Within the massive pit of lava there stood rocks permeating from the sea forming little islands. Amidst the giant rocks was Bowser's castle, a grey brick exterior with green roofs and black spiked collars that adorned the walls. The turtles face lay front of the castle, watching those who dare enter. The heat coming from the ground was a little unbearable for Frisk who was slightly out of breath from the trek to the castle. The mustached brothers were slightly ahead and stood over a cliff overlooking the entrance of the castle. Mario gripped his hammer as he looked over to Luigi.
"Security looks tight, guess were gonna have to take in by storm ey Luigi?" he said. Luigi sighed.
"Do we gotta, can't we just go in from the back or something? It's an awful lot of troopers," Luigi said.
"That hasn't stopped us before!" Mario added.
Frisk walked up from behind and looked over the cliff; he saw minions guarding every entrance and flinched.
"When you say… take by storm you don't mean fighting do you?" Frisk asked cautiously. Mario looked over with his brows furrowed and nodded.
"Um, isn't there a less…chaotic way?" Frisk paused, "What if we sneaked in?"
Frisk walked alongside the cliff where a side directional view of the castle could be seen. He pointed to an open window.
"Over there, that seems like an entrance," he said. Mario and Luigi looked at each other, then to Frisk. Mario shrugged.
"Sure? But the window is too high!" Luigi looked down the cliff, it inclined down slowly.
"Not an issue, when you come prepared," Mario reached into his side pocket and pulled out a leaf, "I can glide to the window from here, and I'll grab a rope from the inside to pull us up." The leaf turned into a faded yellow cape in an instant. Frisk blinked and rubbed his eyes, astounded at the cape.
Mario moved back away from the others. He ran and jumped the cliff, at once the cape flapped open and Mario flew into the window unnoticed. Frisk stared on in awe. Luigi slid down the cliff's slope and Frisk followed suit. They made it to the side of the castle below the window and waited for Mario to toss down a rope. Frisk stared up the imposing wall. A few moments had passed but there was no sign of the rope.
"Wonder what's taking Mario so long?" Luigi asked.
"OY! I can answer that question HA-HA!" a voice shouted from the side of the castle. What looked like a miniature version of Bowser wearing a bandana flew down on a propeller pod machine with a clown face on it.
"Bowser Jr.!" Luigi shouted in fear, "Where's Mario?"
"You idiots fell for that trap so quickly," Bowser Jr. said smugly, "He's a prisoner now like you. This is what you get for sneaking into papa's place while he's gone!" Bowser Jr. laughed and leaned back in his clown car. Troops of goombas now surrounded Luigi and Frisk. Frisk stared at the goombas and back to Bowser Jr., thinking of a solution.
"If you two are here then that means…AH, nobody's at the castle protecting Peach right?" Bowser Jr. said as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "Dad's gonna be so proud of me for this one."
"Don't think we'll let you get away with this one Junior!" Luigi said as he grabbed his hammer from his belt.
"YEAH OK, you and WHAT army exactly, a child? Didya start a babysitting service or something?" Bowser Jr replied. Luigi looked over to Frisk with a panicked expression.
"No, uhhhh. As a matter of fact Frisk here is our secret weapon!" Luigi said. Frisk gave a dumbfounded look.
"'Scuse me, what?" Bowser Jr. said.
"Yeaaaahhhh, he's way better than you could imagine. This kid could probably take you on blindfolded," Luigi continued, he gave Frisk a wink. Frisk looked to Bowser Jr. who was getting increasingly annoyed, he decided to play along.
"Come at me… punk?" Frisk said as he tried to annoy Bowser Jr. more. Bowser Jr. gave a glare and his face was slightly red.
"It's on shorty!" Bowser Jr. said as he immediately flew straight towards Frisk. Frisk moved back and instinctly jumped up and grabbed a hold of the clown car. He held on tightly as he tried to get into the machine.
"YOW GET OFF!" Bowser Jr. shook the car back and forth. With one clawed hand he tried to pry Frisk's fingers off of the car. While he was distracted, with one fell swing Luigi hit Bowser Jr. off of the car and his face hit the ground. Luigi quickly jumped onto the car and pulled Frisk up.
"You cheaters, get back here NOW!" Bowser Jr. shouted. He scrambled up and wiped the pebbles off of his face. He ran towards the clown car and the goombas followed but the car had already flown up too high into the air for them to reach.
