Sailor Moon Chronicles R
Flying Chase to Bowser's Castle
Flight Fight in Marble Sky!
Laughing out in triumph, Bowser Jr. joined Ventress and Peach on the deck of the main Airship along with the Koopa crewmen. The Koopa Troopas were far less severe-looking as Bowser Jr. though they were at his height, which was comparable to a grown human. Their shells for either green, red, blue, or yellow and were not styled with spikes nor did spikes or any sharpness appear on the rest of their smooth, pale yellow bodies. Even their eyes were bigger and more cartoonish. They all cutely wore shoes that matched their shells.
"Haha!" bellowed the young prince in triumph. "I did it! I kidnapped the princess and will bring her back to my dad."
"Excuse me, Little Prince," said Ventress with cold disdain. "I believe that I was the one who actually abducted the princess. All you did was play with your toys."
Bowser Jr. huffed. "Well, you did kinda help me out back there, I guess."
"Your Young Majesty!" cried a red-shelled Koopa Paratroopa, that being just Koopa Troopa with a pair of small wings attached to his or her shell, which gave them the ability to fly modestly. This particular one wore a red bucket on his head as a helmet.
"What is it, Corporal Paraplonk?" asked Bowser Jr.
"I think you should see this," the Koopa said urgently, fanatically waving his pointing finger at the sky passed the rear of the ship.
All four spied an Eta-class shuttle fast approaching the squadron of Airships.
Ventress's eyes narrowed. "I hope that your ships are well armed."
"You betcha they are," Bowser Jr. said with pride.
Sailor Jupiter piloted the craft while Sailor Mercury copiloted. Sailor Venus and Sailor Moon sat behind them. To accommodate for the extra passengers, Sailor Mars had to help Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi into the extra seats in the cabin behind the cockpit. Yoshi proved difficult to buckle up as he didn't like being tied down and showed this by struggling and kicking Sailor Mars like a child fighting to get out of a car seat. Thankfully, Mario calmed him down.
"What's the plan?" Sailor Mercury asked.
Sailor Venus face froze in bamboozlement. "I thought you were going to make a plan. You always make a plan when something happens."
"You're the one who rushed us all into the ship," protested Mercury.
"Don't worry about it," said Sailor Jupiter with a cocky smirk. "We'll blast down anything they throw at as and swoop down on the command ship and grab the princess."
"But this shuttle didn't come with a weapons system."
With the façade of a baby, Sailor Jupiter stared out in front of her only to be shocked out of her stupor by a Bullet Bill hitting the left wing of the ship. A jolt was sent through the haul, rocking the passengers. Several lights on the control panel flashed and a small alarm chimed about misfortune. She gripped the flailing stirring wheel and quickly leveled the ship out. "An unarmed shuttle? Thanks for nothing, Obi-Wan!" she growled. Several more Bullet Bills, slowly, came for them with their eyes on the main haul. Jupiter gritted her teeth and commenced evasive maneuvers. "Anyone got a plan now?"
Sailor Venus looked down at the ship to their lower right and saw the portside cannons firing the Bullet Bills. "I do," said Venus affirmatively, unbuckling her safety belt. "Mars, come with me."
All for ships were in a diamond formation with each ship being a corner, and the command ship and the Soldier's ship being on opposite corners. The shuttle soon broke formation by speed up and became parallel with two of the Airships. The landing ramp of the ship opened; Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus, each looking at a different ship, gripped the extended rods. Wind ripping through their long and glorious hair like flicking flames in the rush of the wind, the girls charged up their attacks.
"Crescent Beam!" Sailor Venus fired her light beam and sliced into all three cannons on the port side of the ship. Explorations within the haul of the ship followed as did its nosedive.
"Fire Soul!" From her index finger, a column of fire shot forth. An explosion erupted when the blast made contact with the wooden deck of the ship, sending the Koopa Troopas scattering.
"Nice shots!" cheered Sailor Moon, as she watched with her palms pressed against the window while Mario and Luigi looked over her shoulders.
"It looks like we're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore," Luigi commented fearfully.
The transition was so instantaneous. For those flying, a thin gate of clouds separated the two different worlds: from rolling greens and peaceful blues to an ashen sky with wisps of hot reds, tainted and dead wastelands all crumbled, jaded and jagged, also burned and singed by the rivers of molten rock, birthed by the constant eruption of the many volcanic mounds mottled all over the land, spewing out fiery poison to create the veins that carried further to rot away any life.
"Uh…that was a shift," comment Sailor Moon.
