"I'll see you lying dead at my feet yet, you so-called hero!" Zaron shouted as the purple gem atop his black Staff of Shadows began to glow. The next instant there was a boom of thunder, and the entire room was instantly filled with a thick black mist, so dense that neither Mario nor Luigi could see his hand in front of his face. Before either brother could react, Zaron rushed forward in the darkness and struck them down with a sweep of his staff. He aimed his staff at Mario's face, grinding his teeth in hatred.
Just before Zaron zapped him, Mario rolled to the side, allowing the bolt of dark energy to harmlessly scorch the floor. He sprang to his feet and threw a punch that sent Zaron into the wall. Mario and Luigi lit fireballs in their hands, dissipating a little of the gloom and revealing Zaron's silhouette coming toward them, red eyes burning from beneath his black hood. They parted and allowed Zaron to speed between them, smashing himself into the wall behind them. He staggered backward, stunned.
"Rather quick, aren't you?" Zaron grunted, regaining his balance. "Perhaps I'll cut the introductory thrashing and just wring your impudent little necks right now! Behold the power of evil!"
Zaron raised his Staff of Shadows, and his body began to glow green. Then a tremendous WHOOSH filled the room as a hurricane-force wind nearly threw Mario and Luigi to the floor.
"Don't move!" Mario yelled to his brother over the howling wind. "I saw this before when I fought Zaron in Bowser's dungeon! Stay put or you're dead!"
Luigi nodded, bracing himself against the blast.
There was another gale and a violent rumbling, and Mario and Luigi found themselves in a dome of air, completely surrounded by a pink protoplasmic gel. All through this room-filling substance floated little particles of dark matter, the fuel source for Zaron's energy. And facing the brothers from the far wall was Zaron's evil, leering face, with its two glowing red eyes glaring at the brothers in wicked glee.
"Wh-What in the world?!" managed Luigi in shock.
Zaron's cackle was more like a boom. "Remember this, Mario? Remember the pain? The agony you went through trying to defeat this form?"
Mario doubled his fist and socked a powerful punch to the wall of his protoplasmic prison. The gel shivered under the impact but did not give way. "And do you remember defeat, Zaron?" he shouted back. "You'll get nowhere with this! I know your weakness!"
Zaron's face contorted with fury, and he let out a horrible, deafening screech of hatred that made Mario and Luigi wince and cover their ears. "You little plumber PEST!" he screamed. "How DARE you defy ME, the master of the darkness! You will pay for your words with your LIFE!!" The monstrous face lunged forward at them to emphasize the threat. "Darkness! Reach forth the cold fingers of death and consume them!"
At Zaron's command, the particles of darkness inside Zaron's room-filling protoplasmic body drew together into dozens of long black tentacles. These octopus arms snaked through the gel until they neared the brothers; then they suddenly whipped forward through the gel walls and seized the two with crushing force. There was no time for Mario or Luigi to dodge.
"Who's the one being defeated this time, Mario?" rasped Zaron with a grotesque grin. "Darkness! Pull them in and let them feel the true pangs of death!"
Before either brother could react, the tentacles jerked them into the sea of pink gel. The foul arms released them, but the two could barely move because of the thick gel encasing them. It felt like being buried in warm Jell-O.
"Suffocate them!" screeched Zaron in glee, revealing his fangs in a wicked smile.
Again the tentacles came at Mario and Luigi from all sides. Stubbornly the brothers tried to fight back—stubbornly but uselessly. Their movement was so hindered that there was little they could do. A single snaking tentacle wrapped itself around Mario's throat and began strangling him. Another seized Luigi's neck and made him gasp. Unable to breathe, the brothers struggled mutely against the choking arms.
"Give up!" cackled Zaron. "You can't win!"
"No," rang out a voice from the corner, "unless I help!"
Zaron's hovering face turned to see Amethyst standing in her own bubble of air, herself trapped by his ultimate form. She glared at him in defiance.
"What can you possibly do to save them now?" he asked snidely.
Amethyst raised her hand and transformed it into a searchlight. "This!"
The intense beam of light from Amethyst's searchlight blinded the darkness-loving Zaron. "AAAAAGH!" he screamed, his disembodied head reeling and quivering. "NO! STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!! AAAAAGH!!"
