Chapter 17: Battle for the Great Boggly Tree

Everything was back to normal as far as the denizens of the Great Tree were concerned. However, Madame Flurrie convinced the leaders of the tribes to meet together to discuss the threat still hanging over them. They met in a modest-sized chamber near the center of the Tree, which was considered neutral territory and a meeting place for the leaders when they didn't want to hoof it all the way up to the Convocation Crown, which in their old age was more often than not. Once they found their places, Madame Flurrie began the meeting.

"Thank you all for coming. I know you must still be suffering from recent events, but I must urge you to consider a course of action to defend yourselves against another invasion."

"But why?" hummed the Elder of the Pider tribe, Chief Tarant. "Didn't you already force the invaders out?"

Madame Flurrie answered patiently, "There's very little to stop them from invading again."

"As I expected," sighed Chief Fwooshina in a melancholy voice, "We are all doomed."

Nobody paid much heed to her, which suggested to Matthew that this gloomy attitude was typical for the she-Fwoosh. The Elder of the Puni tribe spoke up in a tremulous voice, "What do they want from us anyway?"

Punio piped up, "The Crystal Star." Naturally, as the next Elder, he was present at the meeting. Everyone turned to look at him and he blushed and turned his eyes to the ground. "Th-that's... what they're after... the Crystal Star..."

"But how they know about Crystal Star?" growled Chief Acleftis of the Cleft tribe.

Punio reacted in surprise as this was the first time it had been confirmed that they did, in fact, have a Crystal Star. Madame Flurrie said, "What's important is not how they know but what we're going to do to stop them."

"Well, why don't we just use it against them?" asked Chief Jabbicus in an oily voice.

"Me agree with Cheif Jabbicus," said Chief Acleftis.

The Puni Elder spoke, "Our charge was to safeguard the Crystal Star, never to use it. But say we did decide to use it to defend ourselves; we then must decide who is to take charge of it, and while it is not my nature to speak ill of any of us who share this Tree, there are some whom I would not trust to resist the temptation to use it against the other tribes." She glared pointedly at Chief Jabbicus.

The leader of the Jabbi tribe lifted his chin disdainfully. "Is there anyone you do trust to use the Crystal Star wisely? Perhaps I don't trust you."

"Me use it for whole Tree!" barked Acleftis decidedly. "Me is trustworthy."

"You is simpleminded," hummed Chief Tarant, wearing a pained expression. "A powerful artifact in your hands may see us all obliterated at a single thoughtless command."

Chief Acleftis snarled angrily, "You think you so smart? Me squash you into puddle and see who smart one!"

Chief Tarant shook his head wearily. "A typical answer from a brute. Violence for every conundrum."

Heated words broke out, making it difficult for anyone to be heard clearly. Matthew heard the smoky Chief Fwooshina sigh morosely, "Whether it is from foreign invaders or strife from within, it seems our plight will be the same."

Then Madame Flurrie put her fingers to her lips and blew out a shrill whistle that hurt everyone's ears, but also made them stop fighting. Once she had everyone settled, she turned to the Puni Elder, "You said you were charged with safeguarding the Crystal Star. Do you know what you were guarding it for?"

"Do I know it?" snorted the Elder. "You think we would have been guarding it for this long without knowing why we were guarding it? Of course, I know why! Why it's..." Her words trailed off and her antenna began quivering with uncertainty. "Well, it's uh... hrmm..."

Then Punio recited:

"A thousand years the star shall sleep,

A thousand years of light,

A thousand years the doors they keep,

A thousand-year secret shut tight.

A thousand years before they break

A thousand years gone by

A thousand years when the stars awake

A thousand years more they ply."

Goombella shivered and whispered dramatically to Matthew, "Ooh! That gave me chills! It's like one of those historical thrillers where our ancestors left us clues leading to a great treasure!"

She wasn't the only one feeling the whisper of mysticism. The Elders all gave each other uneasy looks. Then Chief Jabbicus said with a toss of his head, "Hmph! He gives us a nursery rhyme as our answer, but does anyone truly know what it actually means?"

"Our annual ceremony," hummed Chief Tarant. "We drop a stone in the Great Calendar for every year that passed since our ancestors were entrusted with the Star."

"And that means what?" sneered the Elder of the Jabbies.

"This last ceremony, we dropped the thousandth stone," Tarant replied. "One thousand stones. One thousand years. Not long afterward, all this trouble started."

"A prophecy of doom. A prophecy of doom and we failed to see it!" sniffled Chief Fwooshina.

