Mario and Bowser: Frenemies Forever (Redux)

Love and War IV: Ramifications (Chapter 26)

Disclaimer: Mario and co belong to Nintendo.

Author note: It's here. DOUBLE LENGTH


In a cold sweat, Bowser lifted his head, greeted with a view of his stark throne room. He couldn't ignore this anymore, conceding to hold down the buzzer. His old man might get it. He'd gone senile in reverse afterall, sane-ish now compared to the baby obsessed, yoshi asbestos inventing nut job he once was..

There came the distinctive shuffle of the geezer.

"Get in here, gramps."

The magikoopa trickled in, expectedly. "Yes, my lord?"

Just as Bowser was gonna let it out, a steady beep he must have drowned out before was noticeable. "I'll tell you after I take this call. Scram."

"Vater, your line has been busy for the past hour! If not for this space- er rest stop with an outlet, my battery would have depleted," greeted him harshly.

"..Why do you sound like that?"

"..Better? Vater, my actions caught up with- Leave me alone!.." Ludwig grumbled to someone, the other party's responses distorted.

Bowser knew a tug-o-war when he heard it. "Son?" He dashed to the rain droplet filled window for a clearer reception, his ghostly, distraught reflection staring back. "You can't be in the slammer! How are you gonna take over in a year?"

Ludwig came back on, gasping for air, hopefully the victor of whatever that was."- Is that position- not- occupied by ..government name: Clarentine Bowser Koopa Jr.?"

Bowser's thoughts nearly grind to a halt. "Junior was gonna be the face of tyranny is all, why.. He's named like that. Look, it seemed like the least selfish move without a queen anymore. You koopalings were growing up so absolved of, you know, 'compulsory' service, I'd know what all of you really wanted to do with your lives. Ludwig, I have no doubt about what you wanna do. Get it?"

"Vater- I..Yes, thank you. I am confined in a way, but I promise I will try to- Oh again? Grrr-" Ludwig argued again with that unknown. "Stop, or I will slap you with that scroll holder!.. Vater, before I go, I must tell you that.. Yes, them. Is... actually... your.. ….. …..!"

An outdoors patrol minion resisted the urge to clip on earphones. From the dry bone's vantage point, his lord was in the window unblinkingly. Shortly he gave in to old habits, it evident Bowser wasn't really seeing anything.


"Can't you help us?" one on the road begged, starbits up to their neck. Tremors raked through the city as Star Hill spewed like a volcano.

"I am. I swear. I apologize it doesn't appear that way.."

A bright arrow sliced across the ancient ruins and desert plains of Southern Mushroom Kingdom, outgunning tweesters and Mecha-Yoshi to reach the other side. Stopping the mach speed kart was more difficult, sliding beyond the rusty old factory she targeted, and almost off a coastal cliff, waves crashing below. She coaxed the kit build to a stop after a loud spinny show, scaring the King's nobles into the gem encrusted caves. No longer in motion, she let herself breathe. The King could have fled anywhere with the headstart he had, yet he chose the old quarry she suspected. Best yet, the guards had quit it appeared, so no threat of return firepower. Rich veins connecting to the Rock Candy Mines, it was also the passage her ancestors used to follow the 'call of the stars' and settle in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the first labor camp she closed down upon take over. Abandoning it to locals led to the modern day dichotomy where the South had podunk yet wealthy towns, prone to mutiny to her government, but amiable with her personally.

Bam! The red hot king kicked open factory doors, broad chest rising and falling, and a sword strapped to his side. Finding his daughter pocketing a winding key, more pale than Queen Chanterelle ever got, his rage faded.

"Father, a curse is devouring me, my friends, and my kingdom. Can you help me, or will I deal with this on my own?"

Concern flitted across his hard face before he twisted off his signet ring, his beard going from straight and black to scraggly gray. "-Daughter, you got your subjects to supply you with their allegiance, labor, and love on your own. I'll cut you slack now."

She closed it in her palm. "Father, thank you, sincerely… Also I believe.. It's pertinent you check on your toads right now."

Her loud roaring escape in the gray primer painted kart bowled him over with red dust. Next he knew, the toads he could be chasing down, tugged him deeper into the fuzzy infested cave. Before he fussed at them, he was knocked off his feet again, the factory exploding into flames. Jr. Troopa's ostro riding ranchers would sniff around after the King's toads wore him down. Conclusion: autobomb.


"Careful there."

The young man in the cell opposite patted the pile of gunpowder against the brick wall. "I'm good at this, trust me."

"As much as I am running and jumping around here?" the other prisoner spoke up "If you're at least half as much you'll have half as much of a chance as that of getting whatever you're doing to work."

Spy Guy whipped his way, barely able to see him in the dark candle lit dungeon. "-I thought you quit being a plumber to be a stay at home dad for the koopa kids, not some riddler."

"Better career change than secretary to felon."

Spy Guy lit a match, growling, "Just back up!"

His explosive pile popped with a lot of smoke. The agent allotted for crumbling debris then charged for it. He smacked against the same solid brick wall, only blackened.

Mario rolled his eyes behind iron bars. "With podoboos, flame bars, and fire bros, KT gunpowder is an eighth as strong as the Mushroom Kingdom stuff.."

"ENOUGH with the-"

"-Hey, hush yo mouth!" a guard barked.

Spy Guy simmered on his bench as Mario snorted. 'Good try sport', that was a pretty eventful thirty second shift change to give him credit…

"See, just like that they shut up. Totally a cool job." The koopatrol swung the key around his gauntlet covered finger, training the toad in chainmail armor by bringing her into the dungeon, usually the job of the whomp holding the torch. "Anything else?"

"No."

"No? Emery, I have a question then for you."

She flushed as they held up on the steps. "Y-yeah?"

"It's dumb, but.. why do we have different 'Mushroomcratic oaths?'"

She distantly stared down the corridor. "Both halves were part of Princess Mush IV's wedding vows. It's a super messed up story. They would always focus on the bratty part, blaming her for the war. Still I respect her. She lived- and died authentically. Can I change the subject? Can we pet the chomps?"

Behind her, Whomp #5, Lucius, desperately shook his head.

"..It's past feeding time," the koopatrol probed. "Plus I almost lost an arm last week!"

"I'd always begged for one and never got it from mom, so I swore I'd adopt one myself. I know of the breeds, behaviors, how not to lose limbs."

"Jeez!" he chuckled.

She brightened a little. "And their calls. ~SIR SNAPULA!"

The whomp took flight, though the maze of the dungeon and outta there.

"Crap!" They chased him.

Mario shortly sprung up with a cup of drain cleaner. Actually orange juice, kept in the castle fridge, the least requested snack watchmen could give prisoners. Spy Guy's choice of a processed energy bar was useless and as thick as the bricks he couldn't blast. Mario's was his key out of there.

"If you were sick of my math Charles, check out my chemistry." Mario splashed the juice at the bottom of the bars and kicked them out while sizzling from the acid.

He crawled under and was out of there, sneaking to the BACK DOOR passage and around the ninjis, mecha-koopas and non light generating lava pits with ease. When fresh air and a gentle sprinkling of rain hit him, he noticed just how shallow his breaths had become during those routine maneuvers.

"-Greetings, just hauling her in for repair!"

He gasped at the upside down clown car inching along, unsubtly dodging the sweep of spot lights.

"No worries, we're Trojan & Co. from Isla Falsa. Check us out on Welp, old pal."

"Yoshi!" They hugged under the cover of the contraption.

"Mario, I'm sorry! I will never leave you in peril again."

The plumber gave them space, holding the dino's shoulders. "I put myself in danger. I should be apologizing. Let's scram."

"Wait, I sent Goombario in," he mentioned unsteadily. "Because they-"

Bang! Nerves shattered by the loud disturbance, they lifted the clown car. The source was the top floor of Bowser Castle.


"You gotta be kidding me."

Bucken-Berry wished he didn't do those cathartic, over the ocean plasma blasts while tracking the Toad Town 104. Hey, most of his games didn't have ontological inertia. How'd he foresee them hitting some random village over the horizon. Looked like Sky Land, what came after Pipe Land that he'd torched up hot plasma was mostly around the mulchy outskirts, only destroying one windmill and something that was gold, the sea flowing over-

"F!"

