Chapter 32: Bowser's Roads

I landed on the ground after falling down from the sky without any control. My feet cushioned my fall along with my lowered right hand, and as I lifted my head up I was surprised by what I saw. I wasn't in the Ignitor Cave, but rather I had been brought to a strange area filled with various platforms and other devices that Mario himself would be familiar with traversing. The platform I was standing on was blue with a wide arrange of small indents plastered across the surface, and the thinner, three stone steps in front of me were grey in color with the first step having the green outline of a box floating above it.

This, along with the hazy, dark-green atmosphere beyond this obstacle course alerted me to the fact that this was the "Bowser in the Dark World" area from Super Mario 64. After a brief tint of nostalgia pokes at my mind I scratch the top of my scalp in confusion, wondering why Mr. Reality chose to send me to this area instead of dealing with the normal obstacles in the temple. Or…Maybe I was actually in the temple? I was really bewildered by my arrival here, and in the midst of this confusion I shrugged my shoulders and thrust my arms towards the air to try and take off. However, my movement was kept grounded to the floor, even when I tried to stand on my tip-toes in conjunction with the thrusting of my arms.

"Yeah, this figures…" I said with little surprise in my voice as I stood back down in order to avoid further embarrassment. "I wonder though…" I thought to myself after folding my arms to reflect on my situation for a few seconds. I then extended my right limb out and spread out my fingers, releasing a small, icy chill from the palm that dissipates on a single whim. "Ok, so I still got my powers, but I doubt that using them to climb through this area will do any good. Guess I'll just have to traverse this area like Mario would. Shouldn't be too difficult, right?" After clasping my hand into the shape of a fist and lowering it beside my body, I began to move forward, passing underneath the outline of the box and going down my steps until I reached a thick piece of wood that was just as wide as the length of both of my feet combined.

I tip-toed across it carefully, keeping the weight of my armor balanced while I held my arms at hip length and made sure that my ice powers didn't crack the fibers in the wood and send me plummeting to my doom. After clearing that walkway, I reached a slight incline and climbed it with a brief dash, glaring to the left as I noticed a stone monolith firing a steady stream of fire outward over a square purple button with an exclamation mark and a gold outline. I grinded to a halt before I got burned by the flames, and after approximately three seconds it retracts back into the monolith, allowing me to continue onward to the next obstacle.

Next up was two square, raised platforms that moved around an enclosed golden frame. I dashed towards the center of the first platform closest to the edge, leaping out as far as a normal human could and landing on the backside of the platform with ease. I then jumped again as the platform edged the bottom right corner, making it to the other side with my body feeling a slight hint of exhaustion thanks to a sweat drop trickling down the side of my head. I really wasn't used to acrobatic feats without my flight powers to act as a safety cushion. My jumping ability was average, was I previously noted, and I couldn't do the double and triple jumps like Mario did when he went through this area, which may prove problematic near the end.

I then looked up and saw a ferris wheel with four rectangular platforms spinning around. Though I could easily have walked forward up the two inclines beside the rather steep and slick one, I instead coated my hand in ice and punched the ground below me, cracking it slightly before a small platform of ice pokes up and launches me high into the air. After getting above the closest wheel platform, I moved my weight to the side so I could land on it without tripping. I had to make sure to keep myself steady as the platform spun around until it was within range of the next platform, which was eight-sided and made entirely of wood.

There were three Goombas wandering about, but only one of them noticed my presence on the platform and moved my way after a short leap. I jumped up and landed on top of it, squishing it into a pancake and making its body poof away, where it leaves behind a single coin that vanished into me without explanation. The other two Goombas take notice, but I don't do anything to them besides run past them and head towards the thin, rickety bridge on the eastern side of the platform. On the other side is a twisted, rising walkway that has fences on various edges and crystals popped out of the ground with a few black orbs surrounding by electricity flying around them.

I rushed through the walkway, dodging and weaving past the orbs until I made it to the end, where I saw a yellow, spongy textured platform pushing out from a perfectly cubed grey platform that had a yellow box floating over it. Timing was the key here, and I waited to see how long it would take for it to retract and go back in before I leaped onto it. Surprisingly, it doesn't even take a second for the process to occur and my jump to happen. I had to act quickly to get onto the cube before I would have no space to stand on. What awaited beyond the other side of the yellow platform were two more sets of rotating, square platforms whose perimeters were connected together.

