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Chapter 13: The Bubbly Blubble Lake
The six heroes emerged out of the same orange pipe in the Pipe Yard, where they found Melissa in her original form standing there waiting for them.
"Welcome back, everyone!" she greeted. "About time you guys showed up in here!"
"Sorry that we worried you, Melissa." Mario said. "But we gotta keep you hidden so that Fawful and his minions won't find you."
"Hey! Look! Over there!" Yoshi saw something coming out of the tumbled red pipe and pointed. It was none other than Durmite coming out of hiding!
"Aha! There's the sage!" Starlow exclaimed.
"I'll try to catch it." Mario said as he slowly tip-toes towards Durmite. "Steady… Steady…"
However, Durmite noticed him and tried to flee, but Luigi blocked the other side.
"Where do you think you're going?" he spoke.
"Alright, Luigi. On the count of three, we'll leap and catch it." Mario told. Luigi nodded as they both began to tip-toe towards Durmite. "One… Two… THREE!"
The brothers then leapt at the same time at Durmite, but… Instead of catching it, they ended up on the ground with nothing and even let Durmite stand on top of Mario's cap.
"*groan* what the hell are you guys doing?" Wario facepalmed as the rest walked to the downed brothers.
"WAIT!" Starlow called out to Durmite, who looks at her. "You're the first sage, right? We need to talk to you!"
Durmite said nothing and just fled the Pipe Yard.
"WAIT!" Starlow called out, but Durmite didn't listen. She then looks at Mario and Luigi on the ground. "Mario! Luigi! Get it together!"
"Yeah, you looked like two idiots trying to catch such a minuscule bug." Wario scolded.
"Oh, shut it!" Mario growled as he and Luigi got on their feet.
"Anyway, we need to follow that bug and quick!" Donkey Kong said.
The heroes left the Pipe Yard and watched Durmite fleeing to a new area in Bowser's body. They quickly followed it and arrived at the Energy Hold, located at Bowser's right leg at the patella region. The ground could be the interior skin since we can see a thin layer of fat on it and there were mucus on the first three gaps ahead. For the background, I have no idea what those blue things might be, but they might be where all of the energy in the body is stored and transported.
Upon their arrival, the heroes saw Durmite trying to escape again.
"Come back here!" Mario called out as he and Luigi clear the gaps with their Spin Jump.
Unfortunately, Durmite squeezes under a tiny gap of three strange green blocks showing a Boo's face, stopping the heroes in their tracks.
"Aw, it got away…" Starlow lamented in frustration. "There's gotta be a way past this barrier…" she inspects the Boo Blocks. "But it's beyond us now."
"True, I think neither my Mini Mario ability can get me to the other side." Mario shook his head.
"The only way to get past those…creepy blocks like how the sage did is with a Mini Mushroom." Luigi said, stuttering a bit by the mention of creepy blocks.
"Yeah, but I don't have one in my pocket and I'm pretty sure the Toads aren't selling one at the Toad Square. No wonder why Mini Mushrooms are one of the rarest mushrooms to be found."
"*sigh* just our luck…"
"Well, until Dr. Toadley finds out the location of the other sages, we should stick around this area. There's no way Bowser can get the Star Cure first anyway…" Starlow stated.
"Wait, are you talking about the three Sages of the Star Cures?" Melissa exclaimed in surprise.
"You know about them, Melissa?" Yoshi asked.
"Yes, the Sages of the Star Cures are three different sages that are close to the star people. In fact, the Miracle Cure, the complete form of the Star Cures, was created by the star people themselves in order to cure any type of disease in the lands below them. To prevent that no one would use the Miracle Cure in a wrong way, the star people shattered it into three Star Cures and entrusted them to the three sages. If I recall, one of the sages is a cute butterfly, Wisdurm, the second one is an elderly Koopa, Kuzzle, and the third one is a meditating octopus, Chakron."
"And considering the fact that caterpillars become butterflies when adults, that's why that bug is a sage!" Peach concluded.
"That's right! Maybe if I communicate with Wisdurm, she might remember me and could hand us the first Star Cure."
