In this chapter, our heroes will go on a rollercoaster ride!
I don't enjoy them personally.
I still think a rollercoaster level is fine in a video game though.
And I do like the rollercoaster sequence from Emperor's New Groove.
For some reason, one of the tower levels in New Super Mario Bros. U is actually a cave.
It's kind of weird.
My sister seems to like them though.
Chapter 48: Rollercoaster Ride
Our heroes saw another tower in the distance.
"How many towers does this world have?" asked Jessica.
"That last tower was actually a cavern level. I know, it's a bit confusing." noted a Fright Knight.
Mario shrugged.
The boss of the upcoming tower level was Queen Ferz.
She was a female cyclops. And yes, Cyclopes were not a one gender race. Just as slimes also came in different genders.
Since they wanted to reach the tower, our heroes prepared to do the next level.
Thrilling Spine Coaster
As the name implied, the level featured a rollercoaster.
"Is that a rollercoaster?" asked Jessica.
Indeed, it was.
And for some reason, it was made out of bones.
This gave it a creepy look.
One could only wonder who had designed that rollercoaster. Perhaps it was the Dry Bones.
"I guess we need to ride it in order to get to the flagpole." noted Bianca.
She wasn't sure how else they would cross the pit that was full of poison.
"I find it scary." spoke Luigi.
But if it was necessary to complete the level, he would ride it. He had braved haunted mansions to rescue his brother, after all. And a haunted hotel.
Alistair whimpered.
"Funny, the story doesn't seem to have featured you for a while." noted Jessica.
The author forgets about characters sometimes.
Our heroes boarded the rollercoaster and it moved across the track.
Some monsters decided to ride the rollercoaster as well.
It seemed they wanted in on the action.
Some Terrorhawks attacked the heroes.
They had sharp talons, and sharp beaks.
And they also had flaming hot breath.
But ice magic could stop them in their tracks.
There were also Fright Knights.
As their name implied, they were frightening.
They were also undead, and rather strong enemies. Their armor also provided protection from the hero's attacks.
Unfortunately, because they were undead, knocking them off the rollercoaster and into the pit of poison would not work.
But healing magic did work against them.
Our heroes encountered a King Metal Slime…
…who ended up falling into the pit of poison.
"Whoops!" exclaimed the king. It seemed he too did not watch where he was going.
They ended up receiving lots of experience.
Luck really was on their side.
Hopefully it wouldn't run out.
Some Cockateers appeared.
These chickens did not chicken out of a fight.
And they wielded sharp swords, which they were proficient with.
Luckily, they could use fire to make fried chicken.
As it turned out, the boss of the level was the Trap Box.
It seemed appropriate considering that it was a skeleton and the level featured a skeletal rollercoaster. Though it was also a treasure chest monster.
Angelo remembered fighting it before in order to collect the Venus's Tear.
The Trap Box tossed bombs at our heroes.
The party scrambled to avoid them.
"I don't remember it doing that before." noted Angelo.
Though to be fair, a lot of their previous foes had gotten upgrades.
Alistair swallowed one of the bombs, then spat it out at the Trap Box.
The Trap Box was stunned.
"Well done, Alistair!" applauded Jessica.
Alistair smiled.
He was glad that he could help.
Our heroes took the opportunity to attack it a few times.
But eventually, the Trap Box was ready to attack again.
The Trap Box was capable of performing magic.
So our heroes had to be prepared for group attacks.
Like Crackle, for instance.
"That's cold." remarked Jade.
Luckily, she had a reasonable amount of health.
If there was one thing she was good at, it was tanking hits.
The Trap Box summoned Canniboxes to aid it.
They attempted to sink their teeth into our heroes.
If there was one thing Canniboxes were known for other than their habit of disguising themselves as treasure chests, it was their sharp teeth.
Jessica found herself running low on mana after casting Kaboom on them.
Perhaps she needed to have a beverage to get it back up.
So she switched with Wario.
Wario farted and stunned the Trap Box once again.
Alistair gagged.
Jade then finished off the Trap Box with a kick to the face.
Lucky for her, that was a critical hit.
Though critical hits were her speciality. She was great for taking on metal enemies.
The Trap Box was defeated.
Oddly enough, it did not drop the Venus Tear.
But it did drop a generous amount of gold.
Wario began to do a dance.
"When you're done dancing, maybe you could pull the flagpole." suggested Jade.
"Huh? Of course." nodded Wario.
He pulled on the flagpole.
Meanwhile, in the Beanbean Kingdom…
Prince Peasley decided to contact his mother.
"How is your progress?" asked Queen Bean.
"We managed to obtain one of the Beanstar pieces." explained Peasley.
"Very good. But be careful, there have been reported UFO sightings in the area lately." noted the queen.
And yes, they had been making crop circles.
"UFO sightings? What is going on?" questioned Ashlynn.
It sounded like this adventure was about to get crazier. Though Superstar Saga was already kind of a crazy game. People likely remembered Fawful from it.
Perhaps Bowser wasn't the only one trying to invade the Beanbean Kingdom. Aside from Fawful and Cackletta, of course.
Sure enough, our heroes encountered some Shroobs while searching for the second Beanstar piece.