Jabbicus huffed, "Coincidence."

"I think not," countered the Puni Elder. "That nursery rhyme was meant to be a message - a reminder of our charge. To guard the Star for a thousand years."

"And what of the doors the rhyme speaks of?" added Chief Tarant. "Obviously, it doesn't belong to us as we have no doors; that is, not before these invaders came. I do believe the Star was meant for another purpose, and that means our vigilance is done. We can relinquish it to these strangers here who so bravely rescued us from our captors."

Matthew, Goombella, and Koops sat up straighter at the mention of this. But Chief Jabbicus dashed their hopes with these words, "Ah, but who's to say they should have it, either? What if this was all an elaborate plot to get us to show them where the Star is hidden? It's a strategy I would employ myself. Send in invaders to shake us, and then send in the 'rescuers' afterward. And in our 'gratitude,' we give them what they were after and we pay the price for it."

"A strategy he would employ himself, he says," said the Puni Elder contemptuously. "That's tantamount to a confession of his true aspirations."

"So true, so true," wailed Chief Fwooshina. "Ploys and plots and strategies. A play of force and a play of trickery."

Chief Jabbicus snapped, "Put a sock in it, Fwooshina! How you lead a tribe with your constant doomsaying is a mystery."

"Alas! An ill-fitting role for me to be sure," she agreed. "When my mother named me her successor, I begged her reconsider..."

"I did not ask for your life's story!" Jabbicus snapped impatiently.

"Well, it seems a decision is upon us," hummed Chief Tarant. "Shall we give the Crystal Star to these strangers and be done with our vigil, or shall we use it for ourselves in defense of our Tree? I say we take a vote."

The three adventurers held their breath as the five tribe leaders cast their vote. The Puni Elder and Chief Tarant voted to give the Star to Matthew and his friends, while Chief Jabbicus and Chief Acleftis voted to keep it. Chief Fwooshina gave no vote and instead muttered indecisively about either choice leading to doom. Punio, not yet a true Elder, was given no vote.

"Chief Fwooshina," Madame Flurrie called to her in an attempt to snap her out of it. "What is your vote?"

She shook her head, spraying rain. "Does it matter? What does it matter? Either way, either way, it doesn't matter to me..."

"Just pick one, you sodden sorry rag!" snapped Chief Jabbicus.

Still, she refused to give a decisive vote. Then Chief Tarant said, "It is the Crystal Star that those brutes in white are after. If we keep it, they'll only come back. If we give it to these strangers, they chase after them and leave us alone."

Chief Fwooshina considered this thoughtfully. Then Chief Acleftis spoke, "But Star ours! They no take what ours! They take Star, they take Tree, too! They no take Tree, so they no take Star."

"What the simpleton is trying to say," said Chief Jabbicus in a simpering voice that was starkly different from the tone he had used on the weepy Fwoosh before, "is that there's no guarantee that we'll be safe if we just give these strangers the Star. The invaders may take the Star from them and then come back to our Tree to take more from us. But if we take control of the Star, then we won't need to fear anyone taking the Tree from us. We can use the Star to protect ourselves from any threat that comes our way."

"Ah, well..." the Fwoosh hesitated, her lip trembling with indecision.

Goombella jumped up. "Now hold on a minute, do any of you even know how to control the Crystal Star? Because we tried to and they're all as finicky as Fuzzies. Sometimes they don't even work and sometimes they summon an earthquake that nearly destroys you along with the guys you were trying to wish away..."

Madame Flurrie turned around to shush her but at that moment, several Punis ran into the chamber, out of breath.

Chief Jabbicus swelled indignantly. "How dare they..."

"Elder! Madame Flurrie!" one of them cried in a tone of urgency. "They're back! They're back and they're destroying the Tree!"

Matthew, Goombella, and Koops leaped to their feet. Chief Fwooshina howled, "I vote we use the Star! I vote we use the Star!"

"No time to make this official," Madame Flurrie observed. "Come then. The decision is made and the hour is upon us. Esteemed Elders, let us go to the Star Chamber. And hurry!" She began to shepherd the Elders, including Punio. Goombella started to follow them, but Koops and Matthew turned the other way and started to hurry off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Goombella skidded to a stop. "Where are you two boneheads going?"

"To stop the X-nauts," Matthew answered. Koops nodded his head... or he may have been trembling with fear.

"Are you guys nuts? At least grab the Crystal Star so that we at least have a chance!"

