Mario stood and rubbed his eyes. He was welcomed by a surprisingly bright scarlet hue all around them. Mario wiped the sweat off his brow.
"Mario?" Olivia asked. "Are you hot? Is it hot in here, or is it just Mario?"
Kemek straightened his glasses and examined their surroundings. "Hm, seems that we crashed into the volcano, and are now inside of it."
"HEY! MARIO! UP HERE!" Bowser called.
Mario, Olivia, Bobby, Stephen, Kemek, and Junior all faced where Bowser's voice had come from. He was atop a small ledge where the airship had crashed through, right above the silver Bowser face that held the main cannon Mario had been left in charge of during the dogfight.
"Don't worry about the airship, you know I'll make another one. Anyways, the main cannon still works, so come up here! And hurry about it!"
Mario had to knock down the remaining pillar that used to bear the main sails to get across the lava surrounding the decomposing body of the airship and onto a natural path inside the volcano. He started heading up with his group in pursuit when a pile of small Paper Macho Goombas poured from the ceiling. They landed in a pile on the airship they had just left and attempted to squeeze their way through the path made from the pillar.
"Ha!" Junior mocked. "They can't fit!"
"Let's leave before they do!" Kemek said, and took off.
Mario followed after the two, Stephen and Bobby behind the plumber. The Goomba in front of the group on the airship forced his way through the path and the others followed. Stephen screamed and hurried faster.
"Big M, they're right behind us!" He quickened his pace as well.
Mario attempted to speed up, but they were gaining on him. Kemek rushed past Mario, towards the little army. With a quick wave of his wand, there were four Kemeks holding back the Goombas.
"Go! While I have them trapped!"
The group continued, Paper Macho Bob-oms with parachutes and Lava Bubbles attempting to end their way up the path. Mario looked behind him at Kemek, who's face was turning red from the strain. The Goombas knocked the Kemeks over and trampled them, still pursuing after Mario. Mario picked up Bobby, who was starting to fall behind. The ground began to weaken in some spots, lowering the path on these weak points.
"No, dad's airship!" Junior said as the remains of it sank into the lava. Junior stopped running and let Mario pass him before ground-pounding the floor beneath him to create a rectangle-shaped arena where he battled the group of Goombas. "Yeah! I've been itching for a fight all day! Let's rumble!"
"Stay safe, Junior," Olivia called, and continued after Mario and Stephen.
Mario couldn't make it much further up the path before Junior and his group of Goombas he was battling were trampled by more Goombas.
"JUNIOR!" Bowser called.
"Dad!" Junior's muffled voice responded back as he continued to be trampled.
Bowser, infuriated and worried, charged up the most powerful fireball he could manage. He shot it at a pointed rock above Mario, who ducked away from it just as it came crashing down. Mario saw the Goombas pile over the edge and into the lava below, then made sure Stephen, Olivia, and Bobby were safe before heading over to Bowser.
"Junior and Kemek..." Olivia began.
"They're fine, they can take care of themselves." Bowser faced the main cannon. "Anyways, the main cannon is still working, so we can load ourselves into the cannon and fire ourselves right onto Olly's doorstep! He wouldn't even know what hit him!"
Olivia's gaze went behind them as Bowser jumped down towards the cannon. "Weird how they just stopped as soon as we were beyond reach..."
Mario looked at Olivia, who returned the gaze. They nodded at each other and followed Bowser, Stephen, and Bobby into the cannon.
"This is a surprisingly big cannon, Lord Bowser," Bobby stated.
"It's not the main cannon for nothing! Hang onto your hats!"
The cannon fired them off as it slid out the wall and into the ground far, far below. They all shot head-first to the grassy floor above them and erupted through the floor on the other side, in front of the doors to Peach's Castle. Mario walked over to the doors and tested them, to find they were locked.
"Darn!" Olivia responded. "We need the key to Peach's Castle!" She blinked a few times. "The key to Peach's Castle...why does that sound so familiar?"
"We have all these other-a keys, and we never found that one!" Mario stomped a foot.
A car honk sounded and Luigi came over, riding his kart. "Big bro! Big bro!" He jumped out and rushed over to Mario, giving his twin a quick embrace. "You know the key to Peach's Castle, right?" He fell to his hands and knees, the brim of his hat casting a dark shadow over his eyes. "I-a couldn't find it. After all of that searching, and I-a couldn't find the key to Peach's Castle..."
Stephen pulled it out of the exhaust pipe in Luigi's kart. "Here it is! The key to Peach's Castle!"
"Huh...?" Luigi gasped. "You mean that was in my-a kart this whole time?!"
"Grahaha! No wonder that thing was so slow! You had the key jammed up the exhaust pipe!"
Stephen handed the key to Luigi, who happily used it to open the door. He went inside after Mario, but everybody let him go before they entered so the twins could be together again. After entering the main room, Peach entered from the door at the top of the stairs, origami.
Olivia gasped. "No, he didn't!"
"It's so nice to see you again," she spoke, "so...nice..."
Mario shuddered. Luigi rushed ahead to save her, but fell through the carpet like Mario had done to arrive in the dungeon at the beginning of the day.
"Mariooooo!" Luigi called as he vanished from sight.
"Luigi!"
Peach paid no attention to Luigi. "Follow me." She exited the door from whence she had come.
They all made their way around the carpet to avoid being dropped to their demise like Luigi had, and made their way after the origami Princess. She stopped in front of a pair of doors that led to her throne room.
