Chapter 5: The Return of an Ally
After acquiring the Heart Star and embracing its powers, it was as though Peach was a new person. That's not to say that she had completely changed, per se; rather she had received a major upgrade in some respects.
"Bwahahaha..." Giga Bowser laughed, shaking his head. "Well you certainly look pretty, I'll give you that. But how the hell do you expect to defeat me with a power like that?! Mario is much stronger than you are, and his attacks don't even lay a scratch on me!"
"Oh, Bowser." Peach sang, resting a hand beneath her shaking head. "Your overconfidence has always been your biggest fault, you know."
Apparently this made him smile. "Do your worst!" He beckoned her.
And that she certainly did not. She proceeded to charge directly towards Giga Bowser with a lean, racing lines accompanying her. As Peach had commented, Giga Bowser was indeed overconfident. He was standing there with folded arms, letting her attack him. But perhaps, it could not be said that this was entirely overconfidence. Maybe, this was instead Giga Bowsers despair-inducing method of demonstrating to his opponent that they don't stand a chance.
In any case, it had turned out to be a poorly calculated move on his part. Princess Peach brought her hands together and struck Bowser right in the stomach with a magical attack. Glassy hearts swirled around her hands and shattered around the impact point with a piercing crash.
"HEART SHARD!" Peach cried.
Time appeared to be in slow motion as Giga Bowser faced semi skyward with clenched teeth, his eyes whited out.
(W-What is this?!) Giga Bowser painfully exclaimed in his thoughts. (My defenses... they're... broken?)
Time returned to normal speed, and Giga Bowser now felt as if he was naked. It was as though his defensive stat had been nulled. Peach then leaned away from him for a brief second, before crashing into him with a powerful hip smash attack.
"HEART BOMBER!" Peach exclaimed, large hearts exploding at the impact point.
"GWAH!" Giga Bowser cried, as he felt his feet lifting off of the cobblestone.
Giga Bowser proceeded to drift across the street, and he had crashed shell first into the face of the opposite building right around the time Peach had landed back on the cobblestone street with her red high heels. She stood up with a smirk. Then, her eyes widened as she recalled Mario's condition.
"Mario!" Peach gasped, rushing to his side and dropping to a knee. "Mario, answer me!"
He was breathing, but hoarsely. His three scratch wounds that ran across his chest were no longer a pale green, but instead were now a very deep green. The surrounding skin was purple, and he had grown very pale. He looked deeply into her eyes. He was holding back tears.
"S-Sorry."
"Don't say a word." Peach softly assured, gently placing a petite hand on his shoulder. "I'll have you healed in just a second."
Mario was surprised by this statement, which you could hardly tell from looking at his weak face. Then suddenly, a gentle wind surrounded them. It blew their hair gently. It felt warm and comforting. Peach had her eyes closed, facing semi skyward as she kept her hand on Mario's shoulder. Her sapphire earrings were swaying weakly from the breeze. Mario was in awe as he saw yellow diamond light glimmering all over his wound. Within seconds, the wound had started to close up. His skin colours were returning to normal, and he could feel his life returning to him. Eventually, he was completely healed.
Peach concluded the recovery, the gentle wind dying right around the same time she had opened her eyes. She looked at Mario with a somber expression.
"Peach, you saved my life!" Mario exclaimed with a laugh. "Thank you, Peach! Thank you!"
He felt as though he could cry. But something wasn't right with Peach.
"Peach?" Mario called, confused by her expression.
"I..." She weakly started. Her eyes closed. Then, she started to collapse into Mario.
"Peach!" Mario exclaimed, catching her. His face flushed as he held her closely. He quickly moved to sit her back upright. She was now upright with closed eyes, Mario supporting her with his hands on her shoulders. "H-Hey, are you alright?"
"Mm..." Peach softly moaned, her eyes slowly opening again. There was a brief pause, but suddenly it appeared as though she was returning to normal.
"S-Sorry. That recovery took a lot out of me." Peach explained, placing a hand on her fatigued forehead. "But I am okay now."
