Chapter 7
Mario shoots the moon
Soon, Mario and his friends came out of the other side of the pipe and found themselves in a cold, snowy place.
"It's very cold here." said Mario
"Yeah. Let's find Fahr outpost and use their canon as fast as we can." said Bobby
They crossed a giant frozen plain filled with enemies. First, they encountered ice puffs, small frosty clouds. They tried to freeze Mario and his friends, but they were defeated mostly thanks to Vivian and her fire powers. They also fought many frost piranhas, which tried to eat them. The snow and the ice made everything more difficult, but Mario and his friends defeated all the enemies in their way and kept walking. After a long way, they finally arrived at Fahr outpost. A small town were many bob-ombs lived.
"This is Fahr outpost." said Goombela. "Let's find the canon."
"Who should we ask?" said Flurrie
"The mayor." said Bobbery. "I've been here before, so I know him."
And so, they found the mayor.
"Are you the mayor?" asked Mario
"Da. What business do you have here?" asked the mayor when they approached him.
"We need to use your canon to get to the moon." said Mario
"Canon?" said the mayor. He then paused for a minute and said: "We don't have such a thing."
"What? I'm sure we were told there was a canon around here." said Koops
"What do you want me to do? We don't have one." said the mayor
"You are the mayor, right?" said Bobbery. "How can an official like you lie that way?"
"What do you mean?" asked the mayor
"Old boy, I know I saw a canon the last time I was here, so don't play it silly with me." said Bobbery
"Shhh." Said the mayor. "You call yourself a bob-omb. I spit on you. You know the rules. There must be no mention of the canon to non-bob-ombs. We must prevent its use for evil purposes."
"Yes, I know all that." said Bobbery. "But we need your canon to get to the moon. Otherwise, the world could end."
"Hmmmmmmmmmm. World could end." said the mayor. "That's serious. Still you can't use the canon now because of certain circumstances."
"What circumstances?" asked Vivian
"Goldbob was the one who started this whole Blast-things-to-faraway-places policy. Once he got rich, he stopped the business and won't start it again. And general White was the one who operated the canon. When it stopped, he became so sad that he left town and took the canon key with him."
"Goldbob and general White?" said Mario
"Da. If you want to use the canon, you must find those two."
Mario and his friends left town and took the pipe back to Rogueport sewers.
"Where are we going?" asked Goombela
"Don't you remember? Goldbob and his family were on the excess express with us. He's in Poshley heights." said Mario
"But it'll take three days to go there." said Koops
"No. Don't you remember the guy we saw when we came back? He said he found a pipe directly to Poshley heights. Let's see." said Mario
They indeed found a pipe to Poshley heights and there, they found Goldbob with his wife and child.
"Can we speak to you for a minute?" said Mario to Goldbob.
"Sure Gonzales." said Goldbob and asked his wife and child to leave them alone. When they did, he asked: "What is it?"
"We need to use the canon in Fahr outpost to get to the moon." said Flurrie.
"Really? Hmmm. That's rather a pickle." said Goldbob. "Well, I guess I owe you a favour or two. To be honest, I was hoping to resume business with that canon someday. And just between us… I only stopped it, because Silvia said she didn't like the noise. However, it takes quite a lot of money to get that canon working, so you must demonstrate how much you want to use it. If it were a matter of money, how much would you give?"
Mario thought on it and said to himself:
"it's a trick question." He then turned to Goldbob and said:
"Everything I have."
"What? Really?" shouted Goldbob. "Sorry, I was just shocked. You realize this means you'll be left with zero coins? With absolutely nothing?"
"Yes." said Mario
"I you have zero coins you may face problems down the road." said Goldbob.
"I'm okay." said Mario
"You mean it? You won't say "I'm kidding" or something like that, right?"
"Of course, not." said Mario
"Very well." said Goldbob. The Mario took out his pouch with all his money and gave it to Goldbob.
"Thank you. I'm impressed." said Goldbob. He then went into his house.
"Why did you give him all your money Gonzales?" asked Bobby
"Because I don't really need it." said Mario. "Besides, I'm sure he'll return them to me and say he was kidding."
