A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Not like you guys care, anyway. XDDDDD

DISCLAIMER: MARIO CHARACTERS (C) NINTENDO

DISCLAIMER 2: JOEY O'NEIL AND LIAM UCUFF (C) A FRIEND ON DEVIANTART

CLAIMER: SPACE COMMANDOS (C) ME

The Final Space Adventure

Chapter 7

Bethany slowly opened the door that the crazy, yet gentle, yet still crazy jester Dimentio went through. She was extra careful that the wooden door didn't squeak. Thoughts raced through her head as she peered in. Well, it's not a gas chamber, Bethany thought as she looked around. It was just a hallway. Probably the residential quarters of this creepy castle. Bethany opened the door wider to get a better look. Then a bit wider. Then wider. And before she knew it she was on the other side of the door.

Bethany looked around to see if there were any cameras or lasers or whatever. None. Thank goodness. So now she could walk with a bit less worry.

All the doors had a sign with someone's name on it. Some even had a message under it like keep out, or enter and die. None of them interested her, except one. It was bigger than all the other doors and it was sign-less. The green commando stared at it, mystified at what possible awesomeness was behind the door. Apparently her mind got the better of her because she opened it a crack. She saw someone in the room. Two someones. They both had blue skin. One was tall and the other one was just about Stefanie's height. The tall one had a white top hat and a monocle on. The short one had pink hair with purple highlights and glasses. Behind them was the Chaos Heart.

Bethany bit her lip to keep from cheering. She found it! She found it! But the problem now is, how is she going to get it without getting caught?

The brunette grabbed her mechanical arm and with screwed it off. She took out a remote control from her pocket, pressed a few buttons, and the arm started to move with the fingers like legs. Bethany smirked. Bingo! She took the analog joystick and made the arm go behind the people, grab the glass case holding the Chaos Heart, and come back to her.

Perfect! Now Mary, Stefanie, and I can go home! Bethany thought. She was about to be on her way, until she finally realized the two people were talking.

"What do you suggest we do once we find those spies, Nastasha? Asked Count Bleck." The guy with the top hat asked. Bethany bit her lip. That's Count Bleck! Damn, how did I not notice? She thought. The woman put her hand on her hip.

"Easy, we question them and if they don't give us the answers we want, we kill them."

Bethany gasped. Bad move. She was noticed instantly. The three stared at each other in complete silence. Then just out of the blue...

"Get her! Screeched Count Bleck!" Count Bleck ordered, mostly to himself. Bethany got up and ran away. She couldn't afford to fail the mission. Bethany took a sharp left right before she could get hit by a knife thrown by Nastasha. Even though she was running away, she couldn't help but admire the pink-haired girl's throwing accuracy. If she didn't turn when she did, the knife would've found it's target.

Bethany ran up a stairwell, plans forming in her mind. She opened a door at the top of the stairwell and gasped. The room look oddly familiar. The velvet red couches, the pictures hanging on the wall, oh yeah and the spaceship wedged into a wall. Bethany slammed the door shut and braced it with a chair. Last thing she want is to get caught with the Chaos Heart while she was fixing her ship. Now, she has work to do.

"This is so much fun!"

Stefanie kept flying without a single care in the world. She suddenly forgot about Mary, the mission, and the fact that she was a commando all together. She only knew that she was still living. The yellow commando swished through the air, giggling the entire time. Until she heard something.

"S...Stefanie...is that...you?" a faint, hoarse voice called out. Stefanie stopped flying and looked around. What in the hell was that?

"Who's there?" she called, unsure of what to do.

"S-Stefanie, over here." the voice called again. Stefanie saw that the voice was coming from a door that was on her left. She slowly walked over to it but was hesitant to open it. What if something jumped out on her? What if it was a trap? Stefanie grabbed the door handle and slowly opened it. She gasped at what she saw. Her friends; Joey O'Neil and Liam Ucuff.

They looked awful! They were each chained to a wall. Joey was gagged and Liam wasn't, he must've got the gag off of himself somehow. They both had nasty bruises and looked like they haven't ate in days. It was heartbreaking for Stefanie to see her friends like this. She went to her knees, tears filling her eyes.

"W...what happened to you two?" Stefanie croaked out, unable to say more without bursting into tears.

"W..well, Joey and I were just walking down Paratroopa Street, talking about...certain things, and we got jumped." Liam explained, stopping a few times to take a breath. Stefanie nodded and keep listening, but not keeping her eyes off of Joey, her crush for a while now.

"We got sent to this castle and we were questioned. Like, who were we? Did we know Princess Peach? Stuff like that. We played dumb to every question and then-" Stefanie shushed him from saying anymore. The rest of the story was obvious in their bruises. She crawled over to Joey and removed his gag. Tears started to run down her cheeks but she pushed them back when they looked each other in the eyes. Then Stefanie snapped back to reality and unchained them.

"Let's go find Mary and Bethany!" Stefanie said as she grabbed her friends hands and ran out the door.

"Well, that failed." Mary grumbled as Mr. L tied the last knot of the rope tied on her wrists.

"That's what you get for messing with the mighty green thunder, Ms. Red-Space-Girl-With-Terrible-Fighting-Skills!" Mr. L replied, chuckling. Mary rolled her eyes and squirmed around in her restraints. Then she noticed something. Like a countdown timer. It was attached to Brobot's nose. It kept going down one number every second. 10:12...10:11...10:10. Mary squinted and saw a small sign on top of the timer. Self-Destruct Timer. Mary held in a gasp. No! she thought. There must've been a button she accidentally pressed when she was fighting Mr. L. This was bad. Really bad. Of course, the masked idiot was too busy boasting to notice.

"Now, let's go to the Count. If you're lucky he'll make you my wife, instead of kill you." Mr. L purred, pulling Mary out of her trance. The red-head rolled her eyes.

"Lemme guess, you're gonna go on your hands and knees begging." Mary replied, earning herself a slap in the face. It didn't faze her, though. She got slapped enough times in her life so far.

"I would do no such thing as to beg!" Mr. L hissed, throwing Mary over his shoulder. She kicked and grunted, trying her best to free herself, but Mr. L was surprisingly stronger. He chuckled teasingly as he swaggered over to his robotic pride and joy. Mary took one last glance at the timer. 9 minutes and 35 seconds left.