"Your Goddess Star..." Mario recalled, examining her before making eye contact again. "Using its power tires you out?"
"Yes." Peach confirmed, with a nod. She examined her new dress. "Even just being in this transformed state... it wears me out if I use it for too long."
Mario didn't question how Peach knew all of this. Having a Goddess Star ability himself, he understood that once you acquired a Goddess Star, the knowledge of its powers were revealed to you.
"Don't overdo it, okay?" Mario gently cautioned, with concern in his tone.
"Mm." Peach promised, with a nod.
The sound of stones crumbling onto the ground could be heard from across the street. Mario took Peach by the hand and helped her rise to a stand, and the two of them faced the rising Giga Bowser with challenging expressions.
"Urrrgh." Giga Bowser groaned, hand on his head as he shook it. He faced Mario and Peach with a glare. "An attack that pierces your defenses... what a cheap trick!"
"But I overheard you." Giga Bowser warned, grinning deviously. "You're getting tuckered out, aren't you?"
Peach and Mario didn't respond. Giga Bowser continued speaking with dramatic hands. "I guess I'll just have to tough it out, then crush you both once you get tired!"
"We'll have you beat before that even comes close to happening." Mario challenged, getting into a fighting stance. Heart Peach, as it were, stood bravely with her parasol at Mario's side.
"Bring it on!" Giga Bowser challenged, with a hungry expression.
And with that, the battle between the three of them had resumed.
/
Luigi was still screaming as he plummeted towards the city. He closed his eyes and covered them, deciding that the best course of action would be to not know when he was going to hit the ground. He started sobbing. Navi flew up by his face with folded arms, remaining at the appropriate level as he descended.
"You do know you have a parachute, right?" Navi reminded, clearly unimpressed.
"Huh?" Luigi barked, suddenly completely fine. His face was beaming, and he gave a thumbs up. "Oh, yeah!"
He used the parachute, which was just like the blimp in its design -black in colour and featuring the X-Naut symbol in red.
"Yahoo!" Luigi cheered, as he started to descend slowly and much more safely.
"Oh boy." Navi sighed, rolling her eyes.
Luigi had landed somewhere within the northern district, which was fortunate since he was planning on heading back to Peach Castle. His body was then smothered by the deflated parachute. Before he was able to crawl out, Navi heard a familiar voice from up above.
"Ahoy!" Link greeted, gliding towards them with his paraglider from up above.
"Master Link!" Navi cheered, her fists beneath her chin in glee.
"Ah?" Luigi barked, peeking his head out from under the parachute.
Luigi had crawled out from under the deflated parachute right around the time Link had landed in front of them. Navi flew around his head once happily, hovering over his shoulder afterwards.
"Luigi!" Link exclaimed.
"Hey, Link." Luigi greeted, standing up and dusting himself off before nodding at Link. "Good to see you guys are back again!"
"Good to see you again, too." Link nodded. He smiled big with closed eyes. "You missed one hell of a breakfast."
"Awww, really?" Luigi frowned, slumping heavily. It was as if he had heard the worst news of his life. "That sucks."
"Hahaha!" Link guffawed, apparently amused. "Yeah, but don't worry. I'll be sure to cook up something extra special next time since you missed out."
"Looking forward to it." Luigi smiled, with a thumbs up.
"This is really nice and all, but we really should be heading back to the Castle." Navi reminded. "Master Link-"
"I know, Navi." Link interrupted, with a nod. "Daisy texted me. Apparently Peach Castle is under attack right now from both the X-Nauts and the Koopa Troop. Daisy and Rosalina are apparently already over there."
"What?! What are they doing over there?!" Luigi cried, with dramatic hands.
"Right now, I'm not sure." Link admitted, with a hand on his chin in thought. "But initially, the plan was to go back to get reinforcements and to see if you were there."
"Well let's not waste another second!" Navi cried, flying between the two of them energetically. "We need to go and help them, right now!"
