Navigating the tower was simple, and tested the limits of Mario's confetti bag. After removing a bunch of tiny origami Goombas that behaved more like flies than mushrooms, he was able to reach the top floor.
He and Olivia had attempted to reach the spool of the streamer by taking the elevator, but three colored pencils shot through the elevator, causing it to crash and fail. He was forced to take the stairs.
Mario tested the handle on the door on the fence to the area that led to the rooftop telescopes. It was locked.
"Mamma mia! Here we go again!" Mario sighed. "Always with the-a keys and the locked doors and stuff! 'Your princess is-a in another castle'! More like my freaking keys, man!" Mario folded his arms and huffed. "Where is Luigi when you need him?"
"Um, Mario? This is probably a terrible time, but there are more of those missiles charging right at us!"
Mario looked behind him, and sure enough there was. Two of them to be precise. Mario took off running around the fence. He spotted a crack in the wall and waited for the missiles to come closer.
"M-M-Mario! What are you doing?!"
Mario moved out of the way and let the missiles crash into the wall. The wall shattered like confetti and Mario stepped through.
"Huh. That's it? I would have-a expected more..." He walked over to the latter and looked up. It needed to be lowered more...
Mario pressed the button and it started lowering as painfully slow as it possibly could. Mario looked down and saw a target below his feet. Looking up, he spotted a missile heading straight for his head.
"Ah shoot!" Mario rushed out of the way just in time, for as soon as he had left the target, the missile exploded on the ground.
More followed that one, and it kept raining more and more missles the closer the latter got to the floor. Mario was lucky to survive, and took a breather when it had stopped raining missiles once the latter clacked against the floor. Mario began his ascent. Missiles started coming rapidly from both sides as Mario had to climb faster and faster to avoid them.
The top was surprisingly peaceful. The spool of the streamer bearing Olly's insignia sat still against the calming breeze.
"Wow...my brother really wants everybody to know it was him. We have to try something to get the spool out. Any ideas?"
Mario walked under it, jumped, and wammed his fist into the streamer. It did nothing more than a small bounce. Mario faced Olivia and shrugged.
"Qu'est ce que tu crois faire?!"
"Huh? Did you hear that?"
Mario looked around. Olivia spotted two missiles coming at them from both sides, headed towards Mario.
"Mario!" She tackled him, forcing him to the floor as the two missiles bounced off each other and fell to the ground far, far below.
"Comment ça a raté?! No fair, no fair!"
Whoever was speaking had a thick french accent; something Mario never believed he would ever hear in the Mushroom Kingdom. A giant red and coal black rectangle came spinning over to them from the other side of the pillar.
It stopped, and Mario pulled Olivia out of the way as it landed with a thud. The red part popped open to reveal colored pencils on the inside, wait.
It was a colored pencils case.
And it was alive?
"So, you must be Mario. I have heard so much about you. King Olly really looks up to you, you know. Right? No? Okay."
"The pencils in its case...and he knows my brother...Hey! You're the one who did that crude drawing of that Toad! All of your other art was pretty good though..." She tapped her hands together. "But that's beside the point. You're the one who messed up the tower and ruined my dream of becoming a fancy elevator floor explainer!"
"Yes, yes. It was I, Jean-Pierre Colored Pencils the 12th, who did that artwork. I did the crude drawing based off of the explanation your brother gave to me and the rest of the Legion of Stationery!"
"Je-Jean Pi...? Leg on...? That's too long to remember! I think I'll just call you Colored Pencils, okay? Is that good?"
Colored Pencils sighed sadly. "Alas, but of course my works have been overlooked by the fellow in red...Ah and he was so fun to draw too! His pixelated origins that I love so very, very much. Red...such a fabulous color, no?"
Mario blinked at the Colored Pencils. "WhAt?! Olly looks up to-a me? Why? He's evil!"
"Ah, but your stories! They are famous!"
"Great, I'm a celebrity no matter where-a I go."
"Ferme-la, toi unidimensionnel, quête d'attention, excuse pour un héros!"
Olivia blinked at him. "I don't understand what you're saying..."
"When was the last time you even looked at an art Museum?! Probably when you were in your old days, but recently? Have you ever SEEN my works on display?! No! Because you're too busy fighting a mutant turtle to save your ex-girlfriend who, I remind you, dumped you on the moon when you could be doing much better things with your life instead of chasing after somebody who only wants you around when she needs a 'heeerooo' like you to save her!"
Olivia looked at Mario. "Wait, the moon? How did you breathe up there?!"