Amethyst turned the powerful beam onto the tentacles strangling Mario and Luigi; they vanished instantly, making Zaron scream in pain yet again.
"ENOUGH!" screeched Zaron. "NO MORE LIGHT!!" His head began to quake violently. The gel pulsed and shook, and in a burst of greenish light Zaron resumed his normal black-cloaked humanoid form, allowing Mario and Luigi to drop heavily to the floor.
Again Amethyst blinded Zaron with the light. The shadowy specter had little choice but to flee, and flee he did, screaming as he rushed out of the room.
"Mario!" Twink darted out of the corner he'd hidden in. "Mario, Zaron's got a device that lets him travel between dimensions! If you get that, you should be able to get to Princess Peach!"
Instantly Mario was on his feet. "We can't let him get away or we'll be stuck in this dimension forever! C'mon, we've gotta catch him!" He seized Luigi's arm, hauled him to his feet, and dashed out with his brother in tow. Amethyst and Twink followed close behind as Mario half-dragged Luigi down the dank underground hallway. The plumber caught sight of Zaron's tattered black robe disappearing up the flight of granite steps leading up to the surface.
"He's getting away!" Mario pumped his legs still faster, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Seconds later the group burst out into the sunlight. The storm was long over; the sky was still gray and rainy, but no drops were falling. The ground was totally saturated.
"Where'd he go?" Luigi asked in puzzlement as the four halted just outside the hideout entrance, trees all around them.
"I'll find him!" Twink volunteered, flying up over the treetops. There were a few seconds of silence as the Star Kid scanned the surrounding area. Abruptly he waved to Mario and glided forward. Mario and the others immediately followed him. Soon Twink dropped back to Mario's level, motioning for all of them to stop.
"He's up ahead," whispered Twink. "Careful!"
Mario peeped around a tree. There was Zaron, busy with a white circular gadget in his hands.
That must be the transport device, Mario guessed. But how to get it away from him?
Suddenly Luigi burst forward and snatched the device from Zaron's fingers, returning to the group just seconds later with a triumphant grin on his face. "I got it!" he hollered, holding the machine aloft.
A torrent of screaming and cursing poured from Zaron's throat as he turned toward Luigi. The green-shirted plumber froze in his victory stance. Zaron aimed his staff directly at him.
"Run!" yelled Mario, and the group scattered as Zaron's staff shot an energy ray that sliced the tree Mario had been hiding behind in two. The mammoth crashed to the forest floor as Mario's group leaped clear of its fall.
Zaron bared his teeth in rage. "Bring that back NOW, you green imbecile!!" he screamed.
"This is the thing for sure, bro!" Luigi whispered to Mario as they and Amethyst crouched behind a thicket. "Just listen to how angry he is!"
"Must be important to him," quipped Mario dryly.
Suddenly the ground beneath them gave a lurch, and a huge portion of earth somehow wrenched itself from the ground and tilted at a crazy angle, catapulting the three from their hiding place into Zaron's line of sight. Walls of earth rose all around them and their enemy, far too high for even Luigi to leap over. The little group scrambled to their feet and clustered together.
"How is he doing that?!" asked Luigi in disbelief.
Amethyst spotted the glowing red ring on Zaron's right index finger and gasped. "He's got one of the Rainbow Rings!"
Zaron grinned maniacally and held his hand high, showing off the brilliant red glow of the jasper stone set in his golden ring. "It is the Jasper Ring, entrusted to me by the Great One herself! I was told to use its powers against you should I have need. It would seem I do!" He bared his teeth again. "Hand over that device this instant!!"
"Not a chance!" retorted Mario, going into battle stance.
"Then prepare to meet your DOOM!!" Zaron screamed, again raising the Jasper Ring high. It gleamed with a fantastic brilliance, and two mammoth earthen hands broke through the ground, one on either side of Zaron. Luigi gulped.
"Attack!" screamed Zaron. "CRUSH THEM!!"