"Right." Link nodded. He directed his attention up to the X-Naut blimp, which was still emitting black smoke and still had electricity dancing all over it. "I think we've dealt with that problem."
"Let's-a-go then." Luigi ordered, running towards the northern gates with a wave.
Link nodded, and then he proceeded to run with Luigi. The three of them were on their way to Peach Castle.
/
Waluigi was angrily troubleshooting the control display of the X-Naut blimp, while Wario plugged back in a cord that Navi had removed. All the while, a siren that painted the room red was blaring noisily above them.
"Stupid man." Waluigi cursed, irritably but accurately pressing a few buttons while holding ice to where he had been kicked. "What a miserable creature he must be."
"That damn fairy is gonna pay dearly for that." Wario assured, his teeth clenched together deviously. "Once we power this back up, we're gonna level the whole damn city, and then we're gonna find her home and level that, too!"
"Agreed." Waluigi concurred. "Now let's get this thing operating again, before our goose gets cooked!"
/
Near the front of Peach Castle, a horde of X-Naut grunts, Goombas, and green shelled Koopa's were swept away by the mighty swing of Ax T.'s double sided axe. Nearby, Katan T. sank into a squat with his arms crossed. One hand held an exquisite black katana, and emitting a powerful cry, he spun in place with the blade extended. A vicious, dark whirlwind had exploded around him, which had sent the multitude of X-Nauts and Koopa Troop minions that surrounded him helplessly spiralling skyward while Katan T. remained safely within the eye of the mighty gale.
At the front-right side of the castle, Lana T. was twirling her lance around wildly. She readied her lance straight and true, and then she bursted powerfully through a horde of minions. A nearby Hammer Bro rapidly tossed six black hammers at her from a distance, and she stood in place while twirling her lance in such a way that she not only blocked them, but had split a few of them perfectly in half. Each piece hit the dirt road around her with a thud. She concluded the maneuver by jumping high and stabbing the lance downwards at her enemy, making quick work of the Hammer Bro.
Daisy and Rosalina were not as easily having as much success during this battle. Ice Daisy had been freezing enemies and tossing them at each other, and all the while she was dodging the fire orbs from the flying, cackling magikoopas. She would frequently demand Rosalina's assistance in fighting off the magikoopas. Since Rosalina had no way of fighting the ground troops but was quite effective at defending against the magikoopas, their strategy was to have Daisy handle the enemies on the ground while Rosalina would defend her against the flaming, aerial attacks. However, they were both getting increasingly fatigued.
"When is this going to end?" Rosalina complained, her arms positioned in a defensive stance as she created yet another barrier that sent a flaming orb back at the enemy.
"Don't think about it." Daisy cautioned with strain in her voice, as she lifted up an ice block that contained a rather angry looking Goomba.
She tossed it and managed to knock out four green shelled Koopas that had been marching towards them. It had finally crashed into an X-Naut that she had frozen earlier, each ice block smashing upon impact.
But Rosalina couldn't help thinking about it. She was growing increasingly irritable, and had not yet forgiven Daisy for nearly sending her flat on her back with a stray green shell.
Kammy Koopa was growing increasingly irritated as well. Her angered expression revealed a gnarled tooth as she lectured three sorry-looking red magikoopas.
"What's the matter? Why haven't you captured them yet?" Kammy Koopa scowled. "They're just a couple of girls!"
"It's the blonde haired one, m'am." One of them countered, in a nasally voice. "She keeps on sending our attacks back at us with that pesky barrier of hers."
"I don't want excuses, I want RESULTS!" Kammy Koopa boomed. "I'd do it myself, if it wasn't for that blasted Toad captain! Now hurry up and capture them! If they defeat us, King Bowser will have our heads!"
"Y-Yes, m'am!" They all acknowledged, nervously.
And with that, they were off. Kammy Koopa hovered there for a moment, before flying back to the executive minions that were currently fighting against Captain Toad.
/
Waluigi and Wario were working hastily on restoring the blimp, when suddenly it appeared as though their efforts had finally paid off. The blaring siren died, and the room was no longer bathed in red light. There was a pleasant whirl as the system powered back up again.
