Suddenly Amethyst rushed forward, ran right past a surprised Takanyar and Kooporo, and seized Athos in her embrace. Takanyar made the stalagmite release Athos from its crushing grip. He smiled evilly.
Athos, still tied to the stalagmite, could only let Amethyst hug him tightly. "Amethyst, I still love you...but I am afraid you may have doomed us all, dear."
"I don't care," she whispered while shedding her tears on her fiancé's shoulder. "I won't leave you to suffer like that!"
"I thought as much," Takanyar put in, seizing the back of Amethyst's robe and jerking her roughly away from Athos. "Don't worry, Amethyst. I think I can arrange for you two to stay together for a long time—in the Empress's torture chamber, perhaps." His eyes glittered at the thought. "You'll be with this traitor for a long, long time while the Great One slowly sucks the life out of you both."
Amethyst glared defiantly at her captor. "Threaten me all you like, Takanyar, but you won't scare me. I gave myself up for a reason—a reason I wouldn't expect you to understand." She placed her hands behind her back to be tied, still holding her head high in defiance.
Takanyar wrenched the knot on Amethyst's wrists so tight that the rough ropes bit into her fair skin. She winced.
"Love?" he asked half-sarcastically. "Love is only weakness. Strength is found in concealing one's emotions, not unleashing them." He untied Athos from the stalagmite, tied his hands behind his back as he had done with Amethyst, and attached their bound hands to one another with another length of rope. Athos clasped Amethyst's hands as best he could, and she looked sadly into his eyes. Together Takanyar and Kooporo led their captives further back into the cave.
"That's it?" Luigi asked, incredulous. "He takes Amethyst and leaves? What is with him? That's just not Takanyar!"
"I know," agreed Mario quietly. "But we can't just let him get away with her. If we can save those two we can keep the Amethyst Disc out of Cyanara's hands. Let's go!" Mario dashed forward after Takanyar, Luigi and Ms. Mowz following close behind him. They crossed the huge chamber and entered another stone tunnel.
"You know," Luigi began, panting during his run, "I don't like these long tunnels that lead who-knows-where. You can't tell what you're going to see at the end, and it's scary."
Suddenly they left the tunnel and screeched to a halt. The room they now stood in was more of a normal size. The ten-foot, stalactite-encrusted ceiling gave the appearance of a large mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. Several blazing torches were mounted on the walls, their crackling flames casting an eerie glow over the room as the shadows danced in the flickering light. Luigi edged closer to Mario.
"See? It's...creepy."
Mario sighed. Luigi still hadn't gotten over his fear of the dark, and the surrealism created by the dim torchlight only made things worse. "Pull yourself together, Luigi. Now where's Takanyar?"
"Over there," whispered Ms. Mowz, pointing across the room at a tall figure dimly silhouetted against the flickering torchlight. A Koopa-shaped shadow stood near him—Kooporo, the traitorous "guide." And between the two fiends stood the outlines of Athos and Amethyst.
"Good," Mario whispered. "They haven't taken Athos and Amethyst away yet."
No sooner had Mario spoken than a large black portal opened in front of the four silhouettes, and from its murky depths stepped a fifth figure. The faint light the torches shed on the newcomer told Mario all he needed to know.
"It's Cyanara!" he exclaimed under his breath.
Cyanara, unaware of Mario's presence, smiled her cunning, crafty smile at her two captives. "Well, well," she began smoothly, "it looks like poor Amethyst took the bait, didn't she?"
Amethyst stared Cyanara down, defiance lighting her eyes still.
"I didn't think we'd exactly be on speaking terms," remarked the Empress suavely. "Now I'll have that Disc of yours, if you please."
"You can't have it!" shot back Amethyst vehemently. But with her hands bound, she was powerless to enforce her bold statement.
Deftly Cyanara reached into Amethyst's rainbow robe and withdrew the glittering purple Amethyst Disc. She turned it over in her hands, admiring it in the torchlight. Finally she looked back at her prisoners. "Well, now that that's done, I have a very special place for both of you in my fortress. Come with me." Moving behind her captives, she smiled and whispered into Amethyst's ear, "And I've saved the best place for you." She chuckled wickedly and suddenly shoved the two forward through the portal.
