Finally, I have returned! As I mentioned in my Bio, wisdom tooth surgery took a lot out of me, but I'm finally back to bring you the next instalment of The Cosmic Wars! Again, I am sorry for such a long wait, but hey, better late than never, right?

Nataly Guardado: Oh yeah, the Yoshi's Story theme is adorable. I agree, the whole game is adorable, really. It's an absolute gem. Now, being completely honest, I haven't actually played all of that game (it's on my to-do list), but I do really like what I have played. My liking for that game is the reason I decided to put a Fuzzy Wiggler in this story! Thanks for your review!

Thank you to King Olly of Origami for favouriting this story, and to Super Smash Bros 62 and egenemagi for following and favouriting this story. Also, a very special thank you to Xenyis for favouriting me!

Now, on with the story.


Chapter 4: Pounded

The journey across Rock Candy Mines had been fairly quick. After arriving at the peak, they had taken a few shortcuts to get to where they need to be quickly. First they had gone down from the Castle all the way to Screwtop Tower, by taking the path along the red blocks that had opened up thanks to the switches. Next, they went down and took the Spine Coaster further down to Grinding-Stone Tower. Going right from there they went down again, traveling down into a huge flat of the rocks.(1)

"Yikes, that Spine Coaster is still chilling" Luigi shuddered as they walked away from the castle. "Even with the track having been fixed(2)."

Peach, who hadn't been on the Thrilling spine Coaster before, had found the ride to be even worse that Luigi. Her eyes widened.

"What do you mean, even with the track being fixed?" She asked,.

"Oh, yeah, when me and Weegee went on it last time, the track was broken, so the thing fell into the poison a lot" Mario said nonchalantly. "We handled it fine though, we just had to jump over it every time it fell. It was no big deal, right bro?"

Luigi stared over at Mario incredulously. Peach looked nauseated by the very idea.

"I remember Yvan being kind of disappointed that he wasn't able to come on that one with us," Mario plowed on. "He had really wanted to experience one of those things."

"And I remember telling him that the next time we found a tiny hole in the side of a castle, he was more that welcome to take my place" Luigi grumbled.

"You weren't all together then" Peach asked, trying to remember the story the brothers and the toads had told her about this adventure.

"Nope, only me and Luigi had small suits, so we were the ones who took the secret exit" Mario explained. "Yvan and Wolley finished climbing the Tower, and that was where they fought Boom Boom for the final time!"

"Hey bro, do you ever wonder why Bowser's minions always take the time to put up that 'I surrender flag' after they've been defeated?" Luigi asked, staring back towards the tower they had came from.

Mario and Peach glanced back to look at the white flag that Luigi was talking about, still waving gently in the breeze. Mario shrugged.

Peach turned back to their path, and then abruptly turned left, heading towards a large, canyon like divide in the rocks.

"It's down here" She called to the others.

The Mario Brothers hurried over to where she stood and looked down. Below them lay a town built directly into the side of the rocks. Toad houses and other building's dotted the small town, and toads and koopas wondered about it. Near the back of the town, a large bank like building sat.

Even from where the heroes stood, the damage to the building was apparent. The double doors of the building were broken, one completely gone, and the other shredded and barely attached to its hinges. The windows on either side of the door were smashed in as well, and the sign above the door had been ripped apart, making the writing no longer distinguishable. The walls were dented, and part of the roof had caved in. It was clear to all that the building had been attacked.

"So that was where they were keeping the stars, huh" said Mario.

Peach nodded.

"Well, come on then. Lets-A-Go!"

Mario jumped off of the ledge they were standing on and fell down towards the town. He landed on his feet, and immediately pulled into an easy stroll, as if he hadn't just fallen three stories. A few seconds later, Luigi landed in the same way behind him. Peach floated down slowly further back. They stood on a small outcropping of rock, just above where the inhabitants of the village were walking.

"Misters Mario and Luigi! And Princess Peach! What are you all doing here" A nearby red-shelled koopa asked.

"We came to investigate" Mario supplied. "We hear that your stars were stolen."

"Yes" the koopa nodded. "It's a good thing you came too, I've never seen anything like the creatures that attacked us.

"Well don't worry, we're here to-"

"Freeze, you goody-two-shoed losers!"

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and the Koopa turned to face the voice. There standing on the hill, were Harry, Gordon, and Lucy.

"Oh for crying out loud" Mario snapped. "Didn't we just beat you guys?"

"We recovered quickly" Harry shouted. And now we're back with a friend!"

"Oh yeah, who would that be? Another goomba?"

"Hey, rude" Gordon grumbled.

Harry grinned. "No. You notice how the sky's gotten dark though, right?"

Mario glanced up, and saw that, indeed, the sun had finished setting in the time they walked from the Tower to the canyon.

"It makes it the right time for these fellas to come out to play."

Still grinning, Harry pointed one of his many booted feet towards the opposite canyon wall. The heroes stared at the wall for a few seconds. Then, a figure emerged, nearly indistinguishable from the inky sky surrounding them.

It was a shadow.

The shadow dove forward and barrelled down the slope at incredible speed. In a few seconds it had bounded over every building in its path and cleared the distance between itself and the heroes. Before Mario even got a chance to look at it clearly, the shadow had thrown itself into him, sending the two of them flying off of their ledge and down to the rocky ground below.

