Next chapter done!

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 8: A giant awakens

Now that Bowser had a Banzai Bill, he wastes no time on heading back to where the cannon was to send an attack at his stolen castle. Unfortunately, he wasn't going anywhere because once he exited the carrot farm, he felt something painful as he stopped walking.

"Ooof! Hrrrgh?" he groaned as he held his belly. "OWWWW!" he winced in pain.

The heroes heard Bowser's wincing and for the first time, they showed concern for him as Starlow asks:

"What? What is it?! What's wrong?"

"Ouch! Owwwww! What the—YOWCH! MY BELLY HURTS!"

"What is it, do you think? You ate too much carrot?" Yoshi guessed.

"GRROWCH! Listen! G-Guys! Do something! I can't take this! Now! Make it better!"

"But the kingdom's in danger!" Starlow warned. "If we delay, we may never get your castle back!"

"Quick… Now… Gut… Pain…"

"I guess we have to deal with this. Bowser, don't move, OK?" Mario said.

"We'll go find out what's causing all this pain!" Luigi added.


Inside Bowser…

"Alright, let's check out what's giving him this stomachache." Donkey Kong said.

Before they could head out of Toad Square, they heard Toadsworth's voice coming from behind:

"Hey! Wait! Dear Masters!"

"What is it, Toadsworth?" Mario asked.

"Didn't you notice that Toadbert and Toadiko are gone?"

"They're gone?"

"Yeah! They haven't come back ever since! Do you think you could find them?"

"We'll try. For now, we have a rushing problem to take care of."

The heroes left Toad Square and went to the newly opened area in Bowser's body: the Nerve Cluster, located somewhere in Bowser's arm nerve, which could possibly be the ulnar nerve since it was on the surface. The ground once again consists of bones, the ones from the arm, and muscle below. The background could be showing the skin cells.

The heroes walked ahead until some earthquakes stopped them.

"What was that?" Luigi asked.

"I have no idea…" Mario shrugged.

All of a sudden, a large caterpillar bursts out of a bone wall, with someone else flying off, catching the heroes by surprise.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" Luigi panicked.

Starlow, on the other hand, flew pacifically towards the caterpillar and spoke:

"Oh, wow! Are you a friend of the bug from the farm?"

The caterpillar did a few stomps, which caused Bowser to growl in pain.

"Oh, so that thing is what's causing pain to Bowser!" Donkey Kong confirmed.

"Don't talk much, huh? You must've been in the carrot Bowser ate!" Starlow continues to reason. The caterpillar walked closer to her. "Wow, you got huge. I wonder why? And why are you…uh, sidling?"

Soon, an army of Biffidus showed up at the ceiling upside down. They fell down from the ceiling and pointed their spears at the heroes, only for the caterpillar to swallow them, causing her to grow.

"Yikes! It's been eating those white things! They made it big!" Starlow flinched.

"Those white things were acting like if they're Bowser's antibodies!" Mario pointed out.

"How can you tell?" Luigi asked.

"Isn't it obvious? Antibodies destroy any antigens that gets inside the individual's body. And because we're strangers in this place, these antibody guys must've thought we were antigens and that's why they pointed their spears at us!"

"Oh, I get it."

The caterpillar did more stomps, hurting Bowser even more.

"Ow! OWWW! Guys! I'm going nuts up here!" he shouted. "What are you doing?! Do something now!"

"Mario, what should we do?" Starlow asked.

"One thing's for sure; if we don't get Bowser moving, we're in big trouble. We have no choice but to defeat that caterpillar." Mario answered.

"True…" Starlow nodded. She turns around to the caterpillar, who was called Durmite, and said: "Sorry, bug. It seems wrong, but we must…uh, exterminate you."

"Yeah! Right, Luigi?" Donkey Kong turned to Luigi.

"What? Uh… I'm not so sure…" he stuttered.

"Seriously, Luigi? Again?" Mario was not amused.

"I'm off!" Luigi ran away.

"Oh no, you don't!" Yoshi manages to wrap his tongue around Luigi, pulling him back to the group.

"Come on…" he murmured before the group went into battle.

Durmite turns red and charges after Donkey Kong, but he countered with his Giant Punch, sending her back. Mario and Luigi stomped her, followed by Yoshi's Egg Bomb.

