In this chapter, Alena, Kiryl, and Peasley will fight Larry.

I hope you like this chapter! As usual.

Chapter 12: Larry Situation

"Are you-a ready to go?" asked Luigi.

Mario nodded.

"Wait, hold on. There's a sign up ahead." noted Jessica.

"FOUR HEROES ONLY PER LEVEL." read the sign.

"I guess this kingdom has a party restriction." spoke the sorceress.

To be fair, that was how things worked in her world as well. Though you could swap out party members in case one ran out of MP. Or if you wanted a party member for a specific situation.

"I guess someone's going to have to sit this one out." noted Peach. Luckily, they could have four party members instead of three. That would make things easier for them.

"I guess I could take a break." spoke Angelo. He wanted to take some time and relax, anyways.

"It would be nice to venture with my brother and the princess." remarked Mario.

The four of them ventured into the first level of the third world.

Waterspout Beach

Unsurprisingly, there were multiple water spouts in this level.

However, they were not dangerous.

Oddly enough, despite what the name of the level implied, there were not whales in the area.

Some Orcs showed up.

And they were all wielding spears.

One of them let out a snort.

Perhaps they had decided to go on vacation. But then again, they were prepared for a fight.

"I remember them from the hunting grounds." noted Jessica.

"Hunting grounds?" asked Peach.

"I went hunting for lizards once." explained the magician. Of course, lizards were by no means the only monsters that lived there.

"Lizards, you say?" questioned Luigi.

"Yeah. We were looking for Argon Hearts for a prince. A prince by the name of Charmles. But as it turns out he was a spoiled brat who decided to cheat his way through his test." continued Jessica.

"He sounds bad." noted Peach.

"Yeah. Makes us wonder why we decided to help him claim the throne. Oh wait, that's right. We needed a magic mirror for our quest." recalled the sorceress. Otherwise, how else were they supposed to get into the Dark Ruins?

"I'd hate to imagine-a what somebody like that would-a be like once they claimed the throne-a." remarked Luigi.

"Luckily. You don't have to. The king decided to choose my friend as the heir instead." explained Jessica.

"Whew!" exclaimed the plumber in green. Hopefully he would be a better successor to the throne than Prince Charmles was.

"Are you going to fight us or are you going to just stand there talking?" asked one of the Orcs.

"Whoops! Sorry!" apologized Luigi.

"It's fine. But aren't you on a quest to fight our lord?" reminded said Orc. It didn't seem like something they should forget about.

"It's true, we are." confirmed Jessica. They had defeated two of his generals, and with some luck would defeat his third.

Mario leapt on an Orc.

But he poked him in retaliation.

"Ow!" shouted the plumber in red.

"Okey dokey?" asked Luigi.

Mario nodded.

"Thanks for asking!" exclaimed the older of the Mario Brothers.

Some Crabids emerged from the sand.

'It figures that this world would feature crab enemies." noted Jessica.

"What can we say? We like the sand!" explained one of the crabs.

"Me too." nodded Mario. Though he did admit that he had already been to a desert world.

One of them tossed a pebble at Mario.

He ducked underneath it.

Luigi hammered one with his hammer.

"Ouch!" exclaimed the Crabid.

"Why do you drool so much?" asked Luigi.

"There's delicious food here!" explained the crab.

"I understand." spoke the plumber. He did drool a bit when Daisy baked him a cake. Though cakes seem to be Peach's speciality.

Peach whacked an Orc with a frying pan.

He was left dizzy.

Some Platypunks showed up.

"Wazzup!" exclaimed one of the Platypunks.

Luckily, they weren't very strong.

They could ambush them from the water, however. They were semi-aquatic.

Mario hammered one that came out from the water.

"You got me!" exclaimed a Platypunk.

Some Man O' Wars appeared.

It seemed they were related to the Healslimes.

"Be careful. They can paralyze you." warned Jessica.

She certainly didn't want her teammates to be defenseless, that was for sure.

Though Peach had learned a spell that could cure paralysis.

Luigi hammered them away.

Some Bag o' Laughs showed up as well.

One of the bags let out a laugh…which wasn't a big surprise.

Given how common they were in Dragon Quest, it seemed only a matter of time before they appeared in this fanfic.

"Careful. They have a dance that can drain your MP." warned Jessica.

"Oh a-no!" exclaimed Mario. He wouldn't be able to fight well without his mana.

