"Heh," chuckled the now-gigantic X-Naut Ph.D., "looks like you guys need to watch where you throw things!"
"Really?" Mario seized another green potion. "Let's even out the odds, shall we?" Without hesitating he emptied the beaker's contents over his head. In less than a second he was even taller than his enemy.
"Yikes!" yelped the scientist. "Help!"
Luigi grabbed a yellow potion and chucked it at the X-Naut. Instantly he reverted to normal size.
"Thanks!" hollered the scientist, bolting for the door. "Now I can fit out the door and get away from—"
SPLAT
Mario lifted his shoe. "Yuck. Squished X-Naut. Got another yellow over there, Luigi?"
Luigi promptly returned Mario to standard height.
Curious, Mario pulled the scientist's lab coat from the puddle of goo that was once an X-Naut Ph.D. and probed the pockets. He pulled out a key card. "Well, lookie here! A master key!"
"Opens any door?" Luigi questioned eagerly, leaning over to have a look for himself.
Mario tapped the marker-applied words Master Key written on one face of the card. "Apparently someone's a bit of an absent-minded professor." He led the way out of the research lab and back into the main hall of the flying saucer. The brothers immediately tested the card by swiping it through the card reader on the door across the hall. The light over the door promptly switch from red to green, indicating that it had been unlocked. Mario grinned at Luigi as he waved his hand at the motion sensor. The door parted in its X shape to admit them.
The room beyond was gargantuan in proportions. It was wide, circular in shape, with a steel floor and a thirty-foot ceiling. All around the cavernous room's walls were dozens of complex control panels similar to those in the teleporter room. The air was punctuated with beeping, whirring, clicking, and all manner of electronic noise, indicating that the computers were hard at work.
"Looks like the central control room for Grodus's ship," Luigi whispered, "and the power plant, too. Just look at the size of that thing!" He pointed to the room's most glaringly-obvious feature—a towering cylindrical force field in the center of the room. In the midst of the blue energy field hung a large green crystal as big as a tree trunk. The fluctuating brightness of the field seemed to indicate that the ship was drawing energy away from the giant crystal. Mario studied it for a moment.
"If we take that thing out, this whole ship should lose power and crash," he finally said aloud. "Should we, or shouldn't we?"
"Don't even try it," answered a familiar voice from behind him. "The force field is impenetrable."
Mario and Luigi whirled around. Mario's fists tightened.
"Grodus!"
The X-Naut leader cackled insanely. "Gaack ack ack ack ack! So we meet again, Mario! And I see you've brought your weakling brother along to keep you company. That is all he's good for, is it not?" he finished with a maniacal grin.
"Don't you dare insult my brother!" Mario shot back heatedly.
Luigi, heartened by Mario's staunch defense, glared back at Grodus himself. Then his eye fell on the X-Naut's gloved hand. An orange sparkle dazzled his eyes.
"Bro, he's got the second Ring!"
"Yes—correct!" Grodus cackled. "Her Imperial Highness entrusted this Rainbow Ring to my care!" He gloated over the orange gem on his right middle finger.
Mario snatched at the Ring, but Grodus jerked his hand back, holding out his golden staff to block Mario's advance. "Not so fast, Mario. I have a score to settle with you for last time, the time you thwarted the plan to resurrect the glorious Shadow Queen." Grodus withdrew a few feet from the brothers and raised his staff with both hands. The bluish orb atop the staff seemed to suck in energy from the surroundings as gyrating blue rings converged on it. No sooner was the charge-up complete than Grodus unleashed a time freeze on Mario and Luigi, completely immobilizing them.
"Gaack ack ack!" Grodus cackled again. "Now, FEEL MY POWER!"
As Mario and Luigi hung frozen in time, Grodus unleashed a wave of blue flames from his staff. The blaze bowled the brothers over, scorching their clothes and skin. "What's the matter?" Grodus taunted. "Can't you fight back?"
The time-freezing spell wore off, and Mario and Luigi sprang to their feet and split up, attacking Grodus from opposite directions. Fireballs flew thick and fast as they bombarded the X-Naut leader. Again Grodus cast his time-stopping spell, suspending the flames in mid-air. Now direct attack was impossible with fire nearly surrounding Grodus.
"It's no good!" Luigi cried as he attempted to find a way through the frozen fireballs to attack Grodus directly. "Long-range or short-range, he's blocking it all!"