"Hmm… Speaking of Bowser, I can't believe I'm actually saying this but, I wonder what is he doing right now?"
Meanwhile…
"ACHOOOOO!" Bowser let out a loud sneeze.
Our big bad guy was now standing at Blubble Lake, a lake located west of Bumpsy Plains, north of Cavi Cape, and south of Toad Town. It is filled with many rock structures and stone walls. Next to the lake's shores, there were special flowers with pollen that is very sensitive to anyone's noses. This area's name definitely came from the word 'bubble', which could be because we can create bubbles in our mouth. What happened back there was that a single grain of sensitive pollen tickled Bowser's nose and made him sneeze.
"Little tickle in the old schnoz… Probably Chippy or something!" Bowser grumbled.
"Ha! Very funny!" Starlow growled.
"So you finally spoke to me, Chippy, huh? Hmph! Time to get that Star Cure before Mario!"
"That's what you'll see!" Mario's voice came from inside Bowser.
"WHAT?! MARIO?! HOW DID YOU GET BACK IN HERE?!" Bowser asked in shock and anger as he looks down to his stomach.
"Do you really think I would tell you? Listen, Bowser, you should understand that the Dark Star is way too powerful than you! So we still have to work together!"
"Why do I even care? I've already told you that I'll be taking the Dark Star by myself! Whatever how you break that god damn seal!"
"You'll need Princess Melissa in order to do it. But if you set free the Dark Star, it'll probably not even listen to you and head towards the seven Star Children on its own."
"Seven Star Children?"
"We also don't know who they are, but one of them is Peach, because we just figured it out earlier."
"Wait, Peach is one of those Star Children?!"
"She is! And if the Dark Star goes to her, she'll get kidnapped by it instead of you, and because Fawful found the Dark Star before you, if the Dark Star finds all of the Star Children, it'll absorb their power, causing the world to plunge into darkness and Fawful would rule the world… INSTEAD OF YOU!"
"WHAT?! That bastard! I should be the one ruling the world! Not him!"
"You don't want that to happen, right? So you'll have to work together with us! Also, Melissa is with us too, but please don't tell any of Fawful's minions that she's inside you! She must be hidden from Fawful at all costs!"
"Hmph… Fine. But I'll only be nice to you and your friends as long as you're INSIDE OF MY BODY! And you'll let ME get the Cures, alright?!"
"*sigh* fine… It's a deal."
"Good!" Bowser finished before looking around. "So, which way to Dimble Wood?"
He walks around the area and even went underwater. After encountering many enemies on land and on water like Beehosses, Crawfuls, Glam Lakitus, Fawfloppers and Mawful Moles, Bowser heard some voices:
"You guys hear footsteps?"
"Could it be Bowser?"
"Who's that now?" Bowser asked.
Noticing that the voices were coming from the other side of the wall, he peeked in it, and saw his Koopa troops trapped in a cage.
"It's us, sir! Your Koopa Troopa unit!" one of the Koopas said.
"King Bowser!"
"Your Awesomeness!"
"Behind this rock wall, huh…" Bowser pondered once he stepped back from the wall. He tries to punch it, but it did nothing. "Man! Too hard!"
"We're getting evacked, guys! Bowser's here for us!" a Koopa spoke.
"He can't get through that wall, though, can he?"
"Belay that talk, soldier! Bowser can break anything!"
"Hey yeah, you're right! That's why he's the king!"
"Darn skippy! Bowser rules!"
"AH… GAHH… GWAHAHA! Ahh… Of course I'll break it! This wall's going DOWN, baby!" Bowser faked a laugh.
"Of course you will, sir! That's our King Bowser!"
"KING BOWSER!"
"Crud! I've gotta hit this thing with something big, or no dice… Scratch that—something HUGE… Guess I'd better go looking…" Bowser said before leaving.
Soon, Bowser reached a part of the area where two of those special flowers were planted next to an old ship in front. Bowser steps closer to the flowers and sniffs them:
"Smells weird… Actually… Smells kinda good…"
Inside Bowser…
"For goodness sake, Mario! Do you really had to explain everything to Bowser?!" Luigi hissed.