"You are of the lucky few who have been invited by King Olly himself.
"Peaches?! Why are you still folded?!" Bowser hopped closer to her.
She still paid no attention to the group. "Come and witness!"
Mario grabbed Bowser out of the air as the stairs elongated and brought them further from Peach. They began their rapid decent towards the stained-glass window of Peach in front of the castle, so Mario was forced to smash it with his hammer to prevent them from crashing through it with their bodies and getting cut by the glass. The stairs thudded against the floor, tossing Mario, Bobby, and Stephen down. Mario had dropped Bowser from the impact with the floor.
"No way," Bobby gasped.
The castle was being unfolded, the sheets swirling up to the sky.
"He wouldn't!" Bowser denied.
A giant green, origami block crashed to the floor in front of them, others following.
"Mamma mia!" Mario exclaimed in horror.
Dark clouds gathered at the peak of the highest spire, thunder crashing and casting a large shadow over them, making the castle seem even larger than before.
"He did," Stephen answered.
Olivia flinched back from surprise and worry. "An Origami Castle?!"
The blocks made the body of the castle, along with elevating it above the gaping mouth of the volcano. The steps from Peach's Castle still remained, leading up to the inaccessible bottom of the castle Olly had created.
"You didn't tell me Olly was THAT powerful!" Bowser, Bobby, and Stephen exclaimed in unison.
"I-I didn't know! Ooh, Olly! I'm going to make sure you pay for this!" Olivia started towards the stairs.
They followed her. She looked skywards, clearly not seeing any way they could enter the castle from there. Mario hammered at the floor, knowing something was bound to happen. A small white diamond that was disguised as part of the checker-patterned floor hopped up very slightly upon the hammer's contact with the ground. Picking it up and flipping it over, Mario found the symbol of a Magic Circle on its underside. Stephen found the other one, and a Magic Circle appeared.
"Ooh! Olly's getting clever, huh?" Bowser scoffed. "Great for him."
Mario reached up and grabbed onto a lose flap. He pulled it down to reveal a pair of doors. They opened, two Fire Bros. hopped out, and they slammed back shut. Mario destroyed them with the remaining time he had with the Magic Circle.
They all entered the castle and was greeted by an origami Goomba and Koopa Troopa.
"Mario's here!" The Goomba said.
"Alert King Olly!" The Koopa Troopa agreed.
They both started up the short light blue flight of stairs when Olly came from beyond the border of the group's vision.
"King Olly," the Goomba began, "Mario is-"
"You fools! You failed me! Begone with you!" With a flick of his hand, they were both tossed from the bridge and into the fortune tellers below.
"I was going to retire tomorrow..." The Goomba complained.
"Recycle me..." The Koopa Troopa argued.
Olly flicked his bangs and looked down at the group. "Excuse them, they had just started this morning. Welcome to Origami Castle, Mario. I honestly hope you enjoy it here." His angled eye's piercing gaze moved to Stephen. "Oh? So the Toads retaliate, hm? Whatever." He made eye contact with Bobby next. "Well look at that, you survived."
"I won't let you hurt ma'am again!"
"FOLD ME BACK!" Bowser demanded.
Olly shook his head. "I have other business, but I'll be sure to check up on you soon. Farewell for now, Mario." He turned and exited.
Mario rushed towards the stairs, but froze when Olly stopped.
"Oh, but I won't make this easy for you. Like Tape, I don't play fair." A purple glow came from his eye, and Mario realized that was just what happened when he had lifted Peach's Castle. What did that glow mean?
"Olly isn't acting like himself," Olivia stated. "I wonder if it had to do with Scissors' death?"
They continued.
"Why would Olly care for that thing?" Bowser asked. "I always keep spare minions ready for when one dies."
"I think it's like...Hmm, how do I say this?" Olivia tapped her chin. "You know how much you care for Junior?"
"Yeah."
"Olly, he created the Legion of Stationery. They were different than his Folded Soldiers, they had personality, they had actual life! I'll bet he was so proud of them."
"From the sound of it," Stephen entered, "he taught Scissors how to create. Scissors...besides his enjoyment in straight-up murder, he reminded me of your creator, Olivia."
Olivia froze, and they all stopped to look at her. "You're right. Olly made the Legion to replace the Origami Craftsman! Why didn't I figure that out sooner?" She slapped her hand onto her forehead. "Olly made the Legion to replace the hole in his heart from his leaving Owen! That's pretty sad...He still cares for the Origami Craftsman, even if he doesn't want to admit it."
They resumed once more. They entered a room with a red bridge that stretched nearly across the entire room. Olly returned.
"How do you like Origami Castle so far? Too easy?"
"Shuddup!" Bowser shot back. "We're doing just fine, thank you!"
Olly ignored him. "Don't worry, I hear your feedback loud and clear and will happily make adjustments!"
Olly faced the bridge and tossed about half of it aside. He did the same to a spot further along the bridge. He faced back to them.
"I happily await our next meeting, Mario." His icy gaze went back to Stephen. "But don't expect your little 'friend' to last long against what I have prepared for those Toads." He floated away.
"Creepy stare," Stephen said, shuddering. "I think I liked him better before, and I didn't even like him then!"
"Let's-a keep going," Mario said. "The more we wait around, the stronger Olly-a gets!"
"Mario makes a good point," Olivia agreed.
"Let's storm this castle!" Bobby cheered.