The tracks. Then he heard.. People! Where to hide?

The koopa grabbed the journalist's dress shirt, popping buttons. "Jelectro's gone, so drop the front. You set up this Phanto Mask, or this 'Camoztar' thing to melt into a heap of trouble for what?"

"To prove that a non-chosen one can trigger."

She bore into him.

"Remember what I predicted when we were kids?.." He pried her fingers away. "There'd be something special about Princess Peach. I admit I had a lot of wrong ideals. First trying to work for her, later trying to chop her down. I didn't get the actual interpretation right until today, so if you don't think I'm humbled, screw you."

Kylie backed off and retrieved her bag, camera, other articles, disgusted. "I gave ya a chance. There's no frenemy between us, you're just on your own now."

He flattened out his clothes. "This was my purpose."

"To ruin a popular route for fruit trains?"

The monster popped up from behind the big warehouse. "It's not just carrying fruit!"

The lamp of the TT104 was a mile down, illuminating how heat traveled down the rails and popped rivets on the bridge, sagging over the deep canyon. Bucken-Berry tapped the receiver stuffed into his ear.

"GET OUT! MR. LUIGI AND THE REST OF YOU JUMP! IT'S GONNA CRASH!"

He wrapped his tendrils around the train as it bulleted by, digging his feet in. He was dragged belly first, soil and molten gold splattering across the field and bogies sparking. The middle of the three heads noticed a compartment with lamps on. He kicked a free leg against it, derailing that while the half he was attached to tethered on. He let go, sliding as the 104 snapped the bridge and crashed against the side of the ravine. The blast shook many out of their cottages, and even more when the bright white plume rose against the black sky. Something was within it, a iridescent scintillating rapscallion slowly emerging from the heap of twisted metal, seven pointed, the size of a mushroom bus.

"FOOLISH ONE," Rapscintillation loomed over land, blanching onlookers. After an indeterminable flash of emotion, "YOU ARE VERY LUCKY." The powerful being launched away with a sonic, window shattering boom, just what the monster needed to snap out of it.

'It was over, oh stars' Bucken-Berry relayed over and over, pressed back against one of the big green hills. That's when the triple headed beast caught a scent he couldn't ignore, swiveling towards the wreck again.

….

With no feet to worry about getting on, Zoo was pushed past Luigi, Toadette, and Daisy in the heap of splintered planks and cargo, out of the pits into the wilderness. He rested back against a huge super bell tree, uncontrollably shaking. After leaves and acorns dropped on him, it only increased, finding himself under six red glowing dots above.

"I was brainwashed to steal like I told your friends! You know what it's like to not be in control of yourself?" Zoo jumped away from under the tree, emboldened. If he could read him so easily he was untouchable. "Drew will track me down any minute anyway, bro and he don't want anything happening to me. Hey, I caught him trying to stalk your Instaham instead of Jackson's for once. Heads up."

Bucken-Berry wasn't flattered, continuing to tongue flick. "You killed people and you aren't sorry. When he told me about you it was obvious he had no idea."

Zoo casually weaved around Yoshi berry bushes. "Eh, I regret giving this one chill dude a- how'd Drew explain it once, oh yeah diffuse axonal injury. Ala-Gold was a goner before he hit the dirt and bled all over the place. The mess is always from the death ray attacking soft tissue. Ain't science neat?"

"Yeah," the monster replied, following his sad attempt to slip. "It's why I can finally nail you."

FLOOSH! The dark boo's flesh liquefied indistinguishably into the mossy floor following the acre desecrating plasma blast.

When Luigi and co hobbled over, there was no fugitive left to apprehend. Nothing, and the scent of burning and death striking his nostrils, he knew why. The green plumber decided that, with red and blue lights on the horizon they'd better take a detour. In the ash field, he contacted the princess about how rapidly this was spiraling. Her reaction-


"We aren't angry!" a koopa jogger megaphoned Toad, the dummy on the outside of the barrier into Royal Raceway instead of behind it. "We are simply concerned about the state of our kingdom!"

Toad's ears had the muted ring of a sepia toned war flashback. Fitting, when he was the last toad standing in a way. Many were leaving town, displeased over what appeared to be a stalemate between Peach and her father, or spooked by other happenings, and whoever weren't were in the mob right here. "I'm not gonna try to convince any of you that your feelings aren't valid. I'm just gonna say this. If I get elected in Neo Bowser City, you'll start to have a choice. "

Then he could hear a pin drop. There it went, spelt differently rather, from the scruffed up Lakitu Bro pushing his way to the front. "Mr. Toad Kinopio Toad, for the record, what's special about that place?"

"Mayor Koton is a jerk, greasing the roads, the enslavement obviously, and holding mail hostage, but he fought to make it a democracy so props to letting himself be challenged. Me being there, so blasphemously or whatever, and on a commoner level is important for other toads and non-toads alike to see. If I'm terrible, for once the people can haul my ass out."

"Interesting," murmured a bob-omb buddy. Others side eyed, but listened.

"Good speech, if uncouth.." Chef Tim friendly fired out of nowhere.

Toad shrugged. If feeling better was going to be the trend the more he went mask off, maybe he could handle this. "Ask me anything."

Toadia overtook the Lakitu Bro trying to take notes in his palm. "Why did you reject the Luigi fan club offer five times?"

Toad sat up on the square barrier for that one. "It'd be creepy when I was already his best friend and I didn't know how else I felt about him."

Her friends raised cain. Others dispersed with the latest gossip, their thirst for vengeance quenched, Toad guessed. Thomas slyly poked his head out of a traffic barrel he'd hid in.

"Sir, how did you know?"

"I relished every moment with him.. On slow days, when life was hectic. Good times, even bad.. And I understand that's squarely friend zone, don't mash those together, for most, but for me I couldn't ignore the feeling of, 'oh I'm in love.' Happy?-"

A blue birdo waved for attention. "Favorite color?"

He loosened his collar. "Well, it's not red. Let's get that out of the way."

One in the crowd dipped out after the reveal, his black kimono hiding colorful Yakuza tattoos, and shades his distinctive face. With only so many hours of daylight left, he had six or seven more old sponsors to shake down over seized assets. After actually losing a shouting match with a lowly item shop employee Saleisha, the blogger realized that the in person forum and the integrity shown by the Earl he was named after was giving him much to think about on the way back to Japan, Water Land.


Inspector Douglas' Piranha Pipes kart took him away from the tropical, island hopping route into northern wintry conditions. A former vehicle of the Isle Delfino police, its goop proof nature made getting around easy. He struggled rather to find the sergeant and their inmates. Soon flurries were accumulating on his cap. He zipped up his coat as the regional emergency calls came in on the radio, thick accented citizens somewhere in the ice block forts reporting on a statue busting maniac.

The officer radioed back: 'Description?'

What they described the officer found, skidding around a frozen lake where mountains were leveled. Shuddering, the human crouched, tapping one key at a time on his computer. 'SUSPECT. ARMED. DANGEROUS,' it blared. He pinched his hat brim, the investigator completely green at the violent cases. Whatever the boo diddly was doing, it appeared like a banzai bill had dropped.

Fighting his fears, He shakily put the spotlight on them. "Booigi." He let the intercom stop screeching. "You prefer that, don't cha? Come talk with us at the station."

Booigi ii slowly spun. "I. Prefer. Concentration…But I will accept your ride home. I have 'business' there."

".. Deal?"

From the cruiser rolling up, Snifit Patrol saw the suspect secured in the rear of the Pipe kart. Best of all, his fellow, and presently only other officer had his head on his body still. "Great job, Doug. No problems?"

Their vehicles parallel. Douglas leaned over. "Don't jinx it."

The snufit got the hint pretending to jot notes when Booigi was facing them. "Well well. To the precinct for Mx. Diddley. I'll pop in after I get a report from a victim at the hospital."

"From that train wreck?"

The snufit nodded, revving up his more powerful engine. "Suspended inaugural investigation. I couldn't shake the eeriest sensation of being watched." He slipped on his headset. "And after visiting a hellish planet of literal death yesterday, not entirely convinced I didn't dream it, I'll take no chances."