They bore a vague resemblance to Toads, but they were purple in color. And they looked scary.
"Aliens!" exclaimed Ruff.
It seemed they were real after all.
In the world of Mario, anyways.
Unfortunately, the Shroobs did not come in peace.
As soon as they saw the heroes, they opened fire on them.
It was a shame they weren't like the friendly Lumas from Super Mario Galaxy. All they wanted were Star Bits to eat.
Luckily, these aliens were not so tough.
Their technology was definitely an improvement over the technology that the Koopa Troop had though. You didn't see the Koopa Troopas flying around in saucers.
Though considering some of them had wings, maybe they didn't need flying saucers.
Anyways, they wondered if Professor E. Gadd could help them fight the aliens.
Scientists seemed to be of big help when fighting aliens.
Perhaps he was at his coffee shop, assuming it wasn't closed as a result of the crisis.
For some reason, it seemed that all Shroobs were evil.
Why did they all share the same morality?
None of the species that made the Koopa Troop always had the same morality. There were good and evil members of those species.
Though to be fair, they seemed to be operating on a "Shroob shall not harm Shroob" mentality.
"Ouch!" exclaimed a Shroob who had been shot by another Shroob.
"Sorry!" apologized another Shroob.
But perhaps they could wonder about their morality after they were finished fighting them.
"Help!" exclaimed a Bean.
He was being abducted by the Shroobs!
And yes, they were using their tractor beams.
"Holy mushrooms!" exclaimed Captain Toad, his hands pressed against his head.
They could only wonder what the Shroobs were planning with them.
Well, now they had another reason to fight the aliens. To keep the citizens of the Beanbean Kingdom safe.
Aside from the Shroobs, there were also Shrooblets.
It seemed these were young Shroobs.
Unlike the bigger Shroobs, they lacked the ray guns.
This did not mean they weren't threatening, however.
And there were Junior Shrooboids. They seemed smaller in number compared to the other Shroobs.
But they were bigger in size.
Our heroes discovered the second Beanstar piece.
It was in the possession of a tailor named Harhall.
"Are you here to buy from me?" asked the Beanish tailor.
Luckily, his shop was not being disturbed by the aliens.
It seemed they had directed their attention elsewhere at the moment.
He didn't seem to be getting a lot of customers, however. The Beans were currently hiding so the Shroobs did not find them.
They actually found the Shroobs scarier than the Koopa Troop themselves.
"We're here for the Beanstar piece, actually." explained Prince Peasley.
"Oh, that." answered Harhall.
Harhall directed them to where he was painting some shirts.
"Help me design some shirts, and it's yours." instructed Harhall.
Our heroes nodded. That seemed fair.
He had some Designbombs for this purpose.
They came in six different varieties. Three of which were the primary colors. The other three were different patterns.
Fortunately, the Designbombs were simple to use. They knew which colors made which color.
So it didn't take long for our heroes to finish their task.
They showed the shirts to Harhall.
"We made some designs!" exclaimed Maya.
She hoped that he would be happy with them.
Fortunately, he was.
"Marvelous! I think you've helped me enough. I'll go get you your reward." spoke Harhall.
Though he wondered how many shirts he would be able to sell given what was happening in the Beanbean Kingdom. It was crazy.
Looking at Maya, he wondered if he should start making swimsuits. Maya seemed to enjoy wearing them.
Harhall grabbed the Beanstar piece and prepared to hand it to the heroes. A deal was a deal.
Ashlynn wondered why she wasn't facing a boss for it.
She had faced a boss over a Beanstar piece before.
As it turned out, they were going to face a boss.
Suddenly, Bowser Jr. swiped the Beanstar piece.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed Bowser Junior.
"You again!" exclaimed Alena.
"I got the Beanstar piece!" shouted Junior. His father would definitely be happy. Though he did note his father would be even happier if he managed to find all four.
He got the feeling that the heroes had one of the Beanstar pieces themselves, however. So that made his search easier.
"I guess we're going to have to chase after him." noted Meena.
"Let's spank him!" exclaimed Ashlynn.
He retreated on his airship.
Luckily, our heroes had experience infilitrating one.
However, it was better defended than before.
Bowser Junior had learned his lesson from the last time our heroes had boarded his airship.
This time he was going to make extra sure that the heroes didn't win.
Some Big Tail Goombas appeared.
"More Tanoombas?" asked Alena.
"No. We're a completely different species of Goomba." answered one of the Big Tail Goombas.
Some Bristles appeared as well.
These enemies were covered in spikes, and had decent defense.
However, it was safe to attack them from a distance.
And there were also Bomb Boos.
These Boos had a tendency to explode.
Did Boos decide to possess Bob-Ombs by any chance?
Anyways, it was best to keep their distance when fighting them.
However, as Boos, they could be rather sneaky.
So they needed to stay alert.
Bowser Junior was in an arena, looking forward to his rematch.
However, he had decided to equip his Koopa Klown Car with boxing gloves this time.
It seemed he had been inspired by Alena's fighting style.
Our heroes took care not to be hit by the boxing gloves.
Those packed…a punch.
Bowser Junior summoned some Broozers to aid him.
