Bowsette: A New Life

Chapter 45
Mario's plan

Mario climbed out of the water onto the harbor and approached the warehouses carefully. Mario couldn't afford to be spotted by the hordes but he had to get inside the warehouses somehow. Deciding the back would be the best way, there were less of them at the furthest back end of the warehouses but still enough that Mario was wary.

The swarms of creatures did little but mindlessly bash themselves into the buildings, which wasn't going to do much. Mario heard screams for help from inside the warehouses and knew he had to hurry. Breaking into a run, Mario leapt forward above the heads of the enemy and grabbed a waterspout. 'The ittsy bitsy plumber went-a up the waterspout…' Mario couldn't help but think of that old nursery rhyme as he climbed.

Reaching the roofs there were still several of the creatures up here, but nowhere near as many as there were at ground level. Now Mario had to take them out and get inside somehow. Mario leapt into the air and jumped on a Dark Goomba, then a Koopa Troopa, then another Goomba… it wasn't difficult with only the dozen or so up here to take them all out here.

Wiping a bit of sweat off his brow Mario looked around for any further ones. There weren't any, but fortunately Mario spotted a skylight. It couldn't be opened and shut, but that didn't deter the plumber. Leaping into the air above it, Mario ground pounded his way through the skylight and fell through it.

Mario impacted a bunch of crates as he fell, which tipped over and Mario leapt to the ground as they fell. "Aaaah!" Someone screamed. "It's them! They've got to us! We're all gonna die!" Mario looked around the warehouse. There's a series of crates large and small strewn randomly around, but the most notable was a massive metal crate in the center of the warehouse.

"Hello?" Mario called. "Please come-a out! I'm-a not going to hurt anybody." Slowly, about 2 dozen goombas and Koopa Troopas came out from hiding among the crates. "It's… it's Mario!" The minions sound like they don't know whether to be happy or fearful. "Yeah, it's-a me." Mario looks around at the gathered minions. "I'm here from-a the castle. Bowser Junior sent me-a to check out what's going on." Mario explained.

The minions didn't look like they all believed him, but what could they do? "Mario, there's so many of those things! They won't leave us alone." One goomba said. "Yeah! We've been stuck in here for days!" Another said. "They keep trying to break in and they won't stop." Mario could hear the sounds of the creatures banging against the main and side doors to the warehouse. "They can't get in, but we can't get out either." A Koopa Troopa noted.

Mario considered. He couldn't get them out through the skylight and it was only a matter of time before another storm would start sending lightning bolts spawning the enemy through the hole Mario made in the skylight. "What's-a in this place?" Mario asked. "We don't really know, but the warehouses in the back store lots of old equipment Bowsette hasn't used in years." One of the goombas replied. Mario walked up to the massive crate in the center of the warehouse. "Hmm… any luck finding-a out what's inside here?" Mario asked.

"Nope. It's rusted shut and we can't get it open. There were some old MREs in some of the crates we've been living off, good thing those last forever." The goomba said. "Alright, let's-a see here…" Mario grabs his hammer and hits the one of the metal bolts holding the metal crate together. He hits it a few more times and it comes out. "Well, this'll take a while…" Mario noted and got to work.

'I hope this is-a worth it.' Mario said as he got to work on the last couple of bolts. As he struck the final one, it popped out and everyone scattered to avoid it as the front of the crate fell off. Mario jumped down and got out his flashlight to take a look. What he saw made Mario smile and the minions all ooohed.

"A tank?" One of them yelled in surprise. "Nobody has used one of those things in ages!" A Koopa said. "No time-a like the present. Let's look-a over it first." Mario and the minions started checking the tank out. Aside from being a bit rusty it was in good shape. There was even a couple barrels of gasoline in the warehouse to fill the gas tank up with. "Come on everybody! Let's-a get inside." The tank was big enough to easily hold everyone, and the keys were even in the ignition.

Mario started up the tank and took the controls as it roared to life. "Um… Mario?" One of the minions said. "Do you know to drive this thing?" They asked. Mario looked back at the Koopa who spoke. "Nope! I have-a absolutely no idea. But how-a hard could it be?" Mario moved the shifter and stepped on the gas pedal before anyone could say more.