Sweeping the Sky Land villagers doing their meager rescue work, the ancient star pensively loomed over the lonesome toad, traveling through the adversity of mud caked wheels. Millennium Star wasn't ignorant of Mitch's disdain for Zoo. When 'rebuilding' the dark boo on a molecular level, he poured over the vivid snapshot of the green toad mangled up in a vehicle. He did not count on the reporter going so far to smudge Zoo out of this world that he'd stage a rail accident, the commotion and, oddly specific, the gamma rays emanating from another party involved keeping him from swooping in to preserve his death ray spouting pet.

"You were clever, just not enough. Time's up."

Mitch stopped at the crest of a hill, the moon behind him and the mist settling below, rotating to face the purple star. He inhaled to speak, then changed his mind, lips curling into a smile. "(Look at it from another angle.)"

The most shameful moment he could remember in eons, Millennium stared dumbly at that.. toad shaped abomination. He lashed out, the zap making the journalist slump lifelessly. He telekinetically looted his body for divine articles, scrolls, anything. How did he, a mortal, psychically intercept him? There was nothing, only a crowbar to take. The journalist's pillaged body smacking the grasslands, a sharp pain startled him into launching up into the atmosphere, where he was caught by a very strong grip.

"Done bein' antisocial? ..Gawd, Milly, you look awful!"

"Merely.. Confused there," he panted, avoiding eye contact.

The star warrior stopped coddling him, one eyebrow rising. "We better conversate somewhere else. I got this situation on lock."

'That's not a..' Millennium Star plastered on a smile. "Of course, !?"


There was a chance this wasn't what he thought. Bowser cleared the lump in his throat. "X chump, I looked into all you do for the 'other' side. Why'd you build me a replica castle?"

"Once I was up to speed, it wasn't against any code of mine…"

"Yeah right!"

"-Would it be inappropriate to discuss what your mercenary did to my Blue Falcon?"

Bowser advanced on him, stopping only a yard away, smoke pouring from nostrils.

"Or I..just.. Have a talk with my insurance!" Mr. X added, big claws shielding himself from the scepter brought out.

If there wasn't a safety on the new models of these things, Bowser feared he might have vaporized him there. Minions, rookies as intentionally chosen, dumped the captive in his throne room. Without that clothing there was no obfuscating that Mr. X was a wimpish powder blue scaled dragon koopa with beady grayish eyes, stubby horns, curly red hair, and a pencil mustache. Advanced in years or not, Clarentine Ao Koopa. -Senior, technically. The ring wasn't fooling him though, his brother had never wed or sired any kids. There was a look to that, unignorable, like how this was the guy that ensured the deathbed utterances of their copper scaled father were branded I to his brain forever. 'It was such a shame that his kingdom was going to the younger son.'

"So it was a favor? Do me another then - brother!" Bowser aimed against Mr. X's flat chest. "Why did you run?!"

X sputtered, "The Troop was going to use me as a weapon. I expressed that readily and no one listened, so I had to sever my connections forcibly Bowser, you realize that!"

He pressed harder. "What kept you away when I'd sacked all the elders? When the war was over? And after that too? What?!"

"I was preparing to return by the time Roy was born, until I was injured at sea. With that bout of amnesia-"

Bowser zapped X across the room. "Clarentine, like I'm gonna buy that!"

Mewling in pain, Mr. X scooted until his shell was stopped by the sealed door. "Bowser.. Believe me. You remember why I proposed we attach wings to our ships? A mine hit a ship I was in, and down it went easily. I washed up on Mushroom Territory penniless. I was spared only because no one, including myself, knew who I was."

Bowser wished he didn't believe him, scalding tears rolling. One emotion presided however, so quickly it surprised him, expressed by the heavy treasure chest he lobbed at his brother. Mr. X ducked as it struck and dented his iron door. The Koopa Bros grappled, bulky shells on both punching walls, feet stamping glass shards.

"Okay fine whatever you lost your memory, but why didn't you do something- at least write me when you got it back?!"

"I'd have- It's generous to call them 'partners', but.. Ah!" X was dragged across the desk, flipping with it. "Stars that hurts…. they'd get so antsy if I dare mention Darklandian matters.." He stood up, gasping for air.. "Bowser.. If you ever lived in their world, the smallest gesture could ruin you. I was always the 'exception'."

"Bowser lowered the bookcase he was about to bash over his head. "…Sorry man."

"Hmph. Now you are.."

Mr. X unexpectedly spat blue fire in his face. The Koopa King stumbled back while receiving several hard body blows, his room torched up. Bowser taunted, luring his brother to advance across the seared black Darkland rest rug, then- wham! Down crashed the chandelier. While the glass was still flying, Bowser hobbled closer. He tasted blood, all banged up, but X was more so, dazed under all that gold plated metal..

"You..win," X coughed.

Bowser offered a hand. "You weren't too shabby at the end though."

Mr. X latched on without hesitation. "Eh I.. I wasn't thinking with that burst of anger."

"The one thing we got in common... Look, like you know the Mushroom folks well, I know my guys. We'd probably have your head if you'd tried to come back." There was a huge bang outside the room. Bowser sighed, "Scram and lemme deal with this."

While X was taking the developer exit he'd put there- wait what? ..Bowser peeped out into the hall.

"-King Dad I know I'm grounded but heads up!" Lemmy hopped around. "Kamek heard a boss fight and authorized this!"

The doors were blown off by the battering ram, the crowd carrying it careening through the inferno. Before Bowser could scream that he had sprinklers for this, dazzling lights emerged from the charred chest pile, stronger than Iggy's radioactive microwave meltdowns. This time, instead of forcing them to quarantine an entire floor, a jewel shattered and blew the roof off.


The anxious group rocketed across the desertic Bowser Valley. In control of the beast of a vehicle after Peach passed out and they didn't want to take chances, Luigi wasn't all there either in actuality. His attention darted between the narrow barrierless lanes and a crooked mirror, hoping he'd see six glowing dots somewhere following.

"We have to shape up," he thought spontaneously. "We want Mario back without a lengthy fight."

"Aww man!"

"It's final, Daisy."

The Sarasalandian rolled her eyes. "...Nice ring by the way, Peachy."

The princesses vis-à-vis, Daisy was allowed to hold Peach's right hand in place, the first time they steadied, examining the emerald and gold ring, large but snazzy on her. Thankfully Toadette broke the silence with a more astute observation.

"Does it have special properties?

Peach slipped it off momentarily. "-Considering I only fainted when that dark star was released, empirically yes. If I hadn't pried it from my father.."

"Hardcore!"

Peach smiled back to the only other princess she knew that was also a friend. "Yes, dear. Maybe it's over."

The terrain went downhill, bumps and drop offs jumbling them up. Maybe not just yet. Through the purple fog, Luigi got a glimpse of misspelled and drooping signs, Koopa Troop activity, before the brakes locked up.

"Peeeach!" He swerved around lava puddles and solid volcanic boulders, the kart tilting side to side.. "E-brake?"

So strapped down, Peach couldn't reach the levers before rolling gates came up, their high speed forcing the monty moles at it to burrow as they shot through the chains and barbed metal.


"Five-o-clock? No prob." The recruiter snapped shut his flip phone. "Sorry bout that. Don't fret here, this job makes us say 'hell yeah', haha. You'll see.." The recruiter opened the sentient, and visibly skeptical, Dorguy with alacrity.

The rookie went in on his own, pointing and firing a finger gun at his head. Away from the Twygz, weaving through the deepest darkest cavern in the universe, there was no getting out of this. He'd sorta developed a phobia for water anyway, and to be fair, he looked like the sort of guy he always wanted to be, snazzy in a pin striped suit and a pair of prescription glasses that wouldn't fall off all the time. The d-man entered a torch lit, gothic all black alcazar with wild chomps in the backyard, home of some office space where have to behave at least sixty percent less like a psychopath than he was used to. He got his cubicle, his stack of soul records to organize, was almost shown the bathroom-

'-Visitor for accountant Sue Jr.' the intercom played.

Stomping down the long flight again, the one waiting from him at the bottom snatched his arms, spun him around and had him pinned against the building.

"I embedded an interdimensional tracker on you."

Face squashed against rock, Zoo managed, "Yeah but how'd you get in, Drew?!"