But then, Durmite spits out a sticky string from her snout and manages to capture Yoshi. She eats him and spits him out at the brothers, knocking them down. Durmite then took the opportunity to summon a Straw and used it to drink Bowser's nutrients to regain health while some Biffiduses showed up to guard her.

Donkey Kong then performed his Hand Slap to take out the Biffiduses and knock down the Straw to prevent Durmite from regaining health. In the meantime, Yoshi, Mario and Luigi recovered after the early event and went back to the fight.

Durmite then swallows all of the Biffiduses and attacks the group by spitting out the Biffiduses' spears, but Yoshi swallowed all of the spears and spat them back at Durmite, leaving her dazed.

"Quick! While she's dazed, let's use this!" Mario takes out a golden shell helmet with a trampoline.

"All right!" Luigi grinned.

"Jump Helmet!"

Luigi puts on the helmet as Mario prepares to jump. Mario jumps on the trampoline, sending him into the air, while Luigi controls his trajectory so that he could land back on the trampoline every time he comes back down. After the brothers got close enough to the Durmite, Mario successfully stomps her head hard enough to defeat her.

But for their surprise, Durmite wasn't defeated; she just shrunk to what it have been her regular size before she ate all of those Biffiduses. The heroes watched her flee.

"Well… That was awkward…" Luigi tilted his head.

"Urgh…" just then, they heard a low voice from behind. "Man, and I thought I could deal with that thing by myself…"

They turned around and saw…

"…Wario?" they spoke in unison.

"Eh? Oh! It's you guys." Wario said as he went to them.

"Looks like we're all together now at last." Yoshi stated.

"So you were trying to fend that bug by yourself?" Starlow asked.

"Yeah, after Bowser sucked me, I woke up in this weird place until I was attacked by that giant bug." Wario explained. "I thought I had the strength to beat it, but it was too strong and I was sent flying back."

"Oh, that explains why you were sent over here."

"Well, I'm glad that we're together again and we got rid of Bowser's pain." Mario said.

"But I wonder… What if Princess Peach might be up ahead? After all, there's more to explore over there." Starlow wondered.

The complete group nodded and moved on. But not before a spear fell down from the ceiling and landed in front of Mario, stopping their progress.

"What the...?" Mario looked up, followed by the rest of the group.

What they saw at the ceiling shocked them: there were DOZENS of Biffiduses standing upside down at the ceiling!

"OH GEEZ!" Luigi yelled in shock.

The Biffiduses all fell from the ceiling in a wall formation, blocking the heroes' way. They tried to head back, but more Biffiduses fell down in a wall formation, trapping them. The Biffiduses all spun and spun until their spears worked as drills and they pierced the ground on both sides. The only thing that remained was a single platform that was large enough for the heroes to fit and it fell down along with them into an abyss.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" they screamed until the platform landed on the lower ground.

*THUD!*

"Ow, my tush…" Wario groaned.

"Who knew Bowser's antibodies could be so deadly…" Luigi mumbled.

Starlow flew out and noticed a dead end at the left side.

"Hmm… This passage is blocked!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, great… Hmm… What to do…" Mario pondered.

"I know that voice, by boogity…" they suddenly heard Toadbert's voice coming from the right. "Is Mario and his friends in here?"

"Huh?" Mario turned around and saw Toadbert standing near a purple Nubbin attached to a neuron. He and Co. went to Toadbert, who exclaims:

"Wow, it IS Mario and Co.!"

"Toadbert! There you are!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Toadsworth is worrying sick for you and Toadiko!"

"Oh, is that so? I'm sorry… I didn't mean to worry him. You see, Toadiko and I went out to study some more things in Bowser's body while also looking for Princess Peach, but we were separated in here. I was trying to find a way to reunite until I stumbled upon this Nubbin."

"Speaking of Princess Peach, have you seen her around here, Toadbert?" Starlow asked.

"Unfortunately, I haven't seen her around here anywhere…" Toadbert shook his head. "She's gotta be in his body somewhere, though… I guess you just gotta keep trudging around, huh?"

"Yeah, but first, we need a way out." Wario stated.

Luigi then eyed at the Nubbin behind Toadbert and got curious. He walks to it and hammers it, catching everyone's attention.

