Chapter 12 Mario's Big Blast

The journey to the Koopa Kingdom was quite an interesting one for the Mushroom Kingdom's hero. Now, it wasn't necessarily difficult, as Mario knew the route backwards and forwards. He could traverse it in his sleep, he could take all the shortcuts and paths without so much as blinking an eye. No, actually getting to the smoggy, smelly valley that Bowser had labeled as his kingdom wasn't a difficult journey at all.

Usually. This time, however, it presented some level of danger to Mario. Whenever he made the journey in the past, he had always gone through towns occupied by toads, humans, yoshis… any creature that populated the ever expansive Mushroom Kingdom. He had been to those towns so often that the villagers had actually come to look forward to his arrival, to anticipate when he would show up and welcome him to their humble little providence with open arms.

But this was obviously different. Given the events that had transpired in Toad Town, Mario knew that these welcoming villages wouldn't be so welcome to him anymore. Sure, there was the possibility that the people there would be like Ruby, where they would be willing to let him despite the scaly body that he was now forced to occupy. However, Mario wasn't willing to take that risk. He avoided the towns, sticking so far away from them that one could easily guess that they were occupied by the most gruesome of killers. It kind of put on a damper on his spirit, made him mourn the loss of the life he once lived. At least, for a little while. When he got his bearings back under control, he told himself that this wasn't permanent. He was going to have this horrific curse removed in no time at all. He just needed to make it to Bowser, something that he was more than comfortable doing.

As such, when Mario got to the Koopa Kingdom, he actually felt relieved. He breathed in the stench of the sulfur, feeling his goal becoming closer and closer. With a pep in his step, he began the trek through the Koopa Kingdom. He immediately noticed that he wasn't as hot as before, nor was breathing that much of an issue. Now, sure, Mario had developed an immunity, or at the very least a tolerance, to the hellish temperatures of Bowser's Kingdom in his years of going on rescue missions. But as a koopa? As a koopa, those attributes of the landscape were nowhere near as bothersome. Now, instead of feeling like his skin was going to melt, it actually felt kind of… pleasant. The heat was now comparable to a day at the beach, so much so that Mario wouldn't be surprised if he would walk away from this situation with some sort of new tan. He could take anything now, even a dip in the most steamy pool of orange lava.

This made the journey a whole lot more bearable. He didn't stop for anything, even when a volcano sent spurts of lava and meteor-like debris spraying everywhere. No, he stayed dedicated and strong. He marched toward Bowser's Castle, already imagining the encounter with the fearsome Koopa King in his head. "Bowser!" he would say out loud, "this is too low even for you! You are going to remove this curse so that I can go back to my normal life in my normal body!" He would then take on Bowser, battling him in probably one of the most important battles of his life. That wasn't to say him fighting for the sake of Peach was inconsequential, but now there was so much more at stake. His life was at stake. Everything he knew and loved hung in the balance.

And somehow, that realization didn't make him feel anymore scared. If anything, it made his determination climb; top levels that he never topped before. He continued on his journey, telling himself that he could do this.

"I can do this," he even said out loud as he broke out into a jog. "This is just a trick of Bowser's. I've dealt with numerous tricks from him." Somehow, calling a life altering scenario "one of Bowser's tricks" made him feel at least marginally better about this whole debacle. "I can defeat him easily. I am, after all, Super Mario."

It was when he said that that he stopped, something sinking in. If he wanted to have an even better chance of actually beating Bowser and getting turned back into a human, he needed to at least get acquainted with the bill blaster that Ruby had so graciously given him. He pulled it out of his hammerspace (what a nifty little thing, the hammerspace was), looking at it with a mixture of awe and puzzlement. It was definitely an interesting device. No, more than interesting; it was formidable. It struck fear in Mario, even though he was the one holding it. He could cause some real damage if he used it.

Which did beg the question… how did one use a bullet bill blaster?

"Hmm." Mario said. He thought back to the one time he had seen a bullet blaster in use, during his battle against Roy Koopa in Rock Candy Mines. Roy… he had jumped before the blaster was allowed to fire. Was that the method Mario needed to use here?

Well, there was only one way to find out. Turning to look at the base of a wall-like mountain nearby, he sucked in a breath and jumped into the air. Sure enough, the bill blaster fired when his feet hit the ground. The bullet sailed forward before crashing into the mountain, causing a rumble as debris fell down.

Mario grinned. "Cool! This might be easier than I originally projected!" He remembered something else Roy did, where he ground pounded and caused bullet bills to come out of BOTH ends of the blaster. Ooh, that would be such a useful skill. One that he definitely wanted to test.