"Easily," Prof. X-Naut informed, standing next to the swirling vortex. The sort of jugs ferry drivers had were stacked there too, filled with purple Twygz water, so they'd explored as impossibly as it seemed.

Zoo jumped pushed beyond Dr. Toad for it, clashing against their goods. Yeah, why lose out on that extra fourty?


Zoom! The scholar's priceless scrolls slipped away into space. "Sloweth down!" she scolded.

If accurate communication was the cornerstone of advanced civilization, inaccurate was the wrecking ball. Ludwig would rather be hit by such, no matter how much carnage it'd inflict to his delicate winged body, than deal with these sages. From an disappointingly pedestrian Overthere pantheon, if they weren't the initial spotters of Rosalina's pilotless Observatory drifting just outside a dimensional door, they'd have been kicked into a black hole by now.

The display flickered severe warnings upon boarding, and their splitting up to the engine room, garden, etc, sapped what power lingered. With Toadsworth's assistance, the mechanical parts so antediluvian he was vaguely familiar, with rousing celebration the center beacon was a dim orange, the auto throttle gently pushing them towards Star Temple.

Countless galaxies strolled past without an iota of the diverse star beings Ludwig found on his initial journey. He kept searching from high up, desperate to prove his fears wrong until noxious space gas knocked him out, no one catching him. Fine, he was being a Philistine threatening to burn those scrolls.. Anyway, the Temple's protective bubble beyond the bars was hazy, the fields were scorched away, and the sanctuary rusted copper orange.

Twink wearily watched the nimbis skirt about, lose interest and depart. "I held down the fort. I guess. But there's another problem."

Toadsworth stopped for him. "Hm?"

"I was horrified watching Millennium Star's fight on that ship. Now I can only think there was something funny about it."


"Is rolling up 'gangsta style' another way to say 'late'?" the ancient star quipped after they'd reached the goddess in teal at an intermediate point.

Not even brandishing the finest armor protected the star warrior (Heart)(Music note)!? , or 'Geno' from that slap. "Sure you beat us, but you ain't done a thang. Are you who you say you are?"

Millennium Star revealed his Band of Casualty, a colossal infinity shaped specter representing cycles of time, spanning to each edge of the universe. Rosalina's colors drained, her elliptical past woven in that somewhere, but Geno was satisfied, forcibly pressing the ancient one onwards.

"Come on then, fool. You won't believe what's up."

Rosalina swore she caught the Millennium Star muttering he would.

A sentient parasitic planetoid, Doomstar Galaxy, swiped by the Moon without meddling with that. It was already full of organic and inorganic material from Earth, sorted aside so that its physiognomy was revealed. Flames from the core flit between closed eyelids, and sharp teeth stuck out of a mouth, black acidic material oozing between. The monochrome star, Dark Ztar relaxed in a La-Z-Boy stationed at a peak, ordering around smaller, equally repugnant bearings: Camoztar a corpulent, murky brown shoveler, Skeptiztar, glossy onyx and meticulously crafting, and Munchztar, gold plated and in everyone's way from being introduced moments before. They scattered as a lilac diamond shaped proponent of prudence, Parallelogon stormed onto the scene.

"Explain yourself, Villain!"

Whom they were actually speaking to, Rapscintillation came around from the dark side of Doomstar. "I was trying to avoid this, Shapes!"

Parallelogon used the 'Peer of Truth' on the adversary. Realizing it was the truth, they bashfully cut it out. "Well.. listen up! You will do well to help me!"

Rapscintillation spat out the antenna pole they were using as a toothpick. "I COULD use a warm up before it's your turn.."

"-Hades, how'd this happen?" Geno growled, coming up. "They're more dangerous in cahoots than duking it out!"

Dark Ztar left his steamy cup of tea on a nice glass stand and removed the blanket from his lap- revealing a gatling gun. The primordial rivals split apart before Geno could snatch either, leaving him in the cross hairs. He held out a shield, the jets of dark matter pushing him miles back and reflecting off, disintegrating anything in its path.

After that influx, the star warrior bit his lip. This was not 'on lock' at all.


In the surge of flying shrapnel, Bowser tucked into his shell. His spikes embedded into wet Darklandian soil, shortly buried by bricks. It was over like that, not the worst castle collapse he'd been in, because he could tell the entire thing hadn't fallen. If it had, the faint utterances of 'what happened' would be far more panicky than perplexed.

"Ugh.."

"I saw the whole thing, doofus."

"-You? Wait a sec." Bowser strenuously pushed against tons of material.

Someone pulled a few planks and boards away, partially inching into the pocket he was in. "Or just follow me…"

The King burrowed out into the resulting ruckus from soggy, pajama wearing troops. Well there it was, mostly, SNES Bowser Castle in a torrential rainstorm, minus the roof and the top floors. Mario prepared for a filibuster, a fit, or a fight, not for Bowser to drape a blackened emblem flag over him and shoo him away.

"Oh no you don't," he snapped. "Bowser, I'm sorta.. Effed up. Why'd you rubber stamp this kidnap?"

"You just said it. I'm bad with rejection, and I did a stupid."

Mario pulled the flag over his shoulders, tiredly walking beyond unaware minions.

"Now you get it," Bowser briskly followed. "It's what I deserve when you flipped your world upside down for me, yet I haven't even told anyone I love you-"

Mario froze. "Despite this.. I love you too." They embraced briefly, enjoying each other's touch.

"Alright. Now go!"

He slung Mario towards the gates where he was surprised to see Yoshi and Goombario already over there, backing up fearfully. A flat tire and five blockades on the way to Castle Koopa had slowed the kart of Luigi and co down, nonetheless they couldn't stop, gently tapping with the bumper against the final, most interior iron gate. Its slow swing open screeched like a banshee.

"It's Mario! And Luigi! And everyone else get them!" Koopa Troop rallied, gathering clubs and sticks.

Luigi slammed the lever into reverse, anything he'd rehearsed promptly tossed. "Hop on the hood!"

Mario and the others flopping onto the slanted surface as they lurched backwards.

"Stop!" Bumped around by his minions, Bowser noticed where Mario and co were going. "-And watch out!"

Peach, Daisy, and Toadette were coated in ash. "The volcano!" they cried.

Luigi twisted from the lakitus about to spiny storm, lava so bright it temporarily blinded him. He spun the wheel so that the enemies bashed against the rear of the kart, pushing them. Yoshi, Poochy, and Goombario climbed in, but another bursting tire shook Mario off. Yoshi and Daisy held him as he dangled over the spoiler. Luigi couldn't slow, he had to do the opposite.

"Where's the boost, princess?"

"A-are we gonna jump this?" Daisy clicked her seat belt, one handed. "Yeah, go for it!"

"Wait, what?" Mario gasped.

"Hang on tightly," Peach gave the turbo a firm click.

The rockets blasted fire, shooting the kart up the volcano and into the air. They soared over the big Boo Moon, Mt. Koopatoa and the Badlands shrinking below them. Everyone screamed, Toadette's in particular beckoning a giant abductor to swoop by. Everyone hung from a seat belt, the wheel, anything, precariously in the air.

"My bad, guys."

Luigi thanked everyone in between his breaths. As long as Bucken-Berry didn't fly them over any areas he hadn't annihilated, he assumed might be in the clear…


Innocents might be hurt, planets surrounding them swiss cheesed, yet Parallelogon was left behind by Rapscintillation, wrapping around Doomstar to zap her with bolts. While the atmosphere thickened from loosened dirt and spray of acid, she kept moving. They switched to their heavy artillery, an energy beam to slice at her, uprooting the mounds, ships, bodies, all, sending them back into Earth's orbit. Parallelogon was about to stop their chaotic frenzy when Munchztar snuck up and spat stinging goop in their face.

"Hrrg!" Parallelogon brought out a longsword of light, lacerating Munchztar in the middle. The Prudent one flung that dark star into the sun, creating a heat surge that blew them onto Cheese Land, the only planet around looking identical as it started. With cheddar dust in the air, they saw a pure black outline in the midst. They tossed the blade at Skeptiztar, the weapon caught with their palms.

"~Thy reign is abolished."