"I had to! Otherwise, Bowser wouldn't know that he's in a misunderstanding!" Mario stormed.
"You know, Mario does have a point." Melissa threw in.
"Is that so?" Luigi asked.
"Bowser was being nice and complimenting Mario for very long before you guys reached Peach, remember? So of course he would trust him if he tells everything that he doesn't know about, despite them both being archrivals. After all, many villains had to team up with their archenemies to take down a much more superior villain. That's what my sister told me, at least."
"Then I guess he got used to teaming up with you guys that he's kind of showing respect to you." Peach guessed.
"Yes, because we were the ones stimulating his body for the entire time." Mario added. "So I believe it would be best to let him know about the Dark Star since he trusts me more when I'm inside his body rather than outside, which is kind of odd, actually."
Just then, something went inside Luigi's nose, causing him to sneeze:
"A... ACHOOOO!"
"What just happened, mate?" Donkey Kong asked in concern.
"I think something went inside my nose and irritated it!"
"Hmm, that means something is happening in Bowser's body again!" Starlow said. "Hurry!"
The heroes rushed all the way up to the Nose Deck, located inside Bowser's nasal cavities. The ground is composed of cilia, and our heroes were so small that they were able to walk on them with no problems, and the background could be showing the nasal conchae and the cartilage tissue. The heroes could see a small wind draft on some bones.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mario asked Luigi.
"Yep. Spin Jump time!"
The brothers did a Spin Jump at the draft and it sent them flying into the air, taking them between two walls of ten large nasal mounds. As pollen grains started to fall, the brothers had to repel them to all of the ten nasal mounds, turning them red.
Once all of the mounds were red, suddenly, one of them engorges and pops out. The brothers had to slam into the swollen membrane and another one popped out.
"That's quite a reaction…" Luigi spoke.
"Uh oh! Look out!" Mario warned.
The brothers moved out of the way, as a blue pollen was falling down at them.
"That pollen looked strange; I suggest we don't touch that one!" Mario said.
"All right, now let's slam into that swollen mound!" Luigi exclaimed.
They managed to slam into the mound, followed up by another one. Then, another one with round edges popped out.
"I guess this is where the 'you know what' will happen!" Luigi warned.
As the brothers fly towards the engorged mound…
"Here comes the tickles, Bowser!" Mario grinned before he and Luigi slammed into the mound.
With that, the whole area begun to shake because of the irritation in Bowser's nose. Mario and Luigi landed on the ground and the group prepared to cover their ears.
"GAAH! BAAH!" Bowser was almost about to sneeze.
"Oh… Here it comes!" Mario told them as they positioned their hands close to their ears.
"Three…two…one…!" Luigi did the countdown, and as soon as he said 'one', everyone immediately pressed their hands as hard as they could on their ears.
"AAAAAACHOOOOOO!" Bowser let out a sneeze that was so strong that it caused gushes of wind to blow out at the ship, sending it right at the wall where the Koopas were trapped on the other side, demolishing it.
"Wow… That went pretty quickly." Luigi remarked as he and the rest uncover their ears.
"Ahh! That felt great! Even my sneezes are powerful and awesome!" Bowser exclaimed. "Now to save my Koopa troop."
"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" one of the Koopas exclaimed in shock.
"That was HUGE!"
"Oh, look! There's our king!"
Once Bowser came to them, he breaks the cage with his punch, freeing the Koopas.
"FREEDOM!"
"You really know how to make an entrance, sir! Ramming through those rocks with a ship?! GENIUS!"
"No doubt! It would've been boring if you just punched it!"
"That's our king!"
"KING BOWSER!"
"Ah… GAHAHAHA!" Bowser laughed. "Uh, yeah. That's right! Grand entrance, huh? I go the extra mile for you guys! Remember that!"
The Koopas then joined in the army, allowing Bowser to use the move called Koopa Corps in battle. He then continues to explore around the lake.
To be continued…
What's going to happen next? The next chapter will show that! Please review.
