III.
Luigi leaped out of the pipe, and stood with his fists up, facing whatever it was.
Nothing was there.
He lowered his hands in relief. So, it wasn't as bad as he had thought. All he saw, from his field of vision, were a couple of Goombas and some spiky moving platforms. They seemed to be guarding something. He looked around, perplexed. When he couldn't see anything around him, he looked up.
Luigi's jaw dropped.
There was a huge Power Star – Grand Star, he thought to himself – that was being drained of any power it might have had. Luigi's hands curled into fists in rage. It always had to be Bowser, didn't it. He couldn't just steal a Power Star – he had to strip it of any value it might have had first. Well, Luigi knew how fix him and his devilish machine. If Bowser kept to his old mentality, he would have been too impatient to wait for the machine to be ready, and put it into operation the day before the Koopa Troopas finished it. Heaven knew why. If this was true, the machine should still have a flaw somewhere. He felt in his pockets for anything that could be used, and surprisingly, there was a small sliver of stone from in his pocket – he had gotten it, he supposed, when the bridge blew up. Carefully approaching the device from the side, he put a hand on the emitter, and began feeling for cracks. He felt his way along the side, and one of his fingers found a rough patch. He crouched down and looked at it, and whistled in amazement. The crack ran all the way down the side of the machine. "It's like he wants you to defeat him…" he said, astounded at such carelessness. He wondered vaguely for a moment whether Bowser was just stupid, and then jammed the stone into the crack. The hastily constructed machine collapsed instantly, releasing the Grand Star. Luigi jumped up and grabbed it.
His vision went white
then black
with stars
and he could see the universe out of one eye
Sensing that Luigi was in no fit condition to get back himself, the Grand Star picked him up in a force field and flew to the Comet Observatory, depositing Luigi in front of Rosalina, and joining the beacon. The maintainer of the cosmos bent worriedly over Luigi, and a small black Luma looked over her shoulder.
Time passed…
and passed…
and passed…
and
IV.
Luigi came to for the second time that day, feeling unpleasantly groggy, like he had just run a marathon and a girl in blue was waking him up --
He sat up. Wait. Where was he? This didn't look like the Mushroom Kingdom. Or the planet he remembered being on. He saw Lumas all around him, and he suddenly recalled what the silver Luma had said earlier in the day. You're in the gateway. The Gateway to the Comet Observatory. Maybe this was the fabled comet that passed over the Mushroom Kingdom every hundred years. That would explain a lot, including how Bowser got the power to build his fleet of airships, and a new galaxy. He had drained the power from the Observatory's Grand Stars. But his explanations stopped short of explaining what to do, and he knew the girl in blue might have an answer. He stopped the nearest Luma and asked, "Where is your…Mama?" The Luma replied, "Mama? She's where she always is – with Polari, near the landing platform, and the map of the galaxies." Luigi thanked the small starry creature, and walked a short distance away, to the main hub of the Observatory. The girl spotted him when he was two feet away; she hadn't seen him sooner as she had been in deep conversation with a black Luma. "Ah, excellent, you are awake at last. I have many things to say to you, not least of which is to thank you. You have saved our Observatory from destruction. For now," she added in a darker tone of voice. "By the way, I don't believe we were ever properly introduced. I am Rosalina, and this is Polari, my assistant. Who are you?" she said politely, though with an air of trying to hurry the introductions. Luigi's already tired mind decided to cut to the chase: "I'm Luigi, and I've got some questions for you. Number one: Why am I here? Number two: How do I stop Bowser? And last but not least: da-dadada-daaaa! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME!?" "QUIET!" screamed Rosalina. Luigi fell silent at once, shocked at the command in that voice. Rosalina took a deep breath, and looked to be steadying herself, and continued: "I will answer your questions, in order. Number one: You are here because I brought you here after I found you on my planet. Number two: You need to get enough Grand Stars and Power Stars to power the Observatory enough to enable our flight to the center of the universe. And number three: I DO NOT KNOW!" She looked annoyed that there was something she didn't know about in her immediate area. "I have never seen a person react like that to a Grand Star. You are someone special, that is for sure." She studied him for a moment longer, and then shook her head. "In any case, you must retrieve several more stars and another Grand Star if we are to open another dome. Come, follow me." She led the way into a dome and Luigi followed behind, thinking about all that she had told him. And just before he entered the dome, Luigi stopped. This is it, my last chance to back out, and never know the truth about all this. He considered this for a moment.
He then went inside.