Shyga sat silently at Daisy's bedside, listening to the quiet beeping of the heart monitor. As Medic Guy had said, Daisy's heart rate slowed down and sped up completely unpredictably, making the monitor's beeping totally arhythmic. The chaotic anti-rhythm ground at Shyga's nerves. She'd been sitting there for most of the morning and the noise was becoming more than a mild annoyance.
"Your Highness?"
Daisy still stared blankly at the ceiling, completely unresponsive.
The blue-suited Shy Guy girl stroked Daisy's sweat-beaded forehead. "Your Highness, can you hear me?"
No response. Daisy was alive but mysteriously unable to interact with anything around her—awake yet asleep. In her mind she was desperately trying to respond, to move, to get up, to speak. For some strange reason, however, the only conscious movement she could make was a blink. Her entire body felt limp and helpless. And that strange vision still haunted her mind.
She saw Peach running from the Great One. A wall of Shroobs rose up before her, towering over her. The Great One overtook her fleeing captive and stabbed a hypodermic syringe into Peach's back. Peach screamed and collapsed as her hand began to gnarl and take on a bluish hue—then the dream stopped. It repeated itself over and over at infrequent intervals. Daisy tried to speak again but could not. She felt that she desperately needed to tell someone what she was seeing. But for the time being, she was powerless to do so.
As Zaron screamed his command to attack, the two giant hands of earth reached out to grab Mario, Luigi and Amethyst. The group was trapped inside Zaron's walled-in area, created by the earth-moving powers of the Jasper Ring, and had nowhere to run. They ran anyway, the hands following relentlessly behind them as they circled the area, ducking and weaving to avoid the deadly-accurate swipes of the two hands.
"Perhaps I'll get my hands on you yet, Mario!" Zaron cackled.
"Bad pun, you black-hearted creep!" Mario shouted back as he somersaulted forward to avoid a hand smack. He sprang to his feet and began hurling ice balls at Zaron.
"Bah! Begone!" Zaron puffed as the hands batted Mario's ice right back at him. "Seize him!"
Before Mario could react he'd been grabbed up by the massive hands.
"Crush him!!" cackled Zaron in glee.
Mario took aim and planted an ice ball between Zaron's eyes, making him stumble backward with a scream of pain. The plumber grinned. "Gotcha."
The hands quaked and, no longer under Zaron's concentration, released Mario, letting him hit the forest floor with a thud. He was back on his feet in moments, pummeling Zaron with more ice. The specter reeled under the hits.
"STOP! STOP THAT!!" he screamed, waving his hands wildly to block Mario's onslaught.
"Then get out and don't come back!" Mario shot back, breaking off the attack.
Zaron suddenly waved his hand, and the two Hands came right back at Mario, knocking his feet out from under him and pinning him to the ground. The enemy laughed maniacally at Mario's predicament. "You're not shooting at me from your stomach, Mario! I've got you now!"
"Let—go of me—Zaron!" Mario grunted as the hands bore their weight down on him.
Zaron, still laughing, made the hands squash Mario still more. "Never let your guard down around me! You'll live to regret it! Now hand over that device or I'll crush Mario into oblivion!"
Amethyst vanished. The next instant Zaron was flat on his back as an invisible fist struck him down. The Jasper Ring slipped from his finger.
"N-No! The Jasper Ring!" Zaron scrambled to his hands and knees and lunged at the object, but Amethyst bent down and plucked it from the earth. She looked at him in mock curiosity. "Looking for something?"
"Give that back!!" screamed Zaron, swiping at her with his sharp fingernails. She backed away from him and placed the Ring on her own finger. Instantly the hands ceased to crush Mario and hovered over the ground, awaiting the order of their new commander.
Amethyst pointed at Zaron. "Get him!"
"N-No!!" Zaron took one look at the oncoming hands and fled for his life. Amethyst, using the Jasper Ring's earth powers, dismantled the barrier of earth around them so Zaron could run away, the hands still pursuing him.
"Looks like we got what we wanted," Mario remarked while studying the white circular device intently. The gadget was about eight inches across and one inch thick with one tiny depression in its center. A single switch was located on its edge. Cautiously Mario flipped the switch on. Immediately a voice came from the device.
"Greetings, user. I am the DTD, the Dimensional Transport Device. State your name, please."