Eventually, some energy sparked in its neuron, following its trail in the axon leading to another neuron. The energy followed its path on another axon leading to the closed path at the left side, opening it. After that, the same energy sparked again and this time it flowed to the axons on the bottom.

With that, Bowser began to feel pain in his right arm.

"My belly starts feeling better, and now my ARM hurts?! C'mon!" he grumbled. "Hey! You in there! What are you doing to my bod?!"

"Hm! It looks like that had some sort of effect on Bowser's arm." Toadbert stated.

"His arm?" Yoshi asked.

"Yeah, I've been poking around… This whole area is a pressure point for Bowser's arm. It's just a theory, but I think if he punches while moving, he'll punch much harder than before!"

This made everyone's eyebrows perk up. Back outside, Bowser was still feeling pain on his arm that he grumbled again:

"Bah! This is getting me nowhere! It makes me wanting to punch something!"

He then moves while punching the air, and to his surprise, he slid on the ground while punching!

"Whoa! What the heck?!" he wasn't expecting that.

"Wow, it did work!" Starlow spoke surprised.

"GAH HA HA!" Bowser laughed. "Oh baby, that was awesome! You guys can thank me later!"

"Heh, except for the fact that I can do that too!" Wario smirked.

"…And now that fatso is with you this time? What's next, Peach?!" Bowser questioned.

"Oh well… Bowser now knows that all five of us are together again." Mario sweatdropped.

"Anyway, looks like you guys have this under control. I'm gonna go find a way to reunite with Toadiko and head back to Toad Square. See you later, by boogity!" Toadbert finished and left.

"Say, didn't you guys saw something odd on Toadbert?" Luigi asked.

"What do you mean, greenie?" Wario raised an eyebrow.

"I just noticed that Toadbert was wearing some sort of pink rose brooch on his chest, which was the same one that Toadiko was wearing since we saw her at the beginning!"

"Wait, really?! How come we've never noticed that?" Mario questioned.

"Luigi sure has eyes of an eagle…" Yoshi said.

"Well, anyway, maybe we should explore Bowser's body for a little bit now that we're together. Plus, I did see an area where we haven't explored it yet." Donkey Kong suggested.

"Sounds good, DK. Let's go." Mario said and they left the Nerve Cluster. As they were leaving, Luigi was thinking suspiciously:

"Something's suspicious about that rose brooch… I wonder what it is?"


Back outside…

After experiencing this new technique, the Sliding Punch, Bowser went back to focus on his mission; use the Banzai Bill to take down his castle. Once he arrived back at the area where the cannon was, he heard Private Goomp's voice:

"Find anything?"

Followed up by Corporal Paraplonk's voice:

"Nothing…"

The screen scrolls to the Elite Trio standing near the cannon.

"No way there's a Banzai Bill in the forest…" Private Goomp lamented.

"Great… As always, a Bowser plan goes totally off the rails…" Corporal Paraplonk muttered.

"He does lack strategy…" Sergeant Guy pointed out.

"He's stubborn…" Private Goomp threw in.

"Selfish…" Corporal Paraplonk added.

"Possibly unfit for duty. Huge head, tiny brain…"

Before Sergeant Guy could finish, a Banzai Bill landed right in front of their faces, causing them to sweatdrop.

"BOWSERRRRR!" they exclaimed.

"You're useless! Now move it! Load up the Banzai Bill!" Bowser demanded.

"Bowser always comes through!" Sergeant Guy changed his mind.


Soon, after loading the cannon…

"OK, Bowser! The Banzai Bill is loaded up!" Private Goomp confirmed.

"All systems go for launch!" Sergeant Guy said.

"Just light that fuse and BOOM! ZOOM! BONK!" Corporal Paraplonk exclaimed.

"About time! I'll just give it the old flame treatment. Watch carefully, minions! This is how you get it done!" Bowser grinned as he walks to the cannon's fuse and lights it up with his fire breath.

In an instant, the Banzai Bill takes off into the skies and heads towards Bowser's Castle. Inside, Midbus, Viverna and some Goombas hear about the news.

"Trouble, Lord Midbus and Lady Viverna! There's a Banzai Bill on course for the castle!" one of the Goombas reported.

