Another long chapter! But only two more chapters left for this story to be complete!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 22: The Dark Star awakens
Bowser went further into the second floor of Melissa's Castle and managed to reach the third floor by flying out of a spring with his Spike Ball move, and was blasting off upwards between two long vines at the starry sky.
Unfortunately, two huge Piranha Plants that were at the end of the vines spat a fireball at Bowser, who roared in pain before falling all the way down back to the castle's roof.
"YOWWWWCH! HOT! WHOA, HOT!" he yelled while still in Spike Ball form, covered in flames.
"I HAVE CHORTLES!" Fawful's laugh came. A Fawfulcopter came next to Bowser and spoke: "Are you liking them? The giant Piranha Plants Viverna has raised? They are enjoying the barbecue of whatever goes near their mouths! Do they give you the angry face? Then just fly up and hit them with spikiness! Oh, but I have sadness! Tears of laughing for poor Bowser, who does not fly! I HAVE CHORTLES!" the Fawfulcopter leaves.
"HRRRRGH!" Bowser roared in frustration.
Inside Bowser…
"Looks like a new area is having a reaction now!" Starlow told. "Let's go!"
The heroes rushed to this new area: the Chest Station, which is apparently located near Bowser's heart. We can see what might be the cardiac muscle for the ground, and the purple background could be the inside of a vein or an artery, since it shows the smooth muscle. The group saw a cannon up ahead in the middle. Mario and Luigi went inside of the cannon, and it shot them upwards in Bros Ball formation.
The brothers were sent to some sort of membrane, where every time they recoil and spring up, Bowser would fly up according to the brothers' momentum. So they helped Bowser fly all the way up to where the giant Piranha Plants were while avoiding other Piranha Plants and Chain Chomps and made him knock both of them out.
Bowser landed back on the roof and uncurled himself.
"GAHAHAHA!" he laughed in glory. "Looks like red-hot Bowser is still alive and well!"
With that taken care of, Bowser manages to reach some rooms that were blocked by vines.
Some hours later…
Bowser finally found the room where Fawful, Midbus and Viverna were breaking the remains of the seal on the Dark Star using Melissa's power. She was locked into a round large capsule, hovering unconscious with both hands on her chest.
"I HAVE CHORTLES!" Fawful laughed. "AND I HAVE EXCITEMENT! At last, the Dark Star awakes like a naughty napping baby!"
"Yes, it's nearly there…" Viverna snickered.
However, Midbus turned around and saw Bowser entering the room.
"Lord Fawful! Lady Viverna!" he called out for them.
"…You?!" Viverna turned around and spoke with bitterness in her voice.
"Fawful hates your timing! A nuisance barge barging in at the critical time for us!" Fawful growled.
"Nuisance barge? GWAHAHA! Buddy, you're like a nuisance SUPERTANKER! Tell you what! As a Star Child, I can do almost anything!"
"Hmph. Lord Fawful. Leave him to me and Viverna." Midbus said.
"This should be interesting since the first time we fought…" Viverna smirked.
"Aw, man, AGAIN?! You don't give up!" Bowser hissed. "Well, have it your way! You'll be a nice tune-up for my stomping Fawful!"
"I have uneasiness… Bowser keeps appearing like an ugly rabbit from the hat of a magician who stinks! So Fawful will fight to help Midbus and Viverna have victory!" Fawful exclaimed. "But Midbus and Viverna have pride… So Fawful leaves him to you! MIDBUS! POWER UP!"
Fawful fires an ice laser gun at Midbus, transforming him into Blizzard Midbus.
"Now you face hot wrath. The hot wrath of my freezing blizzard attack!" Blizzard Midbus smirked.
"And the wrath of my venomous poison says goodbye to your hot flames of passion!" Viverna added.
"Here your long journey ends!" both Blizzard Midbus and Viverna announced in unison before launching their attack at Bowser.
"Bring it on!" Bowser stood in his fighting stance.
Blizzard Midbus begins by throwing snowballs at Bowser, but he destroyed them with his punch. Bowser immediately breathes fire at both Blizzard Midbus and Viverna. The fire hit only Blizzard Midbus, while Viverna flew out of the way.
