Chapter 6: King of the Koopas
John walked down the brick path happily. "Good, now we have something to do," he said.
"You just needed a goal, didn't you?" the voice in his head said, amusedly. "Enjoy it while you can. I've heard of Bowser as I traveled the worlds myself. This may be a tough battle."
"I doubt it," John said. "That Mario guy wasn't very big, so naturally Bowser probably isn't that tough. Besides, we're just going to check on Mario." Then he heard a voice call out from behind him.
"Wait up!" John turned around to see that it was one of the mushroom people running towards him. "Good, I caught up to you before you got to Bowser's place. My name's Toad. I want to come with you."
John raised an eyebrow. "You want to come with me? You know it will be dangerous, right?"
Toad shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. I want to come along. I want to help save Princess Peach. Besides, I know where Bowser's castle is. You know the basic direction but what if you get off course?"
John sighed. "Fine, can you fight?"
Toad shook his head sadly. "No, I'm sorry. I wish I could but it's always been Mario who fights."
"Come along then if you like," John replied. He headed off down the path with Toad behind him.
They walked for a least an hour before finally arriving at the gate of Bowser's castle. Standing guard outside the castle were two turtles with green shells.
"Those are Koopas," Toad explained, pointing at the turtles.
"Well they're about to be gone," John replied. He ran towards the Koopas, surprising them at his sudden appearance, and he sent them flying with two quick strikes of his Keyblade. "That takes care of the guards," John said. Suddenly, two soldier Heartless burst out of the ground in front of him and they grabbed him and threw him away from the gate. He jumped to his feet and charged towards the soldiers, destroying one of them easily with a quick thrust. The other slammed into him and they both tumbled across the ground. Suddenly, the soldier stiffened and exploded, revealing John holding his Keyblade with its point straight up. John stood and dusted himself off. "Now THAT should be all the guards," he crouched into a battle position ready to fight off any more sneak attacks.
"Yeah," Toad walked up to John. "That was all the guards this time. I don't think they expected anyone to survive the Heartless attacks. Just one question, how do we get in?"
"Hmmm," John stared at the drawbridge. "You have a point. I've got it!" He lowered his Keyblade and pointed it straight at the bridge. "Fire!" he shouted. A ball of flame launched from his Keyblade and struck the drawbridge and the bridge caught on fire.
"How is that supposed to help?" Toad yelled at John furiously. "The bridge will burn up and no one will be able to cross!"
It was that moment when the bridge was opened and it fell into place before John and Toad. Three Koopas charged across the bridge towards them. John threw his Keyblade at the oncoming Koopas. WHAMWHAMWHAM! The Koopas were scattered before the Keyblade. John reached over to Toad, picked him up, stuck him under his arm, and ran across the bridge, making it to the other side just as the bridge burned all the way through and collapsed. John set Toad down wearily. "Well, we made it."
Toad stared at John in astonishment. "Remind me never to come with you on another adventure. How did you know the enemies would come out when you burned the drawbridge?"
John smiled faintly. "I figured the Koopas would not be happy if their bridge would be destroyed, so I just took the chance."
"You're crazy," Toad said.
John smiled at him. "Alright, let's go now." They walked off through the halls of Bowser's castle. John was beginning to feel slightly nervous. "Where are all the guards?" he asked.
Toad looked slightly calmer. "I was wondering that too, but then I realized that something must have happened to Mario. That's the only explanation for why Bowser is being so lax on security. Even so, let's be careful."
John stopped moving and stared at the ceiling. He had just seen something move. "Toad! Get down!" John tackled Toad as a Heartless dropped from the ceiling towards them. John examined the creature. It was a giant, ball shaped Heartless. It was solid black and it had a jack-o'-lantern-like face. It also had three tentacles poking out from it. As John saw all of this, four more of the Heartless dropped from the ceiling and all five surrounded John and Toad.
"These are called darkballs," the voice told John drily. "I thought I should tell you. That is, if you even care to know what they are."
"Okay, I'm sorry I was kind of rude about those creeper plant Heartless's names," John shot back as he rolled under an attacking darkball. "But if you want to talk it over, please wait until after this fight." He leapt into the air and slashed one of the darkballs. It shook for a moment then began swinging in all directions. John was hit hard and he slid back away from the Heartless. Two of the darkballs converged on Toad.
"NO! John help meeeee…" Toad was carried off by the Heartless.
"Toad!" John hurled himself upon the nearest darkball and he began hacking at it until it exploded. "Let…him…go!" he threw himself towards the remaining two. One of them dove at him but he rolled under it, slashing it as he went. It also exploded and John stood to face the last darkball, but it was gone. "Come back!" John yelled, but it was pointless. The halls remained empty. John sighed and continued down the tunnel that he and Toad had been following. After several minutes he reached a fork in the tunnel. One tunnel went downward into the earth and the other led upwards. "Hey, voice guy," John said. "Which way should we go?"
