The only three people who remained safe were three cosplayers who were a Goomba, a Koopa Troopa, and a Shy Guy. They asked Mario for help freeing everyone in the park and sent the group off. Mario had to run around everywhere from the bell tower to the House of Tricky Ninjas to finally get to the theater. The Blue Streamer blocked off the exit gate that led to the Yellow Streamer, so they had to remove of the blue first.
Much to Olivia's pleasure.
Mario had just freed Luigi from the gears in the maintenance room for the House of Tricky Ninjas.
"I finally found it, Mario! The key to Peach's castle!" He held up a bland silver key with a red label dangling off of it. "It was just out in the open like that! I sacrificed my time and my face to get that key for you, Mario!"
Olivia took a deep breath through her teeth. "Ooh...how do I tell him? I don't want to hurt his feelings..." She flew closer to Luigi. "Um, Luigi? I appreciate the help but...This isn't the key to Peach's castle! This is the master key for Shogun Studios."
Luigi hesitated, processing what she said. "Mamma mia! I can't believe I-a got that wrong!"
"Oh, but we actually do need this key! Thank you for finding it for us."
"Oh? You actually needed that one? Great! I'll-a go back out and find the key to-a Peach's castle now! Don't wait up!" Luigi rushed off.
They had finally made it to theater, with the key to open it. He slid the key into the lock and turned it, the gears clacking loudly against the empty park. Mario and Olivia forced open the gate.
They all froze. Beyond the gate lie five Paper Macho Soldiers and a minimum of twenty Folded Soldiers.
Bobby slowly backed towards the gate from whence they entered. "Be very, very quiet. They might have not noticed us..."
The Paper Macho Soldiers turned, faint clicking echoing from the still plaza. The Folded Soldiers followed suit, all facing the three.
"Run?" Bobby clarified.
"Run!" Mario responded.
All three of them bolted out as the clacking of the Paper Macho Soldiers faded behind them. They slammed the gates back shut and took a moment to breathe.
"Okay, that was NOT what I was expecting," Bobby gasped.
"Why are there so many? How are we supposed to get past them, Mario?"
Mario thought for a minute. In the maintenance hall for the entire park, there were three masks collecting dust on a shelf. They were a Donkey Kong, a Samus Aaron helmet, and a Goomba mask. The Toad in charge said Mario could take them if he wanted.
Despite Olivia's burst of laughter inside the building, it may work if she stayed quiet.
Mario put on the oversized helmet. "What about-a this?"
Olivia snickered. "Mario! The Goomba hat is so-Wait! That's so clever! They have scrap paper for brains! We can use that to disguise ourselves and sneak past!"
"Great idea, Big M!" Bobby shoved his way into the hat. "Come on, ma'am. It's not THAT smelly in here. Just smells like dust...Achoo!" He sniffled. "Sorry."
Olivia entered Mario's pocket and they made their way back through the gate. The soldiers didn't notice that they were off, and resumed along their merry way. Mario blindly waddled over to the doors to the theater and pushed open the door. We waddled inside, shut the door, and Bobby left the helmet.
"Great job, Big M! The blind waddle made it even more convincing!"
Olivia exited as well. "Yay! We made it inside! Great jo-Pfffft!" Her face turned red from her holding back her laughter. "Mario! Take that stupid thing off before I explode!"
Mario removed it. "Let's-a go!"
The theater was a multi-level death show of well-made plays consisting of different themes every time. The first floor was Wild West themed, with Mario having a draw with a gang of Paper Macho Outlaws. The second story was a battle between two gangs for the hand of Birdo, who had 'feelings' for Mario. After beating them, Olivia was flustered from the "on-stage" kiss from Birdo to Mario. The third tale was a balle dance of Paper Macho Shy Guys. They were surprisingly good at doing balle until Mario dropped one and they began "dance-attacking" him. Bobby liked that one the most.