"The trajectory suggests a Dimble Wood launch!" the other one finished.

"What? Will it hit the castle?" Midbus asked.

"It may! A possible BOOM! High probability of BOOSH! A BRAAK may wreck the castle!"

"Hm. And Lord Fawful here. We must protect him!" Midbus stated.

"In that case… Do the thing!" Viverna demanded.

The castle lifted up from the ground, letting the Banzai Bill miss it.

"MUH MUH MUH!" Midbus laughed. "Make for the forest. Now!"

"Let's give that dumb turtle a little greeting to his castle!" Viverna smirked.

Bowser's Castle then flies out of Dark Land and makes its way to Dimble Wood.

Back at Dimble Wood, Corporal Paraplonk was the first one to spot the castle heading towards them.

"Uh, what? Call me crazy, but it looks like Bowser's Castle is heading this way!" he informed.

"WHAAT?!" Bowser yelled in unbelief.

We can see Bowser's Castle flying above the trees before stopping RIGHT above the area where Bowser was without him noticing. The castle then slowly begins to descend, panicking the Elite Trio while Bowser was just plain confused by the large shadow below him.

"Huh? It's dark out! Bedtime already?" he questioned. "…Huh. So what's this about my castle?"

"ABOVE YOU!" the Elite Trio yelled before scurrying off.

"What?" Bowser raised an eyebrow.

He tried to look up, but too late: in an instant, the castle crushes him.


Inside Bowser…

Shortly after the group heard a loud 'thud', they noticed that Bowser's body felt lifeless, which got them worried. Starlow flew up and called out:

"Hey! Everything OK up there?"

Nothing.

"Uh-oh, he's not answering. This is not good." Starlow flew down.

"Maybe it has something to do with that thud we just heard?" Luigi guessed.

"Probably. We better head to another area and investigate!"

They nodded and went all the way down to the Rump Command, located inside Bowser's tail. This area consists of a purple river and there were Evoglobins at the background. There were five boats floating on the river, each of them having a different colored cannon; red, green, lime-green, yellow and brown.

Upon their arrival, the heroes saw strange lifeforms forming themselves next to the boats and bowed down to the quintet.

"We beseech you to save the life of our host…" one of them spoke.

"We ask that you help the host Bowser recover…" the other one added.

"Did those things just talk?" Wario asked.

"We are Evoglobins… The evolution of Emoglobins… Transcendent spiritual forms…"

"We are Evoglobins… Waves of spirituality spawned us temporary arms and legs…"

"We carry with us a message of crisis for Bowser's life energy. We have awaited you in this sacred place, ever patient…"

"Board the boats of revival and ford the adrenaline channel."

"Boats of revival? That could possibly revive Bowser!" Starlow exclaimed.

"All right, then. Let's give it a shot." Mario said as he, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong boarded each of their boats with the cannons matching their respective colors.

The boats took them to the adrenaline channel, where they had to play another minigame by reviving Bowser with adrenaline. To do so, they had to shoot adrenaline orbs coming down towards them. The adrenaline orbs shared the same color as the cannons on their boats, and they had to be shot by the corresponding color. So that means Mario can only shoot the red ones, Luigi, the green ones, Yoshi, the lime-green ones, Wario, the yellow ones, and Donkey Kong, the brown ones. If a blue adrenaline comes down, all of the heroes had to shot at it together.

Once enough adrenaline was shot, a large blue adrenaline orb showed up and it flew at Bowser's chest.

"His energy sparked!" Starlow informed.

Finally, all they had to do was to shoot together a large blue adrenaline orb as it sends out more colorful adrenaline orbs at them. As the heroes continued to shoot at it, it gets bigger. Once the adrenaline grew big enough, it flew at Bowser's chest again.

"His energy spiked!" Starlow informed.

Just then, the whole place began to shake.

"Bowser's moving again!" Starlow finished.

Suddenly, the whole area began to increase in size, making our heroes appear even smaller by the second.

"Wait… WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Luigi's eyes widened.

"I feel like something big is about to happen…" Yoshi stated.


Back outside…

The castle also began to shake as it was slowly being lifted from the ground and we could see that Bowser's feet appear…larger than normal.

As the castle was being lifted up, dozens of Goombas were falling off.