"No!" Mario cried and leaped forward into the light. "Stop right there, Cyanara!"
Cyanara looked past Takanyar and Kooporo to see Mario standing several yards back, face defiant, fists poised to strike. She laughed scornfully. "Takanyar," she said peremptorily, "see to it that you bring Mario back with you." Turning, she stepped back through the black portal, and it closed behind her.
Takanyar turned to face Mario. Luigi and Ms. Mowz dashed forward to stand beside Mario as Kooporo bared his teeth at the little group.
"You've taken on too much at once, Mario," Takanyar informed him grimly. "With the power of the Hyacinth Ring, I am undefeatable. The very earth obeys my every command." He raised his white Staff of Dreams, and the red gem atop it glowed in the torchlight. "Prepare to meet your maker!"
Kooporo, at a command from Takanyar, curled up inside his shell and shot himself at Mario. However, being highly experienced with Koopas, Mario simply stomped on Kooporo's shell and stopped him dead. He picked up the shell and hurled it back at Takanyar, who easily dodged it. Takanyar was not expecting the shell to rebound from the wall and strike him from behind, though, which it did. The speeding shell knocked his feet out from under him, sending him crashing painfully to the rough stone floor. Mario allowed the shell to pass by him, and it shot right out of the room into the exit tunnel.
"So much for your assistant, Takanyar," Mario informed his foe with a twinge of sarcasm.
Takanyar got hastily to his feet. "I'll not be so foolish as to let you win this time, Mario," he said through gritted teeth. "Take this!" A beam of sparkling yellow energy shot from the gem atop the Staff of Dreams, barely missing Mario as he dove to one side. Before he could get to his feet Takanyar had zapped him with a second beam, making him yell in pain. Ms. Mowz dashed up to the unsuspecting Takanyar and slapped him silly while Mario regained his footing.
Mario, knowing that Takanyar (like Zaron) had an aversion to ice, began to hurl ice balls at his white-cloaked enemy. Like Zaron, Takanyar reeled under the hits; but before the ice balls could do much damage, the red-caped villain used the Staff of Dreams to put a sparkling yellow energy barrier around himself, deflecting the balls harmlessly away.
"You think a barrier is gonna stop us?" Mario asked, a challenge in his voice. "Ms. Mowz! Show him what that slap of yours can do!"
Ms. Mowz's eyes sparkled behind her fancy red glasses. "My pleasure, sweetie," she replied with a crafty smile. Like a white blur she shot forward, ducked behind Takanyar, and dealt him a tremendous smack that shattered the barrier and landed Takanyar face-down on the rough cavern floor. She was back beside Mario and Luigi before Takanyar could get up again.
"You've knocked me twice, Mario," spoke Takanyar in bitter rage, "but the third time will never come! Ring! Show forth your power!" He held his right hand high, and the Hyacinth Ring gleamed brightly from his fourth finger.
Suddenly dozens of stalactites fell from the cavern's ceiling and shattered around Takanyar. Before Mario's astonished eyes, the pieces of rock uprighted themselves and assembled in neat rows before Takanyar like a miniature limestone army.
"At my word the world becomes a living thing," pronounced Takanyar dramatically, "ready to do my bidding. With the Hyacinth Ring I will turn even the ground you stand on against you!" He pointed directly at Mario. "Attack!"
Immediately the columns of rock chunks rolled forward toward Mario. He leaped aside, but the "living" stones turned and continued pursuing him. He tried using his fireballs on them with no effect. Ice did not hurt the stones either. Again Ms. Mowz came to his rescue by shattering the chunks one by one with her defense-penetrating slaps.
"Grrr. That was only the beginning, Mario. Let's see you avoid this!" As Takanyar spoke, the ground under Mario's feet suddenly heaved up and folded its rocky layers over Mario's feet, embedding him in the floor as if he'd been standing in cement while it hardened around his ankles. He couldn't move. There was a crackling noise over his head, and a single stalactite broke off the ceiling and fell directly toward his head.
Mario jerked his head out of the way, and the sharp point of rock smashed over his right shoulder, impairing his right arm. The shards left by the broken stalactite came alive and plastered themselves to Mario's clothing and skin. He looked around in desperation as more and more rock began to coat him. He was beginning to look like a stone statue.