"You're looking for Mario and Toad," the voice said. "So I would say, go downward. That's where the dungeons usually are."
"Why are the dungeons underground?" John asked as he began walking down the sloping path.
"I think it has something to do with the fact that they want their prisoners to be miserable."
"That's no fun," John said.
The voice sighed. "That's the point."
Finally John reached the end of the path and walked into a room that was filled with prisons. "Hey, you were right," he said.
"Who's there?" a voice came from down the tunnel. John walked along the cages until he reached one which had an occupant. It was Mario who was sitting in the cage. "Oh, it's you," Mario said. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you work for Bowser."
"I don't," John shook his head. "I'm here to see how you're doing. It's not working out to well for you, huh?"
Mario grinned. "Nope."
"Well, I better get you out then," John summoned his Keyblade and pointed it at the bars. "Fire!" he shouted and a ball of flame slammed into the bars, turning them red. "While the metal is hot, it's weak," John explained to Mario, who had a confused look on his face. John struck the bars with the Keyblade and they bent inward and broke, just enough so that Mario could squeeze out. That was when John realized, there were no guards. "Mario where are the…" Four darkballs dropped from the ceiling and surrounded them. "Never mind," John said as he and Mario got back to back and prepared to fight.
The first darkball moved in to strike at Mario, but the little man jumped above it and landed on its head, kicking it towards the floor. John slashed the Heartless to pieces before hurling his Keyblade at another, slicing it in two. "Nice work," Mario commented to John.
"Not bad yourself," John replied as he summoned his Keyblade back to himself. "Here they come!" One of the remaining two Heartless dove towards them.
"Point your weapon forward!" Mario shouted to John. Mario then leapt over the charging Heartless and spun, hitting it with his fists and sending it flying to impale itself on John's Keyblade. "Good, only one left," Mario commented as he ran back to John. Suddenly the final Heartless was between them and it slammed into Mario, then reversed, with incredible speed, and slammed into John. Both fighters were sent spinning away from the Heartless. They both leapt to their feet and charged at the Heartless. It began jerking all over the place and it was all they could do to dodge its wild thrusts in their direction.
"This is crazy!" John thought. "We've come so close to winning and all it takes is one of these guys to beat us? I'm not going to give up this easily! Wait, there is a pattern to his movement. I've got it!" He dove under its attack and rolled to the middle of its attack pattern. He then began slash where it would move next. The Heartless exploded and vanished.
Mario stared at him in amazement. "Nice one. By the way, my name is Mario. What's yours?"
"My name is John," John told him. "We better get to the Princess, that you're supposed to be saving, soon. Also, we need to…" There was suddenly a loud noise from above that sounded like cheering. "What was that?"
"I don't know," Mario replied. "Do you think you could get us there?"
"Probably," John said. "This castle isn't too complicated. Hey, shouldn't you know this?"
At this Mario looked embarrassed. "Actually, I was struggling with my guards so much that I didn't know where they were taking me."
"Well, mostly it's just a basic straight forward path. Let's go." They ran up the path until they reached the fork and John showed Mario the way he hadn't taken. They finally reached a door and when they opened it they saw before them a huge arena filled with a ton of Koopas. A strip of land connected the middle of the arena to the main area. Standing in the middle of the arena was a massive Koopa who was holding a cage that contained a blond girl, who was wearing a pink dress and a crown. "That would be Princess Peach, I assume?" John said, pointing at the girl.
Mario nodded gravely. "Yep, that's her, and that's Bowser who has her."
"It would have to be him, wouldn't it?" John sighed sadly.
They could hear Bowser calling out to the Koopas in the crowd. "We are finally prepared for an all out invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom. As you can see, the Princess herself has graced us with her presence and I have Mario locked away down below. All of our main enemies are defeated! Be prepared my army! We will attack soon!"
Mario ground his teeth in frustration. "I can't listen to this any longer. Come on!" He ran down the area with John close behind. "We're ending this now Bowser!" Mario shouted at the giant turtle.
"You!" Bowser narrowed his eyes in fury at Mario. "How did you escape?"
"I had help!" Mario pointed at John. "But that's not important because I'm taking you down right now!"
"Guards!" Bowser roared. "Get them out of here!" Mario began to step forward towards the Koopa king but John put a hand on his shoulder.
"No, please allow me to do this," John told him.
"What?" Mario spun around. "Why you?"
"Because," John began. "I need to fight this battle. There are these guys I need to beat and if I can't even beat Bowser then I may as well give up. There is no way I can beat the darkness. Please, let me fight this battle."
"Fine," Mario sighed. "I'll deal with the small fry then." He ran over to the pathway connecting the arena to the stands, and he began fighting the Koopa guards that were gathering there.
"I've never met you before," Bowser said with a touch of curiosity in his voice. "Who are you?"
