Bowsette: A New Life

Chapter 56
Your princess is in another castle

There were Remnant Hammer Bros and Buzzy Beetles at 5-2 that were a bit more difficult to handle, but they were easy enough to deal with. With Bowsette's forces becoming more numerous and managing to hold their own against the creatures in the forts it was getting easier for Mario and Bowsette to traverse through the worlds again. "There's just the one here, this way." Bowsette jumped into a pipe and Mario followed, they were going underground.

As soon as they exited the pipe, they were in a vast underground area. The pipe they exited from would be used to move troops and allow for vehicles to head to the castle for refueling. Bowsette and Mario didn't expect there to be many if any of the Remnants down here where the lightning couldn't hit, which is why Bowsette got caught off guard.

Dozens of Remnant Hammer Bros threw a stream of hammers at the duo. Mario's well-honed reflexes allowed him to leap out of the way, but Bowsette was buried under the avalanche. Naturally, Bowsette bursts out of the pile of hammers with ease. "THAT HURT dammit!" Bowsette growled, not badly injured but VERY annoyed. "AAAAA!" Bowsette breathes in and "BRAAAAGH!" breathes a long and powerful stream of fire at the Remnants, annihilating their ranks. It only takes a few fireballs to finish off the rest.

"Humph! Watch-a yourself next time Bowsette." Mario grunted. "You-a rely on your strength and resilience too much. You should learn how-a to dodge." Mario pointed out. 'This woman… no wonder I beat her all the time.' Bowsette doesn't respond as they make their way to the underground castle.

***

Bowsette continued to lead Mario on towards the castle, but she felt confused. 'What's up with him?' Bowsette wondered. Mario had been unusually grumpy lately. Sure, Bowsette had been screwing around, but Mario had done his fair share of that himself in his countless adventures, as Bowsette's reports on Mario's activities had shown.

Was Mario mad about Bowsette causing this mess? Bowsette admits Mario would have every reason to, but he never showed any sign that he was all that miffed about that if at all. Mario only started acting that way not long after they began the trek, and before that he was his usual happy-go-lucky self. 'Ugh… what's going on?' It's times like this Bowsette wished she was smarter.

Bowsette and Mario stopped in their tracks when the brick castle built into the rock came into view. It wasn't all that impressive compared to Koopa Keep but it had the basics. A drawbridge over a lava moat, dark grey brick, effigies of Bowsette next to the drawbridge and along the walls… the works.

What made them stop however was the drawbridge was shut, and Bowsette and Mario could see more of the Remnants on top of the castle ramparts. Here and there they could see the Infected walking around and through the small windows. They looked ready to defend the place. "I think we've found one of their strongholds." There was no way to tell if Luigi and Peach were t…

Just as Bowsette had the thought, a familiar shape was spotted at the highest window of the castle. "Luigi?" Mario said unsure. It was the Green Stache, but his eyes were bright pink. Luigi was looking out the window and clearly saw them, only to walk away out of view.

"Damn it… he's been infected." Bowsette groaned. Not that she or Mario were particularly surprised by this. Both of them knew Peach and the Remnant Bowser were going to infect Luigi the first chance they got. At least Luigi was still alive. An infected Luigi was going to be a LOT more trouble than Peach since he actually knew how to fight and had his fair share of exercise compared to Peach.

"Luigi…" Mario looked away. "We've-a got to cure him; I'm not leaving without him." Mario rushed forward only for Bowsette to grab him and pull him back. "What're you-a doing Bowsette! Let-a me go!" However, had Bowsette grabbed Mario in the back by his overalls and Mario couldn't get free.

"Hold your Yoshi there Pasta Freak." Bowsette put Mario down. "The drawbridge is up, and those windows have Bullet Bill cannons. We'll get shredded if we just run up and try to hop in a window." Bowsette pointed out. "We'll need another way in…" Bowsette thought about the castle. Most of her castles had some sort of back entrance but for this one there's only one.

That's when a possibility occurred to Bowsette. There was no front or back doors or secret doors, but there was one other way… Bowsette shook her head and shrugged. "There's one, but it's not going to be easy or pleasant, especially for me. This way." Bowsette moved around to where most of the windows had no clear view and looked down. There were some spots carved into the rock where they could jump down to get to the lava.

Mario followed as Bowsette went down. "Now… the lava flows through the castle on its way out." Bowsette began. "We'll just have to swim."

Mario grunted. "In case you-a haven't noticed, I can't take baths in freaking lava." Mario told Bowsette.

"I know, but this is the only way, so turn around Plumber Boy, hat down and eyes on the wall until I say otherwise." Bowsette growled. Mario did so reluctantly, Mario still had difficulty fully trusting the Koopa Queen. "What're you-a doing?" He asked.