Then Goldbob came out with a piece of paper with something written on it and with a stamp.
"This is the permission you need to use the canon. Good luck." said Goldbob. "And I was kidding before. How could I take your money? Ha ha ha ha."
"I told you" said Mario and took back his pouch. "Now we need to find general White."
"Maybe I can help." said Goldbob. "I heard he was seen in Petalburg."
"Thank you." said Mario and left with his friends. They returned to the sewers and took the pipe to Petalburg. There they asked the mayor who said:
"General White? I remember him? He was here a while ago, but he left. He said he had someone to find. A very important person. Where did he say he was going? Something about a forest? A big tree?"
"The great tree." said Flurrie
"Exactly, but how do you…" said the mayor, but before he could finish, the others left and returned to the sewers. There they took the pipe to Boogly woods. They went to the great tree and asked the puni elder about general White.
"General White? He was here for some time, but he left. He was looking for a guy who could fulfill his dreams or something like that. I think he mentioned he was going to look for him in an arena."
"Glitzville." said Bobby
They returned to Rogueport and took the blimp to Glitzville They were all getting tired of this ridiculous hunt. After they reached Glitzville, they tied to speak to Jolene, but she was busy superintending a fight. They had to wait until it was over which took very long. When it was finally over, they visited Jolene in her office and asked her.
"I remember general White. He was one of the biggest fans of the Glitz pit while he was here, but suddenly, he decided to leave."
Mario facepalmed in disappointment.
"He said he didn't have any reason to stay anymore because the one he was looking for wasn't here. There are some rumors that he's in a dark and eerie town." said Jolene
Twilight town." said Vivian
They returned to the sewers again and took the pipe to Twilight town. There they visited the mayor in his house and asked him.
"General White? Why, yes. There was a guy with that name here. I don't remember him much. All he said was that he needed to find a guy or he'd lose the meaning of his life forever. Whoever that person was, he wasn't here, so general White left. When I asked where he'd go next, he said something about a tropical island.
"Keelhaul key." said Bobbery
"This is turning into a wild goose chase." said Mario
"And a very tiring one." said Koops
They went back to Rogueport and called Cortez. He took them to keelhaul key in no time, but they didn't have much luck there either
General White?" said Pa-Patch. "He was here just a few minutes ago, but he decided to leave. He said he had searched high and low, but he hadn't found the person he needed and that it was all hopeless. don't know where he went. However, he looked pretty tired."
"What will we do now?" asked Ms. Mowz
"Back to Fahr outpost." said Mario. "It's our last chance."
They returned to Fahr outpost and gave the mayor the permission.
"Great." said the mayor." And general White…"
"We can't find him." said Mario. "We searched everywhere."
"Can we find someone else to operate the canon?" asked Flurrie
"Do we specifically need general White?" asked Koops. "He's nowhere to be found."
"That's what I was about to tell you." said the mayor. "General White came back."
"What? When?" asked everyone at the same time
"A few minutes ago. He was so tired that he didn't say anything to anyone. He just went into the inn and fell asleep.
"We need to wake him up." said Mario.
He and his friends went into the inn and ask for general White's room. When they entered, they found a white bob-omb with soldiers' hat sleeping. They tried to wake him up, but in vain. They tried everything. They shook him, made terrible noise, Flurrie blew him and Bobbery even made an explosion right next to him, but he didn't even budge.
"He is a heavy sleeper." said Ms. Mowz.
"I have an idea." said Mario. He then turned off the heater and soon the room was freezing. This made genera White wake up. He looked at Mario and said:
"Who are you? Leave me alone. I don't want anything from you. I just want to sleep as it all hopeless." He then looked better at Mario and said:
"Wait. That hat. That mustache and that hammer even. I've been looking everywhere for you."
"Me? Why?" asked Mario
"To bring the canon back online." said general White. "I had lost my life's work. My very reason to live. I was at my wit's end. And then a fortune-teller in Rogueport told me: "Seek the man with the red M hat. The one with the hammer and 'stache. He'll fulfil your dreams." Or something like that."