Their aurora beam stabbed Parallelogon, channeling every event they'd missed since encapsulation. Death, torment and violence drilled their brain out, limply rolling off the edible planet into a thick purple and blue nebula.

"Disappear." The Great Eldstar's voice echoed. "Nothing can redeem you!"

Parallelogon fit themselves together, waddling towards His glow. "Great Master, reconsider..."

They would never reach Camoztar's illusion, going in circles.

Meanwhile, Doomstar cracked into four pieces to nimbly evade Rapscintillation, easy when they stopped in the middle of battle, ears perked by the whimpers of their eternal rival in that gas cloud over there. Slam! The Doomstar parts converged with Rapscintillation in the center, sealing them.

"Take that, bugger." Dark Ztar laid off the trigger, gloating cut short when his arm was twisted painfully and the tip of a star rod jabbed under his neck.

"You're under arrest! Where's the rest of.. Da faq?!-" Geno dove with him as Parallelogon shot out of the nebula with a short reserve dagger.

"No one can.. Defeat them.. But.. me!" The lilac star plunged it into the seams of Doomstar, wedging it apart.

Rosalina quickly bubbled Munchztar before they flanked anyone, and Camoztar in their concealment. That left-

"~Implore, please, of the fate of the Rosettas.." the onyx star toyed. "I do know."

The goddess held firm against the phantasm, snapping up Skeptiztar too. "I am content, no thank you." She almost felt hopeful about this, until noticing that Doomstar was too substantial to force field. "(Heart)(Music note) !? , someone else must handle that one."

The star warrior continued to choke out Dark Ztar, turning to the Ancient One. "Milly, it's up to you!"

"It is."

Millennium Star zoomed almost unnecessarily fast over there, to the star warrior, a dominance display. Whatever bro. He wasn't so fragile to care right then. What Rosalina saw however…


Bowser's chest untightened. All the Koopa Troop could do was trickle off Mt. Koopatoa and come on home.

"Dis is so flipping weird." Roy suppressed his shivers in the rain, too proud to ask Morton who'd been wise enough to evacuate the castle with a warm blanket, for a piece.

"Well, what did we sneak into town for?" Lemmy let them catch on.

"Ohmygosh!" Wendy cupped her mouth. "That jewel?"

"Dang!" Larry slipped between the older siblings. "Tell me somebody recorded it popping off!"

Iggy slyly brought out a metal Recorder that, besides being a ticket to a Warp Zone, actually recorded per his modifications. "-Yup, including the ~lOvE profession at the finale!~"

"The what?!" his siblings crowed

Bowser rushed over. "Okay, gather around and listen. It's about time... We've been fighting a phantom since Peach took over. Of all of the enemies we actually have these days, the least of them is Mario. That's how.." He swallowed hard. "I started to like the guy."

"Boss, I respect ya but even I got limits." Sentry 11 led the way across the drawbridge, sweeping many with him.

Bowser shoved ahead of the mob, standing between them and the open doors. "Disagree all you want, but it's trashed in there. Let's take over a motel or somethin."

"No my Lord," Kamek hissed. "The deplorable weather matches our spirits when you're chummy with plumbers."

Lemmy rolled up. "We'll take over super soon and we don't like plumbers! Not even close!"

His siblings backed him up.

"-But to be honest there is other good guy stuff we like, so King Dad isn't that weird."

Roy thunked him. "Way ta go."

Lemmy shrunk under the sudden negative attention and booing. As with a Wheel of Death rehearsal though, he was in motion and had to commit, besides it feeling like the right thing to do. "Just being honest! My troupe at Emerald Circus are mostly Mushroom people and we're all cool. Roy, isn't your Koopa Ball coach a friendly species?"

The sunglasses wearer stepped off. "Yeah but.."

"-And Morton, who do you mail your fanzines to?"

"Anyone that'll listen!.. Including the Mushroom Kingdom," he volunteered impulsively.

"Noooo!" Kamek exclaimed, Kammy weeping into his bosom.

"Iggy and Wendy, aren't the people on that Princess Parlor Discord thing a bunch of toads?"

"Correct, Lemmy-sama, HOWEVER!" The genius held a finger up, a little too long. "..Eh, well, we verified them irl. Everyone sent a photo with a paper and a username."

"..Okay that's a bit much, but-"

"Who cares?" Wendy folded her arms, walking off. "So what some are okay? So what I own a life size poster of my celebrity crush, Emerson Lake Toad, or Toad #23 from the Toadtanic rip offs?"

"How old is he?" Bowser cut in.

"...19."

"Wait a year."

"But daddy!" she bawled. "..*sigh* Anyway, that's an exception! If you agree, join the Wendy Menace. That's right, I've reclaimed that moniker."

She surprisingly got a bunch of followers.

Pink on pink warfare, Roy shoved her aside. "Lemme clear dis up. My coach n teammates are acquaintances ONLY. Pure business's how it's gotta be with Mushroom brats."

That garnered a group of burlier or more elite troop, Morton, Sentry 11, and whatever Hippity Hop counted as.

"Guys!" Lemmy reasoned. "Anybody's okay as long as they're good people- which ANYONE can be."

With some hesitance, another portion of the troop split to his side.

"None of it is okay for any reason!" Kammy squalled.

"Enough of this!" Bowser's stomps shocked them into silence, allowing Junior to inch up beyond the dense group.

"Can I get a line?"

Kamek scooped him up, holding the tyke high over his head. "Yes my young whippersnapper, our most loyal who definitely has no enemy friends, share your insight!"

The baggy eyed six year old yawned. "Scoutmaster told me that Mushroom people act like what we're acting like.. So.. Can I go to bed?"

The child hopped to the ground on his own in the silence, zombie walking into the puddles filling the roofless castle.

"He's so right." In the undetermined bunch, the young trooper was staring at her boots when Larry gently bumped her elbow.

"Coulda told you that on the first day, Emery. Mouth of babes, yo."


"There's no way he's.."

Millennium Star hovered over the destroyer, jabbing a crowbar into a cross section to aid the

Parallelogon's crazed tactics. Rapscintillation burst Doomstar open from the inside, the evil planet's tortured cries ear splitting, and didn't skip a beat, swirling up the biggest dark matter ball they could muster to aim at Dark Ztar, whether or not the star warrior was apprehending him.

"He freaking did it!" Suspect limp in his arms, it didn't matter. Geno couldn't let go. "Somebody do something!"

Breaking out of the daze, Parallelogon tackled the rival, the throw going wide and spatting on the Band of Casualty. Taut silver film melted away, frayed sections littering space, making it difficult to see. Parallelogon and Rapscintillation bickered their way off the scene, possibly by their voices fading. What Geno heard clearly was Rosalina's gasp of pain. He whipped around. She was ghostly, passing out, all of her force fields breaking. Heart in his throat, he dropped Dark Ztar to lunge and catch her.

"What's it doing to her, Milly?"

"I will chase the rascals."

Geno yanked Millennium Star right back. "Slick, you set up this punk reunion. Besides babysitting the Ouroboros, and you make Chaos. By Higher Authorities power I detain you here." Rosalina over his shoulder, he pressed his free palm into his forehead, spiritually bonding the troublemaker to the zone.

The way Millennium Star glared, Geno would have chuckled in any other circumstance. What, didn't think his BS would be called out by a relatively young cadet, 250 as of last August?

"You will despise that." The ancient one made the bands drop towards Earth like missiles, particularly towards the location said to be Eldstar's favorite.

Milly sure was a broken clock. The only reason the star warrior didn't snap his neck is because he couldn't do it with one hand.


"Ridiculous!"

Fresh Overthere resident Ludwig was 'righteous', their terminology not his, enough to breach the pearly gates, yet there was no forcing open the actual entrance into Star Temple. His forehead rested against it as Toadsworth spammed the high tech doorbell with a camera and the star kid cautiously watched.

"Hmph.. Perhaps the ship has something to help."

Ludwig brought his head up, eyes widening. "It would be unwise to check now, Samuel!"

A white light speed traveling triangle, a paper plane crashed into the center of the Observatory, tearing the fabric of the roof with the tail, wings scraping flat the terrace and the library, and the nose with the extinguished beacon embedded in it plowing into the temple. Furniture Twink recognized, some good stuff too, pieces from the entertainment suite, flew out the back of the building, and the plane's momentum dying, the tail end dropped. Everyone dispersed in some random direction, sapphire cracking from impact.