"YOU can't swim in lava, but I can." Bowsette began to take off her dress. It was more resilient than most dresses she's worn, but it wasn't enchanted to handle lava. Bowsette stripped down to her birthday suit, stuffed her unmentionables into the dress for now, and dropped it by the edge of the lava. Bowsette wished they had thought of bringing a bag or something, but all their powerups were in their pockets. Bowsette watches Mario while she's doing this, but the man is keeping his eyes to the wall as instructed.

*SPLASH!* Bowsette hops naked right into what might as well just be very hot water as far as she was concerned. She swims to the top and keeps only her head and shoulders above the lava. "Alright Pasta Freak, you can turn around now."

Mario turned finally, only to turn beet red upon realizing what Bowsette had done. "Grab my clothes and hop on. And keep your eyes forward." Bowsette grumbled. She still felt like preserving her modesty for the time being with this plumber. After all, she needed the mystery to entice him later. "Hop to it! What's taking you so long?"

***

Mario gathered up Bowsette's clothes and, after taking a moment to judge the positioning, leapt onto Bowsette's shoulders. Bowsette sank a bit from his weight but just paddled a bit more to keep her head and shoulders above lava. "Alright, keep an eye out Pasta Freak."

Bowsette began paddling slowly through the lava so Mario wouldn't get thrown off and so she wouldn't sink and dip him into the lava. Bowsette steered toward one of the lava flows that was going inside the castle and let the current do the rest while she focused on staying afloat.

'This woman is going to-a get me killed.' Mario thought. 'I wonder why she doesn't just dip me and get it over with?' He wondered. Mario looked for any sign of the enemy as they floated along, but there was none. The Remnants probably never suspected they would enter this way, even though without something that could fly to land on the roof there wasn't any other way in.

'This is all-a her fault. Luigi… Peach… and now here we-a are trying to save my brother.' Mario's eyes narrowed. Mario's badge was glowing a bit brighter pink, but neither of them noticed. 'Can't she-a do anything without destroying it?' Mario's thoughts echoed Bowsette's words from just a short while ago.

It took a while due to Bowsette's caution, but she and Mario made their way through the lava flow into the castle. The current began to pick up as the lava slanted downward. "Mario! Jump off!" Bowsette yelled as they started to go faster and faster. Mario leapt off Bowsette onto a block… that began blinking as soon as he landed. Mario jumped to the block outline that appeared just as the one he hopped off disappeared, and then to the next, and the next. Finally, Mario reached a safe stone platform.

As soon as Mario left her shoulders Bowsette began swimming hard. The current wasn't too bad yet, but it could get worse at any moment. Bowsette managed to grab a stone platform and stop herself, a moment before the plumber landed on it. "Drop the dress and turn around." Bowsette grunted and waited for Mario to obey.

Bowsette pulled herself up and quickly got dressed. Now that the embarrassing part was over, they were in the bowels of the castle. Bowsette tried to deactivate the traps, but it was a no go. "Looks like they've taken complete control of the place." Bowsette noted. "I don't remember all the traps here, so we need to be careful."

'Sure you-a don't.' Mario thought bitterly. 'Who-a do you think you're fooling?' Now that the regrouped Mario and Bowsette went back across the disappearing blocks to the fortunately unlocked door at the end. Mario was quite familiar with the routine here. Solve some puzzles, fight some baddies, and along the way get some keys and open some locked doors. Lather, rinse, repeat until they got through the whole area and found the most powerful enemy at the end of it all.

"Woah!" Bowsette dodged an Infected Koopa Troopa that came out of nowhere at blazing speed. A fireball from Bowsette took it down, but it just went inactive. The castle was mostly filled with infected instead of Remnants, but there were dozens of them, and they were a LOT stronger than their normal or Remnant counterparts. It made for a slow going for the two of them, but they could handle it.

The real problem was going to be Luigi. He was strong enough to fight Mario as it was and the two couldn't even imagine how powerful he was going to be now. For his part Mario was pushing forward, determined as ever if not more so. Bowsette had to rush to keep up with him as he downed infected left and right.

The puzzles were simple as usual, the enemies weren't too much trouble, and the keys were easy enough to obtain. This wasn't Koopa Keep after all, the defenses weren't the best and Bowsette knew how to bypass a few here and there. As they ascended there was a growing feeling of ominousness, they knew Luigi was up there and who knew what else the Remnants had readied for them?

-

Finally they burst into the throne room of the castle. A massive throne yet much smaller than it was when Bowser was Bowsette was in the back of the room with another set of double doors behind it. The room was empty though, aside from the burning torches in Bowsette statues there was no sign anyone had been here for a while.

Bowsette shrugged upon seeing no sign of the enemy. "Whoo!" Bowsette wiped some sweat off her face. Fighting off the Remnants had been more exhausting than she had expected. "Well, we should take a load off for a bit. It wouldn't do any good for us to show up to fight your brother tired." Before Mario could protest, Bowsette sat down at her throne. Then… a blackness enveloped the Koopa Queen and drew her inside the throne. In the blink of an eye Bowsette had vanished.