-

The tank raced off surprisingly fast and easily burst through the warehouse main door, squashing a squad of the shade things with the door as it went through. Mario turned the wheel and headed to the left, but the tank wasn't exactly built for agility and careened into the side of the warehouse across from it. Mario grunted from the impact but kept going toward the swarm of evil creatures trying to break into the warehouse 3 warehouses down. "I think we were safer inside!" One of the goombas yelled as Mario kept ramming the sides of the tank into the sides of warehouses, reorienting, and continuing on.

The shades were being devastated as Mario simply crushed them with the treads of the tank, not even bothering to use the cannons. Not that Mario knew how to anyway, he was working off of what luck he had to drive the thing. Mario would have to remember to apologize to Bowsette for the damage he was causing, but he was managing to wipe out most of the creatures on the harbor without any risk to himself.

Mario did his work around the whole harbor as best as he could manage and drove the tank out of the harbor area. He managed to stop the thing and opened the top to take a look out. The warehouse was a mess with various crates and barrels knocked around or crushed, the creatures were mostly gone except a few stragglers that were trying to follow the tank around but gave up to head back. "Okie dokie! I didn't get-a them all but I got a lot." Mario noted.

Sealing everyone inside again, Mario sat down and turned to the rest. "The castle is under attack and I don't think this-a one tank will do the job." That, and Mario doubted he could drive the thing all the way there without wrecking it. "Can you guys fly the-a battleships?" Mario asked. The group looked at each other. "Maybe one of them. We'll need more to get the whole fleet going." A Koopa said and Mario nodded. "Anything that-a can help. Maybe I can fly one of the sh…" Mario began. "NO!" The entire minion group said sharply.

"Okie dokie. Can anyone here work the cannons?" Mario asked. Several nodded. "We can't drive the thing, but cannons we can do." One replied. "Okie dokie, here's the plan." Mario said as he managed to drive the tank back towards the ships, crushing a few more of the creatures for good measure as he explained to them.

-

Mario swam through the harbor toward the ship the group had decided to clear out. Mario would go in through the waste drainage pipe of the ship to clear out the enemy on the inside while the minions in the tank would use the cannons to take out as many of the enemy on the deck as they could. Hopefully by using the cannons on low power they wouldn't do too much damage to the ship.

Mario swam through the pipe, which fortunately was fairly clean, and came out of the toilets. Mario didn't expect a lot of the enemy to be inside the ship, but it was safer than trying to take on the enemies on deck right at that moment and maybe there were survivors inside too. Cautiously Mario opened the door to the toilets and looked around. There were magical lanterns hanging in rows around the ship that stayed burning pretty much forever which made it easy to see.

Mario didn't see any sign of the enemy and moved on. He checked the other bathrooms and further rooms, but there were none of the creatures down here at the bottom of the ship. Mario climbed a ladder to the next level before he spotted the creatures walking around. A Dark Goomba here, a Dark Koopa Troopa there… they were simple to deal with so Mario went from room to room clearing them out.

Going to the next level Mario continued the work. The further up he went the more of the enemy were inside, but it seemed like Mario was right, the shades only sent a token force inside the ship. It didn't take long before Mario managed to clear them out and was about to enter the deck. Mario could still hear the impacts of cannonballs hitting the deck and so decided to sit and take a break. As per the plan they would bombard the deck for about 5 more minutes and then stop so Mario could deal with any remaining.

Mario waited for the cannon fire to come to a halt and then a couple minutes after to be sure before he exited onto the deck. Looking around, the enemy was in disarray, about a dozen or so were left, nothing Mario couldn't handle. A hop into a Dark Koopa and a kick of it in it's shell finished off several, with Mario taking out the couple Dark Goombas and Koopa Troopas that remained soon after. After double checking to make sure the enemy were truly gone, Mario went over the deck and lit a signal firework with his fireball to show that the place was clear.

The minions quickly rushed out of the tank and onto the battleship as fast as they could. "We'll take it from here Mario." One said. With the small crew it took a bit, but the battleship began to rise into the air. 'Okie dokie. Time to save the keep.' Mario noted as the battleship flew in the direction of Bowsette's castle.