Disclaimer I do not own the right to Mario characters or One Piece characters

Chapter 18: Sparks of Hope

Outside the Capital

The Alabasta resistance was now trying to retreat having fulfilled their role. But thanks to the intel that Doopliss provided Crocodile they were unable to. Even the frozen barrels Mario had prepared didn't help much thanks to the new Baroque Works knowing about them. On a nearby rooftop overseeing the battle was the now Darkmess infused Mister One and Miss Doublefinger.

"Looks like things are wrapping up out here. Soon the resistance army will be no more and Alabasta will be ours." Miss Double Finger said, now with glowing yellow eyes, rabbid ears and Darkmess radiating off of her.

"Yes." Mister One answered back also sporting many of the same changes as his partner.

The battle seemed to be nearing its end, but suddenly the Darkmess forces were being pushed back.

"What the hell, how are they being pushed back?" Miss Double Finger said while clenching her fist.

"Look, over there, what is that?" Mister one said while pointing over to something in the distance.

Miss Double Finger pulled out a pair of binoculars to get a better look. But with all the sand kicked up by the battle it was hard to make out.

"It looks like a giant bird, no some kind of boat. I have no idea what I'm looking at."

"It's them."

Miss Double finger turned in shock at her partners words.

"Are you sure?"

"Who is could it be? You remember the description of the strange craft Red Cap's friends use."

Miss Double Finger nodded before she pulled out a den den mushi.

"Sir Crocodile, Miss Cursa we have a situation."

"Yes, what is it Miss Double Finger?" Crocodile asked from the other end.

"It's Red Cap's allies, they're here sir. And they are pushing back our forces."

"I see, they arrived sooner than expected, but no matter. Retreat for now, we need to fortify our other positions. Let the resistance have it's small victory. It won't matter soon."

"Yes, Sir Crocodile."

With that Mister One and Miss Double Finger retreated back to their main base of operations.

Back at the rainbase

The rest of the straw hats along with Ace and Smoker were dodging the Darkmess tentacle while Luffy(Doopliss) was laughing at them.

"You really should just give up you losers. It would save us all a lot of time, but hey if you want to prolong your suffering I'm not complaining."

Luffy(Doopliss) mocked, however Ace was snickering at his little comment. Luffy(Doopliss) noticed this and his grin turned into a frown.

"What's so funny Ace?"

"Oh nothing, except that you think that we will lose to that thing."

"And why wouldn't you? The Darkmess tentacle has unlimited stamina and you all can only keep evading it for so long. Not to mention none of you can hurt it, so why wouldn't you lose."

"Because of Mario."

Ace's comment confused everyone there and while Doopliss was as well his confusion quickly turned into arrogance.

"Really? That's it? In case you haven't noticed flop fist Ace, Mario's not here."

"Nice insult. Did it take both of your brain cells to come up with that one?"

Ace taunted while dodging a swipe from the Darkmess tentacle, infuriating Doopliss.

"And to answer your question yes, I know Mario is not here, yet."

"What do you mean yet?"

"I mean exactly that Doopliss. Mario went to find the real Luffy and has probably met his friends by now. So more than likely he's on his way here with those spark things that can beat this Darkmess stuff."

"How do you know about the sparks!?" Luffy(Doopliss) asked in anger.

"You and your Darkmess creeps may have beaten me, but I was still conscious and heard everything you and this Cursa person were talking about. So all we have to do is avoid this one Darkmess tentacle until he arrives."

"Right." Luffy(Doopliss) said, his scowl turning into a smirk. "Let's fix that."

Doopliss then snapped his fingers and four stooges jumped out of the Darkmess tentacle. Two Baroque Works members and two rabbids.

"Now try to last until Mario arrives." Luffy(Doopliss) said before he started laughing.

"Way to run your mouth fire fist." Smoker groaned.

Ace rubbed the back of his head while the rest of the straw hats gave him a irritated glare. But soon they were interrupted as the Darkmess tentacle and four stooges attacked them relentlessly. While evading blows from one of the human stooges Ace tried to burn the stooge with his flames. However, it proved to be useless as the stooge was unaffected.

"Alright then, try some haki!" Ace shouted as he threw a fist into the stomach of the stooge.

But it did nothing and the stooge grabbed Ace's head and shoved him under the water.

"Drown fire fist, DROWN!" The stooge yelled.

"Ace!" Vivi yelled in horror. "We have to help him!"

The other straw hats tried to, but were cut off by both the Darkmess tentacle and the other stooges. It all seemed hopeless until one of the walls exploded. The fighting stopped as everyone look towards the wall. Suddenly a large sword came flying from the dust cloud and cut down all the stooges. Ace jumped up while taking in deep breaths while Zoro stared at the sword.

"That sword managed to cut these freaks." Zoro said to himself.

Zoro attempted to grab the sword but it flew back to the dust cloud.