"If we can't get him from the ground," Mario shouted back, "then do it from the air! Super Jump, bro!" he yelled, keeping Grodus busy with a steady barrage of fireballs.
Luigi took the hint, backed away from the fight, and crouched, storing up his energy until he pulsed with light. Then he suddenly sprang into the air, his cap nearly brushing the thirty-foot ceiling, and came down squarely on Grodus's computerized helmet, cracking its glass and nearly crushing Grodus himself. Grodus stumbled backward and fell under the force of the impact. Luigi rebounded from Grodus's head and landed beside Mario again.
"Gaack...ack...ack..." Grodus wheezed. He got to his feet unsteadily. "It appears I underestimated you, Luigi. No matter. I will crush both of you with ease!"
Suddenly four green X-shaped creatures flew out from beneath Grodus's black cloak and positioned themselves around their master. As they did, a green energy shield formed around Grodus.
"Try hurting me now!" challenged Grodus. "With my four Grodus X's, I am completely invincible!"
"Then—allow me!" Mario retorted, running forward and leaping onto one of the Grodus X's, stomping it into oblivion. With one X missing, Grodus's barrier immediately disintegrated. Mario took the opportunity to send Grodus and his little green satellites flying into the power core with a well-placed Smash Attack. Grodus's back struck the force field around the core, and he fell onto his face.
As Grodus picked himself up off the floor, his three remaining Grodus X's shot forward with machine-gun rapidity and pummeled Mario backward, then returned to orbiting Grodus. With difficulty Mario remained on his feet.
"You cannot escape me!" Grodus cackled. "It appears that I will have the pleasure of delivering you both to the Empress!"
"Not interested, thanks," Mario informed him while dealing a killing punch to Grodus's head, dazing him. The remaining Grodus X's vanished.
"You don't have much choice!" Grodus exclaimed once he had recovered from the blow. He lifted his right hand high, and the orange Rainbow Ring on his middle finger glowed brilliantly. "I will force you to bow to the Empress! Behold the might of the Topaz Ring!"
"Uh-oh..." Luigi gulped.
As Grodus activated the Topaz Ring, he suddenly grew to tremendous proportions, towering over the Mario Bros. as the Ph.D. had before. Only this time, no potion would have brought him back to normal size. The Rainbow Ring was powering this transformation.
The X-Naut leader boomed out a laugh at the startled looks on the brothers' faces and swung his now-massive staff at them. Mario and Luigi dived out of the way, and the blue orb atop the staff left a huge dent in the steel floor.
"Gaack ack ack!" laughed Grodus. "Insignificant little pests! Allow me to crush you like the insects you are!"
Luigi tried the Super Jump again, but one swipe of Grodus's giant right hand sent him completely across the room, bashing his head against the steel wall. He fell twenty feet, struck the floor violently, and lay still.
"Luigi!" Mario cried. He glared at Grodus and balled up his fists. "Don't you ever hurt my brother again, you X-Naut creep!"
"It seems I have the upper hand now, Mario," Grodus said with a maniacal grin. "Try this!" He struck his staff toward Mario, and a giant bolt of lightning shot from its tip, striking Mario with terrible force. The plumber spun under the strike.
"Ungh!" Mario dropped to his hands and knees in pain.
"Gaack ack ack! Looks like you've lost this time, Mario!" Grodus grinned. "But just to make sure you don't try anything foolish—Soldiers! Bring in the prisoner!"
Five X-Nauts entered the room from behind Sir Grodus, leading a young lady in their midst. She had striking purple hair and wore a rainbow-hued robe. Her face was bruised and swollen, and her hands were tied so tightly that she winced with every step.
Mario gasped. "Amethyst!"
"Yes, the Rainbow Guardian who managed to escape the Great One's fortress," affirmed Grodus, still grinning.
Amethyst looked at Mario in desperation. "I'm sorry, Mario, but there were just too many of them! I couldn't fight all of them at once..."
Grodus watched Mario in satisfaction as the plumber stared at Amethyst. He cackled again. "Gaack ack ack! No matter which way you look at it, Mario—
"—It's checkmate!"
Mario looked at the gigantic Grodus, then at the unconscious Luigi, then back at the captive Amethyst. "I— I—"
"Surrender, Mario." Grodus's voice interrupted him. "Surrender or Amethyst dies!"
Amethyst gasped. "Mario!"
A bewildered look came over Mario's face. What now? If I attack, he'll kill Amethyst! If I surrender, there's no hope for Peach! Either way—I lose!