One of them prepared to do just that.

But Jessica hit them with Sizz.

"Who's laughing now?" asked Jessica.

The boss of the level was a Merman.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to cut your trip to the beach short!" exclaimed the Merman.

"Aw man!" pouted Mario.

He was hoping to enjoy himself.

Jessica once recalled Tavian fighting a merman over a crystal ball.

The Merman attacked with sharp claws.

Luckily, Luigi's Thunderhand worked well against him.

"Ouch!" exclaimed the sea monster.

It looked like he was at a disadvantage. They had figured out his weakness.

Well, he wasn't going to give up easily.

Unsurprisingly, he had a Waterspout attack.

"Mamamia!" exclaimed Luigi.

He ducked underneath the water.

He then shot water at Jessica.

"Ouch!" exclaimed the mage.

Perhaps he was trying to put out her flames.

Luigi finished off the Merman with Thunderhand.

"I lost? That's a shock." remarked the Merman.

"Was the pun intended?" asked Jessica.

"Maybe?" answered the sea monster.

After the battle, Mario received a gift from Professor E. Gadd.

He examined it curiously.

As it turned out, it was FLUDD.

"I am FLUDD. Glad to reunite with you." greeted the machine. It seemed this fanfic was a sort of sequel to Super Mario Sunshine.

"It talks?" questioned Jessica.

"I heard you were on a quest to defeat the Dragonlord, so I figured this would come in handy!" exclaimed Professor E. Gadd.

Mario noted to himself that the enemies in this area would probably resist water.

But then again, perhaps this would be useful in the future. Like in case of a fire emergency.

He just wished that E. Gadd had sent it to him during the desert world.

"Is this from a friend?" asked Jessica.

Mario nodded. He had been to his coffee shop in the Beanbean Kingdom.

Our heroes noticed that there was a King Squid in a tower up ahead.

It reminded Mario of the Cheep Chomps he sometimes encountered in water levels. He had to be careful not to become fish food when he encountered one. There was a church that could bring him back in those sorts of situations, but what was the point of taking unnecessary risks?

"If he's a king, why isn't he in a castle?" asked Jessica. All the other kings seemed to be in one. Like King Trode, for example.

"Actually, I'm a queen." explained the queen. "And I'm content with this tower." Though if Gracos invited her to her castle, she would pay her a visit.

And yes, this descendant of Gracos was female. Not all of his descendants were male.

"Really? Perhaps they need to change the name of that particular type of monster." noted Angelo.

Meanwhile, Alena, Kiryl, and Peasley fought their way past more Koopa Troopas. They were getting close to the summit.

This time, they were joined by their flying counterparts.

"This makes going up the mountain so much easier!" exclaimed a Koopa Paratroopa.

"I wish I had wings." wished a Koopa Troopa from down below. It would be so cool to fly across the clouds.

The Parakoopas dive bombs them, but could be jumped upon when they did so.

As it turned out, some of the Dry Bones had wings as well.

They were known as Parabones.

"Flying like this lets us live a little." noted one of the Parabones.

"I'm fine on the ground, thanks." said a Dry Bones.

They tossed bones at them from above.

Alena hit them with a high jump kick.

There were also Goomba Towers.

Since they were stacked together, it was harder to jump on them. Perhaps they had watched Luigi and Mario stack on top of each other to perform their techniques.

"Good idea. Increase your chances of victory by working together." remarked Alena. That was what she was doing.

"Didn't you defeat the king though?" asked a Goomba on the top. He wasn't sure that they could win. Even if they were working as a trio.

"It's true, we did." noted Peasley.

"That's really impressive! Well, maybe not too impressive." admitted the Goomba in the middle.

The Goomba Towers charged at them, but hitting them hard enough caused them to topple like dominoes.

Our heroes reached the top of the mountain.

Alena decided to examine the kingdom from above.

"It's a pretty big kingdom, isn't it?" asked the princess rhetorically.

"It is. But we should do some sightseeing after we defeat Bowser." reminded Peasley.

"I know that. I wasn't planning to look for long." explained Alena.

Larry was sitting on a throne.

"So, you've come to stop me, haven't you?" asked Larry.

"We sure have!" exclaimed Alena.

"Alright then. I'm going to send you back to the village!" exclaimed the Koopaling.

He pulled out his wand.