"What's the matter, Mario?" chuckled Takanyar. "Petrified?" He laughed outright. "The Empress will be most pleased when I present this piece of artwork to her!"
"If there's one thing I'm not interested in becoming, it's a statue!" exclaimed Mario. "Hrrrrgh!" He strained with all his might against the rock binding him to the floor, but in vain. The rock shards from the floor kept swarming onto him like insects and attaching themselves to him. Soon he was completely encased in a shell of grayish-brown limestone. He was unable to move or even speak.
"BRO!!" cried Luigi.
"Ha!" laughed Takanyar. "I knew he would never be able to resist the Hyacinth Ring's power. Now to bring my prize to my empress!" He stepped up to the Mario "statue" and reached out to wrench it from the floor.
Suddenly the statue exploded into a million pieces, flinging rock and dust into Takanyar's face and blinding him for a moment. Before he could clear his eyes of dirt he'd been tackled by Mario and brought to a crash landing on the rough floor. Mario pounded his fist into Takanyar's stomach, leaving his foe gasping for breath. Then, while Takanyar gasped helplessly for air, he removed the Hyacinth Ring from Takanyar's fourth finger and placed it on his own. Now Mario's right hand bore the Jasper, Topaz, and Hyacinth Rings, one Ring to a finger.
"N-No! My power! The Rainbow Ring!" gasped Takanyar as he lay breathless on the floor.
"Too bad for you, Takanyar," said Mario grimly as he pinned his enemy down with his left hand. "You succeeded in resurrecting the Shadows Royal, but you're the one who's gonna need resurrecting this time!" He pulled his right fist back and charged up his Smash Attack.
Takanyar paled. "M-Mario, NOOOOOOO!!"
The force of Mario's blow literally punched Takanyar into the cavern floor, leaving a mid-sized crater with Takanyar lying broken and bleeding at its bottom. He lifted his blackened eyelids and looked up at Mario, now standing at the crater's outer rim looking down at him.
"Ungh... You're...too...strong...for me... For...the second...time...I have...failed...to defeat you... I would...rather...die...than return...to my empress...after... having...failed...once again..." He groaned, and his voice began to fade. "Mario... Cyanara...will...get you...yet..." A last breath escaped his lips, and he lay still.
Mario, breathing heavily from exertion, stared at his fallen enemy for a moment. "After all he's done...all he tried to do...he's finally gone for good. Finally."
Luigi came up beside him. "It wasn't really his fault, you know."
"I know." Mario still stared at Takanyar's lifeless body. "He was just a puppet for Cyanara. She's the one behind everything. Nothing's going to be normal again until she's been finished off once and for all." He pulled the DTD from his pocket. "DT?"
"Yes, Mario?" inquired the white eight-inch disk.
Mario fitted the Hyacinth Ring into the depression on DT's surface. "On to Green Dimension!"
"Complying," droned the gadget, and in a few seconds a glowing green portal opened before Mario and his group.
"Quite an interesting device you've got there, Mr. Cutie," Ms. Mowz commented with a smile.
Mario nodded. "Thanks for breaking me out of that statue, Ms. Mowz. Let's-a go!" He jumped through the portal with Luigi and Ms. Mowz right behind him.
"So my two 'mutants' have been sent to their destination?" asked Cyanara with a smile. Her straight black hair shimmered in the fluorescent light in the X-Naut factory area, and her jet black eyes gleamed with delight.
"Yes, O Great One," responded Sir Grodus with a bow. "All is done as you commanded."
The woman in the sheer, clingy black skirt and ruby-red top smiled seductively. "Excellent." Her left hand rested on her hip, just above the lavender miniskirt worn over the long black one.
"Grodus," she began peremptorily, "open a portal to Yellow Dimension. Takanyar should be through with Mario by this time."
"Yes, Your Imperial Highness." The computer-brained X-Naut dictator pulled out his special DTD. Cyanara placed her black Rainbow Ring in contact with the DTD's central depression. Grodus entered a passcode on his DTD's keypad, and immediately a yellow portal opened up before Cyanara. She stepped through it. Moments later she returned, her face hard and black with rage. A jerk of her hand told Grodus to shut the portal.