"That makes sense." said Mario. "We were also looking for you. "You went from place to place in the order we had visited them and we visited them again looking for you, always one step behind. Anyway, we need to use the canon to save the world."
Hooray! The fortune-teller was right." said general White. "Come on. No time to lose."
Forgetting his tiredness, general White left the inn followed by Mario and his friends. They went to the mayor.
"The canon is back online." said Mario
"Excellent." I could explode with delight." said the mayor. "Now we can shoot you to the moon. Follow me."
"We did it old boy." said Bobbery
"Moon, here we come" said Bobby
The followed the mayor and went to the center of the town. There was a red cross there.
"First wear these." said the mayor pointing at eight oxygen helmets. "You'll need those on the moon."
"Okay." said Mario and wore his helmets. So did all his partners
"Now stand here." said the mayor
Mario and his friends did so. The ground under their feet opened and they fell through it. They landed on a jammed steel door.
"General White. Is everything ready?" asked the mayor
"Yes sir." said general White. He then went into a small building with two other bob-ombs. The building was the control room for the canon.
"Bring guidance system online." said General White
"System online."
"System check."
"System check. All clear."
"Prepare detonation sequence."
Immediately, an alarm was heard all over town to inform everyone about the upcoming launch.
"Open outer hatch."
Immediately, the ground opened reveling the steel door Mario and his friends were standing on were on.
"Open inner shutter."
Then that steel door and other three under it, four in total, opened causing Mario and his friends to fall into the canon.
"Elevate. On my mark."
Then a giant canon came out of the hole.
"Target is the moon."
The canon was set towards the moon.
"Direction: 75.38
Elevation: 54.66
Range: 389603
Wind speed: 1.08
Correct direction: 3.03
Correct elevation: 2.39"
Those were the adjustments made to the canon
"Target locked. Open chamber hatch."
Then the side of the canon opened.
"Alight. Everyone in." said the mayor. Then about a hundred bob-ombs went into the hatch and it closed. It must have been pretty crowded because everyone in there shouted.
"it's crowded in here BOOM."
"Stop pushing BA-ZOOM."
"You're on my foot BA-BOOM."
"Stop breathing down my neck PLOOM."
"Conditions all green."
It is time." Said the mayor. "Big canon: Fire!"
The canon fired and sent Mario and his friends flying towards the moon, while the boob -ombs landed on the ground with parachutes."
"Good luck Mario." said the mayor
Mario and his friends flew into space and eventually succeeded in landing on the moon.
"We did it." Said Koops
"That was rather a bumpy trip." said Bobbery
"I never tough I'd get to do such a thing." said Ms. Mowz
"Now let's find the last crystal star and princess Peach." said Mario
The walked for some time. It was not very easy, because gravity is less on the moon and everything is slower. Eventually, they saw some kind of secret base.
"that looks like the thing on the map." said Bobby
"the crystal star must be there." said Vivian
"Princess Peach could also be there." said Ms. Mowz
"Let's go." said Flurrie
They reached the base. The doors needed a password to open, but Mario hit them with his hammer and Bobbery caused an explosion and they opened. When they entered, they found themselves in a high-tech place.
"We don't need helmets in here." said Mario and took of his helmet
"He's right." said Goombela. They all took off their helmets.
"What is this place? It doesn't look familiar." said Mario
As they were about to explore it deeper, a door opened and two x-nauts appeared.
"Who are these guys, dude? Asked the first
"Hey. That's Mario." said the second. "How did he get here?"
"It doesn't matter. Let's get him."
The both attacked, but with the help of his partners, Mario quickly made them run away without even sweating. It just took a few hits is with his hammer, a few shell attacks by koops, a few fireballs by Vivian and a few explosions by Bobbery. They could have defeated them with less attacks, but they all wanted to have fun.
"As I suspected." said Mario. "Since these fiends are here. This must be the x-naut secret base. The crystal star and princess peach are definitely here."
"Then let's find them." said Bobbery
"What's that?" asked Koops pointing to something on the floor.