"That's unfair! Call the paratroopas!" Bowser Jr. shouted as he smacked a goomba in anger, "Whatever you do, don't hit the car or dad's gonna ground me for life!"
Frisk gave a sigh of relief as the car flew up in the air. That was a little too close for comfort, he looked over to Luigi who had control of the car and was flying it around the castle.
"Sorry about throwing you under a Chain Chomp like that Frisk it was the only thing I could think of," Luigi admitted.
"Oh I've been in worse," Frisk said as he looked over out of the clown car, his mind moved to the memory of having to outrun a pillar of fire for a game show and having to outrun an angry fish bent on killing him. It was a lot of running now that he gave it some thought. They continued to circle the castle and one of the windows a familiar red cap peaked out, Frisk pointed.
"Luigi over there, is that Mario?" he said as he tugged Luigi's sleeve. Luigi turned his head to see Mario waving at them.
"I gotcha Mario, JUMP!" Luigi shouted. He turned the clown car towards the castle and flew directly at the window. Behind him a couple of red shelled winged paratroopas were flying directly at him.
"You're gonna have to do a quick jump Mario!" Luigi shouted as he flew against the wall of the castle. Mario jumped and grabbed the side of the clown car, he didn't have time to jump in before the paratroopas began throwing hammers at them.
"Luigi fly as fast as you can out of here!" Mario shouted back as he held on to the side.
"Hold on tight then," Luigi pushed the control stick forward and the clown car boosted ahead. The paratroopas followed tightly behind, bullet bills were now on course as well. Frisk looked behind at the enemies chasing them; he moved over to the side of the car and tried pulling Mario in. A hammer hit Mario and his grip was slipping.
"Quick Frisk take this and aim well!" Luigi said as he reached into his pocket with one hand on the controls, he took out a red and yellow flower and handed it to Frisk. Frisk gave an odd expression. The flower had eyes and it almost made Frisk feel uneasy.
"You want me to throw this?" he said as he looked up.
"Just eat it and you'll shoot out fire!" Luigi responded as he looked to Mario who was still struggling to get back on the car. Frisk looked down to the flower and hesitated a second before stuffing it into his mouth and eating it. It felt like magic coursing though his veins as his entire outfit turned white and red. What kind of power was this? Frisk looked at his hands which tingled with fire. He couldn't help but think of a snail loving monster. He turned around and faced the enemies closing in. He bundled his hand into a fist and it burst into flames. Frisk just had to do enough damage to get them to stop, he didn't want to hurt them further.
He threw a few fireballs at the paratroopas, careful to only hit the wings. They crash landed into the rocky ground below with each hit. The bullet bills exploded upon impact to the flames which made Frisk flinch slightly. Mario hopped into the car and looked back at the remaining few paratroopas that ended up retreating. They had flown out of Bowser's domain and now flew above grassy forestland. Frisk remained intrigued at the fire that bounced around his fingers.
The clown car slowed down and flew besides the tree tops. Luigi took a deep breath as he loosened his control on the stick.
"That was a close one ey Mario?" Luigi sighed.
"Nice aim Frisk, I was almost about to fall into lava there for a second," Mario said as he gave a smile and adjusted his cap. Frisk nodded and returned the smile, he lifted up his hands as the fire flicked.
"How do I get rid of this?" he asked.
"Oh easy," Mario gave a light hit to Frisk on the side and at once the flower jumped out from Frisk and vanished into the air. Frisk's clothing color returned to its normal blue and purple stripes. Frisk looked on and grabbed his clothes as he stared.
"That's a Fire Flower, It gives ya the ability to blast fire from your hands and protects you from one hit," Luigi explained, "pretty useful huh?"
Frisk was astounded; he'd never seen magic like this before. This world felt so different from his, all these rules and creatures almost made his head spin as he tried to understand it all. He looked down beyond the clown car at the trees moving below him, there were creatures and critters beyond the trees that lived around peacefully. Everything seemed to have its place here, monster and human.
"So Mario find out anything at all in there, Bowser didn't seem to be home," Luigi asked. Mario shook his head.
"Nope, but I did find out that Bowser made his way to that new world through the pipes," Mario said, "So we know where to head next."
Mario moved to the front of the clown car and pointed to the hills.
"There's some pipes underground that connect to a cave system over there, that's where we're heading," Mario said. Luigi nodded and turned the clown car to that direction.
They were on their way back to New Home finally. Frisk felt a nagging feeling in his stomach as he wanted to get back as soon as possible.