Mario was slightly taken aback. "Uh...I'm Mario."
"Mario..." The device whirred for a moment. "Pleased to meet you. You may call me DT."
"Just what are you?" questioned Mario.
DT's circuits buzzed busily, retrieving data from his memory banks. "I am an independently-functioning component of the TEC-XX, originally designed and built for the purpose of opening other dimensions for exploration and conquest. I am capable of transporting anything across dimensional boundaries."
"Sounds like something Grodus would do, all right," Mario muttered under his breath. "Listen, DT, since you're part of TEC, I assume you know about Princess Peach?"
"Correct," DT droned. "I have wireless access to TEC's entire memory. Why do you mention her?"
"She's been kidnapped again by Cyanara, DT, and we need your help to rescue her. She's in another dimension, and we can't get to her without your help." Mario felt a little strange trying to negotiate with a machine, but then stranger things had happened in the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach's life was at stake here. He would do what he had to.
"I am not programmed to assist the Great One's enemies," began DT cautiously.
"Would you rather let Peach die?" asked Mario pointedly, hoping the gadget would understand his logic.
DT whirred again, this time for several minutes, before finally replying. "If it means her life, TEC would desire that I help you. I have contacted him, and he has requested that I pass this information on to you. I will help you in any way possible."
"OK—so how do we get to another dimension?" Mario asked.
"My hardware has been specifically redesigned for this particular scenario," DT replied in his computerized drone. "Observe the depression on my upper surface. To access the portal to another dimension in the Mushroom Kingdom, you must possess the Rainbow Ring whose color corresponds to the color assigned that particular dimension. To reach Orange Dimension, for instance, you must place the gem from the orange Ring in contact with the depression on my surface. There is no other way."
Amethyst quickly stepped forward and placed the Jasper Ring's gem in the small depression. DT's circuits hummed for a moment.
"I am sorry. You are already in Red Dimension. This Ring cannot take you anywhere."
"Looks like Cyanara knew what she was doing," Mario commented grimly. "She's not about to let us get out of here that easily. Can you do anything about the problem, DT? Rewrite your own programming or something?"
"Perhaps TEC can assist me in resolving this dilemma. Please wait." DT began to emit a hum again as he communicated wirelessly with the moon base computer. Mario tapped his foot impatiently.
At last the white gadget ceased to hum. "Success. TEC has overwritten part of the security subroutine, enabling me to transport you to the next dimension in color order. But that is as far as I can take you. To reach the next dimension beyond that, you will need another Ring."
"It's a start, anyway," Mario said in relief. "And I've got a feeling Cyanara'll be sending more Ring-powered underlings our way. Let's go!" Amethyst again placed the Jasper Ring in contact with DT's depression, and a wide circular portal of orange energy opened wide before the group.
"I can't come along, Mario," Twink said regretfully. "I gotta get back to Star Haven. There's wishes to be granted, you know!"
"Then we'll see you later, Twink," Mario said in farewell. "Bye!" Together he, Luigi, and Amethyst stepped through the orange portal into Orange Dimension.
Ruby stirred and opened her eyes. "Ohhh..." she groaned as she felt the pain. For some reason the atmosphere in Cyanara's fortress was affecting her sensitive mind, attacking it like a slow disease. She could feel the evil creeping through her brain, inflicting its damage as it went, disrupting her thoughts and hindering her ability to control her own body. Of the six Guardians currently imprisoned in the Empress's fortress, Ruby was by far in the worst condition.
"I have to...get out of here," she moaned as she lay motionless on the stone floor of her tiny cell, running her hand over her aching head. "I can't...take this...forever..."
"So it seems Sister Ruby has a great weakness, hm?" came a smooth female voice from the other side of the steel door holding Ruby prisoner.
"Diamond..." groaned Ruby weakly. "Why...must you taunt me?"
"Because you always were a foolish little girl," replied the voice haughtily. Although Ruby could not see her sister Guardian, she could picture the raven-haired, rainbow-robed Diamond standing behind the door, sneering at her. She sighed and closed her eyes again.
"Just...go away..."