"It's a pass card." said Mario after picking it up. "I'll take it. It may be useful."
The went deeper and found an elevator.
"It needs a pass card to be used." said Goombela
"it's a good thing I got this one." said Mario and used the pass card on the elevator. The door opened and Mario and his friends opened it and went from sublevel 2 to sublevel 1. There they started exploring all the rooms. Eventually, they entered a lab. There were two x-naut researchers in it and a green pass card on the desk.
"Don't let them get the pass card." said researcher 1
"Why did you have to say that out loud?" said researcher 2
"Oh, right. You don't need the pass card, it's useless."
"Forget it."
They both tried to attack Mario and his friends, but the first one got beat up so badly, he couldn't get up. The second Knew he had no chance, so he took an orange potion from the desk and drank it. He suddenly turned huge.
"That's not good." said Koops
"He turned into a giant." said Bobby
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." said Mario
"We'll see about that." said the x-naut
The all attached him, but their attacks couldn't do much. His attacks were much stronger and he had the upper hand. Suddenly, Mario noticed a note on the wall. It said:
"Blue potion increases intellectual power. Red potion increases speed. Orange potion increase size. Pink potion undoes all the above effects."
"That gave him an idea. He noticed a pink potion on the desk. He took it, held it in a way that the x-naut couldn't see it's colour and said loud enough for the x-naut to hear him:
"I'll also drink this and become large."
"No." said the x-naut. He then grabbed it and drank it too without noticing the colour. He returned to his original size.
"You tricked me." said the x-naut
"You may have strength, but I have brains." said Mario and knocked him out. He then took the green pass card.
"What does that do?" asked Ms. Mowz
"We'll find out" said Mario
They left the lab and took the elevator one floor up. So, they went to level 2. There they were searching for anything suspicious, when they came across a room with flashing tiles. A t the end of it, there was a pedestal with a red pass card on it.
"I'll get it." said Bobby. However, as he stepped on a tile, he got shocked and fell back.
"Be careful." said Mario. "Some tiles are traps." He looked at them. Some were always the same colour and some changed colour after each flash. He then started walking only on those that changed colors and he made it to the end of the room without getting shocked. He then took the pass card and did the same thing backwards and left the room with his friends safe and sound.
"Good work Mario." said Koops. "Now what?"
"We still have to find princess Peach and the crystal star." said Mario. "We found what we had to find on this floor so let's move on.
So, they took the elevator and went to the top floor, Level 1. There they explored many rooms. Even Grodus' room and the one princess peach was held in, but they were both empty. Only one room was locked and they couldn't access it. The entered a room and found some sort of factory that produced the x-naut weapons. It had a blue pass card on the table next to a machine. However, the room was filled to the brim with x-nauts, so Mario and his friends had to be very careful not to be spotted. They padded and crawled and almost made it. Suddenly, one x-naut who was also trying not to get spotted, he had just taken an unauthorized break, tripped over them.
"Intruders. Alarm!" he shouted. Every x-naut in the room stopped working to get Mario and his friends. The all tried to fight, but they were outnumbered. All of Mario's partners were captured and only he remained free. He had no choice. He jumped on the machine next to the table with the pass card and tried to use it to save his friends. He soon understood how the machine worked. It packed the weapons before they were sent to the x-naut ammunitions damp. With it, he saved his friends and then trapped all the x-nauts in big packages.
"Excellent work Mario." said Goombela
"Yes. You saved our lives" said Koops
"We weren't sure we'd make it this time." said Flurrie
"I always believed in you Gonzales. We never give up." said Bobby
"Now we can take the pass card." said Vivian
"Now we have three." said Ms. Mowz
"We still don't know what they are for." said Bobbery
"Let's see." said Mario and pointed to a door in the factory. They entered and found another door that required three pass cards to be opened.
"I bet the crystal star is in this room." said Bobby
"And probably princess peach." said Goombela
Mario put the right pass card in the right opening and the door unlocked. The entered and found themselves in a giant room. When they entered, they heard a familiar voice.
"Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!"
It was lord Crump.
