A day later, Mario banged on the door feverishly, begging to be let out.
"Peach! Toad! Anybody! Let me out of here!" he hollered.
Toad unlocked the door and let himself, Peach, and Daisy in.
"You're all not gonna believe this" Mario explained, "but Luigi took what was left of our coin savings and he flew the coop along with the rest of the guys!"
"Impossible" Toad replied. "They were locked up with you, how could they possibly…?"
Toad stopped to notice a feather on the floor that closely resembled the color of Luigi's green shirt and hat. Next to it, he found one colored like Waluigi's overalls, and a few that looked the red of Yoshi's saddle, and on the windowsill sat a few that were shaped like Wario's unmistakable crooked moustache.
"Uh-oh…" Toad gulped.
"Now do you believe me, guys?" Mario pleaded.
And with that, Mario, Toad, and the ladies all bolted to the Scoopa Koopa, where they found countless Toads either sporting feathers, with a stupefied look on their faces, or both.
"I don't like the look of this…" said a worried Peach.
"Me neither" Toad said in agreement, clutching onto her dress for protection.
And that's when they saw their friends…but they looked completely unrecognizable! They had grown feathers, wings, and beaks. They've become birds! And they were carrying a chest containing a great deal of coins.
"That's…gonna occupy my nightmares for a few weeks…" gulped a disturbed Daisy.
"Buck-buck, oh boy, buck! I can't wait to eat, buck!" Luigi clucked.
"Stop right there!" Mario exclaimed as he stood in their way.
"Hey, bwak! Why must you, buck, always get in the way, bwuck?" Wario grumbled.
"I cannot believe you" Mario said, "wasting our money, and for WHAT? Just a few bites of a sandwich that's surely turning you guys into what you're eating?"
"Exactly" said a voice right behind them. The gang turned around to find Bowser himself towering over them.
"You!" Mario shouted. "I KNEW this had to be another one of your plans! Not sure what it fully is, but from what I'm seeing it has no-good written all over it!"
Bowser grinned a traditional sinister Bowser grin and grabbed Mario by his hat.
"You see" he explained, "the secret to the Egg Delight's secret sauce is that it contains a special transformation spell concocted by my Magikoopas. As your pitiful friends and everyone else keep making pigs out of themselves with those sandwiches, the more the spell kicks in. They'll be no more than the main course for my next menu item: Koopa's Clucker Delight! Anyone turned into a chicken by our egg sandwich will be rounded up and roasted by yours truly, as I am THE most awesome fire-breather out there. And then they'll be served to more unknowing customers. It's genius, EVIL genius, that is!"
"Oh yeah?" Daisy snapped. "What about those who haven't eaten your lousy egg sandwiches?"
"Oh, my little yellow-bellied brat of a princess, I recently added Bowser Burgers to the menu. They too have a magic spell sauce, whoever eats them now works for me! As you can see, my staff has grown quite a lot in the last few days…"
He opened the door to reveal a number of Toads, all hypnotized, working in the building either as busboys or assistant cooks.
"Oh no, my people…" Peach gasped.
"Soon" Bowser continued, "the entire Mushroom Kingdom will be in my clutches! I knew feigning the whole 'turn a new leaf' baloney and coaxing them with food would work on your gullible fungus twerps, Princess Peach. And I think it's time you joined them…"
The King Koopa then grabbed Peach by her torso, pulled out an Egg Delight, and tried to feed it to her.
"Open wide!" he laughed ominously.
But before he could get her to eat it, Mario leaped into action and punched the sandwich out of his hand.
"Oh, so THAT'S how it's gonna be, eh?" Bowser turned to everyone inside, both employee and customer. "Looks like someone wants to shut us down! What do we have to say to that?"
"Get them!" Bowser Jr. shouted from the back.
On cue, the mentally enslaved customers, Mario's friends included, all turned to face the gang and began to chase them. Mario and the others had no choice but to run.
As the chase ensued, Mario saw some Fire Flowers growing nearby. He had the idea of using it to power up Fire Mario and use his fireballs to stop them, but Peach discouraged him out of the fear of harming any of her people. Daisy enjoyed the chase to some extent, as she always loved getting active. The duties of ruling Sarasaland 24/7 usually bored her to tears, unlike her cousin Peach, who found the responsibility of ensuring the happiness and well-being of her kingdom a joy. However, Daisy's enjoyment out of the situation began to wade once the Toads who had grown chicken wings joined forces with the Koopa Paratroopas and started dive-bombing the good guy fugitives.
The four heroes ran and ran until they were on the outskirts of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the Scoopa Koopa posse was gaining on them quickly. It wasn't until they encountered a mountainside where the posse had them up against a corner. Mario prepared for the worst as Peach, Daisy, and Toad all stood helplessly behind him. All of a sudden, a large, hairy figure came crashing down in front of the brave plumber.
"DK?" Mario gasped.
Indeed it was. With a mighty Hand-Slap, Donkey Kong blew the posse away for the moment. With the chasers currently out of commission, the ape scooped up the fugitives and started scaling the mountainside.
"Well I'll be YOUR uncle, thanks for saving us down there!" Mario said gratefully.
"I thought we were goners!" Toad added.
"Eh, I could've beat them all if I had a good shot at them…" Daisy said.
DK smiled briefly, then reverted back to his determined pout as he took them all down a Warp Pipe.
"Where are you taking us, Donkey Kong?" Peach asked with a concerned brow.
Her answer was immediately answered when they emerged out of the pipe and landed in the middle of Kong Isle. Upon their arrival, they were met by Diddy Kong, who looked a nervous wreck than anything else.
"Why did you bring us here, Donkey Kong? And what's with your little pal Diddy?" asked Mario.
The gorilla pointed everyone's attention to a very awful sight. They soon noticed that the beautiful jungle island that was the Kong's homeland had become polluted with trash. Birds were picking wrappers out of their nests. Boxes were piling up everywhere. The water had turned all blotchy and foggy. Toad even witnessed how the other members of the Kong clan were affected, as Dixie and Tiny were seen removing a sticky piece of trash off of poor Kiddy, with some of the gooey substance still on his body hair. Mario and his friends could not believe what they were seeing. Mario picked up a piece of garbage off of a passing squirrel and recognized where it came from:
"Bowser's Scoopa Koopa?" he gasped in shock.
He then noticed where all the trash was coming from. A bigger-than-normal-size Warp Pipe came into view, and from the looks of it, had been endlessly spewing out all this garbage since its invasion.
"Donkey Kong, is this why you acted up the other day? Because Bowser's restaurant is using your jungle as its personal garbage dump?"
DK lowered his head in sorrow and nodded.
"I knew Bowser was horrible, but now like this…" Toad said. "Enslaving a person is one thing, but ruining the home of another as a side-effect? That's just…evil."
"GRRRR…." Daisy was fuming. "When I get my hands on that no-good turtle…!"
Peach went to her and eased her, then went to DK.
"Donkey Kong" she assured him, "what Bowser has done to your land shall not go unpunished. I will see to it that we fix this mess and give his troops what they have coming."
Knowing the purity of her good heart and gentle nature, DK smiled and nuzzled the princess in pink on the cheek. Mario joined in and patted the ape on the shoulder.
"Atta boy" he chuckled wholeheartedly. "Now, you think you and your friends could help us take down Bowser's restaurant?"
DK smiled a wide, toothy smile and stomped eagerly as Diddy, Dixie, and the other Kongs and jungle friends joined in.
"Wonderful!" Mario beamed. "Now huddle up, everyone. I think I've got a plan…"