The elevator stopped on the fourth and final floor. Olivia pointed out the spool of the Blue Streamer on the wall atop a flight of lit-up stairs. Mario, Olivia, and Bobby headed up there before they were interrupted.
"ExCUSE me! They aren't the stars! The other two didn't even do anything except watch from the stands!" The other lights dimmed slightly, making the stairs more prominent. "The REAL star, is meeee!" The voice sang.
A small elevator lifted somebody to the top level of the stairs from under the stage. They were mostly yellow with black being the secondary main color, and a few lines of blue dotting their body. They seemed to be made of rubber bands.
The same thing that was holding all the Toads to their seats.
They walked down the steps, singing a few bars of a song in an opera tone before stopping at the bottom and facing Mario. They rested a hand on their hip.
"Ooh, you must be the one who TRASHED my stage! King Olly made all of those Paper Mache Soldiers specifically for me, you know!"
"Hold up! Wait a second!" Olivia pointed an accusing hand at the bands. "YOU directed this play? That was dangerous! Mario could have gotten killed!" She gasped. "Hang on! Waaaaaiiiit a minute! You're made of rubber bands! You trapped all the Toads here so they could watch your death-show!" She stomped her foot in the air. "Stop! Waaaaiiiit! You mentioned my brother! You must be the one guarding the Blue Streamer!"
"Ah, such a long speech and yet, you didn't flub a single line. Have you ever considered a role in acting?" They twirled. "I am the one known as Rubber Band, King Olly's head director of this play! And yes, I am the one guarding the streamer. However, I shan't let your skills trip ME up! You'll taste the music when you become nothing more than a set piece!"
Mario whacked her leg with his hammer, sending a few small rubber bands flying.
She gasped, offended. "How DARE you!" She began humming and mimicked conducting with her rubbery hands. The bands stood from the ground and waddled over to her, wrapping back around the empty spot around her leg. "How about that? I said you shan't ruin this for me! King Olly promised me a special performance with the next streamer guardian when he succeeds! And I don't dissapoint, hun."
"How do we prevent her from recovering the bands?" Olivia asked as Rubber Band grabbed a band off of her arm and pulled it back. "Wait, did you see that? When you knocked those bands off, it looked like they were wrapped around something! You have to pull back the curtains and reveal her true self, Mario!"
"Ah, I just love a good performance. However, your curtain's about to close." She released the rubber band and it flew at Mario with impressive speed.
He brought out his hammer to defend himself, but it trapped his hands to it. He couldn't get it off, either.
"Aah, Mario!"
"Big M! I found something!"
Rubber Band grabbed the band and pulled it back whilst leaning in closer to Mario. "Listen here, Mario. I won't lose to a square like you, and neither will King Olly. We'll NEVER stop; ever."
"So?"
"'So,' you should give up. Give in to the new, folded ways. You should have when you first met him. Of course, he would have never believed you if you said you wanted to but...who am I to complain? I just love a good drama."
"And...?"
"But I also love a good death scene. I hope you give me one when you lose, Mario. It'll make me so pleased. Promise?"
"Only if you-a promise me the same thing. Whoever falls will give it their all at the-a end. What do you-a say?"
"Deal." She released the band and Mario was launched into the wall when the band smacked him.
"Mamma mia!" He put his hammer away and went to Bobby. "What did you-a find?"
"It's orange and looks like your Vellumental circle!"
"A 1,000-fold Arms Magic Circle!" Olivia gasped. "Great! We must have to use this on her then!"
"Oh Mario!" She sang. "Come back here, will you? I want to have some fun with you!" She spun a band around her rubbery finger. "What're you doing here? Are you scared now, Mario?"
"The opposite, actually!" He grabbed the bands on her head with the folded hands. "Wahoo!"
He pulled them all out, then rest of the bands coming loose and falling to the ground in a circle around her.
"NOOO! I shan't go down like this!"
"You've been revealed, lady!" Bobby said.