"I'm here to make you an offer, Ruby," Diamond continued. "Work with us. Work with me and the Great One. Together we can rule this world!"
Summoning all her remaining strength, Ruby stood painfully to her feet. "Don't even bother, Diamond! I will never cooperate! You turned against your sisters for the sake of power, and you would drag me down with you to destruction as well? Never will I...ah...agh..." Her knees gave way, and she collapsed to the floor, too exhausted to speak further.
"If you refuse, Ruby...well, the Great One will simply have to kill you. Is that what you want?"
Ruby suffered in silence, letting Diamond continue without interruption.
"Or perhaps that's not enough to make you break," Diamond added, voice dripping with honey. "Ah, I know! You can have Amber take your place as the one to be sucked dry of her power. That should be incentive enough."
"Don't...do that!" Ruby cried almost involuntarily.
"It's your choice, Ruby," Diamond said simply, her voice fading away as she walked away from the cell door.
Weakly Ruby turned onto her side. "What can I do?" she moaned. "I can't...just let them...torment Amber..." She struggled to maintain clear thinking against the evil creeping through her mind. "Amber...what has the Empress done...with you? With all..the others?" She groaned again.
In truth, the other Guardians were not much better off than Ruby. Cyanara had cleverly found a way to exploit each girl's weak point to ensure that escape was impossible. Amber's cell was a icebox, so cold that the heat-based Guardian could not keep warm, let alone use her powers of fire. Citrine was imprisoned in an all-wooden cell, rendering her electrical powers useless. A strong force field prevented Emerald from teleporting out of her prison. Aquamarine was kept in a heated cell with a constant temperature of one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, making the ice-type fifth Guardian unbearably hot. And perhaps most cunning of all, the walls of Sapphire's cell held a dark energy so intensely strong that even Sapphire's energybending powers could not affect it. The evil Empress had six Guardians under her control and one, Diamond, working for her. Only Amethyst, the seventh Guardian, remained to be caught.
Mario, Luigi, and Amethyst stepped out of the shimmering orange portal, and their feet hit solid rock. The portal closed, leaving the three in complete darkness.
"Where are we now?" Mario wondered aloud, cautiously venturing a few steps forward. "Feels like the floor's wet. Watch your step."
"It's too dark to see anything!" Luigi whimpered.
Amethyst again turned her hand into a searchlight. The powerful beam stabbed through the darkness. The Guardian cast the beam about, dimly illuminating the distant stone walls of what appeared to be a large cavern.
"Amethyst, give me some light over here," Mario requested. "Last thing I need is a serious fall." Amethyst obligingly shone the light at Mario's feet, and Mario again ventured forward carefully. Suddenly he stopped after having gone just a few feet.
"Whoa! Big drop-off here." Mario backed away from the edge and tried another direction. Again Amethyst guided him with the light; again he was confronted by a steep drop-off, the bottom of which he couldn't see. He tried yet another direction and found the same thing.
"Looks like we might be stuck here, guys," Mario finally announced.
A shout echoed through the hollow cavern. The three looked around and spotted a tiny figure holding a torch coming toward them. He appeared to be walking on air, but as he came closer, his torchlight revealed the thin rock bridge he was traversing. In a few minutes the figure reached their ledge, the torchlight showing him to be a Shy Guy.
"Welcome," greeted the Shy Guy uncertainly. "What brings you here?"
"It's a long story," Mario replied, avoiding the question. "Where exactly are we?"
"You don't know?" The Shy Guy in gray frowned. "That's kind of...strange. You're in Subterra Caverns, beneath Toad Town."
"Beneath Toad Town?" Luigi questioned.
"That's right," the Shy Guy answered. Suddenly his face lit up. "Wait a minute! I know you two! You—" he pointed at Luigi— "are Luigi! And you, in the red cap with the 'M' on it, are, uh...what's your name...it's on the tip of my tongue...uh..."
"Mario," Mario finished for him with a roll of his eyes.
"Yes, Mario. Sorry, my memory's not been the best lately." The gray Shy Guy gestured toward himself. "I am a Gloom Guy. I and my fellow Gloom Guys all live down here in this gloomy cave." Gloom Guy motioned toward the narrow rock bridge. "Follow me. I'll take you to our underground town."