The trio got into a fighting stance.

Larry launched a teal fireball from his wand.

"Be careful!" warned Alena. It looked as if they were up against a spellcaster this time.

Despite his small size, he appeared to be stronger than the Goomba King as well.

Kiryl blocked the fireball with his shield.

Alena then leapt on top of the Koopaling.

She wasn't sure why jumping was so effective against so many of the Bowser Baddies.

But she decided not to question it.

"Ow!" exclaimed Larry. How many times was that going to happen to him?

Well, he was going to fight back against the heroes.

He tucked into his shell and dashed towards them.

"Ow!" shouted Alena.

Kiryl cast a healing spell on Alena.

"Thanks." thanked the princess.

She knew that she could count on him.

Larry decided to summon some allies to assist him.

He was outnumbered three to one, so he figured that he should even the odds.

In this case, they were Koopa Troopas.

They appeared in puffs of teal smoke.

"For Larry!" exclaimed one of the Troopas.

The Koopa Troopas began to attack them.

Luckily, they already had experience fighting them.

Peasley slashed one with his sword, then redirected his shell towards Larry.

"Whoa!" exclaimed the Koopaling.

Fortunately for him, he managed to dodge the attack.

He then launched another fireball at Peasley in retaliation.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Peasley.

However, Alena jumped on him in retaliation.

"Ow!" shouted Larry.

Once more, he rolled into his shell.

Luckily, our heroes were better prepared this time.

However, Larry then sent a tornado at them.

It seemed this time he was using stronger magic.

This made Kiryl and Peasley dizzy.

"Hahaha! Never mess with a Koopaling!" exclaimed Larry.

However, he lost track of Alena.

"Where'd the girl go?" asked the Koopa with blue hair.

Suddenly, Alena leapt on him.

Larry fell on the floor.

"What? I lost? This isn't fair!" shouted the Koopaling.

In his mind, he should have won. He shouldn't lose to a bunch of losers.

"It looks like you underestimated us!" exclaimed Peasley.

"No matter. The other Koopalings will avenge me!" assured Larry. He had faith in them. Though they never seemed to be able to defeat Mario. Did he have a weakness?

Alena pressed the self-destruct button on the cannon.

She wasn't sure why it had it, but she decided not to question it.

The cannon exploded.

"We should tell the villagers." suggested Alena.

Sure enough, the villagers were happy they destroyed the cannon.

"You defeated the Koopas! Cheers to you!" exclaimed a Hoohooligan. He was glad that he had faith in them.

"I'm glad we could pull it off." noted the princess.

Kiryl was relieved to not be mountain climbing anymore. Though he was proud of himself for doing it in the first place.

"By the way, Larry said that the other Koopalings would avenge him." acknowledged Alena. That worried her a bit.

"We'll need to keep an eye out for them. Including Larry, there are seven of them." answered Peasley.

"It's going to be a challenge to defeat them all." thought the princess out loud.

Meanwhile…

At a secret lair stationed under Beanbean Castle Town, Morton had heard bad news.

"Morton! Larry has fallen!" shouted a Koopa Troopa.

"He has? How Larry lose?" asked Morton. He had Koopa Troopas for protection. Did they slack on their jobs? Bowser hated it when his troops did that.

"It seems three heroes took him down." explained the Koopa.

It looked as if the invasion of the Beanbean Kingdom was not going according to plan.

It seemed they were experiencing some resistance.

"Morton shall take them down!" exclaimed the big Koopa.

He was the biggest of the Koopalings.

If anyone could defeat the heroes, it was him.

But for the time being, he would focus on invading Beanbean Castle Town.

After all, was it not the capital of the Beanbean Kingdom?

The castle was currently being protected by the royal guard.

They had heard that Bowser and his minions had come to the kingdom.

So they were patrolling the town.

But Morton figured that he could handle them.

If he could conquer Beanbean Castle Town, the rest of the kingdom would surely follow.

Bowser would be so proud of him.

The heroes managed to defeat one of the Koopalings! Hooray!

But there are still six of them out there.

I guess it's a bit early to celebrate.

Where are the others? You'll find out…eventually. Though of course you already know where Morton is.

And yes, they're being faced earlier than they were in Superstar Saga. In the original they all appeared near the end of the game.

But I decided to change that. I don't think the Koopalings are strictly endgame material. Though I just might feature them again in the final dungeon.