"I demand an answer!" shouted the X-Naut leader, stomping his foot and making the entire room shake.
As Mario stood in indecision before his gargantuan foe, a white blur suddenly leaped over Grodus's shoulder, snatched the Topaz Ring from his right middle finger, dropped to the floor, and scurried behind the power core and out of sight. Sir Grodus obviously had to notice this.
"The Topaz Ring! No!" he cried as he shrank back to his normal size. Mario was on him in an instant, slamming into him like a pile driver and crushing him against the core's force field. A punch to the head rendered Grodus temporarily stunned, and Mario backed off, having made his point.
"I won't surrender, and you won't touch Amethyst again!"
Grodus stumbled to his feet and pulled a white disk from beneath his black cape. "I'll leave you for now, Mario, but rest assured—I will have my revenge on you yet! You won't escape the Great One forever!" He entered a passcode on the underside of his DTD, and a black portal opened up in front of him. He leaped through it, and it closed before Mario could reach it. The X-Nauts surrounding Amethyst took one look at Mario and ran, leaving their captive standing there with her hands still tied behind her back. She looked around, bewildered.
Mario attempted to untie Amethyst's hands, to no avail. The knot was cinched far too tightly for his fingers to loosen it. "Grrr... Come on!" he growled at the uncooperative ropes, tugging at them in a vain attempt to undo them.
Luigi stumbled to his feet, rubbing the knot on his head. "Let me try, bro." His fingers also failed to find a weak point in the knot.
"You know, my little cheese-hunk, there's a much easier way to do that," came a sly feminine voice from behind the power core.
Mario's head snapped up. "Huh? Who said that?"
No sooner had he asked the question than that mysterious white blur vaulted over his head and landed behind him. he whirled around to see a familiar white mouse with a heart-shaped kink in her tail, red high-heeled shoes, and glittery red glasses. She winked at Mario and smiled seductively.
Mario's eyes widened. "Ms. Mowz? What on earth are you doing here?!"
The white mouse slipped up to Mario's side. "Just watch, Mr. Cutie." She immediately began gnawing away at Amethyst's ropes and had them severed in seconds. Amethyst winced as the blood pounded back into her wrists and hands, and she massaged them until the pain subsided.
"See?" Ms. Mowz said with another wink at Mario.
"Exactly who are you, ma'am?" Amethyst asked cautiously.
Ms. Mowz performed a backflip and assumed her stylish pose. "I'm Ms. Mowz, globe-trotting thief extraordinaire! And who might you be, dahling?"
"I'm Amethyst, seventh Guardian of the Rainbow," replied Amethyst, somewhat annoyed by Ms. Mowz's continued attitude.
"Guardian of the Rainbow?" queried Ms. Mowz, eyes sparkling. "Sounds intriguing, dearie!" She held up the Topaz Ring. "I've got what I came for, and my, is it a beauty! Now I just have to set the self-destruct to erase all evidence!"
Mario stepped in front of her as she started toward the control panel. "Ms. Mowz, I need that Ring!"
"Really?" The mouse thief looked surprised. "And why might that be, hm?"
"Because Princess Peach is in danger and those Rings are the only thing that can get me to her!"
Ms. Mowz took on a sympathetic look. "That poor girl. I still remember when the Shadow Queen took over her body. I've felt sorry for her ever since."
"Then can I have the Ring?"
"No."
"But Ms. Mowz—"
"No." Ms. Mowz's eyes twinkled. "You can have the Ring and me, too." She handed Mario the Topaz Ring. "I'm coming with you, my little hunk of cheddar. You usually lead me to all sorts of intriguing places just absolutely loaded with priceless treasure."
Mario was rather surprised. "Uh...OK, I guess." He pulled the DTD from his pocket and fitted the Topaz Ring's gem into the depression on top of the device. A glowing yellow portal opened in front of him.
"To Yellow Dimension," droned DT.
"Wait one second, Cutie," Ms. Mowz requested as she vaulted over to the control panel and punched a command into the keyboard. Sirens started wailing throughout the saucer.
"Self-destruct's set, and we're ready to leave now," she announced with a smile. "Let's-a go!"
"Hey, that's my line!" Mario objected as he disappeared through the portal.
No sooner had the portal closed behind the group than Grodus's proud X-Naut saucer exploded in a colossal fireball. The invasion of Toad Town was over.