I waited for the yellow platform to push out, quickly moving down onto it and rushing forward, leaping out onto the first spinning platform in sight and employing the same methods I did on the previous rotating ones to make it across and onto a stone extension that houses a lone Goomba and leads towards two mint-green seesaws suspended in mid-air by grey rods sticking out from this stone and another on the opposite side of the area. After leaping onto the Goomba to crush it, I head use the momentum from the bounce to land onto the seesaw, my weight immediately causing it to slant downward towards the stone extension.

I made my way to the center to maintain a balance for a seconds while I turned around and raised my hands into the air. Without a double jump, there would be no way for me to jump onto the other seesaw without my weight pushing the one I was on out of range first. So using my powers, I created a block of ice whose weight was roughly equivalent to my own in order to keep a perfect balance as I stepped onto the opposite end of the seesaw. Once I was certain of my position, I increased the weight on the other side by swinging my hands down to summon a smaller block of ice on top of the one I had previously created.

This raises the seesaw up, allowing me to get in range of the next one and leap over to it with ease. I then drag the ice blocks through the air by holding my hands behind my back with my hands held upside-down, wagging my fingers to lift them over the wood and placing them down on the farthest side once I make it to the one closest to the next stone extension, which in front of the highest point that the seesaw could be raised on the side I was standing on. I leaped over to it, the next stone platform with another purple, golden bordered switch resting on top of it. I leaped down towards it, letting the ice on the seesaw fall off as it melts the very moment I stamp down onto the button with the full bulk of my weight.

A timer ticks down as the incline above me forms into four steps leading to the final destination, each one marked with a black and blue/icy-blue checkered pattern. I have to use the full height of my jump to make it up each step as the ticking increases in speed. I thankfully make it to the top the exact moment that time runs out, otherwise I would've slipped down the slope and likely would've plummeted to my death by going off the edge. All that was left was the lone green pipe in the center of the octagon platform made entirely of rock. I swiped my left hand across my forehead, for that constant string of jumps and other maneuver had left me physically drained for the time being.

"And Mario does this type of thing for a living…" I thought to myself as I caught my breath. "It really makes one appreciate the heroics he does every day, knowing that he risks his life to conquer perilous platforms that many others would have difficulty traversing, all to reach a beast that even fewer would dare to face, just so he can save the Princess and the kingdom she rules. Guess that's why Mario is so well renowned…" As I expressed appreciation in Mario's endeavors, I walked towards the pipe and jumped into it, slipping through time and space into yet another area.

I landed in a long hallway lined with a purple, well-kept carpet, with a grated wall off to the side separated by bricked pillars and illuminated by the glow of the blue flames behind them. There were two paths, one on the upper level that I could reach via a four step staircase, and another one adjacent to the floor. Something felt incredibly off though, like my body had lost a lot of weight and it felt a lot flatter than usual. I tried to turn around, but it felt like I was flipping the page of a book when I did so. After five more flips, each more frantic than the last, I realized the horror that had been wrought upon me.

I had become two-dimensional, a living piece of paper that kept my form's appearance at the cost of my thickness and realistic features. I quickly slapped my hand against my head, but it felt like I was applying a fan to my face instead of a piece of muscular flesh. "You really had to do this, didn't you Mr. Reality?" Upon trying to express my thoughts in annoyance, I noticed another strange occurrence, mainly that no words slipped through my lips. "Oh great, he made me a mute too? Well, I guess its just to fit with the fact that I'm taking Mario's place in this area, but that doesn't make it any less ridiculous…" After groaning about my predicament and attempting to rationalize as to why I was put into it, I folded my arms in front of my chest and tapped my foot against the ground.

"Come to think about it, Mario's world is usually perfectly solid, so I wonder what happened to make it and its inhabitants temporarily two-dimensional…I'll have to ask him at a later date, but for now…" Before I got too flustered by the change to my mass and form, I switched my thought process towards the area. It was pretty easy to tell from the atmosphere that this was another one of Bowser's areas, particularly his castle from Paper Mario 64. As to which place I was in it, that was something I had no clue about at the moment. You'd think that the blue glow would be a significant indicator about where I was, but considering that I didn't know just where it was coming from I wasn't able to fully connect the dots.