"What is wrong, Great One?" inquired Grodus as he closed the dimensional portal.
Cyanara seethed. "If Mario had only taken the Hyacinth Ring from Takanyar, I would not be angry. But Takanyar is dead! DEAD!" She shook with rage and clenched her fists. "Mario, this is unforgivable!" she seethed through her teeth. "I'll see you lying dead at my feet if it's the last thing I do!"
Mario's feet sank three inches into the soft new snow as he landed on the other side of the portal. Ms. Mowz landed lightly beside him. Luigi sprawled face-first in the cold snow, having lost his footing upon landing. He got up wiping the snow from his face.
"Brrrr," Mario shivered as he brushed a think layer of snow from his cap. The frosty flakes of snow were falling all around them, coating everything. "It's cold." A few lonely pine trees stood nearby, but other than that the area seemed a barren, frozen wasteland. A frigid wind blew bitterly over the frosty surface.
"Any idea where we are?" Luigi asked, sniffling as he wiped his dripping nose.
Mario cast his eyes around the surrounding area. "My first thought was Star Mountain, but we're not on a slope and there are no slopes nearby. So we can't be on a mountain at all." He furrowed his brow. "Something about this place seems familiar, though..."
Ms. Mowz caught a snowflake on her nose, then licked it off. "Well, sweetie, no sense in just standing around. Let's get going!"
Mario shrugged. "Guess we'll just pick a direction and hope we don't get lost and die of hypothermia."
"Sounds like a plan," Luigi scoffed.
"Got a better idea?"
"Uh...no."
"Then come on," Mario said simply as he began stepping through the snow. Luigi and Ms. Mowz stuck close behind him, and together the three struck out across the snow-covered landscape, their eyes straining for any sign of civilization. For over two hours they plodded on, never stopping to rest. To do so was to risk freezing to death. Their only safety lay in constant motion, which would create extra heat to warm their chilled bodies. On and on they trudged through the seemingly endless drifts, their strength slowly ebbing away.
At last they could go no farther. Luigi and Ms. Mowz collapsed in the snow mere seconds from each other. Mario struggled on for a few more yards before succumbing himself to the deadly cold. The heroic plumber lay in the snow as one dead, the icy wind biting at his back.
Must...keep...going... he thought numbly, but his body refused to get up. Can't...stay...here... Cold... I'll...freeze... So...cold...
The Shadow King and Queen stood in the Empress's throne room, bowing before the imposing silver throne. The polished black marble beneath their feet gleamed under the ceiling skylights, contrasting with the long scarlet carpet that stretched from the silver double doors to the Empress's throne itself. Cyanara smiled pleasantly at her two servants from her place on her throne.
"At last you return," she remarked. "I was beginning to worry that perhaps you were not coming back."
"No, no," the King hastened to say. "We bring important information from Sarasaland."
"Pray tell, Great One," inquired the Queen, "did you know that Princess Daisy is once again alive?"
Cyanara started and leaned forward. "What?!"
"It is true," confirmed the Shadow King. His blood-red crown glinted in the sunlight. "Somehow she has returned from the dead."
Stunned, Cyanara leaned back and allowed this information to sink into her mind. "No...no, no, no, no, no..." she murmured. "With Daisy back, I'll have to—" She stopped. "No matter. I will execute the plan despite this complication. This unfortunate incident will not interfere with the grand scheme." Her eyes, however, said otherwise, being troubled still. "Do you still have the Ring I gave you?"
The Queen held up her gray-gloved left hand. A light blue gem sparkled from the golden ring on her fifth finger.
"Good," replied Cyanara. "You know what is expected of you." A hint of a smile came over her face.
"We will do as you command, Great One," responded the black-vested King with another bow. "Where Zaron, Grodus, and Takanyar have failed, we will succeed." The Shadows Royal turned and exited the throne room through the silver doors.
Cyanara smiled fully. "Of course you will...if you get the chance." She laughed softly to herself. "Green Dimension holds quite a surprise for Mario..."
"Comrade! He has been asleep for a whole day, BOMB, and is now waking up, KA-BOMB!"
"Mario, wake up, KA-POWIE!"