"What the heck!" Luigi yelped.

"Oh dear" The red-shelled Koopa screamed, as he ran back towards the rest of the village.

Luigi turned to go help his brother, when suddenly Harry, who had been nearly forgotten by the heroes, sprang down the side of the cliff and tackled Luigi off of the ledge too.

Only Peach remained standing on the ledge, and she was soon met by the combined forces of Gordon and Lucy. They lunged at her trying to pin her arms down to restrain her as she swung at them with her umbrella.

"Oh for crying out loud, someone who gets kidnapped so often should not be this hard to beat. She should be a weakling" Gordon said, as he attempted to ram himself into her.

"Excuse me!" Peach yelled.

The princess caught Gordon with her umbrella mid stride. His body lifted up into the air, and before he even hit the ground again, the umbrella crashed into him again. Like a baseball bat hitting the ball, the umbrella sent Gordon flying away into the village.

"Good swing", Lucy said as she tackled Peach. "I do keep telling Gordon not to be so rude, but he doesn't listen to me."

The koopa had snuck up behind the princess while her attention was focused on Gordon, and as such, Peach was completely caught off guard. Lucy had latched herself around, Peach's legs, and though the princess tried to get her off, she quickly lost her balance. She staggered to the edge of the ledge, and slipped, sending both of them tumbling down to doing the others down below.

Down below, where Peach and Lucy fell, Luigi and Harry stood near by, trading punches with each other, as they had been since they had first fallen down. Harry appeared to being doing some weird sort of eight legged martial arts, and Luigi was clearly struggling to land a blow. Mario was nowhere to be seen.

Luigi, ducking two of Harry's legs at once, through his fist out, only to be met with yet another of Harry's arms, as two more swung around to hit him again. Luigi dodged back. So far, neither of them had hit each other, but Luigi knew that that could change at any moment, he just had to keep his guard up and-

"GAHHHH" A voice suddenly screamed from behind him.

Gordon the goomba ran back into the battlefield, ran up behind Luigi, and promptly head butted him in the back. Luigi fell forward, right into Harry's outstretched arms. The wiggler kicked and pushed Luigi several times, before grabbing tightly, swinging him around, and slamming him headlong into a wall. Luigi crumpled to the ground.

"Gordon, tie him up" The wiggler ordered.

"I don't have arms you know" Gordon muttered.

Harry ran over to where Peach and Lucy were still fighting. He promptly jumped in. Met with the unexpected assault from the back, the Princess was quickly backed into a corner. When Peach tried to swing her umbrella, Harry ducked it and kicked out, knocking her backwards. Lucy then sent herself flying forward in her shell, slamming into the princess and sending her flying into a nearby sign. Then, Princes Peach too, fell unconscious.

"Yeah, finishing blow!" Lucy cheered.

Harry grinned. "Now all we need to wait for is Mario."

111111

Mario ran through an alleyway. After he had hit the ground, it had taken a solid minute to throw the shadow off of him. The whole time, he had been able to see nothing of the shadow's features, just its fists which had repeatedly smacked into his face. After that, he had taken off down the road, with the shadow close behind.

He had to see its face, he told himself. He had to know what he was dealing with. Unfortunately this town didn't seem to be particularly interested in streetlights, so there was hardly any place to see anything of it.

He had noticed one thing though. The shadow seemed to mimic his every move for the most part, only changing tactics when the were locked in close combat. When they were running, it was exactly the same.

Mario long jumped out of the alley, with the shadow copying his movement just behind. They were right at the centre of town now, though no one was out, all having locked their doors in fear of the battle. At the corner of the empty square, Mario finally saw what he had been looking for: A lamp post, letting off a faint warm glow in the dark night.

Mario charged towards it, sprinting as fast as he could. He dove through it and then world around, to come face to face with his pursuer. The shadow crossed into the light, and Mario saw- himself.

The shadow, was an inky black, devoid of any colour. But the shape of the body was unmistakable. He was staring at a clone of himself.

"What the-" Mario started.

In his shock, Mario had forgotten to run, and the shadows fist connected with his face. Mario fell on the ground. Mario looked up, and saw the shadow jump into the air and come crashing down towards him.

Then everything went black.

(1): A summary of the shortcuts I described: The first thing is unlocked in level 6-5: Walking Piranha Plants. Basically, you find the secret exit in that level, and it will give you access to a switch to activate the red blocks. By doing this, you are given a streamlined path strait to the back of Roy's Conveyor Castle. The second shortcut is level 6-6. This is unlocked by finding a secret exit in Grinding-Stone Tower, and it leads to right below Screwtop Tower, roughly in the same place as the switch described previously. If I did not explain this well, I suggest looking up a walkthrough.

(2): In level 6-6, Thrilling Spin Coaster, the Spine Coaster will drop into the poison, and will fall between tracks. I knew that I wanted the heroes to travel along it to speed up the journey, but I didn't think either of the Brothers would want to make Peach go through that, hence my explanation that the track got fixed.


Alright guys, here's the deal: I am going to start trying to update at least every weekend. That is the current goal. I don't want to keep you all waiting for the next chapter, so I am going to attempt to stick to that schedule.

Wish me luck!