"Come on Mew, pull it together. If you don't figure this out you might end up getting into big trouble…" Of course, who cared about just my own life at the moment when all the time I was wasting here could lead to the destruction of Plit…I tried to turn my body so I looked out at the gated wall beside me, and this time around my efforts were successful. I saw six torches marked by gateway like metal borders, all of which were placed in a specific order, possibly to provide the solution for an upcoming puzzle. After noting the order of Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up, I turned back towards the two pathways provided up ahead and began to walk towards them nice and slowly.

Whether the pattern suggested the path I SHOULD take or the one I shouldn't take is something I hadn't quite recalled, but I decided to go with my gut here and took the upper path through a small, rectangular tunnel. On the other side was another hallway with two staircases off to the side, each marked at the bottom by the glow of an icy blue torch. Since the sides were marked by fences that for some reason I couldn't jump over, I walked towards the staircase and let my body fall down each one with every step I took until I made it to the bottom.

The next room looked the same, but I didn't think that I was going through a repetitious process quite yet. Just in case though, I kneeled down and scratched the rug with the sharp end of my right gauntlet. That way, if I do end up here after the next bottom tunnel, I'll know that my concerns were accurate. I proceeded along my way, making it through the next bottom passage to make it to yet another similar room. I looked down, and was glad to see that my mark wasn't on the rug. So with that concern tossed aside like a pair of socks after a long work day, I continued through the pattern I memorized from the torches until I made it through the final upper passage, at which point another suctioning sound signified that I would be taken away to another area.

When I landed, my eyes were shrouded by darkness, dimming my vision for a few seconds before I was able to adjust to the light from the torches on the wall. I still felt two-dimensional, but this time I felt more pixilated than papery. I squinted my now dotted eyelids in disbelief over the fact that I was now 8-bit, but at least this and the sound of a bubbling lava pit made it easy to figure out that I was in Bowser's final castle from the very first Super Mario Bros. "Boy, this is definitely a blast from the past…" I said, my words being projected onto a 2-D text box in the center of my line of sight.

"At least this time around I know the appearance change was just because this is how I'm familiar with this area. After all, I doubt this world was made 8-Bit so many years ago…" I was unable to fold my arms in front of my chest this time around, something I gravely missed due to how much it helped me concentrate on problems during times of solitude. "I really hope I get my full, solid appearance back really, REALLY soon. These constant changes are starting to annoy me, honestly." With one inaudible sigh, I began to make my way through this castle.

Though it was before the era where they existed, I was able to use my powers as if I had grabbed onto an "Ice Flower" from a "?" block, throwing icy balls that bounced along the grey, brick flooring and encased all the enemies that appeared in a solid, arctic block of…Well, ice. Eventually, after accurate and carefully timed platforming, I made it to a pipe that was ahead and below four square bricks blocks. I knew to enter it, and after a few seconds of sinking and emerging without any spectacle visible before my eyes I was forced to leap forward, where I landed on another pipe and continued on my merry way.

This hallway was shorter, but there was a trick in here that I would have to perform to make it to the next room. After making the lava pit with my longest possible jump, I leaped again to hit the bottom of an invisible coin block and changing it into a visible, solid platform that I swiftly used to reach another pipe that took me to yet another hallway, which only required a few precise jumps and ice balls to traverse until I reached another pipe. Before I entered though, I puffed my 8-Bit cheeks after taking a deep breath inward, because I knew the next area would be underwater.

My vision was then covered with a veil of dark blue and the shine of rotating firebars as I began to swim through the next area, using ice balls to continuously freeze the annoying Bloopers that edged near me. Surprisingly, this was a rather easy area to go through, though that was likely because of my powers breaking the design of this castle. Oh well, whatever works in the end, right? So after enduring the drench of the waters, I entered the nearby pipe from the side, shooting up into dry land once more as my body instantly loses all of the moisture present on my skin, armor and hair.

This was the final room in the castle, and the fireballs trailing in the air overhead signified the final target I had to deal with before I would be finished with this gauntlet. After leaping over a few pipes and bending down to avoid a couple fireballs, I made it to a wooden bridge suspended over the lava, which had a golden axe resting on the other side. Jumping up and down in silence while fireballs thrust from his mouth and hammers were swung through the air was the original Koopa King, Bowser, in all of his 8-Bit glory. This was the first time place where Mario confronted him face-to-face, in a battle that forever entangled the two in conflict.