Mario groaned and opened his eyes. He was drenched in sweat, the room was so hot. The blankets piled on top of him only made things worse. Instinctively he kicked them off.
"Wow! He really is awake, BOMB-BOMB!"
The groggy Mario turned his head to see two Bob-Ombs, one gray and one green, standing beside the wooden bunk he lay on. Behind the two a large fire was roaring inside an old iron stove. The red-painted walls were loaded with tools and utensils of all sorts, and mismatched rugs and carpet remnant covered the floor. The place had the look of a cozy yet cluttered cabin.
"Da, it is good to see you again, Mario, SHA-BOMB," pronounced the mustachioed green Bob-Omb in a thick Russian accent. His tall bearskin hat was nearly as tall as he was.
Mario sat up in bed. "...Do I know you?" he asked, puzzled.
"Da!" exclaimed the green Bob-Omb. "I am the mayor of Fahr Outpost, SHA-PLOOMIE. We use big bomb cannon to shoot you to moon, KA-PLOWIE."
"Yeah, I remember you!" Mario replied, a smile splitting his face. "And you wouldn't even tell me about the cannon at first!"
The mayor reddened. "...Da, well...you know the rule. No mention of cannon to non-Bob-Ombs. But if we did not put you in cannon, world could end. Not good. So we made exception for you, BOMB."
Mario chuckled at the recollection but quickly turned serious. "Mayor, I have to ask another favor. This evil woman named Cyanara has Princess Peach prisoner. I need your help to—"
The cabin door splintered open before Mario could finish his sentence, and there in the doorway, accompanied by a blast of frigid air, stood five Shroobs. Mario gaped at the intruders. The vile purple mushrooms began trooping into the room, fangs showing from loosely-hung jaws as they reached out their pincers to seize Mario.
"Yaa!" Mario snapped out of his stare and leaped into action, jumping off the bed and squashing the first Shroob under his shoes. The other four pulled out their yellow alien pistols and began shooting at Mario. Mario easily dodged the four pink energy shots and stomped a second Shroob into oblivion. The gray Bob-Omb beside the mayor, having been rather quiet until now, suddenly rushed forward and exploded himself right in the face of the third Shroob, blowing him to kingdom come. Mario and the Bob-Omb quickly dispatched the remaining two aliens.
The mayor whistled through his thick brown mustache. "BOMB! Impressive, SHA-BOMB. Those strange mushrooms have been around for days, but we Bob-Ombs just blow them up when they come here, KA-BOMB."
"Mayor, your men carried me here while I was unconscious, right?" Mario asked as he attempted to repair the now-broken door.
"Da, Mario."
Mario managed to fit the splintered boards back together and sat back down on the bunk. "Did they find Luigi and Ms. Mowz too?"
"Hmmmm..." The mayor frowned. "I think so. But they will be in other cabins, SHA-PLOMB."
"I'll be right back Mayor," said Mario hastily as he got to his feet again. "I've got to get Luigi and Ms. Mowz over here so we can talk about these Shroobs." He carefully opened the damaged door. The snow had stopped falling, leaving a foot and a half of snow behind as evidence of its former presence. Mario shivered and stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. Around him he could see the dozen or so metal cabins, shaped like miniature longhouses, that comprised Fahr Outpost. He began wading through the deep drifts that came almost to his knees, glancing up at the dingy-gray overcast sky above.
Suddenly a pink energy ball shot past his face, narrowly missing his nose. Instantly he threw himself into the snow to conceal himself. The snow felt icy cold against his face as he lay in the drifts, waiting.
Slowly he raised his head above the snow. He stared at what was coming toward him.
Thousands of Shroobs, each wielding an alien energy pistol, came marching through the mouth-deep snow, heading directly for Fahr Outpost. Their hollow red eyes stared forward at their target area as if they were robots, preprogrammed to follow instructions with machine-like precision. Mechanically the mindless alien invaders stalked forward through the drifts, closing in on an unsuspecting Fahr Outpost. Their mission?
Destroy Mario.
As the Shroobs converged on Fahr Outpost, Mario began dashing through the snowdrifts as fast as he could, trying to get to one of the cabins before the aliens reached them. He stumbled up to the door of one of the cabins and tore it open. Four black Bob-Ombs in bearskin hats started in their seats around the wooden table, and half a deck of cards fell to the floor and scrambled itself into a jumbled pile.