"We already have one," Matthew answered, holding it up. "And we might not even have to use it," he said as Koops was about to say something, "they know what it can do and they probably won't be in a hurry to have me use it again."

"So what? You think once they see it, they'll just apologize and go away? They're after the Crystal Stars, remember, and what was it that cronie, Lord Crump, said? 'In my day, grunts didn't hesitate to sacrifice themselves for the mission.'"

"We've still got the Crystal Star on our side," Matthew answered her. "While they're getting that Crystal Star we might as well try to minimize the damage."

"G-g-go on w-with them," Koops suggested. "We'll take c-care of the X-X-n-nauts."

Goombella went red in the face. "You think I'm a coward, don't you? Well, maybe I think you're both idiots, running into danger without a clear plan! What, you think this is some fantasy story in which the heroes run headfirst into danger and always triumphs... HEY! YOU TWO GET BACK HERE!" She charged after Matthew and Koops who decided to ignore her and head for the danger.

It wasn't too hard to find. After crossing a few chambers, they could hear crashing and explosions and the closer they got, the louder the crashes and explosions became, causing the trio to hesitate.

"M-m-maybe th-this isn't s-s-such a good ide-idea," Koops stammered.

"You see?!" Goombella trilled, "I told you so. But does anyone listen to me? Noooooooo."

Matthew forged on ahead and Koops and Goombella hurried after him. Before long, they were passing swarms of Jabbies all keening in terrified voices and moments later they were in their abandoned village, gaping in horror at the destruction that was wrought.

"I'ma gonna find that Crystal Star if I have to tear this whole tree down!" Lord Crump bellowed as he smashed walls, causing them to bleed. He wasn't doing it with his bare fists, which were scary enough on their own; he was manning a mech that was nearly twice as tall as Matthew was, painted in bold strokes of pink.

The three of them gaped in terror at the mechanized X-naut. Then Goombella hissed, "I hope you have a plan, Matthew!"

Matthew swallowed and nodded. "Yep. A crazy plan but it's a plan. Get to high ground, Goombella."

"Wait, what?"

Matthew turned to the timid Koopa. "Koops, I'm going to smack you as hard as I can. Once he's down, I'm going to run in and just smash away."

"WAIT, WHAT?"

Koops trembled harder but he said bravely, "All r-r-r-right. I trus-trus-trus-trust you." Then he dropped to the ground and tucked his appendages into his shell.

Goombella shrieked, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

...

Punio had started to follow Madame Flurrie and the Elders down to the Star Chamber to retrieve the Crystal Star, but when he saw Matthew and Koops heading in the opposite direction, he hesitated. Where was Matthew going? Was he really going to try to stop the X-nauts by himself?

You can't let fear stop you from helping people. He had said. If they need help, you just gotta do it.

And Matthew was going to need help, Punio knew. Matthew himself confessed that he had been beaten before, but he had been beaten helping someone. And could Punio really just stand by and let others do the fighting for him? He was going to be the next Elder, which meant he had to set an example. He had to prove he was capable of handling a crisis and protecting his people, and his friends.

If they need help, you just gotta do it.

It was suddenly clear in Punio's mind what he had to do. It was time to do some Eldering... leading... whatever. It was time to just do it.

...

Goombella's shriek grabbed the attention of the mecha-driving X-naut. He turned to them and then pointed a big, metal finger at Matthew, "There you are, you little pain in the neck! You got me good with that Crystal Star, but I'm back and better than ever, courtesy of X-naut technology. Check this bad boy out." He puffed out his metal chest. "Say hello to Magnus von Grapple, the latest in X-naut combat technology..."

"Hello Magnus von Grapple," Matthew replied, "Meet Koops the Torpedo of Doom." He was a little giddy at his own clever comeback as he smacked Koops with his hammer. The mild-mannered Koopa became a lethal missile of deadly force on a crash course with the latest in X-naut combat technology.

And bounced right off of it with as much impact as a paper Goomba on a rock. Matthew had to leap out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the ricochet. Lord Crump guffawed and leered, "You really thought that would get past old Magnus's defenses? You're even dumber than you look, and that's pretty dumb!"

"That's the pot calling the kettle black there, bozo!" Goombella yelled, having leaped up to a cluster of roots, keeping her safely out of Koops' striking zone.

Lord Crump did not take that criticism well. He began stomping his feet childishly, "Why you! I ought to beat the sass out of you! Come here so I can give you a taste of my X-fist Rocket Punch..."