I knew right off the bat that my ice balls wouldn't do anything to Bowser, and that the only definitive way to stop the Koopa King was to run underneath him mid-jump and touch the axe on the other side. I didn't even care to make a joke or question about just why Bowser had designed things like that, because if I lightened my mood and destroyed any trace of seriousness I could easily miss a chance to push forward and win this battle. Mario would probably shared my sentiments on this matter if I asked him, especially since…Well, he went through this scenario once before.

This required absolute patience and precise timing. One misstep and Bowser would squish me down into nothingness. That's not even getting into what would happen if the hammers or fireballs would hit me. I jumped back and forth to avoid the projectiles as well as I could, paying attention to the intervals between Bowser's jumps and the places he lands on with each leap. He mainly sticks to the back, close to the axe so I wouldn't take advantage of it so easily. Got to give him props for that, honestly, but its not like it was going to do him much good by the end of this.

After a few more seconds of waiting for a chance to move, I see a perfect opportunity arise, and after flashing my eyelids open to peer through the gap that Bowser's leap created I dashed ahead at great speeds. I ran underneath the Koopa King, making it past his tail the moment he landed and allowing my body to touch the axe on the other side. Everything sudden freezes in place as the bridge collapses into the lava, and it only takes a few more seconds for Bowser to suddenly flip upside-down and fall in as well. As the triumphant music began to play in the background, I walked forward against my will, falling off the edge of the floor and into a pit that makes the same suction noise that all other warps have made thus far.

This time when I land, I actually feel the full force of my impact with the ground on my feet, signaling to me that I had regained my flesh, muscle and bone. I tapped the side of my face to confirm that fact, and breathed a happy sigh of relief as I lowered my arm and looked ahead of me. I was in the final tunnel of the Ignitor Cave, which was made entirely out of dark brown rocks with the flow of magma being heard underneath the cracked ground. Up ahead was the final room, which was brightly lit by the glow of a figure far out of view. I slowly walked towards the exit of this tunnel, my arms at the side of my body as I began to think about what I went through in those three areas.

Its easy to see why Mario was so tough. He had all the makings of a hero within him. He was kind, brave, determined, and most importantly motivated. He didn't need the pure raw power that most others wield, for his acrobatic skills allowed him to quickly out-maneuver most foes, and he had the great endurance needed to keep himself going when most others would tire themselves out easily. He was also perceptive, and not only did that allow him to see the solution to puzzles that would stump many others, but it allowed him to take advantage of weaknesses that his enemies have. That's why Mario was going to be tougher than all the others. He didn't have a single trait that I could take advantage of, he was very versatile without him being broken, and he will keep fighting until someone finally destroys his entire body.

That last thing would make things rather troublesome, because I had no intention of killing him, and instead wanted to force him unconscious. Of course, there was one other thing I had to worry about besides Mario, as the battle with the Koopalings did reveal to me…I walked into the expansive cave that was lined with black and grey rocks, and had a floor of pure charcoal that contained the lava flow underneath. In the center of the room in front of a throne made of fire stood the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, his body radiating with a heavenly, starlight glow thanks to the Star Spirit empowered, golden and white appearance he now has along with the white cape attached to his back. His eyes were completely normal in color though his eyebrows were a bit slanted. He wasn't possessed, he wasn't a "Shadow", he was the genuine, true blue Mario.

As I drew my lance over my back with the tug on the handle with my right hand, I stopped midway as I felt the ground vibrate violently, my eyes flinching in dull surprise as the shadow of a behemoth was cast down upon me. Stamping closer to me from behind Mario was a turtle-y creature about six times as tall as Mario was, the scales on his back extended out and the spikes close to them having become elongated in form. His muscle tone had become more defined to fit with his large physique, and the red hair on his head was spread out to the back of his neck. His curved, devilish horns, darker toned skin and blood curling eyes truly complete the demonic being known to many as "Giga Bowser". The gargantuan creature holds no malice towards his usual target Mario as he rears his beastly maw forward and lets out a roar that ruptures both the air and ground in a furious echo in an attempt to unnerve me. But I didn't even flinch as I swung my lance out over my back and smashed the tip against the ground, staring down the beast as it raised its head back up and began to slobber at the sight of me. Mario drew his hands together and sparked golden flames in the palms, which spread out to consume the gloves entirely before he got into his battle pose and prepared to face me in combat with the monstrous form of Bowser standing behind him. This was it, and there was no going back now that I had arrived here. "For the sake of the Mushroom Kingdom, I have to beat its greatest hero and its most persistent threat…"

Next Time: The Dispersion of the 'Midnight Channel