Obediently Mario, Luigi, and Amethyst followed Gloom Guy onto the thin bridge. The three newcomers were obviously unsure of themselves on the narrow walkway, but Gloom Guy had no trouble keeping his footing.
"You know, we've been having a lot of Toads coming down from the surface lately," remarked Gloom Guy as he led the way over the narrow bridge. "They say these weird guys in red uniforms with white X's over their chests are overrunning Toad Town."
Mario and Luigi exchanged glances.
"Sounds like things aren't exactly rosy in Toad Town," Mario muttered under his breath. "And the town's barely been rebuilt from the Shadow Legion's destruction. Looks like we're gonna have our hands full with the X-Nauts again."
The group reached the end of the rock arch, passed through a wide tunnel, and emerged onto a cliff overlooking another large cavern, this one lit by countless flaming torches. Spread through this cavernous space were hundreds of cubical stone buildings, arranged in neat rows along stone streets. In fact, most of the town seemed to be made entirely of stone. Luigi whistled in amazement.
"What a place," Mario breathed. "I had no idea such a big town was down here!"
"Well, it's been growing like crazy ever since the Toad Towners started coming down from the surface," Gloom Guy offered, "but there's still lots of room in the caverns. We could fit all of Toad Town down here with room to spare."
With that little boast, Gloom Guy led the trio down a steep stone trail literally carved into the cliff face. The path would descend steeply for several yards, level out, make a sharp U-turn, and begin descending again. Here, once again, Gloom Guy kept his footing easily, but Mario, Luigi, and Amethyst found themselves sliding down more often than walking down.
At last they reached the bottom of the cliff and stepped off the trail onto a torchlit stone street, bustling with hundreds of Toads and Gloom Guys. Mario and company tried to see everything at once in this unique underground city as Gloom Guy led them through the streets toward his home.
Gloom Guy stepped off the street and pushed open the door of one of the stone buildings. "Home sweet home," he said with a smile. "Go on in."
Mario set foot in the small dwelling, curiously examining every inch of the place. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all stone. The chairs and table were of the same material. Cabinets, shelves, even the doorknobs were of stone. The only noticeable non-granite feature was the mattress on Gloom Guy's otherwise-stone bed.
"Nice place," Luigi commented somewhat uncertainly as they entered. "Could use some lights, though."
Gloom Guy grinned. "We're working on getting electricity down here. Maybe someday." He fingered the doorknob. "I'm going to get Toad Town's mayor over here. He can explain what's going on up there better than I can." The gray Shy Guy turned and became lost to sight in the crowd on the street. Mario, Luigi, and Amethyst seated themselves around the stone table to wait for his return.
It was only ten minutes before Gloom Guy came back, this time with a single Toad in tow. "This is Mayor Gray T. of Toad Town," he said in introduction. The mayor nodded to Mario and his friends and sat down at the table with Gloom Guy.
"So, Mayor," Mario began, "what's going on up there in Toad Town? Gloom Guy told us about the X-Nauts...?"
"It's true," Gray T. answered. "Just yesterday the sky flashed a brilliant orange for a brief moment. Sometime around noon, I think it was. It wasn't but a few hours before a black portal opened up in Toad Town square and those accursed X-Nauts came swarming out. Seems like the two events are connected somehow but I don't know how."
"Did everyone make it down here all right?" Mario questioned.
Mayor Gray shook his graying head. "I'm afraid not. There should still be several dozen citizens up there somewhere."
Mario was taken aback. "There are still people up there with those X-Naut creeps?"
"You're not thinking of going up there, are you?" asked the mayor anxiously. "Please don't even try it, Mario! The X-Nauts have advanced weaponry with them. For your own safety, please remain down here!"
"I don't have much choice, Mayor," Mario replied. "Eventually the X-Nauts will find this place and you'll all be either dead or taken prisoner. If I go up there, maybe I can find a way to stop them altogether. Besides, those few dozen still up there need help." He stood up from his chair. "Come on, Luigi, Amethyst. We're headed for the surface."
"I'll guide you to the surface exit," Gloom Guy volunteered, standing and heading for the door. "Follow me!"