"Amber?" asked Ruby weakly for what seemed the hundredth time. It had been hours since Cyanara had sucked Amber's energy from her, and still the second Guardian had not regained consciousness.
"Amber?"
There was still no answer. Ruby tossed feverishly on the stone floor. The pervasive evil in the fortress was still causing her mental pain, a pain she'd suffered with for the past two days. She groaned.
"...Amber?"
Amber stirred. "Is...is that you...Ruby?"
"Yes," replied Ruby hoarsely. "Wake up!"
Slowly Amber pushed herself into a sitting position against the dank stone wall of the tiny confinement cell. "What...happened?" she asked, rubbing her aching head.
"Cyanara...she sucked your energy from you..." murmured Ruby. "I was so worried...about you... Are...are you OK?"
"I feel...powerless..." Amber slowly replied, her senses returning to her. "It's like there's no strength left in me."
"Oh, Amber..." groaned Ruby.
For the first time Amber noticed Ruby's weakness. She moved closer to her sister and knelt beside her, stroking her forehead gently. "It's OK, Ruby," she said softly. "You'll be fine. You can pull through this. Just...just focus on getting stronger, OK?"
"It's not...that...simple..." Ruby struggled to hold her head up so she could speak more clearly. "This...is the same thing that happened to me...last time we came here...remember?"
Amber slowly nodded, recalling Ruby's previous experience with the evil presence saturating the fortress interior. "It's hurting your mind again?"
"Right..." Ruby coughed weakly. "It's slowly...overpowering me..." She turned restlessly on the floor. "I can't...hold out forever...against it... Eventually...it will kill me..."
Amber clutched Ruby's hand, tears coming to her eyes. She had no words. All she could do was embrace her sister and cry.
"Do you mean to tell me that Mario bested you again?" shouted Cyanara.
Sir Grodus hung his head. "He now has the Topaz Ring as well, Great One."
The Empress smashed her fist into Grodus's helmet, knocking him to the throne room floor. "Worthless coward! Now that pesky little plumber is in Yellow Dimension. In two days he has traversed three dimensions! At this rate, he'll be here in no time!" She seethed in rage. "Get out of my sight!"
Grodus got to his feet and hurriedly left the throne room.
The Empress smiled to herself, her rage vanishing as if it had never existed. "Everything is going according to plan," she congratulated herself. "The poor fools think they're trying to stop Mario, when in reality they're just the lead that's pulling Mario in, drawing him closer until I can get my hands on him!" She gazed at the black eighth Rainbow Ring on her left index finger with a crafty expression on her face. "He thinks he has to collect the Rainbow Rings in order to get to Peach, and that's what he's doing. I'm just giving him a little challenge along the way by sending in incompetent imbeciles like Sir Grodus."
The throne room doors burst open, and in rushed Ray. "Master, we are ready to run the final experiment. You instructed me to inform you when preparations were complete."
"Excellent," Cyanara replied, rubbing her hands together in anticipation as she rose from her throne. "Let's do it. I'll have the guards bring little sister to the laboratory. Go on ahead." Ray quickly dashed back to the lab, and Cyanara went straight to Peach's holding room.
Peach started as Cyanara walked into the room. "What do you want now?" she asked tremblingly.
The Empress advanced directly toward Peach. "I want you. Guards!"
Two red-tunicked Paroidians burst into the room and seized the Princess.
"Take her to the laboratory immediately!"
Peach's face went white. "N-No! Not the laboratory again! Cyanara, please! Nooo!!" The guards dragged her from the room, and Cyanara followed, an evil smile spreading across her face.
Inside the laboratory, the guards forced Peach onto the steel examination table and clamped her down despite her struggles. Cyanara bent over her sister as the guards left. She smiled.
"Cyanara, please!" Peach pleaded. "Don't torment me like you did the last time you brought me here!"
Ray picked up a large syringe filled with purple liquid and handed it to the Empress. Peach caught her breath. "What are you doing with me?!"
Suddenly Cyanara pretended to jab the needle into Peach's arm. Peach instantly tensed and turned away from the expected stab, but nothing happened. Cyanara laughed at Peach's fright.
Peach let out the breath she'd been holding. "D-Don't do that," she quavered.
"Just think of this as a minor medical experiment, Peach," Cyanara said none too reassuringly. She rolled Peach's right glove down to the elbow and rubbed alcohol onto her sister's exposed skin with a cotton swab.