"It's Mario, KA-BOOM!" exclaimed one of the card players.
"Come on in, SHA-BLOOMIE!" invited another.
"Can't," Mario gasped, breathless from exertion and the icy cold outside. "Look!"
The for Bob-Ombs looked through the doorway past Mario and saw the Shroob horde stalking into Fahr Outpost. Instantly one of them jumped up, raced to the wall, and pressed a red button there. Sirens started wailing in every cabin, alerting their occupants to the invasion. Then the four black Bob-Ombs left the cabin in a rush and plowed through the snow toward the oncoming enemy. Mario followed them and watched as every cabin door flew open and dozens of Bob-Ombs came rushing out to repel the intruders.
"We've been expecting this, KA-PLOWIE!" shouted one Bob-Omb to Mario over the din of Shroob ray guns and exploding Bob-Ombs. "Those strange mushrooms have been showing up for days, BOMB, in little groups, BOMB-BOMB! The big army is finally here, SHA-PLOMB! And we get to blow ourselves up, KA-BOOMIE!" He charged into the fray and took out two Shroobs with one blast.
"Looks like there's more than enough for everyone!" Mario said aloud. "Guess I'll have my share of the fun!" He dashed through the foot and a half of snow and began swinging his fists, clobbering Shroobs left and right. In a few moments he saw Luigi and Ms. Mowz come running out of one of the cabins and join the fight. The explosive power of the outnumbered Bob-Ombs was steadily pushing the aliens back. Victory seemed a foregone conclusion.
Suddenly wave after wave of white Shroob flying saucers came swooping out of the overcast sky and began circling the battleground high over the heads of both sides, firing their mounted ray guns at the citizens of Fahr Outpost. Mario looked up and groaned when he saw the small Shroob saucers with the heads and eyes of their pilots showing through their topsides.
"How can we fight an enemy we can't reach?!" he exclaimed in consternation as the fire from the saucers began to turn the tide of battle against Mario and his Bob-Omb allies. Suddenly a thought struck him, and he seized the nearest Bob-Omb and hurled him into the air at one of the saucers.
"Whee-hee! Look at me, BOMB!" The Bob-Omb crashed into the flying saucer and blew it into a million pieces.
"That's the stuff, bro!" yelled Luigi from Mario's left. He too picked up a Bob-Omb and chucked him at a saucer, blowing it to atoms. As Ms. Mowz was too small to do the throwing, she busied herself with slapping the ground troops silly while Mario and Luigi took care of the enemy aircraft.
A huge shadow fell over Fahr Outpost, darkening the already-dim light from the overcast sky. Mario and the others looked up to see a huge Shroob mushroom with a giant white disk encircling it, making it appear like a flying saucer, looming in the sky overhead. Mario gasped.
"It's the Shroob mothership!" shouted Luigi over the continued noise of battle. "Looks like the Shroobs are planning to make a comeback!"
"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Mario shouted back. "We've GOT to get inside that ship!"
"You go ahead!" Ms. Mowz yelled to them. "I'll handle things down here!"
The Hyacinth Ring suddenly burst into flaming color. Mario looked at it, startled, then switched his attention to the mothership above him.
"There must be another Rainbow Ring in there!" guessed Mario. "All the more reason for us to get inside!" He turned back to Luigi. "Bro—"
Luigi wasn't there.
"Luigi?"
"Wahaa! Take that!" Luigi shouted from atop a Shroob saucer. He reached down and yanked the alien pilot out of the cockpit, hurling him through the air like a rag doll. Then he got into the cockpit himself and flew the Shroob UFO down to Mario. "Need a ride?" he asked with a grin.
Mario hopped atop the saucer. "Luigi, sometimes you have the best, craziest, most illogical ideas ever, you know that? C'mon, let's get inside that mothership!"
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" Luigi took off toward the massive spacecraft above them, streaking past the unfriendly saucers still bombarding the battlefield, and guided the tiny craft through an opening in the mothership's underbelly into a large hangar.
Mario stepped off the saucer onto the glimmering green floor. His footsteps echoed in the empty hangar. He looked around cautiously. The decor was mostly purple, of course, with the Shroob mushroom colors covering walls and ceiling. No other saucers were in the room—they were all outside at the battle scene.