"Sorry green hair, but this isn't your sword." A feminine voice said as a small hand grabbed the sword.

As the dust cloud cleared Mario appeared along with a new group of allies.

"Mario!" The straw hats cheered.

"Ah crud." Luffy(Doopliss) said before avoiding a punch from a shadow person. "Well if it isn't Monkey D. Loser, I guess you want your body back? Well too bad! This body is mine all mine."

The shadow person seemed to get angry while Ace turned to Mario.

"Hey Mario, your brother Luigi was swallowed by that tentacle."

"Oh mamamia. Peach and Rabbid Peach! Let's-a go!" Mario shouted while he Peach and Rabbid Peach jumped into the Darkmess tentacle.

After a few moments the Darkmess tentacle began to flail about as though it was in pain. Finally it stopped and began to disintegrate into nothing and Mario Peach and Rabbid Peach jumped out with Luigi in tow.

"You okay bro?" Mario asked Luigi.

"Yeah, thanks Mario."

"No problem."

"Here you go Luigi, you'll be needing this." A small disc shaped robot with rabbit ears said while bringing Luigi a bow.

"Thank you Beep-o."

Everyone then turned to Doopliss who was starting to panic now that he was outnumbered. He turned to the corner of the room and his eyes widened.

"Crocodile, Cursa, it's not what it looks like." He said in panic.

Everyone turned to the corner he was staring at and saw nothing.

"Oh mamamia, we didn't just fall for that." Mario said with an annoyed tone.

Sure enough when they all turned to where Doopliss was a saw that he was gone. Before anyone could pursue dark clouds came from the door leading outside and destroyed the support pillars before the doors shut.

"Damn it we're trapped." Zoro said.

"Aaahh! We're going to be buried alive!" Usopp screamed.

"Everyone follow me, quickly!" Beep-o ordered as he headed towards the exit Mario and his friends made.

Everyone followed and made it outside before the building collapsed. Safe for the time being the straw hats, Ace and Smoker were catching their breath while Mario and his friends discussed what they are going to do next. Suddenly the shadow person grabbed Sanji by his collar and began to shake him.

"I'm sorry Luffy. I didn't know it was you." Sanji said in his defense.

Shadow Luffy let him go but was now crossing his arms and pouting.

"Hey Luffy." Nami called out waving Luffy's hat.

Luffy tried to stretch his hand to get it, but he couldn't.

"Sorry Luffy, but when you lost your body you also lost all of your abilities. But don't worry, once we break the spell you'll get everything back." Mario said.

With Mario's reassurance Luffy nodded while Nami handed him his hat back. However Vivi cut into the conversation with a worried expression.

"Mario! We need to help the resistance that was distracting Baroque Works main forces."

"Don't worry, we already took care of the Darkmess forces attacking them." Peach said.

"Thank you, but who are you?" Vivi asked.

All of the straw hats turned their attention to Vivi also wondering who these new strangers were.

"Oh, I am Princess Peach. It's a pleasure to meet you." Peach said as she extended her hand to Vivi.

"So you're Princess Peach. The one Mario rescues from Bowser over and over again?" Nami asked.

"I see Mario has already told you about me."

"Yeah, and who are..." Nami was interrupted when Sanji leapt in front of Peach.

"So you are the lovely Princess Peach. My goodness, words can't describe your beauty." Sanji said while doing his noodle dance.

"Oh thank you. And you are?"

"Sanji and I'm your knight in shining armor madame. I will protect you with my very life."

"Oh my, while that is very generous, I already have a hero. Plus I have gotten better at taking care of myself." Peach said as she place her hands on Mario's shoulders.

"Damn it Mario! Why you! It's not fair! Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Sanji yelled as he pounded his fist into the ground.

Mario's friends stared at the scene in utter bewilderment before turning to Mario.

"Oh don't worry about it, that's just how he is."

They just nodded their heads in understanding.

"Now as I was saying, who are the rest of you?" Nami continued while her eyebrow twitched.

"I'm-a Luigi." Luigi said as he walked up front. "And I'm Mario's brother."

"Yeah I figured. You look so much alike, plus your hat is very similar to Mario's." Nami explained.

"And these are our rabbid friends." Luigi said prompting the rabbids to come forward and introduce themselves.

"Hey I'm Rabbid Mario, nice to meet ya." A rabbid dressed in clothing similar to Mario said while chewing on a toothpick.

"Yo yo yo! Rabbid Luigi is in the house!" A rabbid dressed in clothing similar to Luigi, but with his hat on backwards, said while striking a weird pose.

Everyone was waiting for the next rabbid dressed like Peach to continue, but she was busy taking selfies on her phone.

"Ahem, Rabbid Peach?" Peach said trying to get Rabbid Peach's attention.