"Then what's in that syringe?" Peach asked, now thoroughly frightened. "...Or do I want to know?"
"This, little sister," Cyanara answered, holding up the loaded syringe, "is the same chemical I injected Toadsworth with." She smiled her cunning smile. "And you know what that means." She lowered the needle toward Peach's arm.
Peach gasped and shivered violently. "N-No, Cyanara! Don't do this!"
The needle touched her arm and stopped. Cyanara held it there for a moment, letting Peach feel the slight pressure of the needle on her arm. "Normally, Peach, I wouldn't even think of injecting my own sister with a substance like this." The Empress straightened and took firm hold of the syringe, and Peach's face registered desperate terror.
"But Peach—this isn't exactly a normal situation, is it?"
The next instant Cyanara forced the needle into Peach's tense upper arm. Peach gritted her teeth against the pain as her sister pushed down on the syringe, injecting the deadly solution of Shroob DNA into her bloodstream. Cyanara then withdrew the needle. The whole process had taken less than ten seconds.
"Master," Ray informed her, "the solution will take longer to work in a living subject. Her immune system will attempt to destroy the foreign DNA."
"Then we'll just have to wait, won't we?" replied Cyanara matter-of-factly as she pulled up a chair and sat down beside Peach to watch.
Within minutes Peach was thoroughly sick to her stomach as she lay strapped to the exam table. Involuntary shivers shook her frequently, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead. Her breathing was erratic and punctuated with coughing. "Cyanara...why? Why are you...doing this...to me?" she managed.
"Why?" Cyanara repeated, smiling her cunning smile. "It's a long story, Peach, and quite frankly I don't think you've got enough time to hear it. Once that DNA solution does its work, you won't even care why."
"Tell me..." Peach insisted, breaking into another coughing spasm.
Cyanara leaned back in her chair. "Very well, then. Listen closely." The Empress shut her eyes with a smile as she allowed her mind to take her back into the past, to that fateful day over eleven years ago...
I watched in amazement as the baby Koopa before me literally transformed into a prehistoric menace, complete with spiny green shell, vicious canine teeth, a mop of fiery-orange hair, and glittering claws on its hands and feet. Hesitantly I picked up the Koopa infant and held it up to examine it. Suddenly a name struck me.
"I'll call you Bowser."
The little dinosaur gave a high-pitched half-roar and swiped at my face. I ducked.
"Ray, give this little fellow the data transfer."
My assistant took the mutant creature and carried it to the other side of the laboratory, where he fitted a complex electronic helmet on the dino's head and fed data into his brain. After he had finished he returned Bowser to me. "He is ready, Master."
I set the baby Koopa on the steel examination table. Immediately he tried to dent it with his scaly fist. He was unsuccessful.
"Bowser."
Baby Bowser looked up at me and sneered.
"Do you know me?"
"You're the Great One, the boss," was the prompt, mischievous-sounding response.
"Exactly," I replied, pleased with his answer. "And do you know what I want you to do for me?"
"Yeah," Bowser replied in his nasal child's voice. (Later I would discover that his son's voice was nearly identical to his own youthful tone.) "You're gonna send me back in time so I can kidnap that little Princess Peach, so you can be queen of the Mushroom Kingdom." He rubbed his little hands together in glee. "I like it!"
I laughed. "Bowser, I like you already." I turned to Ray. "Warm up the time machine."
Ray immediately complied, entering a series of commands into the lab's main computer. Soon a low hum pervaded the room as the black spherical machine went online. Picking up Bowser, I carried him to the time machine, placed him inside, and sealed the door shut.
"The machine is programmed to return to our time after young Bowser leaves it," Ray informed me, monitoring the machine's status on the computer screen.
I looked through the machine's window. "Remember, Bowser—you're the King of the Koopas. You're stronger than any of them. I made you that way. You'll grow to full size in just a few days, thanks to my genetic enhancements. After you do...don't forget your mission."
He grinned. "Gotcha!" There was a flash of light, and the time machine vanished into the past.
"Tracking the machine's progress on the monitor now, Master," spoke up Ray, studying the screen intently. "...Perfect. It's stopped right on schedule—August 13, 1994, 6 AM. Right on schedule," he repeated. A minute later the time machine flashed back into the room. It was empty.
"Go, Bowser," I whispered with a smile. "Go and make sure my little sister never gets the throne that rightfully belongs to me!"
