Chapter 17: Kingdom Come

It was a beautiful day in the Mushroom Kingdom. The sun was out, birds were chirping, and there was a slight breeze that made the fire flowers sway. Princess Peach was walking through her garden with her lady in waiting, Daisy. They had come out to check on the process of the new garden, and to compliment the bub-ulbs in charge of the new addition to the castle.

"It really is fantastic," Peach said, "The Prince will really enjoy it when he returns."

"We're almost finished," the chief gardener, Bulliber, replied, "Just that last section over there. We have something really special planned for it. All of the extra workers have really helped."

"Extra workers?" Daisy asked, "I don't remember you assigning any, Princess. Who are you talking about Bulliber?"

"Those guys over there," Bulliber replied nodding his head towards the unfinished section. A group of little people in red shirts and white goggles hard at work arranging flowers. "Called themselves the X-Naut Flower Brigade or something to that extent."

"Hmmm," Peach replied, "I honestly do not remember assigning them. I don't even recognize them." The group walked over to the X-Naut Flower Brigade. "Excuse me," Peach replied tapping one of them on the shoulder, "May I ask who you are?"

The little man jumped around and folded his arms into an X pattern on his chest, "Sure thing, dudette, I mean Princess. Princess Dudette…anyway…we're the X-Naut Flower Brigade. We met the Prince a while back on our world and he gave us a few coins to drop by here and lend a hand to the decorating."

"Oh, Mario sent you here?" Daisy asked smiling. If the Prince sent them here, then that meant he was ok.

"Even when he's out on a mission the Prince can be so thoughtful," Peach said, "I hope he returns soon."

"Yeah, yeah," the X-Naut said hastily, "Really nice dude and all. But we gotta get back to work here ladies, if you don't mind."

"Of course not," Peach said politely, "We'll get out of your way now." They walked back towards the castle. When they had gotten a safe distance away, a hatch opened from in the ground where the Princess had been standing. A larger X-Naut dressed in a purple hat with horns jumped out.

"Whew," the big X-Naut said, "Talk about your close shaves. If the Princess had found out about us, Grodus would have all of our heads."

"You said it," The smaller X-Naut said, "I'm just glad you had the sense to listen before opening the hatch, Lord Crump."

The Bigger X-Naut, Lord Crump started laughing, "Buh huh huh huh! Yeah, me too. Good improv on your part, X-Naut. Now we have their trust. The Prince send us? Not in a million years. Buh huh huh huh huh. Well, I gotta get back below, the mighty Koopa Koot is gonna have a tantrum if I don't report on our espionage status. And with that, Pow! I'm gone!" He ducked back into the hole. The X-Naut began gardening again.

* * *

The next day was the big unveiling of the Fire Garden. The total arrangement made one giant fire flower out of many smaller fire flowers. It was quite a sight to behold and the Princess was quite proud of all the workers involved, even the strangely behaved X-Nauts (who seemed to avoid being talked to for some reason). The Princess was seated in a chair on a veranda hooked to the castle, beside her was Daisy. They were waiting for Bulliber to come up and make a speech, but he appeared to be late. If he was any later, Peach would have to make a speech herself, which worried her a little bit, because she had not prepared one.

After a while, Bulliber still had not appeared and Peach decided to not let the crowd of people down. She went to get up but shortly before she could, she heard a strange laugh coming from nowhere.

"Gack Ack Ack Ack!"

Then there was a small rumbling, and the floor right underneath and behind the microphone split apart neatly, leaving a large hole. A large, seemingly robotic man who looked like one of the X-Nauts only much larger and much more prominent appeared. He seemed to prefer the color blue, and his hat looked as though it had a computer brain programmed into it. He had a copious amount of white beard and mustache that made his face indistinguishable.

"Greetings," he said, "I am called Grodus, leader of the X-Nauts. We will be taking this kingdom for our own now."

Peach jumped out of her chair and ran up to this strange man, "Excuse me!? I'm not sure if I heard you correctly, but this Kingdom is run by myself and Prince Mario and we won't be letting someone like you taking it over!" Daisy remained sitting, clearly shocked at what was happening. Peach had seen Bowser do something like this so often that it didn't even come across as a shock. The most surprising thing about it was that it was someone new this time, not Bowser.

She should have realized that not every one is as obvious or dull witted with their plans as Bowser. Shortly after rising from her chair, Grodus turned swiftly and swung a large (also computerized, by the look of it) staff. A ball of green energy surrounded the princess and she couldn't escape from it.

"My dear Princess," Grodus replied eying her sinisterly, "Please don't do anything that would force me to hurt you. You see, you are still very much a part of the festivities to follow, and we need you whole." He pulled out a communicator and spoke into it, "Ground to Air, ready for pick up, over."

"Roger that," A gruff and somehow familiar voice said from the speaker, "Rendezvous in thirty seconds."

Grodus pocketed the communicator and said, "He's early, good work. This teamwork thing pays off sometimes. I'll have to try it more often."

Daisy had found her courage, and so apparently had the audience. They had all risen as one ready to take on the mysterious Grodus. Noticing this, he waved his staff again, and the bubble flew right into Daisy. Instead of knocking her over, she fell inside of it, and was trapped with the Princess. A brave Goomba stepped forward ready to attack.

"You'll never get away with them!" the Goomba screamed, "We won't let you!"

Just then two very big things happened at once. First and formost, the Goomba was drowned out by a loud roaring sound. An enormous ship was falling out of the sky right towards them. Right when it looked like it was going to hit the garden, it stopped and merely hung in mid air, right above Grodus and the trapped women. If the crowd in the garden thought that things couldn't get worse, they were sorely mistaken as Bowser, King of the Koopas leaned over the side of the ship and bellowed, "HURRY UP GRODUS!" Grodus pulled out a transmitter with a single button. He pushed it and chuckled as he floated up towards the ship, the women trapped in the bubble following him. The crowd began to attack, but before they had so much as uttered a battle cry, the floor beneath them began to split. It was opening up wide, as if to eat them. A few goombas and a spiny had already fallen in, and it was unclear how far down the pit went. The crowd lost their minds and began scrabbling as one towards the sides of the garden. The walls were too high to climb. There were some flying people, such as paragoombas, paratroopas, lakitus, and more, but they were not enough to save the Princess and Lady in Waiting, and they were busy trying to save as many people from falling into the pit as possible.

Grodus and Bowser shared a laugh as they zoomed away with their prizes.

* * *

Cackletta was seated at the head of a large table, around which a few of the other villains were seated, prominent among them was Ganondorf, who was in no hurry to find the princess he needed to.

Suddenly, a large screen appeared from nowhere. Bowser and Grodus were on it.

"Hag, we have the two princesses and are en route to your location."

"Good work Lizard," Cackletta replied, "We shall see you soon." She looked over at Ganondorf and smiled.

"I love it when a plan falls together so well, don't you?" She asked. He gave her a brief smile and left the room to make start making preparations.