"You're a persistent guy. Time to taste my venom!" Viverna said as she creates a cloud of green poison and sends it at Bowser, but he does his Spike Ball move to dodge the poison and also ram into Viverna. "Ugh!" she groaned from the impact.
Blizzard Midbus attempts to do a Sliding Punch at Bowser, but he jumps in the air and also managed to slam at Blizzard Midbus with his Body Slam.
"Alright…" Blizzard Midbus muttered. "Can you match THIS?!"
Blizzard Midbus summons a giant rolling snowball with a Bob-omb carved in it and rolls the ball towards Bowser. Bowser punches the snowball until the Bob-omb was alighted with Blizzard Midbus, causing it to explode in his face and destroying the snowball.
Viverna summons enemies made out of various poisonous plants and commands them to fire poison berries at Bowser, but he counters them by punching, sending the berries back at the plant enemies, destroying them.
Blizzard Midbus then summons four Snawfuls to give him strength and commands them to fire ice particles at Bowser. Bowser dodges the ice particles and inhales the four Snawfuls at once inside him. The heroes in Bowser's body battled and defeated the Snawfuls, causing Bowser to release an icy mist that froze into an ice chunk and landed on top of Blizzard Midbus' head, preventing him from summoning more Snawfuls.
"This is getting us nowhere. Let's work together on this next attack!" Viverna told Blizzard Midbus.
She creates a large vine while Blizzard Midbus creates a snowball and places it on the vine. The duo worked together to push the snowball into the vine and sent it out like a slingshot at Bowser, but he simply moved out of the way.
"No way!" Viverna growled in frustration.
"Too slow! My turn!" Bowser smirked. "Go! Koopa Corps!"
Bowser tosses a large ball of Koopa Troopas before retreating into his shell. A Koopa Troopa came and aimed at Blizzard Midbus as it retreats into its shell. Bowser rebounds the same Koopa, sending it towards Viverna this time. As the rebounding goes on, more Koopa Troopas show up to damage the evil duo. This continued until both Blizzard Midbus and Viverna collapsed on the ground. However, no one noticed that something came out of Viverna's mouth after the impact of the shells.
"Muh muh muh… Muh muh… Muh…" Blizzard Midbus gagged.
"Urgh…" Viverna groaned.
"Though we fall here… None beat Lord Fawful… Now he will FINISH YOU!"
Then, Blizzard Midbus' body became incased in a block of ice, while Viverna suddenly morphed into a very familiar fairy that only we could recognize. Her appearance shifted from bitter and sour to sweet and pure in the blink of an eye.
"GWAHAHA!" Bowser laughed in glory. "You figure out who's tougher and swifter yet, Mr. Ice Cube and Ms. Poison Ivy?"
Bowser didn't notice that Fawful walked towards a strange small green object placed next to the unconscious fairy and picked it up. That object looked like a rather dark-toned herb of some sorts.
"I have unpleasantness…" Fawful muttered. "That fairy of time did look quite worthless like an upside-down turtle who cannot get back up. But Fawful might give her credit for tracking down Princess Melissa and aiding Midbus. She had eyes of an eagle. Too bad that the effect of the Poison Herb is gone for good."
Suddenly, the capsule that Melissa was in shattered, resulting her in collapsing on the platform; the seal on the Dark Star has been broken. Then, what used to be a simple motionless violet sphere with a black star displayed on the front has now increased a bit in size with large black spikes that rotate around it, giving it a sun-like appearance and red eyes grew in the center of the black star emblem. At last, the Dark Star has awakened. Fawful rushes to it and speaks with excitement:
"It it it it it it it… IT WAKES! It has awakeness at last! Fawful has waited so long!"
He pulls out some sort of headgear on top of his head and begins sucking in the Dark Star's power.
"I HAVE SUCTION!" Fawful laughed. "With this, I am taking the Dark Star's power!"
Just then, the headgear releases sparks of energy and purple lightings strikes all around the room.
"I…have… DARKNESS! So very darkness! The dark power builds like a skyscraper of evil! With the dark power and later the Star Children's power in me, the world… The world… IS FOR FAWFUL!"
