Bowsette: A New Life
Chapter 63
Breaching the enemy stronghold
As the two rushed towards the castle dodging Billet Bills, things looked to get more difficult for Bowsette and Mario as the door to the castle came into sight. A massive troop of Remnant Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Bomb-ombs and even a few Magikoopas were waiting for them blocking the gate, meanwhile the Bullet Bills were becoming more numerous and harder to avoid. "They were-a expecting us!" Mario yelled as he rushed forward and threw a torrent to fireballs towards the enemy forces.
"No duh Pasta Freak! What was your first clue?" Bowsette followed suit by rapid firing her own larger and more destructive fireballs. She aimed at the Bomb-ombs in the group and as she predicted each time a fireball struck a Bom-omb it exploded and wiped out the Remnant troops around it. What's more, it quickly caused a chain reaction of Remnant Bomb-omb explosions setting off more Bomb-ombs and then more.
The explosions caused massive plumes of smoke to cover the area. The torrent of Bullet Bills was now firing blindly in the duo's general direction due to the ones manning them being unable to see. However, as the smoke slowly cleared Mario and Bowsette saw that while the Bomb-ombs had all been destroyed, the chain reaction hadn't wiped out enough of the Remnant army. "There's still-a too many! We'll never get-a to the door like this!" Mario shouted. There were still hundreds of Remnant troops between the two of them and the door.
"We can't go back either! Giving them time to regroup will just make things worse!" The duo was still running at the castle dodging Bullet Bills. The smoke obscuring them wouldn't last long enough to get anywhere near the door, and this was the only reprieve they were likely to get. Bowsette and Mario tried to think of something. 'We need to get in somehow, but as long as those cannons are firing… Wait…' A light bulb went off in Bowsette's head.
As Bowsette ran forward and got a better look, the Bullet Bills were being fired out of dozens of cannons on arched windows all around the exterior. At the moment they were firing too wildly for the Bullet Bills to be useful as platforms to get up to, and once the smoke was cleared the Bullet Bills would have the opposite problem of being in too big clusters to do so. The windows would be much too high to reach by simply jumping, but… "Mario? Do you trust me?" Bowsette yelled.
At the question Mario almost tripped from surprise. What shocked Mario was not that Bowsette had asked the question, but by what he felt the answer was. "Yes. I-a do." Mario did trust Bowsette, at least well enough for now.
"Well then…" Mario suddenly felt his feet leave the ground as Bowsette grabbed his overalls.
"Bowsette what-a are you-" Mario looked back and saw Bowsette had a maniacal grin.
"Ah ah ah! You said you…" Bowsette stopped talking for a moment as she dodged a Bullet Bill. The smoke had cleared, and the Bullet Bills were raining down more fiercely and in clusters Bowsette could barely avoid now. "…trusted me!" Bowsette spat out. "So Pasta Freak… let's play Plumber Ball!"
Mario realized what Bowsette was about to do as she cocked her arm back. Mario quickly tucked his arms and legs to form himself into as much of a ball as he could moments before Bowsette flung him. "Woooooohihihi!" Mario screamed as Bowsette threw him through the air straight at the castle. Nobody else would have the arm strength, but Bowsette threw Mario so hard he was flying through the air almost as fast and far as he would have if shot from a cannon.
Mario had spun through the air countless times in his life, and so had little difficulty keeping track of where he was going as he spun forwards through the air towards the castle. Even Bowsette couldn't get him really high up, but Mario was heading straight for the lowest window through which a Remnant Hammer Bro was firing Bullet Bills.
Twisting, Mario just managed to catch the bottom of the window with both hands. Mario let another Bullet Bill go over his head before throwing himself with his arms into the air. Flipping in the air to give himself a bit of forward momentum, he dove right at the Remnant Hammer Bro Gunner. Before the Remnant could grab a hammer to defend itself, Mario already hit it in the face feet first, throwing it back and to the ground.
After the Remnant vanished in a puff of pink smoke, Mario quickly looked around and saw that he was on the outer wall of the cylindrical rebuilt castle. Mario was on the bottom-most floor of a line of windows containing Bullet Bill launchers circling the castle, with Remnants of various types of Bowsette's troops manning them. "I'll have-a to take care of these…" Mario said to himself. Luckily, they hadn't noticed him yet and so with a few jumps and a Koopa shell here and there, the ones on the side the duo had approached the castle from were gone before they knew what hit them.
However, as Mario finished off the last of the Remnants on this side, Mario worriedly glanced in Bowsette's direction. She was still running towards the castle, now about to reach the first line of the Remnant troops. Mario guessed she could use her claws and strength to climb up here if she managed to reach the castle walls, but the Remnants wouldn't be keen on giving her the opportunity. Even Bowsette could be overwhelmed by this many troops before she reached the castle.
As Mario had that thought, he stopped and stared as Bowsette did something completely unexpected. Mario watched as Bowsette ran full tilt at a Bullet Bill that was about to hit her… then she jumped. Instead of jumping on the bullet as Mario expected, Bowsette instead turned in midair… and landed on top the Bullet Bill.
Now Bowsette was riding the Bullet Bill like a Yoshi, but Mario was still concerned. The Bullet was already careening to the ground as it was heading at Bowsette and would land and explode any… "Mama Mia…" Mario exclaimed as Bowsette grabbed the end of the Bullet and pulled up hard. Somehow, she managed to change its direction and it leveled out, but Bowsette didn't stop there.
Bowsette pulled the Bullet Bill to turn it around and head back towards the castle. "WHOOOO!" Mario could hear the Koopa Queen hollering from here. "YEEEEHAAAAAA!" Bowsette's mouth was full of fire, her eyes full of life, and she was grinning with her fangs on full display like she had completely lost her mind. That, at least, was something Mario had come to expect from this Bowsette by this point. Bowsette fired fireballs ahead of her unwilling steed as she approached striking Remnants down left and right. The Bullet Bill was fighting fruitlessly to go off her course somehow, but Bowsette had it now securely under her control, holding onto and guiding it with one hand.
Quickly Bowsette collided with the army, who to their credit had enough of a mind to try to get out of the way, not that it mattered much. The Bullet Bill plowed through the Remnant troops with its crazy rider swinging her free hand on one side and spouting a torrent of flames on the other to take out the enemy as she passed. Bowsette turned before she hit the castle wall and plowed through yet more Remnants. They could do little to attack her or avoid her while she was riding the Bullet, and she was moving too fast for the other Bullet Bills to hit her.
Naturally, Bowsette hooted and hollered the whole time as she was decimating the Remnant army. 'She's having way-a too much fun with this…' Mario thought. In barely a minute the hundreds of Remnants had been reduced to a few scattered dozen. However, rather than leap off and start climbing the wall at any point during this, Bowsette turned the Bullet she was riding back towards the castle and up until it was pointing directly at the window Mario was standing at.
Mario quickly backed away from the edge of the window as Bowsette moved up onto her feet on the back of the bullet. Bowsette leapt from the Bullet Bill she was riding and sailed through the window. She handed on her feet moments before the Bullet Bill impacted the bottom of the window and exploded. Mario watched as a large explosion illuminated the Koopa Queen from behind her.
"Yo Pasta Freak! Catching flies?" Bowsette made Mario realize his mouth was wide open and shut it. Sure, Mario could've done something like that himself, but it was still impressive. "Break time is over! Let's get to work Pasta Freak!" Bowsette grunted.
Mario shook his head and sighed. They were in, but now what?
Author's Note: Great news! I have finished writing Bowsette: A New Life! I will be releasing the chapters 3 at a time every week until they are all out.