"Aah, the moon. The most romantic place besides Paris, France." He let out a dreamy sigh. "If only I could visit them one day...my dreams would have finally came true."
"Oof, he talks a lot."
"No I don't! How rude!" Three targets locked onto Mario. "You disrespectful flat folk! Now you'll taste the art!"
"Don't you mean music?" Olivia corrected.
"NO!"
Mario dodged two of them, and whacked the third one back towards Colored Pencils.
"Aaah!" It crashed into the other pencils, blowing them apart. "Why you-"
As Mario made his way to the Colored Pencils, it slammed its lid shut. That forced Mario back. The case wiggled side to side, then popped back open to reveal a new stache of missiles; ready for launch.
"Hehehe! You didn't think I could replenish my missiles, did you?"
"Mario, what do we do?!"
Mario repeated the same process as before, but ducked behind the case as it slammed shut.
"Eh? Where did you go?" It replenished its missiles again. "You cannot hide forever, Mario! I know you're around here somewhere!"
Mario quietly pulled out his hammer and slammed the case's lid shut on the missiles. Mario jumped on it to make sure it stayed shut. He landed in front of it.
"Aaah! I can't stop my missles! No, no! Disengage! DISENGAGE!" The Colored Pencils wiggled around aggressively as the missiles exploded inside of it, and the lid opened. Colored Pencils coughed up smoke. "Sacre bleu..."
"Wahoo!" Mario slammed his hammer repeatedly into the inside of the case, crinkling the pencil holders inside.
"No! I will not be beaten by this ruffian!"
Colored Pencils flipped the bottom of his case up, launching Mario up with it. It slammed shut on Mario's head as he fell, then tossed him at the streamer. Mario crashed into the insignia holding it still, and fluttered down to the ground. Mario jumped back up. It replenished the missiles again.
"Time to bring out the Rouleau Arc-en-ciel!" The missiles floated up into a ring shape and glew a pale yellow. "Prepare yourself, Mario!"
"That's going to hurt!" She smiled at Mario. "But it looks like it takes some energy to launch it at you, so you have a bit of time to think. But not much time, don't waste it please."
Mario whammed his hammer onto the wall under the streamer and a Magic Circle popped out. He stepped onto it and reached for the pencils.
"What is that thing? Gross! Get your weird noodle arms away from me!" He attempted to hop away, but Mario snatched the rotating pencils. "No, no! Spare me, please! King Olly will kill the Folded Soldiers if he finds out I didn't follow his orders!"
"So you can come back with your friends and destroy us later?" Mario asked. "Mmm...how about-a no?" He used as much strength as he could and smashed the pencils against the bottom of the case. Doing that caused Colored Pencils to bend out of shape, and the pencils exploded into splinters. Mario's arms returned to normal.
"A game must end, and Mario had won..." Colored Pencils began sadly. "Now it's time for my kind of fun...Where many artists have gone before, and I will lie there forevermore..." He stopped moving and his colors faded to grey. "Adieu, monde cruel..." He fell into specks of ash, most of them blowing away in the breeze.
"Oh, that was kind of sad. The poem was really well done. I wonder if he ever thought of doing poetry."
"How do we-a get rid of the streamer?" Mario started up at it. He could reach the insignia if he had the 1,000-fold arms, but he had just used all of its energy...
"Mario! Look at this!"
Mario walked over to Olivia, who was facing the small amount of ash that still remained. She turned and held out a small white triangle to Mario.
"Look!"
"It's a...triangle?" Mario poked it twice, it moving back to the center of her hands after he removed his finger both times.
"No, silly! It's energy! We can use the energy he was gathering for his attack and recharge the Magic Circle with it."
"But, doesn't the-a Magic Circle need a certain type of energy?"
"Ah! Clever, aren't you," she complemented. "This IS the energy we need. It seems that Olly used the leftover energy from the Magic Circles to keep his Legion alive. And since we killed him..."
Mario snapped his fingers, struck with realization. "He dropped the extra energy! Wahoo!"
"Yeah! We can get rid of the streamer now!"
Mario watched as Olivia carefully flew over to the Magic Circle. She moved her hands apart and guided it to the center of the circle. The energy landed on the center, and the hand symbol in the middle lit up. It started spinning slowly, and the white diamonds split off of it. When they went to their proper position, the orange lines connecting the diamonds appeared.
Olivia smiled. "I used energy. I recharged a Magic Circle." She faced Mario, happily dancing in the air. "That means I have to potential to summon one of my own!"
Mario clapped.