"Finally, you showed up." he said. "I've been waiting for you. Oh man have I been waiting. And I hate waiting!"
"Crump." said Vivian
"You've been waiting for us? What does that mean?" asked Goombela
"I'll tell you what that means. It means I used the crystal star to lure you here, so I could take all of your crystal stars. How brilliant is that?" said lord Crump. "And you want to know the best part? Your little peachy girl isn't even here anymore."
"So Peach was here." said Bobbery
"What did you do to her? Speak crump." said Mario
"Buh! Buh! Buh! Buh! Buh! Like I'd tell you the whole plan. No, I won't be doing that. Sorry." said crump. "Are you ready for showtime? You'll be the perfect workout for Magnus von Grapple 2.0."
He the approached a giant robot near him, that Mario and his friends hadn't noticed until then. It was like Magnus von grapple, but it was black and blue, had a yellow cross on its chest and a red "2" on it. Lord crump got in it and activated it.
"I hope you are ready, because this baby is raw horsepower suckers." said lord Crump. He then approached Mario and his friends and got ready to fight.
"The last model wasn't good enough, so we made improvements." said lord Crump. "One, two, a dozen. Prepare for many different ways to experience pain."
"You will experience pain." said Mario. "No matter how many times we do this, it'll end the same."
"Yes. We can kick your ass again easily." said goombela
And so, the battle began. Indeed, magnus von Grapple was stronger than the previous model. It had flying missiles, rocket feet and other stuff. The robot first tried to jump on everyone, but he missed and its opponents had the chance to do some attacks. Then it used its rocket feet to stay out of range, but it reckoned without Bobby who could jump high enough to land on him several times. Then the robot threw missiles at everyone. The started running, but they couldn't avoid them. Then Mario had an idea. They all went towards the robot with the missiles behind them and moved out at the last minute. The missiles blew up the robot, destroying its rocket feet and damaging it.
"Now you've done it." said lord crump. He then pressed a button and some sort of pipe came out. It started shooting stuff like rusty metal and broken glass.
"This is all the trash of our factory and labs. Enjoy." said lord Crump
However, Mario as a plumber had experience with pipes. He used the things it shot to block it. This caused it to overload and explode.
"You... you…" said lord Crump. "You've ruined my baby. "I'm gonna delete you."
He then activated a laser weapon and pointed it towards Mario.
"This ends now." said lord crump
"Indeed, it does." said Mario
Lord crump hadn't noticed Bobbery, Koops and Vivian who were about to sneak up on him.
"Lord crump." said Mario. "If you see any aliens, give them my regards."
"What?" said Lord Crump. That's all he said before he got attacked. Koops hit him with his shell attack and he fell on the back of his chair, Vivian set the robot on fire and Bobbery exploded next to the laser beam causing a malfunction. The robot started to smoke and fall apart.
"Groooooooooooooooooooduuuuuuuuuuuus!" shouted lord crump in despair.
Seconds later the robot exploded and lord crump was sent flying into deep space.
"That's the last we'll ever see of him." said Ms. Mowz
"He didn't leave us any choice." said Koops
"I know he was evil, but may he rest in peace." said Mario
Then the crystal star landed on the floor. It was inside Magnus von Grapple and it fell off with the explosion.
"The crystal star." said Goombela
"It's the last one." said Koops
"I can't' believe we did it." said Flurrie
"I always knew we would Gonzales." said Bobby
"It's almost over." said Vivian
"Without these, they will never unleash the demon." said Ms. Mowz
"And we'll make sure it's sealed away once and for all." said Bobbery
"Yes, we will." said Mario as he picked up the crystal star. This time he felt stronger than ever before. He had all the crystal stars and all the power they could give.
The last crystal star, the crystal star was hidden in the x-naut hideout on the moon, but by the time Mario and his friends recovered it, Peach had already been taken away. Where could she be? And what of the elusive Grodus? Perhaps he holds the key to the remaining puzzle. Mario now as all crystal stars. Where will the lead him next?
So, I'm done with chapter 7. Next will be interlude 7. Please write reviews to let me know what you think of my work.