Koops zoomed under his foot just as he brought it down for an ill-tempered stomp. What striking his shin was as a pebble to a brick wall, getting under his foot was as a comedian on a banana peel. He pitched forward and fell flat on his face with a great clangor of metal on wood.

"Go!" Matthew yelled and launched himself at the fallen mech. He aimed for the glass dome protecting the pilot and began smacking it as fast and hard as he could. The glass was surprisingly strong so Matthew wasn't doing much more than annoying the pilot behind it.

And annoyed he was. "Buh!" he growled. "You're just some pesky insect, and I'm gonna squash you!" He pushed himself to his feet and then raised a foot to do exactly that. Matthew scooted backward while Koops unexpectedly appeared and dived under the mech's foot. Once more Magnus von Grapple was thrown onto its face.

"Stop doing that!" Lord Crump roared, getting back to his feet. The pratfalls were taking a toll on the mech, the glass cracked where it had struck the ground, parts of the metal plates that made up Magnus's chest starting to fold in on itself, and the open seams between the crumpled plates spitting out sparks and smoke.

"Keep doing that!" Matthew cried to Koops. "It's working!"

"Oh no you don't," Lord Crump declared, planting his mech's feet firmly on the ground. "I've learned my lesson. Stomping you might be a bad idea, but ol' Magnus still has a few other tricks up his sleeve. Behold, the X-fist Rocket Punch!" The mech lifted its arms and with a "Boom!" the fists launched, aiming for Matthew.

"MATTHEW, LOOK OUT!" Goombella screamed.

Matthew swung his hammer at the oncoming fists. He was not prepared for the shock of impact, which ripped the hammer out of his hands quite painfully as well as threw him to the ground shoulder-first. The first fist he managed to stop in its tracks and though its flight was fueled by rocket-power, the spent inertia transformed into gravity and it dropped like a stone. The second fist was still going, whooshing right over the boy.

"ARGH!" Lord Crump stomped his foot in a fit of temper. "You losers shouldn't be this lucky! Getting in some hits while I barely even touch you? It's rigged, that's what it is! I've got a mech! A MECH!"

The first fist tried to get into the air. It let loose a burst of rocket thrust, which sent it tumbling head over heels before it went into the air in a pinwheel spiral. The second fist, having missed its target, circled around for another shot.

The two fists collided. The first one was thrown into a spiral so fast it became a shuriken until it struck the ceiling. This punched a hole in the Tree, which spat water at the fist, dousing the rocket fuel and shorting out the circuits that controlled it. With that, it dropped to the ground with a sullen thunk and sat there smoking and sparking. The second was also thrown into a rapid spin like a fiery pinwheel, heading straight for Magnus von Grapple.

Lord Crump saw it coming but was totally unprepared for it. He merely said in a stupefied voice, "Buh huh, what?"

The fist punched Magnus right in the crumpled chest. The mech was launched onto its back with one final clangor before it fell still, smoke and sparks rolling from its body.

...

Down spiraled the path, which had been hidden behind a waterfall, to the mysterious Star Chamber. It had been a long time since it had seen anyone traversing it and as a consequence was overgrown with tangles of pale roots. Madame Flurrie led the way, using her massive lungs to blow them away and clear a path for the Chiefs of the Tree's various tribes. None of them were actually certain what it was they would find once they reached the Star Chamber, having only been shown it once before just before they succeeded the chieftainship, and as they drew closer, their anticipation grew thicker as did the aches in their backs.

"Not much farther now," Madame Flurrie assured the group in an effort to hurry them along.

They crossed a bridge too narrow for any but the tiny inhabitants of the Tree to cross and finally entered the Star Chamber. It was large by any standard though perhaps not as massive as the Convocation Crown. Positioned about the room in a circle were five mechanical statues, each one representing the five species that inhabited the Tree. They clicked and whirred quietly under the operation of some unseen force.

"We are here," Madame Flurrie announced. "And now, esteemed Elders of the Great Tree, the time has come for you to summon forth that Star, which you have been tasked with safeguarding. And please, hurry! There is no time to lose!"

Urged by her dramatic guidance, the five Chiefs took their positions in front of the statues. Then at her command, they all activated their respective likenesses. The Puni Elder probed her antenna into the eye of her statue, Chief Jabbicus flapped his wings to stir up a draft that pushed a propeller set between his statue's eyes, Chief Tarant fed a length of thread looped at the end down the shaft between his statue's eyes until it looped onto a switch, Chief Acleftis placed his head on the pressure plate on his statue's tooth and began to push with a grunt, and Chief Fwooshina started raining into the funnel that fed into a system that drove an engine; all of this prompted the mechanical statues to click and whirr faster.