"My name is John," John said to him. "I'll be your challenger for today. Get ready!" He summoned his Keyblade and hurled himself at the giant turtle. Bowser slashed at John with his claws but John deflected his attack and struck Bowser on the center his shell with the Keyblade. To his surprise, the Keyblade bounced off and Bowser punched him across the arena.
Bowser chuckled wickedly. "You should have let Mario fight me. At least he knows that nothing gets through my shell!"
John jumped to his feet and moved towards Bowser but the Koopa opened his mouth and launched a massive fireball a John. John rolled out of the way of the attack but before he could do anything else he was faced by another fireball. He began running along the edge of the arena with fire slamming into the ground behind him as he went. "This isn't good," he thought to himself. "I can't run forever and he knows it. Well, I'll just have to improvise." John dove under the fire barrage and jumped right up in front of Bowser's face. "Surprise!" he shouted as he slammed his Keyblade into the turtle's cheek. Bowser stumbled back but quickly balanced himself.
The Koopa narrowed his eyes at John. "Very good. Maybe you'll live up to Mario's standards then. They did tell me you were strong, well, they were right, weren't they?"
John's eyes widened. "Who is this 'them' your talking about?"
Bowser smiled. "You know who I'm talking about, don't you? The 'them' I'm referring to are the same ones who gave me control of the Heartless. Those creatures are invaluable, they are near invulnerable and they are good for keeping my followers in line. If one of my people betrays me then I have them turned into a Heartless. They never disobey an order again!"
John glared back at Bowser. "You monster! How dare you control others in that way! I'm finishing you now!" As John moved forward, two darkball Heartless appeared from the ground all around Bowser. They dropped a small figure at Bowser's feet and he picked it up.
"You see this?" Bowser showed John who he was holding. It was Toad! "This is one of those weak Mushroom people. If you try to attack me again, I will destroy him! Now surrender to my Heartless."
John sighed and pointed his Keyblade at the ground, but as Heartless moved towards him, he was thinking rapidly. "What can save us now? Wait…I remember now. I hope this works." John looked up at Bowser. "Hey, Bowser! Can I at least say something before I go?"
Bowser grinned at him. "Of course you can, but make it…"
John pointed his Keyblade at Bowser. "Freeze!" A blast of ice hit Bowser's open mouth and froze it solid. The Koopa king was stunned for a moment but John could see flames starting to come up the turtle's throat to melt the ice. John darted forward and scattered the oncoming Heartless with a swipe of his Keyblade. He charged at Bowser, who swung at him weakly with his free arm, but John jumped over the attack and raised his Keyblade over his head. He smashed the weapon down on Bowser's head, forcing him to bite down into the ice and shatter it. Bowser screamed in pain as small pieces of ice dug into his jaw. The Koopa king looked around for John but the Keyblade master was nowhere to be found. Then Bowser looked down. "Hi," John said from below him. WHAM! John hit Bowser on the bottom of his jaw with the Keyblade and Bowser was thrown off the arena and fell into the pit surrounding it.
"Help me!" John looked around for the source of the noise and saw two tiny arms holding onto the edge of the pit. He ran forward and pulled the creature up. It was Toad. "Thanks John!" Toad said.
John nodded. "I'm glad you're all right. Wait, what about…" He stood and turned around to see the Koopa guards in disarray. They were fleeing before Mario, who turned around, saw John and Toad, and ran over to them.
"I knew you had won when they started to run away," Mario said.
"You didn't do to bad yourself," John replied. Mario was okay as far as he could tell, just a couple of cuts and that was all. "How many of them did you get?"
"Well," Mario pointed to a pile of Koopas stacked on the path to the arena. "I'm not sure but I think there is about thirty of them over there."
John grinned. "Nice. Well, you guys ready to pack up and head home?" The others nodded, they got Princess Peach out of her cage, and they left.
Meanwhile
The dark man stood holding an opening created from darkness. He grinded his teeth in fury as he watched Bowser be defeated by John. A knock came from the door behind him. "Come in," he said while closing the gate and turning around to greet his visitor.
A young boy in his teenage years strutted into the room. He grinned cockily at the dark man who stared at him impassively. "What do you want, boss?" the boy asked.
The dark man narrowed his eyes. "You took long enough getting here."
The boy was unfazed. "I don't come running even if it's you calling me. I get here in my own time."
"You've heard of the renegade, haven't you?" The man said, ignoring the boy's rudeness. "He just took out Bowser. I want you to go deal with him."
The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Of course boss." The boy turned to leave but the man called him back.
"You should know," the man said carefully. "The boy has help. He's back. Be very careful Lucius. You know what he can do."
The boy smiled. "Having him back just adds to the fun. I'll take them both down." He walked from the room leaving the man behind to ponder.
EN
Hope you all liked the chapter. Please review. I'll be working on the next chapter for my other story so it may be a day or two before I get back to this.