do to activate the autopilot that would take them towards Star Haven would be to push a single glowing green button.
As casually as if he were brushing off a bothersome twig, Sephiroth picked up Masamune and thrust the ōdachi forward, through the back of the seat in front of him, and through Korry's head right between his eyes. Korry felt nothing as Sephiroth killed him and his body went limp, the Magikoopa's head falling right onto the autopilot button. The plane immediately banked slightly to its right and its nose tilted backwards as the jet fighter began its ascent. However, as it did so, a stream of fireballs rocketed past the cockpit coming from behind. Some were close and the human could almost feel the plane shake until it actually did shake. The last fireball managed to score a hit on one of the plane's fuselage. Sephiroth grunted. He knew that the plane did not have long to live and he hoped to wring every last kilometer he could out of it if it could get him to Star Haven, which was beginning to look unlikely as he noticed that there was no green glow coming from beneath Korry's head. Moving the dead Koopa's head aside, he saw that the autopilot button was no longer glowing. In addition, the readout on the screen below read, Damage, rear fuselage. Autopilot disabled. Engine damage detected.
Sephiroth could only grunt. It was worse than he imagined. Cutting the back of the seat off, he got out of his seat and went into Korry's seat, crawling on top of the dead Magikoopa's body to grab the control stick and accelerate the plane to its top speed. The former SOLDIER was careful to make certain that he kept the plane flying straight since he did not know exactly where Star Haven was and he suspected that if there was an alternate road to reach it from the ground, it was likely protected by more than just armed guards. It was likely something inaccessible to someone whom was not let in by whoever inhabited the haven.
As he found the throttle controls, he set the plane to full throttle and the jet lurched forward, though it was slower than he thought, likely due to the damage inflicted by that last fireball. If he had looked out the back, he would have seen smoke trailing the aircraft as the flames from that last fireball began traveling towards the engine. Melted metal was already beginning to fall off the craft and even without being able to see it, Sephiroth knew that the end was coming for the fighter. Looking ahead, though, he saw Shooting Star Summit coming into range. Above it, he thought he could see a translucent road hovering above the mountain's summit. He began to grin. He was getting close. Still, Star Haven was above him and he did not know whether or not the plane could make the ascent. His question was soon answered as he heard an explosion outside the aircraft. Dreading it was the engine blowing up, he checked the readouts to see that the cockpit screen had gone dark and that the other instruments were not functioning. He also looked outside and saw that the plane's ascent had leveled off and it was beginning to fall.
Knowing that the plane was doomed, he did his best to guide the dying aircraft towards Star Way, the road that led up to Star Haven, and the Star Rod. Seeing that he would be able to at least make it to Star Way, he tried to guide the jet towards it, but was unable to control it since the controls were not responsive. The rudder must have been damaged. Seeing that he would have to jump from the plane to reach Star Way, he grabbed his sword and thrust it above him. Sweeping it back and forth, he was able to shatter the canopy and wind suddenly buffeted him and nearly knocked him back into his seat.
Carefully looking down at Star Way, he readied himself. He would have to calculate the jump perfectly in order to land on Star Way. If he missed by even a few meters, he would fall off of Star Way and back to the ground, likely having to find another way up to Star Haven. Looking down at Star Way, he waited for what he suspected was the opportune moment to jump. When that moment came, he sprang from the cockpit, leaving the doomed fighter to fall to its death in the distance, and descended towards Star Way. As he descended, he could tell that his jump was true. All that remained was to make certain that his momentum did not carry him off of the translucent road and back down to the ground.
As he neared the ground, he readied his sword should it be needed to arrest his momentum. Sephiroth landed on his feet and began to slide towards the edge of the narrow road. Thrusting his sword into the road, he managed to arrest his momentum and come to a stop several feet from the road's edge. Once he had come to a stop, he drew the sword from the road and proceeded to run, following the road to Star Haven, carefully looking behind him to make certain that no one had followed him, for he was certain that even with the battle going on at that castle not too far away from Shooting Star Summit, that someone was going to notice his plane headed towards Star Haven and come to investigate. And he wanted to get the Star Rod before they managed to intercept him.
Meanwhile, up in Star Haven, Eldstar looked down at Star Way and saw the former SOLDIER making his way along the road. He knew that it would not be long before he reached Star Haven. Even though Sephiroth had not come back complete, the Star Spirit, as well as the other Star Spirits in Star Haven could feel that something was wrong with him. It was not long before Eldstar was joined by the other Star Spirits, each one sensing the incredible strength of Sephiroth, as well as the darkness surrounding him.
Turing to the other Star Spirits, the gray mustachioed Star Spirit told them, "Hide the Star Rod in the deepest sanctuary and raise the Star Shield. We can't let that soldier gain access to Star Haven."
"Understood," the other Star Spirits said in unison.
"Once that's finished, we have to contact Mario at once."
"But Bowser has launched an all out invasion of Peach's Castle," Mamar blurted. "The Marios will be needed to push back the invasion."
"Much of Bowser's airship fleet has already been destroyed," Skolar countered sagely.
"But there's still Kevin, the Koopalings, and Bowser, himself, to deal with," Misstar added. "The last thing we need is for the Marios to be divided."
"I agree," Eldstar stated. "But we have little choice. Once Sephiroth arrives, the Star Shield will only hold out so long against his assault before it falls. And I can't help but think that we're dealing with more than just an evil human, here."
The other Star Spirits nodded. "I sense it, too," Skolar stated. "And I can't help but think that that energy feels ominously familiar."