"Aww, stop it..." She said, her face turning red. "Anyways, let's use this Magic Circle to destroy the Red Streamer once and for all!"
Mario stepped onto it and, clenching his hands into fists, reached up for the symbol. He slid his fingers together and slammed the side of his fist against the pole. A crack appeared on the smooth surface of it, and Mario did it once more. The crack grew, and one more hit was just enough to shatter the pole and made the streamer unfurl. The red whipped past them, falling into confetti as it waved with the wind.
"Wow!" Olivia gasped. "That's actually really pretty! Look at it go!"
The streamer transformed into confetti right above them, and continued towards Peach's castle. The confetti calmly fluttered towards Mario, and a faint silver glow came from his pocket.
He pulled out the Confetti Bag.
It was indeed the item that the glow was coming from, and it was brighter now that Mario held it in his hands. A piece of confetti from the streamer floated down towards it. When it came in contact with the bag, it vanished into it. The rest of the confetti followed the example of the first one, coming towards Mario's bag.
"Wait, I don't have room for any more! Waaah!"
It flew from Mario's grasp towards the oncoming parade. After the confetti had all been cleared, it flew back to Mario and returned to his hands.
"What...?"
Olivia opened the bag and took a look inside. "It looks no different...but I think you can carry more confetti now!"
"Wahoo!"
They headed down the mountain after freeing a Toad who had been facing the wrong lens on a telescope on the top floor. Mario headed to the tram station and waved to the Toad waiting there.
"Hello, Mario! And weird...small child. Welcome to the tram station! It leads to Autumn Mountain AND Toad Town! Which area will you be headed to today?"
"Autumn Mountain, please."
"Alright, we do have somebody in there waiting to go there to, so you're both in luck! All aboard!"
Mario slid the door opened and entered the tram, completely ignoring the sleeping Bob-om sitting near the doors on the left side of the cushioned seats. Mario sat across from them, on the right side of the tram. Olivia left Mario's pocket and immediately went to the window.
"Ooh! Wow! Look, mountains here, mountains there...Mountains everywhere! Why didn't anybody tell me the world was so beautiful?" She lever left the window until the Bob-om started talking.
"You should get out more then."
Mario noticed one distinct detail about this Bob-om that set him apart from the rest: he had no fuse. Mario had never seen a dud Bob-om before; and since they actually did exist, Bowser probably scrapped them.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice you there. Were you asleep? I didn't meant to wake you up."
"No it's fine, ma'am."
"Ma'am? No, I'm Olivia! It's nice to meet you. What's your name? This is Mario."
"Me? Well, I'm Bob-om...And that's pretty much all I remember." The Bob-om kicked his foot as he leaned further into the seat. "You know that thing when you can't remember anything? Asthma? Anemone? Thinky-thinky panic? Whatever it is, I've got it big time."
"You have AMNESIA?" Olivia gasped. "Oh, that's terrible!"
"I'm out on a journey to remember well, anything. That's why I'm here."
"We're heading to Autumn Mountain to find a streamer that my brother used to kidnap Princess Peach's castle."
The Bob-om's eyes widened with surprise. "Wow. You REALLY need to get out more. If Peach's castle was lifted into the sky, I would have heard something about it."
"Oh, you must be the one who has to go outside then! Mario, Squareser, and I all watched as Olly did so."
"'Squareser'?"
Olivia nodded. "He says his name is Bowser but he's just a mean, scary face."
"The tram has almost arrived at your destination," the voice in the speaker announced.
"Aww, that means we're going to separate. Unless, Bombert, you want to join us?"
"It's Bob-om. Also, why would I join you guys?"
"Well, we can help you find your memories, and make some new ones along the way! What do you say?"
"No, I'm good. It's kind of my 'discovering who you are' kind of thing. That means I'm on a solo mission."
"Oh. Okay then! You made some pretty great points, and you made up your mind about this already. Have fun!" Olivia returned to the window.
Bob-om closed his eyes again. Mario watched as he opened one of them, moved slightly closer to Olivia, then close it again. He repeated that process two more times, but kept his eye open on the last one.
"Um...ma'am? Is that offer still up? You know, to join you guys? I'm heading places I don't remember if I went to before and if the story about the streamers is true, I could help you get rid of it. If it's still up, anyways."
Olivia turned, her hair whipping of to the side. "Really? You really want to come with us?"
"Yes. No, definitely. No, absolutely." The Bob-om agreed.
"What do you say, Mario? Can he come with us?"
"I don't see why-a not."
"Yay! We have a buddy! Now this will be a lot more fun! Wahoo!"