"Urk! Grrr—I'm stuck!" Luigi desperately tried to push himself up and out of the UFO's cockpit but could not. Mario took hold of his younger sibling and tugged with all his might. In a few seconds Luigi popped out of the saucer and fell in a heap on top of Mario. Both brothers quickly got to their feet again.
"Kinda quiet," Luigi commented. The silence was almost unbearable.
"Yeah," Mario replied quietly. "Come on, we've got to find that fourth Ring and stop this mothership. The door's over there." He pointed to a blue double door across the hangar. Together the brothers made their way across the vast empty hangar to the door and pushed in open slightly. Peeping through the crack in the doorway, Mario saw a long white hallway paved with pink stretching out to both sides. No one was in sight.
"All clear," Mario whispered. "Let's go."
Tentatively he stepped out into the circular hall. Nothing happened—no alarms, no sirens, nothing. Relieved, he motioned for Luigi to join him in the hallway, which he did.
"Hey, bro," Luigi said softly, "look up."
Mario looked up. From all appearances the ceiling over their head was some kind of clear, solidified gel that they could see right through. It also seemed that the ceiling over their heads was the floor for the next hallway above them, which in turn also had a clear ceiling, and so on for over a dozen stories up. Mario and Luigi gaped in dumbfounded amazement at the elaborate arrangement that allowed them to see up to the very top of the mothership's main area, almost two hundred feet above them.
"Wow," breathed Mario. "This is incredible."
Luigi nodded, too amazed to speak.
"Well, let's get going," Mario said at last, eyeing the Shroobs in the hallways above. They did not notice the brothers' presence. "I'm guessing the Ring's probably near the top of this thing." He looked down the circular hallway. "See an elevator anywhere?"
Daisy looked over to see Shyga enter the infirmary room. "Your Highness?"
"Shyga," Daisy said gratefully, "thanks for staying with me. It gets awfully lonely without you." She smiled and relaxed on her hospital bed.
"I wanted to ask you something," Shyga began as she sat in the chair beside the bed. "What happened to you to make you lose consciousness? You were out cold for three days!"
"...I'm not sure," replied Princess Daisy, wrinkling her forehead. "My memory of that day is kind of fuzzy."
"Last Sunday?" queried Shyga.
Daisy nodded. "Let me see if I can remember what happened." She was silent for a minute, the slowly began to speak.
"Sunday, after Aster and I came back here to the castle, I gave Peach a call. We talked for a while, but right in the middle of the conversation Rachel interrupted Peach with a report that her castle was under attack by those horrible Paroidian Guards." Daisy shivered at the mention of the name.
"Who are they?" inquired Shyga, listening intently.
"They're the Great One's personal bodyguards—more like a small army, actually."
"Go on," urged Shyga.
Daisy took a deep breath. "Well, when Peach told me what Rachel had said, I told her to come here and stay with me to avoid capture. She said she would, and both her and Rachel rushed away from the phone. Peach left the phone off the hook so I could hear what was going on. It was very quiet for a few minutes. Then there was a crashing sound over and over, as if the enemy was trashing the castle. Then someone picked up the phone, and I demanded to know who he was and why he was in Peach's castle. He never told me anything but "We have our orders" and something else I don't remember. Then this horrible, high-pitched shrieking noise came over the phone, and...I don't remember anything after that." Daisy sighed. "Did Peach make it here?"
"She's not here, Your Highness," replied Shyga gravely. "We haven't had any incoming planes from the Mushroom Kingdom for the past three days...ever since your phone call," she finished with a puzzled tone.
Daisy looked alarmed. "Shyga, send Spy Guy to the Mushroom Kingdom this instant!"
"S-Spy Guy?" Shyga looked shocked. "B-But, Your Highness, he's—"
"Do it!" commanded Daisy. "Be sure Gadget Guy gives him all of his little 'spy toys.' I want to know exactly what's going on in the Mushroom Kingdom. I don't know what's happening, but it certainly smells rotten to me."
"Yes, Your Highness," Shyga responded somewhat reluctantly as she rose to leave. "I'll give Spy Guy the order."