After Star Luigi joined the Mario Brothers and his own brother, things were pretty smooth sailing. The First Universe ghosts left to reunite with their friends at Peach's Castle, and the quartet made an easy cross over Lily Pad Lake. They reached Dusty Dry Desert soon enough, where they battled Boney Piranha and saved Aquoshi. Aquoshi lead the other ghosts in the desert to the castle. Along the way, Star mentioned something about his missing green powerstars, and that they would need a few to get to Black Hole Bowser. There were fifty in total, some here, and some far away. They needed ten, and all the support from the first universe ghost they collected to get Star's ship, the Thunder Starchaser back in the air. Aquoshi joined then, happy to see the brothers again. They striked up many friendly conversations throughout the trip in space, taking the Galactic Path. Though, a squad of Black Hole Bowser's airships and two dry juggernauts attacked during the flight. Eventually, they reached their destination: The First Universe.
It was dark, and bits of grey rubble circled everywhere. It reeked of death (Not a very pleasant smell) and everything appeared to be in carnage. The only thing allowing anyone to see was Fire Mario's ghostly light, as well as the slightly illuminated, purple, swirling mass of magic at the edge of this destroyed land. Star pulled out his Tri-scream, a device he made improvements of his own on, it used to be the dual scream, and scanned around the area. "Black Hole Bowser's Castle is in the center of the black hole spell. It's much too far a flight for Fire Mario to carry us, and we'd all fall. There has to be a way to get to it…." The star-eyed king explained. "Maybe there's something in that rickety old castle over there?" Luigi asked. Beside a swirl of grey rubble was a castle that looked on the brink of collapsing. It was slightly pink, but looked tattered and dusty with grey remains. All of its windows were shattered, and the doors in shambles. "Maybe…" Fire Mario mused, with a bit of sadness. This place appeared to be getting to him. "It's the best option we've got," Mario stated, before walking forwards.
Suddenly, A koopa clown copter, carrying two dropped down and relinquished its contents. It was Bowser Jr. and Fawful! "No trespassers!" Bowser Jr. stated defiantly. "Suspicious fink rats such as yourselves will not pass into the Castle of Peach!" Fawful stated. "So says us, The Troublesome Buddies!" They chant at the same time. The teenage koopa lifted his paintbrush and crossed it with the beanish's mechanical arm. Fawful then pulled a lever in the koopa clown copter. "Fink rats shall taste Mecha's wrath and fall in the dungeon of pranks, where fink rats belong!" Mecha Fawful declared. "We might reconsider letting you out if you pass though out trials!" Blaze Bowser Jr. declared. The floor beneath the quartet opened and dropped them into a dungeon with various pranking devices, as the Troublesome Buddies laughed their guts out at them.
After a bit of navigating, and whip-cream pies to the face, the bros made it out of the prank dungeon. "H-How'd you get past our master maze!" BBJ spouted upon seeing them return. "Mecha gives fink rats credit where credit is due, but you will not pass any further! Trespassers are not allowed!" And with that, the buddies attack.
After masterfully beating them brush and robot, and besting their own Bros. Attack, the buddies are defeated. "N-now that I think about it…didn't that greenie have THAT on him…?" BBJ moaned. Mecha looked Star up and down a minute. "The Troublesome Buddies have been sorely mistaken, it appears. The princesses should be waiting for them inside…" He moans. They grant the bros access to the castle, finally.
There, inside the ruined castle, two princesses wait. It appears they've been waiting a long time for something. Fire Mario is the first to approach. "Princess?" He asks. The pink ghost turns around, and surprize take her sunglasses covered eyes. "M-Mario…after all these years…!" Tears begin to well up in the princess' eyes as she embraces Fire Mario in a tight hug. Mario returns the hug himself. "I thought I'd never see you again…" She mutters though her uncontrollable sobs of joy. Fire Mario rubs her back. "Shh… It's ok…Don't cry…." He reassures. Star himself walks up to Daisy. She glances over and huffs. "Took you two long enough..." She groans, displeased. "Err…right…guess we're a bit late…" Star utters, a blush coming across his cheeks. "Now, you should know Black Hole Bowser is in that spell of his, right?" Daisy asks, and everyone nods. "The thing is, only two of you can go inside of it. Even if it's lost its magical strength, it's still dangerous if more than two go in at a time. It's your choice to make, who to bring. It might even affect the outcome of your adventure…" "There's a lever that activates a path into that black hole, at the other side of this castle," Shiftspirit Peach tells Fire Mario. He nods, and slowly lets go of her, reluctantly. And they head for the lever.
Pulling the lever forms the circling grey stones into a solid staircase leading to Black Hole Bowser's castle inside the spell of swirling destruction. "Now is the time to make your choice. The bros you leave behind will stay with us, while the other pair goes inside the black hole and defeats Bowser once and for all. You cannot change your choice after you enter the Black Hole," Daisy elaborates.
So…who's it going to be?
*Send the Bros. *Send the First Universe Bros.