"Huh, oh I'm Rabbid Peach. Hashtag desert adventure." She said as she continued to take selfies.

"Mamamia, don't worry about it. She may seem unreliable, but she can be counted on to fight the Darkmess."

The rest of the straw hats nodded at Peach's explanation before turning to the final rabbid. A female rabbid wielding a large sword and wearing a black jacket with a purple shirt underneath. And with wild black hair with green stripes.

"Name's Edge."

"Rabbid Edge?" Nami asked.

"Nope, just Edge."

"Okay then, so what do we do now?" Zoro asked.

"Well the power star down there was most likely a fake. Crocodile or Cursa has the real one on them more than likely. So I say we head back to the resistance base to regroup and plan out our next move."

Everyone agreed with Mario's plan, however Vivi still had questions for the group. But before she could ask.

Bark! Bark!

Everyone turned to the sound and saw a ghost dog.

"Aahh! What is that!?" Usopp screamed in horror.

"Polterpup!" Luigi called out. His ghostly canine hopping towards him. "Where have you been? And what's that you got there?"

Luigi pulled a stone tablet from Polterpup's mouth.

"Hey, can I see that bro?"

"Sure Mario."

Luigi then handed the stone table to Mario. After examining it for a bit Mario had a huge smile on his face.

"Good work Polterpup! This is going to be very helpful."

"Really? How Mario?" Nami asked.

"Well, it'll help break the spell on Luffy and get his body back."

The straw hats all collectively gasped at this while Luffy(shadow) was pumping his fist in the air.

"And how exactly?" Usopp asked.

"I'll explain once we get back to the base."

"Okay Mario. Well, let's get walking." Zoro said.

"That won't be necessary." A robotic voice said.

Soon the disk shaped robot from before flew up to the group.

"We'll take my spaceship."

A white flying ship slowly descended until it was hovering in front of the group.

"Whoa! It's a spaceship!" Chopper and Usopp yelled in unison

The rest of the straw hats and Ace stood astonished at the craft before them. Mario broke them out of their stupor and everyone proceeded to get on, except for Smoker.

"Excuse me sir, but aren't you getting on?" Peach asked Smoker.

"You said you're a princess right?"

"Yes."

"From what kingdom?"

"The Mushroom Kingdom."

"Never heard of it."

"Well it's not from around here."

Smoker pondered Peach's words for moment before he continued with his questions.

"And what is your relation with red cap?"

"Red cap?"

"He means me." Mario clarified.

"Oh, well Mario and Luigi are two of my closest friends and the greatest heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom."

"And did you know your heroes are notorious pirates?" Smoker asked.

"Really?"

Peach turned to Mario.

"I had to Peach, but I haven't done anything wrong."

"Except break the law, resisting arrest and harming marines." Smoker said while glaring at Mario.

"If you're talking about the marines at Cocoyasi village they were corrupt. Arlong, another pirate, was bribing them so they turned a blind eye to the havoc he caused the village and it's villagers."

"Don't you dare smear the name of the marines you damn pirate!"

Peach looked between Mario and Smoker for a moment.

"Starlow." She called out.

Starlow then flew out from under Mario's cap and towards Peach.

"Yes Peach?"

"Do you mind showing me what Mario has done during his adventures?"

"Not at all."

Starlow's antennae began to glow and shown a light into Peach's forehead. After two minutes the light faded and Peach had smile on her face before she turned to Smoker.

"Mister Smoker, despite whatever reason your government decided to label Mario a pirate from what I have seen Mario has done nothing but help people. So to me he is still a hero and while in my presence you will do best to not mock or attack him."

"But..." Smoker was interrupted by Peach putting her hand up and walking towards him.

"Do you understand?" She asked while she pinched Smoker's cheek.

"How is she grabbing me? I'm a logia type." Smoker thought.

"I said, do you understand?"

"Yes." Smoker begrudgingly answered.

"Good." Peach then let go of Smoker's cheek. "So, are you coming with us or will you stay here in the middle of the desert?"

Smoker thought about this before he turned to Vivi.

"You said you were heading back to the base of the resistance correct?" Smoker asked Vivi.

"Yes."

"So you these pirates are helping you fight against Crocodile and whatever this stuff is?"

"Yes they are. We are going to liberate my kingdom from Crocodile and Cursa. Are you going to help us?"

"Fine, but don't think this means I won't stop chasing you red cap. Once this is over I'm going to bring you and your fellow pirates to justice. I swear on my honor as a marine I will take you and the rest of the straw hats down."

Mario just let our an exasperated sigh while shaking his head.

"Fine, now let's-a go."

With that everyone boarded the spacecraft and it took off towards the resistances base.

And that concludes another chapter, thank you so much for reading. I would like to thank Monster King and Butterflypuss for your comments thank you so much and I'm glad you are enjoying my story. As always leave your thoughts and opinions and have a nice day.