"That explains...nothing..." Peach interrupted as she lay strapped to the table. A coughing fit followed her feeble attempt at speech. "Why...revive...the Shroobs? They...are a threat...to all of us...including you!"
"A threat to me?" Cyanara laughed and snapped her fingers. The laboratory door swung open, and in walked Shroobsworth, bearing a tray with a tall glass of iced lemonade on it. Cyanara took the glass and drank deeply as the mutant steward left the room with the empty tray.
The Empress set the glass down with a sigh of satisfaction. "See what I mean? The Shroobs are no threat to me. But that's what I was about to explain. So listen. A mere day after I sent Baby Bowser back in time..."
"Confound that Bowser!" I exclaimed as I sat on my silver throne. "I gave him a whole year to get Peach out of the picture, and what has he been doing? Chasing that pathetic plumber Mario around. Now he's sitting in his own castle doing absolutely nothing. All this time he's never been able to keep his claws on Peach long enough to get her back to me!" I rose from my throne in a rage.
Suddenly they were there. They came to my fortress first. It was one of those fateful accidents that happen every so often to someone's benefit—in this case, mine. There were thousands of them. They swarmed through the halls of the fortress as if searching. They knew I was there. And they wanted me.
Somehow I managed to slip through the maze of hallways unnoticed by the invaders and hid in the core control room. Acting on impulse, I booted up the computer and ran the prototype language translation program. It recorded the sounds of the alien tongue from the audio sensors in the halls and instantly analyzed and decrypted their speech. I could understand every word they were saying. And if I could understand them, why not they me?
So I tried. In my friendliest voice I told them that I did not know why they had come but was willing to receive them peacefully. Breathlessly I waited for a response.
A knock came at the door of the control room. A knock! After pillaging and plundering my fortress—a knock from the invaders! I didn't know what to make of it. Were they being genuinely courteous—or cunningly deceptive? There was only one way to find out.
I pushed the button to open the door.
And in they came. The twin princesses of the Shroob aliens, dressed in their crimson regalia and matching white crowns. Somewhat shakily I motioned for them to have a seat. The translator program would do our interpreting.
The conversation took a surprisingly peaceful tack. All the aliens wanted was a new home, as their homeworld was dying and devoid of resources. A germ of an idea began to grow in my mind.
Your army...my kingdom...your army for my kingdom...
It worked. Shockingly, the proposal went unchallenged. I was given total control over the Shroob armada in exchange for one thing—land. Once I had conquered the Mushroom Kingdom and regained my throne, the Shroobs would be allowed to live anywhere they wished without interference. Of course, the current residents of the Mushroom Kingdom would have to be...disposed of. Such a caveat was not in the least objectionable to either me or my "guests." Then it was that I revealed the greatest part of the plan—sending the army back in time to get rid of my troublesome younger sister. With her out of the way, the Shroobs would have complete and total control over the land.
"Wait..." Peach put in weakly. "The Shroobs...appearing in the past Mushroom Kingdom...that was your fault..."
Cyanara smiled again. "Now you're getting the picture, Peach. The whole invasion was an elaborate plan designed to keep you from ever reaching adulthood. Unfortunately that meddling Elvin Gadd developed his own time machine. Actually, that little development almost made things easy for me. I heard from the younger Princess Shroob that your adult self had been captured in the past Mushroom Kingdom, and I quickly made arrangements for you to be transported back to me." Her face turned ugly. "But then," she spat, "those pesky Mario Bros. teamed up with their baby selves and destroyed both Shroob princesses. When I heard you'd been rescued I was outraged. And to make matters worse, Bowser went back in time as well, met his younger self, figured out what I'd made him for, and rebelled against me. He wanted to have you for himself." Cyanara nodded. "So it's all come down to this, Peach. I was behind every major attack on the Mushroom Kingdom from the day I was banished." Her eyes glittered evilly. "And today's the day I settle the score."
Suddenly Peach cried out in pain. "Aaagh! What—What's happening to me?!"
"The DNA solution is taking effect," Cyanara informed her cruelly. "Look at your arm, Peach."
Peach looked over at her right arm and stared at it in horror as it began to turn purple. Her right hand became a two-fingered, steel-clawed pincer just as Toadsworth's had. She gasped.
"C-Cyanara! Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!!"
"I can't, Peach," Cyanara replied with a smile as she watched the transformation slowly devour the Princess. She leaned over her sibling, eyes aglow.
"I've turned you into a Shroob. Princess Shroob."