"Yeah baby!" Wario cheered.
"Excellent!" Waluigi grinned, stomping with a clenched fist. "We're back in business!"
Wario and Waluigi met hands, and then proceeded to spin around in a circle while laughing happily. Then, they suddenly stopped in surprise. They looked away from each other with folded arms and expressions of contempt.
/
Link, Luigi, and Navi were nearly halfway down Castle Road when Navi had stopped them.
"Guys, look!" Navi cried, pointing up at the sky with an expression of deep concern.
Both Luigi and Link stopped with mild barks of wonder, turning behind them to examine the sky. They saw that the X-Naut blimp was operating normally again.
"The blimp appears to be working again?!" Link exclaimed with surprise.
"What?! But I thought you dealt with things back there!" Luigi whined, facing Navi with a shocked expression.
"I-I thought I did!" Navi shrieked. She slumped in despair. "They must have fixed everything before the whole system failed..."
"You guys go on ahead." Link ordered, as he proceeded to run back towards Mushroom City. "I'll meet up with you once I settle this."
"But you're not going to make it in time!" Navi cried, an anxious chiming noise complimenting her warning.
"It's hopeless!" Luigi cried, with beckoning hands. "Half of the city will be in flames by the time you get back there!"
"Well I need to do something." Link countered, while running. He was nearly out of sight in the hilly area.
But then, something rather surprising had happened. The sky had suddenly grown dark. Link, Navi, and Luigi barked as they were smothered in shadow. They looked up above, and saw yet another blimp flying towards the city. This blimp however, was white with a red mushroom etched on it. It appeared to serve the Mushroom Kingdom.
"An ally blimp?" Link acknowledged, in surprise.
"What's this?" Navi gasped, also rather surprised. "I didn't know we had blimps! Why didn't Princess Peach say so in the first place?!"
"Hmm..." Luigi pondered. He had a hand on his chin as he tapped a foot in thought. "That's odd. I don't recall us having anything like a blimp..."
"Really?" Link gathered, intrigued. "That is odd."
"Oh well." Luigi shrugged. "The princess is full of all sorts of surprises, I guess."
"Oh, look!" Navi suddenly exclaimed. "There's more!"
And sure enough, two more blimps had appeared into sight from the south. All three blimps apparently had come from beyond the southern district of the city, which was strange, considering that there was nothing beyond there but ocean. Further beyond that, was Sarasaland. Neither of them had made this observation.
"Looks like we can leave that X-Naut blimp to them." Navi decided, her fists clenched happily.
"I think it's safe to assume so." Link agreed. He was walking, and had just rejoined them.
"Let's hurry, then!" Luigi encouraged, waving a hand. "Daisy and Rosalina are waiting for us!"
Link and Navi nodded. With that, the three of them continued down Castle Road towards Peach Castle.
/
Mario did a backflip in order to avoid a vicious punch from Giga Bowser, who had zoomed at him very quickly from a distance. Giga Bowser turned to see Peach was running towards him. He unleashed a fire breath, and Princess Peach jumped in the air and proceeded to magically hover above the flame in order to dodge it. Magical diamond light danced around her swaying dress as she floated above the burning flame.
While in this form, Giga Bowser's fire breath would never fatigue. Peach's hover ability however, did not have this advantage. She grew nervous as she realized that she was trapped hovering above an endless flame, and would soon end up falling into it.
Luckily, Mario had grabbed Giga Bowser by the tail. He wasn't strong enough to start spinning Giga Bowser around by it, but it was enough to make Giga Bowser conclude the fire breath and turn around. Giga Bowser tried to slice Mario with a vicious poison claw attack, which Mario dodged with a very quick side jump. He then proceeded to run away to gain some distance. Giga Bowser barked mildly as he heard the increasingly louder sound of heels running against cobblestone. He turned with widened eyes of surprise.