As more and more dark power was sucked into Fawful, his body became surrounded in a black aura with glowing red eyes.
"The world?! Good one, crazy guy! This will never happen! I'm the real bad guy here!" Bowser stormed before punching Fawful away, preventing him from absorbing ALL of the Dark Star's power. "GAHAHAHA! Feels good, finally punching out that weirdo. And now, I'll just take down that Dark Star myself!"
Then, the Dark Star started to fly around Bowser without him noticing…and it flew into his open mouth.
"GURK! GWAAK!" Bowser gagged. "Hnnnnk…"
"What happened?" Starlow asked upon hearing Bowser's gagging noises. "It looked like you just swallowed something…"
"Duh… Dark Star… Ate the Dark Star… Tasted real funky…"
"REALLY?!"
"So the Dark Star woke up… That's not good." Peach lamented. "Now it's probably going after us, the Star Children…"
"YOWWW! Chest…burning!"
Bowser blindly walks towards the frozen corpse of Midbus and inhaled the cold air coming out of his muzzle. "Haaaaah… That was gross, but my chest feels better…" Bowser sighed. "What was that…heartburn? I mean, with the Dark Star in there somewhere…" but… "Bah! My chest is getting hot again!" he inhales more cold air.
Inside Bowser…
"Looks like it's up to us to catch that Dark Star." Mario stated. "I mean, if it stays inside Bowser's body… I can't imagine what sort of horrible thing might happen! C'mon! Let's hurry!"
The group rushed to the new and final area of Bowser's body: the Airway.
This place is located in Bowser's lungs and trachea, since we can see the lungs' tissue in the background and the ground could be part of the pulmonary alveolus. As soon as the heroes entered this area, everything became cold.
"Brrr… It's so c-c-cold in here!" Luigi shivered.
"Got cold, huh… That icy breath Bowser inhaled really dropped the temperature in this area…"
"Hm? Looks at this!" Mario noticed that a water geyser up ahead has been frozen by the cold air. "The water just froze!"
"Interesting… That means we can jump on that platform without it sinking. Using that icy breath to freeze and melt things will help out, so keep that in mind."
Then, Luigi finally realized that he was the only one shivering; the rest of the group wasn't even chatting their teeth!
"Wait! How come you guys aren't cold?!" he asked surprised.
"I'm used to the cold. I've been to many frozen places just to save Peach from Bowser." Mario answered.
"I got used to the cold ever since my island nearly became a frozen islet." Donkey Kong said.
"There are many frozen places in my island." Yoshi said.
"I've been the champion on many frozen places in our Mario Kart Tournaments." Wario said.
"And I've been venturing the cold places in the Sprixie Kingdom for so long that I also ended up getting used to the cold." Peach finished.
"Luigi… I think you're shivering a bit much, don't you think? It's not THAT cold, come on. You can handle it like everyone else, seriously. You just THINK you're cold!" Starlow spoke.
"Really?" Luigi replied.
"Yeah! It's all in your head! Think 'I'm not cold,' and you won't be cold."
"Alright."
Starlow flies towards the rest of the group…until she hears Luigi's shivering noises again.
"I'm not cold." She told him. She flies away…but more shivering. "Not cold!" the same thing happens again… "Not!" and again, but this time, she only glares at Luigi.
"Come on, Luigi! You can handle this cold! After all, this feels a bit less worse than all of the cold areas we all mentioned." Mario encouraged as they all started to walk.
"I'm not cold, I'm not cold, I'm not cold…" Luigi kept repeating the same thing in his thoughts while walking.
One cold walk (maybe) later…
After coming out of a green pipe, the group saw something at the distance.
"There it is!" Starlow pointed.
They saw the Dark Star flying next to a set of DNA, and watched it eating a piece of it.
"Hmm… Looks like it tried to absorb Bowser's genetic information…but didn't get it all." Starlow pondered. "Only Bowser's body could give even the Dark Star indigestion!"
"This could be our opportunity to destroy it!" Donkey Kong exclaimed.
"Yeah! Let's figure out some way to KO that Dark Star! And I think I know how…" Mario eyed at a bone basin above their heads.