"Sorry..."

Embarrassed, Banktoad and other toads slid off the wing, followed by frantic Giant Spear Guys. They detected the evil in the realm, at the Chief's call tearing off part of the plane to fold into a smaller one. They flew away, ditching the final evacuees, tiny dolphin and a limping grimacing whomp.

"Who's in charge?" the sergeant demanded. "A prohibited distress frequency lured us here, and now we might never leave!"

"Oh Gods..-it's-" Twink stuttered.

Waist high in crushed granite, Ludwig answered brusquely. "I am the commander of these operations. Thanks to your serendipitous paper missile, we have admission."

"Not for you, Ludwig." The sergeant chirked up, throwing a zapper in the nimbi's face. "Freeze! Wings up."

He froze on the temple's stairs, it so tense they could hear the roar of a black hole that had to be miles away. "-How do you recognize me!?"

"You sound Deutsch like the Toad Brigade, and you're a nimbi that just ascended. Your halo's crooked. It's incumbent I- …Hey, I said don't move!"

"Leck mich am Arsch!" Ludwig nudged the halo while scooping up a leftover spearhead.

Bang! Followed by a ping off a convex surface behind him, chipping tarnished bronze. The red blotch growing on his white robe, speckling opulent marble beneath him, Ludwig forced himself up the remaining steps and shattered the security box with the last of his strength. It sparked and buzzed spectacularly, the last thing he saw before the spearhead slipped from his grasp and he hit the floor. He accepted instantaneously, without regrets, that despite his effort to get to this monumental moment, it could be over here. Sacrificing on this level was the closest he'd ever gotten to being a king.

"May I assist?" The Captain crunched a bone, or something that made the nimbi writhe.

Banktoad pulled his uncle away by the back of his inmate uniform.

"Thank you, he's dying!" Nass cried, cradling Ludwig's head.

"So not cool," the dolphin with them grumbled.

Sergeant Howie blinked. "You talk?"

"And I was the only Alderson that knew planets were spherical too, but nooo, I had to be abducted with y'all." Donald thought over all of the stupidity he wouldn't have to endure anymore. "Actually. ~Thanks guys!"

Sobered, the officer reached..for the radio. "Requesting EMS."

"We will get it ourselves." Toadsworth clamped over the officer's stony hands, an old war grabble movement he didn't know he remembered. "Tut-tut. You started the emergency after all, sir.."

Those two floating away into deep space, Twink, wanting the ground to swallow him with all of the stress going on realized something. Taking that jagged arrowhead when the toads weren't watching, he had to enter Star Temple. There was no time for backup.


"Awesome idea, Weegee."

The green plumber conjured a smile for Daisy, at least until he was dunked by a surge of water. Bucken-Berry's monster form crossed the ocean, everyone else on his back. Though wild and uncertain, waves choppy and moonlight diminishing, they had each other, and this method beat hanging onto an undrivable kart or plummeting from the sky.

Mario braved the spray and mist for a while. "Blue, what's your top speed?"

"I'm a lil afraid to find out."

"Phew.." Yoshi held onto a fiercely yapping Poochy. Better the dog take a dip in water than lava as his usual habit, regardless he wasn't allowing it.

"Can I test something?" Goombario asked. "Ah hem. Yvan 'Bucken-Berry' Kingpin Toad: Blue toad, born in Toadwood Forest. Age: 25, with tyrclyde, maw-ray, and blargg ancestry. Max HP of 300, Attack of 20, Defense of 10. Moves: plasma beam, flying, swimming. Hidden abilities: Allergic; immune to status effects-'

"Whoa man!"

The paper goomba blushed. "It was considered cheating in college and became more of a nervous tick for me than anything."

"Over what?" Peach hesitated to venture.

Mario got splashed hard from some object smacking the water, spitting out a cheep cheep. Bucken-Berry snaked around more of the flaming debris, smaller ones inescapably battering them like a heavy hailstorm.

"Take that!" Luigi pointed one of his heads over. "No you're not imagining it!"

The dragon landed belly first on the apparitional highway, the rainbow road arching over lofty green hills. Luigi forgot to warn about the booster effect. The group were propelled through intense loops and spirals over the indigo Star Hill craters and to Castle grounds where it dumped them abruptly. The pink angled roof rapidly approaching, Yoshi told the dragon to dive, gain speed, and quote 'pull up'. Positive g-forces squashed them down, the beast swooping low and then high. He lopped off one spire of her castle and crashed into the garden. Everyone was catapulted off into shrubbery and silver sand, the by-product of the asteroids.

Ingesting the particles like dust, Luigi coughed, rolling to his side.

"Bae." An old sounding man shook him in a nagging get the heck out of bed way. Toad was a liver spotted and wrinkly, his signature clothes wearing him, almost obscuring the Vrlrdyi Scope in his pocket. "I don't know what's gone on, but we gotta get out of here."

Luigi lifted, words dying from the array of silver globs suspended over town, like a snapshot.

~Do you know what that was? It's what you see before you die.

"What."

You meddled and you failed like the- I'm combing through your timeline.. the loser you always were, Luigi Mario.

Tears streamed from his blackened, starry eyes, not from fear, but strain. "Call me that if you want," he spat to the anonymous foe. "This was by the seat of my pants, and I had to rely on every friend I had.." Or was that all of them? "Anyway, you've just threatened the wrong one."

From a realm Time couldn't touch, the elderly plumber was pulled into the shadows.


"I'm dead?" He gawked at the puffy aerial landscape. Civilization was layered as the clouds were, neatly, spotted by ancient courts, strung by red doors and moving platforms. The population was dense, many coming and going.

"I don't know, and I say it matters not. Your vow as a public servant is to protect no matter what."

The whomp stalwartly faced the nimbi. "Why I don't have sympathy for enemies."

Toadsworth thrusted out a scroll from an Overthere library. "I say, you might be surprised what our people's original mission was."

Sergeant Howie unenthusiastically examined the weathered scroll. There weren't many lines of twice translated Shroomish at all, jumping between time periods, yet it detailed what he'd never seen on Earth. The tension in his forehead telegraphed his feelings.

"See? Empathy does align you with the Mushroom spirit, pre-corruption."

The officer slapped that paper into his chest. "I'll find a doctor per my obligation, old man. That's it. Oh, here's a lead." He brought out the zapper again to clear his way to new arrivals, if by accident by their spaceship flattening sacred apple trees.

"Not like that!" Toadsworth cried.


Climbing up some withering vines, 'you can do it', the star kid reassured himself. With the bars retracted over the windows, he could shatter one high up and slip into a massive orrery room. He smashed into the globe of one blue and green planet, was almost skewered by additional spokes on the way down, and splat on the weathered tile floor. This area split off to the dining room, utterly destroyed. Supports had fallen, running portraits, tables and chairs, and other valuables. On the way however, a cosmic chain on a prohibited room piqued his interest. He'd never seen anything like it, thorned, too strong to snap.

"Anyone h-hear me?"

"-Yes! Help! Oh please help us!..."

"If the Legendary Captain could be located, so can your daughter."

"You are too kind Heinemann,.." Out in the once Elysian fields, Nass had just discontinued the chest compressions on Ludwig. "Though, that was the sort of lip service common with my old colleagues."

"Understood." The bespectacled toad's face fell. "Perhaps neither of us could easily return to our old professions, but it's too early to toss away all prospects. ..Or I'm simply optimistic."

She met his gaze. "There's something else I-"

Twink sprung off the porch, tumbling between them. "Who's super strong? I need them inside!"

The Captain barreled over Twink, disappeared for a second, then crawled back out, gagging.

"There's treasure in there, isn't it?" Banktoad brought up.

Mailtoad's bereaved himself of his prized satchel, tying some of the ripped leather around The Captain's head as a blindfold. "I, umm, hope that'll work."

"Soo-kh!" Banktoad ordered. That appeared to work, neither their captain or the star kid with footprints all over him returning. "Great job, Mail. No wonder Yellow crushes on you."