"What? What is this?!" Viverna wasn't expecting that.

"The ca… The castle…" a Goomba gulped. "It's floating!"

*ROOOOOAAAR!*

We just hear Bowser's roar as he, now as a 50 ft. giant, throws the castle, sending it a few feet further away.

"Whuh—what is THAT?!" Midbus exclaimed in shock.

"It looks like Bowser… But far too big." Viverna eyed at Giant Bowser, glaring at his castle. "Whatever, let's give him a little surprise! RECON UNIT!"

The castle sends out an airship loaded with Shy Guys and cannons.

"You will deploy now. Identify that…thing." Midbus demanded.

"Leave it to us, Lord Midbus and Lady Viverna!" the Shy Guys replied and flew the airship towards Giant Bowser.

"You'll regret for betraying me! TAKE THIS!" Giant Bowser punches the airship hard enough to blow it up, sending all Shy Guys falling down.

"Well, that was a disappointment." Viverna rolled her eyes.

"You know, I expected that to happen anyways." Midbus said. "SEND THE SECOND UNIT!"

This time, three airships with one Shy Guy piloting each flew towards Giant Bowser.

"You want to feel the burn? Then HERE IT IS!" Giant Bowser teased before breathing fire at the three airships, blowing them up as well.

"ARGH! This is not working!" Midbus yelled in frustration. "ATTACK! ALL UNITS!"

More airships piloted by Shy Guys came out and were ready to shoot cannonballs at Giant Bowser. But before they were able to, Giant Bowser blew all of the airships by spitting fireballs at them.

After falling down, one of the Shy Guys rushed to the gates and reported to Midbus and Viverna:

"Lord Midbus… Lady Viverna… That huge thing…was…Bowser…"

"WHAAAT?!" Midbus yelled.

"Typical." Viverna scoffed. "He is stubborn, anyways. Launch full assault!"

The castle then finally flew close to Giant Bowser's range.

"About TIME you decided to engage me, huh?!" Giant Bowser spoke impatiently. He let out a smirk and said: "Well, let's see how good my castle can fight back!"

Giant Bowser approaches his castle and punches it, sending it sliding backwards. After reaching its range again, Giant Bowser breathes fire at it, and it also burnt the two Dry Bones standing at the battlements.

The castle then charges after Giant Bowser, only for him to counter with his punch. It then sent some Spinys from the gates, gathering in front of the castle, meaning that Giant Bowser cannot punch it. So instead, he breathes fire at it again, and all of the Spinys were also burnt out.

More airships came in to attack Giant Bowser with cannonballs. Giant Bowser knocked the airships by spitting fireballs, and punched the charging airships, sending them flying directly at the castle. Eventually, the castle becomes badly damaged and some Boos flew out. Giant Bowser then saw Midbus and Viverna coming out of the main tower.

"You have grown giant. As has your cheating!" Midbus growled.

"Instead of crying, why not get big too?!" Giant Bowser teased and breathes fire at them, but only Midbus was burnt; Viverna was able to retreat inside before she got fried.

"You are a coward. Return to normal size. Only then do I fight!" Midbus finished before heading back inside the castle.

The now wrecked castle then takes off again and flies back to Dark Land, where it supposed to be. Soon enough, some adrenaline came from within Giant Bowser, evolving him in a white light before shrinking back to normal. However, he was standing in midair, so you know what that means…

*THUD!*

"Urgh…" Bowser groaned. He slowly stands up and shakes his head. After being speechless for a bit, he speaks astonished: "Wow… Whoa! What was that all about?!"

"Well, we were just trying to do something to revive your body and whatever we did made your body get huge." Mario explained.

"Really?! Well, it was awesome! Do it again, and I'll be able to crush Fawful like a bug!"

"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we can. Apparently it only works in dire situations…" Starlow said.

"Really. Well… Weak. Whatever. Even at this size, I can still take anyone! We'll be at my castle soon! And then it's payback time!"

Bowser once again made his way to his castle.

To be continued…


And here we finally have the introduction to the first giant battle! Even though I've never played this game, I found this battle concept really awesome. But lucky me that I was able to experiment it on Dream Team at least! It felt great!

The group of heroes inside our villain is finally together as he is finally reaching his castle! Until the next chapter! Please review.