With the help of Bowser, the heroes create a block of ice and pushes it towards the Dark Star…only for it to break it once it suddenly gained Bowser's arms.
"What the-?!" Mario flinched.
"It just gained Bowser's arms and strength!" Luigi piped up.
The Dark Star flew up and punched through some walls before proceeding deeper into the Airway.
"After it! We can't let it escape!" Starlow demanded.
After more walking later, they caught up with the Dark Star again.
"There it is again!" Mario pointed up.
The Dark Star was standing next to another set of DNA, eating another bit of it.
"It just absorbed more of Bowser's genetic code…" Starlow said. "Now's our chance! After it!"
Mario hammered a Nubbin up ahead, causing a small bone attached to the wall pop out, flinging the Dark Star into an orange blob block. However, the Dark Star managed to escape again by releasing flames from its mouth to burn the blob and a white wall on the left before fleeing.
"Not again!" Wario cursed.
"It just copied Bowser's fire now, didn't it…" Yoshi remarked.
"And before, it punched through a wall by copying Bowser's strength…" Luigi threw in.
"We have to stop it from getting any more of Bowser's genetic code or we're in BIG trouble." Starlow warned. "Chase it down!"
More walking later, they caught up with the Dark Star once again, but suddenly, it released some sort of dark cloud around them, causing them to choke, giving a chance for it to eat more of Bowser's DNA bit of another set. This gave the Dark Star the Body Slam ability, allowing it to break through some walls on the floor.
"Another near miss… We almost had it that time too…" Starlow muttered.
"Yeah…until it choked us." Mario groaned.
"That Dark Star… It's definitely absorbing Bowser's traits one by one…which isn't good." Peach whimpered.
"Next time, we HAVE to get it!" Starlow stated.
Even MORE walking later…
Upon emerging out of another room, it suddenly started to flash in negative colors.
"What is that?" Luigi wondered.
"Ah… Everyone! The Dark Star… It's just ahead!" Starlow told.
"Really?!" the group's eyes widened.
"At last, we've cornered this evil thing… If we can't defeat it here and end this… All that we care about will be in jeopardy… Are you truly ready? You must not lose! All depends on this! Be strong, Star Children!"
"You can count on us, Starlow!" Mario nodded.
"Yeah!" the rest of the heroes exclaimed.
Once they finally found the Dark Star, who was releasing sparks of energy, they glared at it while standing in their fighting stances. The Dark Star released so many electricity that it was split into four and each part fled into the tiny and narrow gaps in the ceiling and floor. The heroes were about to head into this other part until Starlow stopped them:
"Wait! The footing here is too dangerous!"
Then, the two parts that came out of the gaps in the floor came back up again, and one of them was showing Bowser's belly, while the other was showing Bowser's arms before joining in together. Next, the other two parts came down from the ceiling, one showing Bowser's head, with the other showing Bowser's shell before joining in together with the arms and belly, creating a full Bowser body, with only its legs and tail missing.
Just then, the Dark Star began to inhale the heroes to try to send them into its mouth!
"WAAAAH! NOT AGAIN!" Luigi yelled before all of the heroes held on to the ground to avoid being sucked in.
Unfortunately, Luigi's hands slipped off, but he managed to grab Mario's legs. But it wouldn't last long: Luigi's grip became tired, and he was sucked into the Dark Star's mouth. Luckily, the Dark Star spits Luigi out, with Mario catching him, causing the brothers to slide a few feet away.
The Dark Star splits up again and merges back into its regular shape. It did a few screeches before charging after the heroes.
"NOW we're actually fighting it!" Wario grinned as he throws a Bob-omb at the Dark Star…but it took no damage. "WHAT?!"
Yoshi threw an egg at the Dark Star, but once again, nothing. "Why can't we damage it?!" he questioned.
"Maybe we could if our Star Children powers are activated?" Donkey Kong guessed.
"Wait… Look!" Mario noticed something. He saw the Dark Star sending out six Dark Satellmites. "I think we'll have to destroy those small things first before damaging the Dark Star."
"Uh, big bro…" Luigi spoke frightened when he saw the Dark Star splitting itself into five clones.