The postman slowly collected his letters, feeling himself flush. "Jörg mentioned that to you?"

"To Stanley in a dream invasion."

The purple toad stood. "..William. You'd better not lie considering where we are. Why'd you let your uncle run you mad like this?"

"He's subject to a lot of my intrusive thoughts, ministry boy." Bank bumped him humoredly. "That's all. What did Yellow insinuate?"

"More."

"What?"

"I won't say because I'm a 'ministry boy'. Ask him."

Together they faced where the yellow capped culprit might be, marked by his snoring and the subtle bristle of the white field. Now the entire lot was blown flat, the same force tipping the platform, flicking everybody off the ground like a flea.

"Hate to interrupt this requiem- naw, I bloody love to." Dark Ztar laughed maniacally.


"Let's resolve this."

He was done absorbing the color inverted world, ghastly 'freaks' to most, but to him merely alternative forms on their daily business, crossing signs and landmarks. Beyond the weeping willows and tombstones, was Toad Town, except it wasn't.

"It's overdue."

He focused squarely on Booigi on the curb. "Yeah. That dream sequence went off the rails. Now, I don't want us to hit a reset. We'd already done that when we met at the tennis game. I broke a promise, and sent you to the slaughter but-"

The boo's eyes narrowed. "No."

Concerned, Luigi stopped against the newsstand, filled with Booish language papers. "Then-"

"It's my fault and it's a good thing you didn't mess with me earlier. I may have more regrets right now.." Boo lightly spun in their grasp the green Bowser racket, inflamed with the fury of their ancestors. "You don't have to abate me with more explanations. Just tell me what I need to do in the real world."

Luigi breathed in, thinking it out. One glance up and.. "Buddy, since you want it truncated, you'll have to try it out in this one."


"Halt!" Star Spirits shot out of the temple, using all of their forces, the lullabies, star storms, chill outs, up & away, the.. Actually not the smooch, not that Misstar's hesitance appeared to matter. Without Eldstar they could not star beam the fiend, only ruin their home more. Observatory, plane, and temple separated, leaving the sapphire to all fracture in pieces with whoever was on it.

Twink hid behind the paper remnants as long as he could, taking a thick phone pole sized spear to whack it across the back of Dark Ztar's head. While knocked forward, he recovered, grabbed the star kid and punted him over the guardian's heads, demolishing the left half of the temple.

"Pick on somebody your own size!"

"Don't take the bait!-" Klevar warned.

Muskular and the crazed cousin arm wrestled, grunting.

"You are a tough bastard! Not enough!"

"Shut up, Zach. -Ah!" The blue sailor hat wearing star spirit simply hadn't the chance to warm up. The family cringed as Dark Ztar slapped his hand against the ground so hard, he cracked through the platform. In addition to the area becoming one big debris cloud, their toughest, heaviest star was plunged into a black hole. The family went silent, staring.

For the girl in a white flowy dress, having some fresh air couldn't subside the dread in her. Odd geometries, vivid colors, unexpected discoveries that came with traveling the cosmos- so captivating in the past, now were pointed reminders of her displacement. She kicked her legs off the edge of the ship's rounded sides, wondering how she'd admit this when the apricot luma returned.

"-Attention, whatever scientific principles are at play here, submit to the Koopa Empire, or you shall be skirting along to another planet!"

The girl staggered to her feet, the invader's mechanicalized pidget carpet blocking her starshroom. There were koopas back home, never that big and frightening. The stranger passed over a document as if it was burning a hole in his hand, King Ludwig Von Koopa to be exact, suited up in a navy jacket full of glimmering gold medals.

"Well?" He sighed. "I should have left reconnaissance to King Roy and the fighter jets.. Don't you know where you are?!"

The girl turned, seeing for the first time the world she hovered over. It was blue and greenish, Earth ostensibly, but not one she belonged to. All of the themed lands were free to embrace their original traditions. She only wished she knew what any of this meant, especially the strict order to 'eschew contemporary Mushroomy ideology'.

Just as King Ludwig was about to call reinforcements on this silly, probably Mushroom aligned girl, a roof panel opened with a hiss and release of mist.

"Ludwig, Rosalina, no time to explain." Wake up. You're dying!"

While Ludwig didn't see the partner in crime, he heard him, accented like him, and his late mother.


Where was he? Where? Giving up, Millennium Star didn't want to look at that Earth Geno was so didactic over. If by Eldstar's will, seedy individuals must exist, why was he wrong to mold them into tools?

He was jolted from those musings by a sting in the back. He narrowly avoided the barrage of his Casualty bands lobbed into the air. The trick shots that hit him didn't hurt as much as losing altitude, a byproduct of his distracted acrobatics. He was being attacked by an additional psionic source, and it terrified him.

Luigi was conscious of being dragged across Peach's lawn with a bloodied nose, so he hadn't whittled to dust. Great, though with everything in slow motion, he couldn't warn his friends of the falling star. The impact was somewhere behind Peach's Castle, but the shockwave normal, possibly triple speed. He was slung as far as Royal Raceway, his vision going entirely fluorescent traffic cone orange.


Emerging from the coma-like state, he was too weak to trash, reaching for the closest thing. It was smooth, trying to slap him with a fin. Donald looked at the nimbi crossly, caught on, and then kept swimming with him. Tired of holding his breath, and lost in the scraps of paper and indistinguishable pieces of the temple dispersed everywhere in space, he could use the assistance. Ludwig was pointing his wing behind Dark Ztar as he approached the shocked silent star guardians.

The monochrome star fired off an over the shoulder warning shot at the d-Man fluttering over. Refitting his glasses, the agent of Queen Jaydes wasn't deterred. Dark Ztar easily maneuvered from whatever the d-man threw, whatever it was invisibly striking Eldstar on the stretcher.

The elder made the first groan he had since being secured, turning to his side, choking up heaps of dark matter into the fields. That got his family animated, rushing over to his side.

"Nice shot, bloke!" Dark Ztar shook the blackened cretin's hand. "You've never shaken me down before. Must be new."

The accountant nodded, sweat dripping from their heavy brow. "Yeah. Could use some side work tho."

"Are you more than fifty percent sane? If so brilliant."

"Dang it. Never mind." He took the villain's card, slouched over. "Besides, I don't think that was my death ray. It was missing that energizing aftermath. If anything I'm depleted!"

Dark Ztar's smile dropped like rock, swiveling around. The epitome of fairness, Eldstar, stood with some support, soft features twisting in disappointment.

"Tongue tied now? Zoo Diddley learned how to Refresh from your conspirator, Zachary."

"N-no. He.." Dark Ztar stumbled backwards, monocle swinging from his face. "He ruined me!"

"Who? That one?"

A saucer shaped spaceship zipped by, commotion visible from the curved visor window. The whomp fought with Prof. X-Naut over ray guns, Dr. Toad and Toadsworth fussed over controls, and Johnson on crutches could do little but flick on the tractor beam for Zoo and the other stragglers.

"-No, I meant. Milly!"

"His comeuppance has come, Zachary. Here is something you cannot deflect for once," Eldstar declared, voice strong.

The monochrome star obtained color from the holy white light beam above, stamping him through the last sapphire slab. The black hole spat out Muskular as gravity shifted. He grabbed Dark Ztar in the dazed state and pile drove him into the void, where it collapsed onto itself. The wicked star's screams faded before the light dissipated, and the cleansed temple, what tiny bit remained floating in space, began to sparkle and shine. Simultaneously, the Observatory's beacon reignited above their heads, turning right side up.

….

Geno resolved to get here and destroy evil if it was the last thing he did. He didn't expect Rosalina to spring to life in his arms when the sanctuary was in sight, or gracefully rise, eyes closed, to her station.

Eldstar yelled upwards. "I am sorry, my dear. Every bit will be sorted. Come back!"

Geno was dumbstruck. He did nothing.

The most subtle smile danced across her delicate features, towards star warrior.

(You did everything,(Heart)(Music note) !?)


Ever wonder why you are a little different in every game? 8 bits? 64. 128. Beyond. Which is the real one? Are all of them? Or any of them?

Yes.

Might there be a version of you still in Brooklyn.

Yes.

Running the shop.

..Yes.

Dating Cathy.

…Eh.