Then, from the center of the statues, a green ring of light lit up. With a mighty rumble, the ground slowly rose, casting an emerald green light about the Star Chamber and lighting up the Chief's faces, which were slack with awe. It was a statue rising from the ground, larger and grander than any of their own, bearing the likeness of a wise and beautiful she-Goomba. In the center of her forehead was set a green Star, which glittered so frantically it was as though it were alive.

Madame Flurrie placed a hand over her heart and gasped with overwhelming wonder. "So that is a Crystal Star! Oh, my! I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so... breath-taking!" She fanned herself, her chest heaving with emotion.

Without warning, Chief Jabbicus pounced on the Crystal Star. "And now it is mine," he buzzed gleefully. "With this Star in my hands, I will become the most powerful person in the Great Boggly Tree - no, the entire world!"

The Puni Elder cried in outrage, "Chief Jabbicus! You get away from that Crystal Star this instant!"

Chief Fwooshina wailed, "So he really did intend to use the Crystal Star for himself! Oh, this treachery is too horrible!"

"Perhaps we should have been more mindful of this possibility and taken preventative measures," sighed Chief Tarant. "Alas, too late now."

Chief Acleftis snarled, "Chief Jabbicus think he keep Star to self? Me teach him lesson in sharing!" He started for him.

Chief Jabbicus snickered. "And how do you plan to stop me, fool? I control the Star now."

Madame Flurrie huffed impatiently and planted her hands on her thick hips. "Chief Jabbicus, don't be ridiculous. You're forgetting why we came down here for the Star in the first place. Don't you want to stop the X-nauts from destroying your Tree?"

"Oh, I'll do more than that," sneered Chief Jabbicus. "By the time I'm finished, no one will get within one hundred steps of me without my say-so. And I think I'll start with all of you." He turned to the Star, which began winking faster in anticipation.

"Chief Jabbicus!" snapped the Puni Elder. "Speaking for all of us who inhabit the Great Boggly Tree, I order you to stop!"

Chief Jabbicus's eyes twinkled wickedly. "Oh, great Crystal Star, I wish..."

...

Goombella's mouth was open in astonishment. "I don't believe it," she whispered. Then louder, she said, "Are you kidding me? We actually took down a mecha? Someone pinch me and tell me this is a dream! We took down a mecha! With our bare hands!"

"W-well, actually, it was the m-mecha that took its-itself down," Koops pointed out. "W-with its own h-hands."

"Shut up, Koops! I'm having a moment! Don't ruin it for me! Do you have any idea how rare it is for me to get victories like this one? Do you know how many times I'm been teased for being so smart? How many times I was beat up for lunch money? And now finally I beat down a bully! The biggest bully of them all! Can you blame me for being excited?"

"Guys!" Matthew grunted as he slowly climbed to his feet. "Don't let your guard down."

"Huh? But we beat him! His mech's all busted! What's he gonna do now?"

"You really have to ask?" Matthew was sure that Lord Crump still had a few tricks up his sleeve and Goombella had just baited him.

But for a while, nothing happened. Smoke and sparks rolled out of the imploded chest of Magnus von Grapple. Then finally, the glass dome that housed its pilot hissed open and Lord Crump crawled out, coughing and cursing.

"Curse you, (cough) Mario! That was the latest (cough cough) in X-naut combat technology! It (cough hack!) should have been impossible for you to beat it! It was a machine of lethal precision and yet you beat it! How?"

"Hey, the machine might have been good." Matthew shrugged. "But it doesn't do much good if the pilot is lousy at controlling it."

That did it. Lord Crump was now literally hopping mad. "Ooh! Now you've REALLY done it! I'm gonna crush you so hard they couldn't even get you out of the floor with a super cleaner!"

"Oh yeah?" Goombella hopped up next to Matthew and put on her fiercest face. "You and what arm..."

"GOOMBELLA! REALLY?"

Lord Crump pounded his fists together. "Yeah, that's right! Me and this army!" He put his finger on his head and the flaps on either side of his head began to vibrate with a strange wavery sound like an aluminum pan being wobbled.

"Oh no you don't!" Matthew wasn't going to wait around while Lord Crump summoned his underlings. He charged forward, his hammer raised high. The big X-naut sidestepped him and then punched him in the arm. Matthew yelled out in pain and then swung his hammer sideways, hitting Lord Crump in the side, sending him to his knees with a wheeze.