"HEART SHARD!" Peach cried, leaning with her hands striking against Giga Bowser's stomach. Magical glassy hearts that were swirling around her hands shattered with a crash around the impact point.
"Urk!" Giga Bowser cried, his eyes whited out as he felt that defenseless sensation again.
"Now Fire..." Mario started, racing lines accompanying him as he ran towards Giga Bowser and ignited his fists with a burning flame. He dropped down in a squat with the flaming fist at his hip, his other hand extended before him with his palm facing forward. With flaming boots Mario launched towards the defenseless Giga Bowser incredibly fast, striking him in the stomach with a flaming fist. "ROCKET!"
"GWAAAAH!" Giga Bowser cried, scarce droplets of blood flying from his open mouth.
He lifted off of his feet, flying through the air and across the street before finally crashing into a nearby building with such an impact that he was quickly smothered in smoke and dusty debris.
Mario stood tall, and Heart Peach was only a few paces behind him. Suddenly, they found that they were smothered in shadow. They each barked, looking up at the sky and discovering that there were three blimps coasting overhead. They could not see who was operating the airships, but they could see that they were brandishing the Mushroom Kingdom symbol.
"Huh? That's strange." Princess Peach noted, rather perplexed. "We don't have any blimps..."
"Really?" Mario acknowledged, his voice laced with curiosity. "Then who's in the blimps?"
/
"Is the cannon ready yet?" Waluigi scowled, growing impatient as he surveyed the city through his binoculars. "I don't see that archer anywhere... h-huh?!"
"She's all loaded and ready to go." Wario assured, smacking his gloves together in pride as he marched towards the cockpit.
Waluigi had widened eyes, gobsmacked at what he was witnessing.
"Huh?" Wario barked, confused by Waluigi. He looked forward, and his jaw had literally dropped to the floor.
Approaching them from the south were three large blimps, each armed and proudly representing the Mushroom Kingdom. Waluigi used his binoculars to check who was manning each of the blimps. It was none other than X-Naut elite soldiers, assisted by some X-Naut grunts. They were heading straight for Wario and Waluigi, and had already started firing.
The X-Naut blimp squished and distorted as Wario and Waluigi screamed from the inside, racing black lines accenting their loud cries.
"WHA-WHA-WHAAAAAAAAT?!"
/
Upon hearing the sound of falling bricks, Mario and Peach had shot their attention back at Giga Bowser. The smoke had long faded, so they watched him rise back to a stand. He was grimacing deviously.
"That the best you got?" He taunted.
Mario had clenched teeth, a single sweat drop sliding down his face. Princess Peach certainly looked concerned as well.
"Awww, you're not getting tuckered out already, are you?" Giga Bowser continued, with dramatic hands. "I'm just starting to have fun!"
"What are we going to do?" Peach softly spoke, her glance fixed on Bowser.
Mario didn't respond. His blue eyes were trembling. He was trying his best to think of something. If Peach could get his defenses down again, maybe he could...
Then suddenly, a glistening sound could be heard from above. It was peculiar enough to cause all three of them to instinctively look up in curious wonder. It was a glowing four pointed star, ascending from the heavens. The four points extended and contracted as it twirled down towards them.
"Hey!"
It was the mysterious, youthful and androgynous voice that had called out to them. Mario gasped as he realized who he was seeing.
"It's you!" Mario cried, his face beaming.
"Heh. Miss me?" The voice laughed, as it proceeded to embody the Geno doll that was lying collapsed against the building where Peach had set it.
Mario, Princess Peach, and Giga Bowser watched in stunned awe as the light had entered the doll, irradiating the entire piece of wooden art with shining, spiky light. The doll lifted off of the ground, and after growing to about two feet tall, it had proceeded to slowly land on its two wooden boots. The spiky light had faded, and the large maroon eyes of the doll started to blink with life. Mario, Peach, and Giga Bowser each stepped back with a gasp of surprise.
"Sorry to have kept you all waiting." Geno informed, with a bow. It got into a fighting stance, with an expression brimming with determination. "Now allow me to finish this!"