Grover.

-Absolutely not. He swore he hadn't drank, had, and we almost ended up in the Hudson. Despite rumors, that was never really a thing.. Well.. none of my anythings have ever really been a thing..

That wasn't to be insensitive. I am insufficiently trained at this.

It's Okay.

(The stream stretches from one end of his sight range to the other, with one imperfection.)

The knot was so damaged. Would you go back? Before the pact?

To prevent everything that happened? Yes!

I am neither purveyor nor lord of time, merely the babysitter of a newly woven band. We cannot.

(He doesn't have a body, not yet, or he would have felt his heart ache.)

Because of our damage?

No, antecedent events. Everyone did exceptionally with how layered this catastrophe was, to be candid. I hope a similar enough reality will satisfy. There are many to 'wrangle' up here, and Eldstar is confident this is a quick fix…

(He was treated to her gigantic image. Given the embrace of her even tone, no surprises.)

So, why are you treating me like I'm Mario?

I am not. I'm treating you like a hero.


Chirping birds and patchy light gently coaxed the man under the tree to stand up. Dizzily, he abandoned the crumbled traffic cone, leaving dew covered grass for the paved, slightly sloped downwards raceway. The electronic banner tacked to the banisters stated the temperature, a tire advert, and the date. For the first time ever, he thanked God it was Monday.

In Toad Town there were karts passing by, and foot traffic on the sidewalks. No riots, nothing burned down. North at Peach's Castle, he grew less anesthetic. The four-hundred year old stronghold was sturdy, beautiful and vibrant, not a sandstone tile on the ground path even cracked, but behind it.. He fought off that bout of faintness, the sound of a motorcycle drowning out his thoughts.

"Did you sleep out here? No wonder.."

Mario looked him over funny while looking funny. Or, he casual clothes on at least, sans the boots, which he'd never not wear.

Luigi kept it to, "I always was a star gazer.."

He accepted Mario's burnt toast, the older brother not about to take him anywhere on the Mach Bike than towards the castle. Luigi crunched on it without complaint. Star Hill, holy grounds of the Mushroom Kingdom, wasn't on the horizon.

The indigo rocky landscape held a new secret. The vent previously spewing an unlimited supply of starbits was plugged by an eldritch five pointed being. No one could get close enough to directly look at it directly. That's all they knew down at the star summit path gate via a drone a toad flew up there. And a Lakitu Bro that almost died earlier. Late to the party, Luigi didn't want to instigate. What if he said the wrong thing and willed one of them out of existence again?

He did have one safe question for the princess, in a tank top and shorts. "How do you think your dad thinks about this?"

Peach remained as calm as one could. I imagine he's more worried about protecting his old factory with a single sword."

"Don't bring one of those to a gunfight." Toadsworth winked at the green plumber. He appeared very odd, but no one commented on it.

"I swear I didn't see them!" The driver of the black Lexus settled for using her words after communicating more than she needed to by bumping dozens of the wooden traffic rerouting barrels.

Jr. Troopa leered into her car. His face mask wasn't all that fearsome, but the light blue smock actually showed off his arms, and she'd better heed that. "They're Mecha-Yoshi lanes."

"Troopa, come on!"

"Jackson. No pet names. Not with my boss coming down soon and he's the sort to wear fedoras."

"And that means."

"Nothin. Next time Victor will send you a bill for scratching those barrels."

"You are tripping, brother."

She sped off, leaving him with the next one on foot.

"Are you taking applications? I'll live here soon," The ruddy dark spotted toad had a low super posh tone, contrasting her baggy traditional country clothing. She must have been dropped off by a bus or something, those sneaky bastards. "Imma marksman, when drafts went out I held off my five bigger sisters, I'm trying to learn guitar, and I got this, eh."

She opened a brown leather messenger bag. Jr. Troopa was prepared for anything but that.

"A clock, pard? -I mean ma'am?"

"..Haha, actually it catches Red Chomps in Neon Heights after a player has landed on…"

The Lexus proceeded to park far away from the prestigious Mushroom Kingdom East hospital before venturing in, in case the reporter's mark had a window room. At the automatic doors was a posted neon green sign: 'All welcome including baddies.' So nice, like the toad lady greeting her on the way in. She had a hanging badge, marking 'Mariam' as a guide of sorts. Kylie avoided eye contact with any others as reception desks, nurses pushing around carts, and doctors. No matter how 'critical' his condition was per hearsay, he could have these folks probed for all she knew, double checking her tin foil helmet under her signature cap.

"You scammed a dang god." She shut the heavy door of room 444 behind her, facing the patient on the bed steely. "Millennium Star's gonna suffer as long as you do."

The green toad remained motionless, a plethora of computers tapped into him. His body was intact at least, and expression peaceful. She hadn't picked apart his prognosis papers yet.

"Be honest with me Mitch." She sat on the stool with a squeak. "What's going on? ..Well, you should know that your insurance lets me handle your crap. I took all of your research on that star stuff, hear? Not to Dr. Toadley. Too close if you ever patch yourself up." She made the stool spin as he lifted off restlessly. Better skedaddle before one of five practitioners assigned to this mysterious case walked in. "This doc you'll never touch. In fact, I barely can."

"Finally, I get cha. Packet received?"

"We are still forwarding shipments from the Special World branch, but.. Yes I see it was marked 'urgent urgent urgent god please look at this stuff..'"

"Good. Phew!.." Her shell rested against the leather seat. "I'd be easier with a direct address."

"There isn't one here, making it ideal for a third facility. Possibly."

She heard the sounds of branches snapping. Dr. Toad was on the move, from the bob-omb shaped alien landing pad, to the wide open stone and moss covered ruins. Following that ridiculous space journey, there were passengers of his to worry about, and he hated to be micromanaged at that by publicists.

"Drew, can I call ya that? Should I call back? When won't you be busy?

"No you may not, yes you can, in theory, and there is never a moment when I am unoccupied." The toad doctor stood against tall moai figures. "Don't lament if I appear flaky. Circumstances have placed me in an ultra classified location and Mitch's research on stars will fit right in with Mystery Land."

She screamed.

"-I have a lot to learn about myself, so I'll be getting out a lot, with or without a Mario invite."

"I respect that, Boo. Talk to you later."

Overtaking a Mushroom Bus full of tourists for Koopa Fortress, the bikers pulled into their gravel driveway. Peach let them go, someone to go cruising with, she said, without telling them who. The neighborhood was tranquil, just what Luigi needed to wind down. While he'd been texting with a friend, Mario had been talking loudly on the phone, with no subtlety regarding who.

"Bowser wants to do some stuff with his WHOLE family." Mario unlocked their home.

"What?"

"I mean, that's how he said it."

"Oh I believe that."

Stepping into the dark den, it was cleanish he estimated. He hadn't tripped yet.

By the crunch, Mario had though, on his way to flick the light. "With the gang, you know, Yoshi and.. Just to make a lot of the transitions easier. Some tour agent wore me down before I picked you up. Said he was promoted and we can use a private beach his company owns. Probably a gimmick. His name was 'Sonny' after all, but who cares."

Luigi hung his hat up. "That's more than palatable to me. Why'd you even ask?"

"I don't really know." Mario collapsed on the couch. "Some extreme sport didn't feel right. Definitely no racing or tennis or anything. Something still active but scenic, conducive to learning.."

All that twirling of his goatee. Was there something he wasn't privy to in this universe? "Spit it out, Mario!"

"Let's dig for treasure."

Luigi screamed.

Author note: And.. it ends ambiguously. Did I hit every beat I needed to to be satisfied? Yes. Did my autism go out of control in the final stages? More so.

See: commentary on my other avenue, including things about me that I think this story revealed, intentionally and not. At this point, I'll comb through old chapters and fix errors. No rewrites of course.

Dates with a grain of salt: (The outline was done) 5/31/23, 6/10, (oh wow, i lost track 6/24) 7/2, 7/ 4,- 7/9,

(Hey, the real date is here) 7/25/23, 8/11/23- 8/14, 8/15, 8/18- 9/1- 9/8- 9/17- 9/27- 10/1- 10/7, 10/14- 10/16, 10/22, 10/28- 10/3, 11/1- 11/3, 11/4