"Why you..." he coughed.

Matthew raised his hammer to deliver a knockout blow but then a white volleyball slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. Before he even knew what had happened, the white volleyball snatched up his hammer and waggled it at him in a taunt. "Looking for this?"

"Hey!" Goombella yelled, running forward with Koops right behind her. "That's not fair!"

"Oh, boo hoo! What are you going to do about it?" sneered the X-naut even as more of them formed around him.

"We're going to use the Crystal Star, that's what!"

This gave them all pause for thought, but then Lord Crump got to his feet and he snarled, "Go ahead. We'll just keep coming and coming until we have it. And when we do then you better hope that a pounding is all I give you!"

At Goombella's threat, Matthew had pulled out the Crystal Star to give credence to it, but now he eyed the army warily. Did he really want to risk using the Crystal Star again? It was glittering frantically as though warming up to let loose another earthquake, which he wasn't sure he wanted even as a last resort. Maybe he should try sending Koops careening around the room again.

"Psst!" he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "Koops, get ready."

But as Koops was about to drop onto his stomach, there was a tiny shout, "This is our Tree! And we're going to take it back!" The three of them whirled around in shock to see row upon row of the Tree's inhabitants standing behind them: Punies and Clefts filling the ground, Jabbies and Fwooshes filling the air, and Piders filling the walls and ceiling. And leading them all was the future Elder of the Puni Tribe Punio.

"Don't worry, Matthew, we've got your back!" he cried. "These goons are going to see what happens when someone messes with our Tree!"

Lord Crump laughed, "Buh huh huh! So a little bug thinks he can take on the mighty X-nauts? We'll see who's laughing when we wipe the floor with you!" With this, he spun around to face his underlings and raised his hand. "X-nauts! Eliminate these pests!" With roars of challenge, the X-nauts surged forward.

"For our Tree!" Punio yelled and the army behind him charged with screams of defiance.

Matthew had seen shows and read books that touted the value of teamwork even in impossible situations, and while he wasn't one to sneeze at such an optimistic virtue, he had to admit that a bunch of bugs taking on a bunch of giant volleyballs was a bit of a longshot. But this battle today renewed his faith in virtue as he saw an X-naut attempt to stomp on a Puni only for a Cleft to rush in and bear the brunt of the stomp, causing the X-nauts to howl in pain; or an X-naut attempt to swat a Jabbi only to be blinded by a spout of rain from a Fwoosh. The Piders were perhaps the fiercest of them all, dropping from the ceiling onto the heads of the X-nauts and wrapping their heads in webbing, so that they stumbled around blindly until they were each brought down by a pair of Punies holding a length of root between them. Koops and Goombella got into the spirit too, with the Koopa body-slamming the squishier invaders with his rock-hard shell and Goombella headbonking anyone who tried to tackle her.

It wasn't too long before there were only a few X-nauts standing and they rallied nervously behind Lord Crump who was gibbering in astonishment. "Whuh... how are they doing this? This is impossible! A bunch of bugs taking down the mighty X-nauts? Impossible! How?"

Then things took an even bleaker turn for the X-nauts when Madame Flurrie whooshed into the room holding aloft an Emerald Star. "I'm here, my little darlings! Fret no more for I, Madame Flurrie, will see these hoodlums back to the dingy hole from which they crawled!" She could barely be heard over the cheers of the Great Tree denizens but there was no mistaking the look she gave the X-nauts when she turned to them - one with the unbridled fury of a storm.

"And now, my most unwelcome guests, I give you two words:" She began sucking in air, filling up her cheeks and her entire physique swelling ominously. The Tree's inhabitants all backed away to the farthest corner of the room and the X-nauts mirrored their move. Lord Crump defiantly remained where he was with a shout, "Buh! You don't scare me!" except he shook like a leaf in the wind.

Madame Flurrie was soon towering over the X-nauts, a giant face within a storm cloud. Then in a mighty burst of wind, she roared, "GET OUT!" The volleyball-shaped invaders were swept up and hurled backward toward the Tree's exit. They hit the first metal door like hailstones until it crumpled in on itself and was carried along with them to the next door, which was also battered until it crumpled, and finally, the whole agglomeration pelted the final door into submission and they were all scattered outside to the four winds.

And thus ended the battle fought by the five tribes of the Great Boggly Tree to reclaim their home from these invaders, and another great step was taken by Matthew and his company in rescuing the fair Princess Peach from her captors. But there were still more steps to be taken and the road only grew more challenging ahead...