It seemed appropriate since they also had boxing gloves.
Ashlynn launched a fireball at Bowser Junior.
But he flew away from it.
"Nah nah!" exclaimed Bowser Junior.
Unfortunately for him, tempting fate caused Alena to leap on top of him.
"Ow!" shouted the young Koopa.
He pounded the arena with his mechanical boxing gloves in retaliation.
Ashlynn fired another fireball.
This time, she hit the Klown Kopter.
The Klown Kopter took some damage.
Ruff headbutted one of the Broozers, taking him down.
He then leapt on top of Bowser Junior.
Bowser Junior was knocked off his Klown Kopter.
"Oof!" exclaimed Junior.
But he wasn't defeated just yet.
Bowser Junior pulled out a paintbrush.
"What's he going to do with that paintbrush?" questioned Kiryl.
They were about to find out.
Bowser Junior used his paint brush to create monsters that were made out of goop.
It looked like he was taking a page from Super Mario Sunshine.
Though he wasn't fighting the heroes in a goopy swimming pool.
"Things just got a bit more complicated." noted Ashlynn.
The Proto Piranhas he summoned fired projectiles at them.
Was there a way to take them down?
Luckily, Captain Toad found they were vulnerable when they opened their mouths.
He tossed water bottles when their mouths were open.
This caused them to disappear into white smoke.
"Grrr!" exclaimed Junior. There went his reinforcements.
If only they weren't weak to water.
Kiryl then jabbed him with his spear.
"Ouch!" shouted the Koopa.
Ruff threw some rocks at him.
"Ow!" exclaimed Bowser Junior.
Now he was angry.
Bowser Junior fired a ball of electric goop at our heroes.
It was similar to the goop used to create Phantamanta.
Luckily, it seemed he did not have enough paint to summon it or the heroes would encounter a lot of problems.
"Yeow!" exclaimed Kiryl.
"Hahaha!" laughed Bowser Junior.
But he was punched by Ruff.
"Oof!" shouted the son of the Koopa King.
Alena finished him off using Firebrand.
"I lost again? How can this be?" asked Bowser Junior. He was sure he had the heroes this time.
Every time he fought against a hero (or multiple heroes in this case), he ended up losing. Though his plan to frame Mario for polluting Isle Delfino had worked pretty well.
"If it makes you feel better, you did better than before." noted Alena.
"I guess." answered Bowser Junior. But he couldn't make his dad proud of him if he lost.
Though his father also had a losing streak when it came to Mario. He had a habit of falling into lava. Maybe he could reconsider having his castle be filled with the molten stuff.
It looked like it was time for him to retreat once again.
"We got the second Beanstar piece!" cheered Ashlynn.
"That's great, but what are we going to do about the aliens?" asked Peasley.
They were abducting the citizens of the Beanbean Kingdom.
They had to save them.
"You're right. We do need to do something about them." nodded Alena in agreement. Collecting the Beanstar pieces was going to have to wait.
"But where are they taking them?" asked Maya.
They could try following the Shroob saucers, but they were rather fast.
And there was the risk of being abducted by them.
So perhaps they should come up with a different plan.
"Maybe I can use my nose to sniff them out." answered Ruff.
It certainly was proving to be useful.
Queen Bean contacted her son.
"Prince Peasley! I have terrible news!" exclaimed Queen Bean.
"What happened?" asked Peasley.
"Lady Lima was abducted by the Shroobs!" shouted the queen of the Beanbean Kingdom.
It was all over the news.
"She was?!" shouted the prince.
Now they definitely wanted to start a rescue operation. Lady Lima was like an aunt to Prince Peasley.
Luckily, Ruff managed to track them down.
It turned out that the Shroobs had located themselves at a factory in the Chucklehuck Woods.
The factory in question was rather ominous in appearance.
"I'm scared." noted Ruff.
"As am I. But we can't leave the Beanish people to their fate." answered Captain Toad. Otherwise they wouldn't be heroes, now would they?
Who knows what they were doing to the Beans in there?
Taking a deep breath, our heroes entered the factory.
They could see some Beans inside some tanks.
It seemed they were having the Vim being sucked out of them.
It was rather disturbing.
Inside the factory were two Hammer Brothers.
They were under mind control.
And they were guarding the factory from intruders.
It seemed the Shroobs had that technology. Which wasn't a surprise given what else they had.
If our heroes wanted to infiltrate the factory, they would have to get past them first.
It was time to fight.
Did you like how I featured the Shroobs?
I'm featuring a lot of Mario enemies.
So I figured the Shroobs wouldn't be an exception.
What's that? Are the Shroobs going to be defeated by baby tears?
Well, none of the party members are babies. Though Captain Toad does kind of look like one. I think it's funny that the Shroobs are weak to baby tears though.
I might feature Princess Shroob, though I don't intend this to be a dark fic. And she's one of the darkest Mario villains in my opinion.
Not even her sister seems quite as bad as she is.
Anyways, I figured I would have our heroes take a break from collecting the Beanstar pieces.
Keep in mind that the next chapter is going to be spooky.
One can only hope that they can save Lady Lima and the abducted Beans from the Shroobs.