The clones were rolling slowly towards the heroes and turning invisible when they were nearly close to them. Luckily, the Mario Bros timed up their hammer swings to counter the copies and even managed to knock one of them into another.
The Dark Satellmites aimed at each hero and fired their laser eyes at them, but they dodged them and proceeded to attack them: Mario and Luigi stomped theirs, Yoshi kicked his, Wario shoulder tackles his, Donkey Kong slams his hands on his and Peach hit hers with her frying pan.
Suddenly, the Dark Star shines its light at the heroes, causing their shadows to come to life and they begin to circle around it. The shadows of each hero followed their respective bodies' actions, so when the Dark Star shot a sparking laser at them, the heroes had to time their jumps to avoid having their shadows getting hit or they'll receive damage.
After this event, the heroes used their stronger attacks to defeat the Dark Satellmites much quicker, and once they were defeated, the Dark Star materializes a bomb and tosses it at the group, but Peach reflected it back with her tennis racquet, and to the heroes' amusement, the Dark Star took damage when the bomb blew on it.
"All right! Now we can damage the Dark Star!" Mario exclaimed. "Come on, guys! Let's use our strongest attacks to defeat it!"
The Dark Star quickly reacts and summons a red, green, lime-green, yellow, brown and pink orbs rotating around it. It sends the orbs towards each hero with their respective colors, but they of course dodged them.
Yoshi starts by throwing an Egg Bomb at the Dark Star, blinding it, giving a chance for Wario to Butt Smash it, followed by Donkey Kong's Giant Punch and Peach's Psych Bomb (an attack from Super Mario RPG).
Before Mario and Luigi could use an attack to end this, the Dark Star started to charge some sort of purple energy. The heroes grabbed on to Starlow to avoid being hit by the huge laser sent out by the Dark Star. Once they were back on the ground, it was now the time to finish this fight:
"Let's end this with the item Melissa gave it to us!" Mario told Luigi as he pulls out the Magic Window. "Magic Window!"
Mario tosses the window and it opens by itself before both brothers jump in. The window magically teleports and shows up in front of the Dark Star, with Mario coming out and stomping it. The window reappears this time behind the Dark Star, and Luigi was the one to come out and stomp it. This attack continued until the Dark Star became lifeless, lying on the ground.
But all of a sudden, the lifeless Dark Star flies into the air and sends out a vacuum attack on the heroes. They quickly flee the scene by running away as fast as they could until the Dark Star explodes.
The explosion made it split into four again, and they all fled out of Bowser's body.
Back outside…
"Hm?" Bowser felt something in his mouth. "Got some nasty taste going on in my mouth…"
As he less expected, the small bits of the Dark Star escaped from his mouth before coalescing into the incomplete Bowser form, causing Bowser's eyes to widen in shock.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" he flinched.
"Your body, I have copied… Your power, I have copied…" the Dark Star spoke in Bowser's voice, but in a deeper pitch, now a lot like Dry Bowser's voice. "But your Star Child power… Not yet…"
"Now who's THIS jerk?! You're biting my style?! Not on MY watch, buddy!"
"Not enough… Not enough…power…"
"What? Not enough?"
"Not enough dark power… Power has been drained… I am not complete…"
"Drained?"
"Who… Who will give…the dark power…" the Dark Star then looks at Melissa, still unconscious. "Her…star power…" to Bowser's surprise, the Dark Star sucks up Melissa! "Not…enough…"
"Knock it off, pal!"
"Star Child… Soon… I'll get your power…along with the other six…"
"My power? Ha! That's when we'll see!"
"I HAVE POWER!" Fawful's voice came in. "Where is the Dark Star?! Fawful has more suction for the rest of the dark power!"
"That voice… Yes… I know that voice… That is the being who drained me of my power…" the Dark Star said before leaving the room.
"HOLD UP!" Bowser called out. "There could be only ONE Bowser! One Bowser is plenty, baby! That guy's gotta GO!"
Bowser then chases after his incomplete dark clone.
To be continued…
The next chapter will show the last giant battle and Bowser taking on Dark Fawful! Please review.