Meanwhile, Ventress and Bowser glared at the scene of their ships smoking and crashing into the Earth.
"That's it!" cried Bowser Jr. "Bring out the big guns!"
A trap door in the center of the Airship's deck opened, and up raised one huge cannon. Its firing rocked the whole ship from stem to stern. A Banzai Bullet Bill was released. This massive Bullet Bill with an enraged scowl rammed its way through the air.
"Oh my god!" screamed Sailor Moon. "Moved out of the way!" She cried shaking Sailor Jupiter.
"I'm trying!" Sailor Jupiter shouted back nervously and pulling the ship away as quickly as she could.
Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough, or the Banzai Bullet Bill was too fast. Either way, the monster rammed into the left wing of the ship and exploded, taking the left wing along with it. All the passengers were fortunately seated and buckled up except for Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars, who were still on the landing ramp. The violent jolt violently rocked the ship and knocked Sailor Mars off, sending her falling. Thankfully, Sailor Venus was still hanging onto the rod.
"Venus Love-Me Chain!" Her chain slashed out so quickly, so quickly in hopes of grabbing Sailor Mars in time, and caught the young woman. She gripped onto the chain as Sailor Venus tried to weal her up to safety (or at least a slightly safer alternative) while holding the chain with one hand and using the other arm to coil around the rod for dear life as the ship's speed and flight became more and more unpredictable. "Hang on!" she cried down to Sailor Mars.
"You're going to want to get her up quickly!" Sailor Mercury called to the others.
Coming up fast in front of them and raising up above a supremely sweltering sea of wrathful lava was Bowser's Castle, a towering and terrifying colossus of towers topped with green-tiled tips and battlements trimmed with obsidian black belts pattered with shape, hideously yellow fangs of spikes. Every angle was sharp, and if anything was rounded, there were spikes added near that area. Of course, an iconic stone carving of the Koopa King jutted out of the ashen stone façade above the great stone gate; it leered at all who stood before the castle looking to challenge its lord. The ramparts and walls fused nearly with the rock cliffs leaving no distance from the defenses of the castle and the fiery death lake below. As the ship was losing control exponentially, the solid rock below them was quickly transition into liquid form closer and close to the castle.
"We have no choice but to crash land inside the castle walls now," said Sailor Jupiter bitterly. "Mercury, take the controls. Boys, come and help me out!" She brought Mario and Luigi along with her to landing ramp to find Sailor Venus barely hanging onto the rod and Sailor Mars. "Come on! Pull!"
Now the four of them were more than enough to reel her up quickly; however, the ship was losing altitude just as fast. "Hold on! Pull!" The hot wind whips ripped at all of them. Still, keeping steady, holding on tightly, working together, they succeed. Now that all were on board, everyone strapped in for an emergency landing. Meanwhile, Sailor Mercury was pulling up the ship's nose as best as she could, but it was still sharply declining.
"You can do it, Sailor Mercury!" Sailor Moon cheered with half glee and half terror.
"The castle walls are coming up fast!" cried Sailor Venus.
Their ship was screaming down at the castle.
"Just… a little… more…" Mercury said, struggling.
With all of her pulling, she was able to keep the body of the shuttle up a hair above the ridge of the battlement, clipping the remaining wing against the stone wall and knocking the ship down in speed and out of its very straight path. SMASH! Into the dirt of a gloomy courtyard, the shuttle skidded along the raw umber earth, shaking up those inside as through it were a ride on a jackhammer, until it stopped. Everything was quiet.
Sailor Mars flipped her hair out of her face. "Is everyone okay?"
Mourns of yes were uttered.
"Oh…" said Sailor Moon uncomfortably. "We're in trouble. We need to call Obi-Wan for help." She got out of her seat and activated the transmission device in between the pilot and copilot seats. An action figure-sized hologram of Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared. "Master," she said in a panicky, hushed tone, "we need you help quickly. We just crash landed on enemy lines. We're surrounded."
His face dripped down into a sullen look. "You haven't been there more than two hours." He said dully. "How did this happen?"
"Maybe it wouldn't have happened if you gave us a ship with weapons?" Jupiter protested cynically.
"What she means to say," Mercury interjected putting her hands in front of Jupiter, "is that the Dark Kingdom is here on the Mushroom World, and they are working with Bowser. Ventress kidnapped Princess Peach."
"This is quite a problem," said Obi-Wan. "Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Saturn just became available. I will send them to your location. In the meantime, rescue the princess and try to stay alive." He ended the transmission.