So, grinning for what was possibly the first time since being cursed, he leapt into the air while holding the blaster securely on his shoulders. When he ground pounded, it seemed like the whole kingdom shook underneath his mighty feet. But what was most important was that he had reached the goal he had been striving for. Bullet Bills came out of both ends of the blaster, sailing through the air with a speed that Mario had honestly never seen before from the enemy type.

Mario laughed out loud. "Oh, Mama Mia! I… I feel so alive!" Seriously! Not only was learning how to use this bill blaster useful, it was also fun. He had never really realized that it could bring such a satisfaction out of him when he first encountered the weapon. But then again, during that first encounter, his energy and focus had been entirely on defeating Roy in order to progress forward on his mission. Fun never really factored into that. So, getting to experience this sort of joy now… well, there was just something about it. Mario now felt strong, much stronger than he had felt previously. This strength made everything else seem small, even his curse.

"Oh man, it is going to be mightily interesting to see what this baby can do in battle," Mario said. While still holding onto the bill blaster, he continued on his trek forward. All the while, he smiled like the most devious of crooks. "If I had known how useful bill blaster could be, I probably would've attempted to use one ages ago." He stopped. "Which, does remind me…"

He thought about something, a question that he mused over and tried to answer. That being: how exactly could he get honing Bullet Bills to shoot out of the blaster? Roy had done that before (which caused way more problems for Mario than he could've ever hoped). But the thing was… how exactly had he done that? He didn't say anything out loud to the bill blaster before doing that. And, on top of that, there weren't any special buttons on the weapon itself. So, honestly, Mario was at a loss on how to do this.

Which was honestly unfortunate, because that would be a spectacular way to fight off against Bowser! Mario could picture it now; aiming the bill blaster at the mighty Koopa King and firing a red, honing bullet bill. No, not just one, but several. Could Bowser fend off against such an attack? Would he really stand a chance against multiple missiles coming toward him all at once?

The more Mario pondered over this, the more he realized that he wanted to figure out how to do it. He most definitely could; in fact, it could be argued that he needed to find out how to accomplish this task. It was the key to this whole thing, the special ingredient in the secret sauce. If he could figure out how to do this, it would give him a significant advantage. It would allow him to fight off against Bowser in a way he never had before. It would allow him to fight off against Bowser and WIN like he never had before.

So, Mario decided he would at least give it a try. He closed his eyes, thinking over how Roy had handled the bill blaster in their fight. He… ooh, he remembered something! When Roy had fired honing bill blasters, he had jumped into the air and fired the gun before he landed on the ground. Maybe that was the way to do that!

But… but that was going to be difficult, wasn't it? After all, the bullets only fired when Mario made landfall…

He shook his head. No, no, he was getting too hung up on the technicals. He would figure out how to do this. His father had taught him that, sometimes, thinking about something too hard wasn't the right way to go. No, what needed to be done was that Mario needed to try. He needed to try to do this. That would provide better results than just standing around and puzzling over everything.

So, Mario took a deep breath, letting literal steam shot out of his nose (huh. Interesting; he would make a note of that for later). He looked at this bullet bill blaster with a glare, a determined glare. The weapon was like an animal, a wild animal that Mario needed to tame. He was going to do this, he was going to figure all of this out.

With that, he jumped. He bent down before doing so, allowing himself to get much more air time than he would usually. As he did, he aimed the bill blaster forward. He focused on one spot, hoping that the weapon would fire. Surely this would be…

Oh, no. No bullet bills fired. Or at least no honing bullet bills, as some regular bullet bills shot out when Mario landed. Still though, that wasn't satisfying in the least. Shaking his head, Mario stood back up to his full height. He would do this. He could do this. Maybe… maybe he just needed to…

"Oh!" Mario exclaimed out loud. "I'll try a triple jump! Maybe that'll do it!"

So, he backed up. Taking in deep breaths, he began to run. He jumped once. Twice. On the third, he whooped and did a somersault in the air. He aimed the bill blaster forward…

But no honing bills came out.

"Mama Mia!" Mario exclaimed. "This is a lot harder than I thought it would be." He looked back at his bill blaster, frowning as he did. "But I'm not going to give up." He took another deep breath and jumped even higher. As he fell to the ground, he yelled at the top of his lungs. "COME ON!"

And then… BOOM!

Mario felt his heart beat accelerate as he landed. He even smiled as he looked up into the air, at the bullet bill that was beeping red. "YES!" He yelled. "I DID…!"

He stopped as something caught his eye; a flash of green and pink amongst the dusty, barren black. At first, he wasn't even really sure if he was seeing it. However, it was real. Really and unfortunately, what he was seeing was real. All of Mario's excitement vanished as he stared, helpless and shocked, as the honing bill traveled forward. "NO!"

BOOM!'

The honing bill had hit its target: Luigi and Princess Peach