She was only a single thick, yellow band with Olly's insignia branded onto her left side.
"Have it your way!" She pulled herself back and snapped forwards at Mario.
Mario blocked it with his arms and grabbed her.
"NOOO!"
He slammed her against the ground a few times to stun her, and pulled her back over his thumb. He stretched her as far as she could go and let go. She slapped against the wall of the stage and rolled back down the stairs to Mario, Olivia, and Bobby.
She lifted a bit of herself off the ground to speak. "Just as promised..."
Mario took off his hat and rested it on his chest. Olivia copied him, while Bobby just bowed his head.
She sighed. "Beaten...by a hero in demand." A blue light clicked on above her as the other lights went out. "The final stage is grand...And here she lay, just like planned. This may just be the end of poor Rubber-" She thudded onto her side and fell into a pile of ash.
"Oh, that was sad," Olivia said, replacing her crown. "But we can get to the streamer now, right?"
Mario nodded.
"Even if she was a bad guy," Bobby explained, "she didn't want to die. Just like everybody else. She wasn't like anything else your brother made. She had a life, emotions, a personality. It was kind of nice, you know?"
Olivia nodded as she guided the leftover energy to the depleted Magic Circle. "Yeah, but also sad. They waste their lives working for my evil brother. They don't even know he's a bad person-"
"He's not evil, ma'am."
She faced him as Mario did work on the streamer. "Why do you say that? Do you even know him? He beat up Mario right after we beat the Earth Vellumental! We were both exhausted and couldn't fight him."
"He's just...twisted."
"He thinks he's the hero, Bobby. He's convinced this is for the better. Look at what he did! He folded the Vellumentals, kidnapped Peach's castle, and even trapped Luigi in a wall! What kind of psycho traps Luigi in a wall?!" She sighed and rubbed the fold on the center of her face."...He's just-"
"Ma'am, he's also your brother! You need to at least try to believe in him, even if he doesn't want to listen! I know you're not evil, so he obviously has some good in him somewhere! You need to listen to your heart, not your head!"
She gave him a sad smile. "I appreciate that, Bobby but...I've already tried to convince him and he didn't want to listen. I've already tried listening to my heart. My brother needs to be stopped, no matter what. I realized that..." She stopped.
"You realized what, ma'am? What's wrong?"
"I need to STOP listening to my heart and start listening to my head! You have no idea what kind of pain he caused to everyone, Bobby! You'll never know! You're just a-a...a dumb Bob-om that can just be replaced! You never experienced anything like I have! You'll never know how I feel! NEVER!"
Bobby flinched back. "M...Ma'am-"
"Don't. Just don't."
"Olivia, that was-a completely uncalled for!"
She looked at him, moving nothing but her head. Bobby had tears building up in his eyes. Olivia wiped away a few stray tears and turned towards him.
"Bobby, I'm sorry I just-This is too much for me to handle on my own. The more I think I can, the more I lash out at you and Mario. I didn't mean it, I truly didn't, Bobby. I like you, a lot. You may not understand what I'm going through, but at least you can be here to help me get through it."
Bobby sniffed. "R-really...?"
Olivia nodded. "This whole situation feels like it's my fault, and I keep putting the pressure onto myself the more and more this day passes. I didn't mean to yell at you I-I..."
"It's not your fault, ma'am. I may not know what made your brother do all of this, but I know it wasn't because of you. You're too nice for that."
Olivia giggled quietly. "Yeah, Olly said that too. I feel a little better now, thank you for letting me vent my anger like that."
"Just try not to yell next time, ma'am. It's kind of scary when you do that."
"I promise."
Author note: So, I knew I had some of my chapters mixed up but...yeesh. I messed up them pretty bad. I fixed them (I hope) now, but they *may* mess up again in the future. I'll do better at double-checking my chapters before posting them (oops) to prevent that.
(Team Money bribed Judd)
Stay Fresh!