Chapter 28 Queen Under Fire

The great and mighty witch Cackletta stared Peach down like she was a cat and Peach was a mouse. Peach's entire body quaked as she looked at Cackletta and her henchman. Her mind raced as she remembered the sequence of events that led to her knowing Cackletta, that led to her going on the adventure that led her to this kingdom. She wanted to collapse. She probably would have if Luigi wasn't there.

Thankfully, he was. And the queen had to admit that what he did next impressed her. Luigi stepped forward, staring down Cackletta and Fawful with a fearless look on his face. And when she said fearless, she MEANT fearless. He stared down this powerful, nasty, evil witch like none of the previous adjectives applied to her. He stared her down like HE was the cat and SHE was the mouse.

"So you're the people who caused Queen Peach so much trouble." He took a step forward. Half of Peach wanted to tell him to start backing away, but the other half was so impressed by his bravery that she was willing to trust him. She ultimately listened to the second half as Luigi continued talking to Cackletta. "You are not welcome here, Cackletta! I suggest you get out of here before we give you and your sidekick a world of hurt!"

"Sidekick!" Fawful yelled. "SIDEKICK! Does the great and mighty Fawful appear like the side who kicks! No! He is brilliant! He is awesome! He is handsome."

Cackletta sniffed and gave Fawful a sideways glance. "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, buddy." She looked back down toward her opponents, the wicked smile returning to her face in its purest form. "But I must say, dear Luigi, you are absolutely ADORABLE! You think you stand even a little bit of a chance against someone like me!" She locked her eyes on Peach and held out her hand. A squeezing sensation could be felt around her torso, causing her to gasp. She only grew more frightened as Cackletta raised her into the air. Both she and Fawful cackled. "I've been looking everywhere for you, my sweet little princess!"

Peach gritted her teeth. "I'm the queen!"

"No, you're not!" Cackletta said as she sneered. "Queens are wise. Queens are smart and make the best decisions. And, above all else, queens are significantly less pathetic than princesses." Cackletta chuckled. "You, my dear, are a princess."

Peach felt a pang. Perhaps she should feel angry at these words, as well as more motivated to fight off against someone who insulted her with such callousness. But honestly, she couldn't fight. Those words hit way too close to home. As such, Peach tried to keep back tears. She really didn't want Cackletta and Fawful to see her crying, but… honestly, she couldn't really control that at this point. Especially since, after everything that she went through, it would seem that her trip to the Mushroom Kingdom was going to be all for naught. She held her head, expecting Cackletta to blast her with some sort of magic when…

"NO!"

A fireball shot toward Cackletta, hitting her directly in the chest. Cackletta screamed blue bloody murder, causing her to drop Peach. As Fawful and Cackletta were frantically trying to put out the fire, Peach looked towards Luigi. She gawked when she saw a fireball in his hands as he wore clothes that looked significantly different than he had worn less than two minutes ago.

"Your Highness!" Luigi gestured toward her with the hand that wasn't holding the fireball. "Come here!"

Peach didn't need to be told twice. She scrambled over to Luigi, unable to take her eyes off him and his fireball.

"Did… did you use a fire flower?"

"I did." Luigi smirked and chuckled. "It's the most effective method to fight off against enemies." He jumped HIGH into the air and fired more fireballs at Cackletta and Fawful. For the first few hits, Cackletta screamed in pain, just like she had before.

Unfortunately, after the first few hits, Cackletta got smart. Using her magic, she formed a force field around the magic disc she and Fawful stood on. All the fireballs that were aimed at it bounced off its surface, causing Luigi's eyes to grow wide.

"Ha HA!" Cackletta sneered at her opponents. "Looks like you have no way to fight me!"

"Indeed!" Fawful giggled. "You are the lobsters who've been thrown into the pot!"

With the same sneer on her face, Cackletta chanted a spell, causing arcane blasts to expel from her body. Unlike Luigi's fireballs, these weren't impeded by the force field in any way, so they sailed all over the front yard of President Mario's castle. Peach and Luigi shrieked, putting their hands to their heads to avoid getting hit. They also ran, which did help them out. And this was a marvelous plan, as some of the inanimate objects that the blasts hit turned to stone. Peach's eyes grew wide when she saw this, and she and Luigi picked up the pace. They jumped out of the way of the blasts, getting a few EXTREMELY close calls. The two bolted toward Toad Town. Peach's breath started running out, but she didn't care. She didn't stop until she and Luigi ducked behind a Toad house, away from the view of Cackletta.

And very fortunately, since they were no longer visible to her, Cackletta stopped firing the petrification blasts. This would've brought Peach some relief if not for one thing; Cackletta and Fawful started searching for the two of them. Peach heard a whizzing sound as the magical disc they rode sailed through the air.

"Come on out, Princess Peach!" Cackletta said in a sing-song voice. "You can't hide forever!"

"That you can't do the doing!" Fawful said. "You want to hide from Mighty Fawful and Amazing Cackletta? You are the fool! Foolish you be!"

Peach started shaking all over again. She and Luigi crawled across the ground, heading for a bush that rested right next to the Toad house's wall. They concealed themselves right in the nick of time, as Cackletta and Fawful sailed through the air. They didn't pay much attention to the bush, instead passing it out while calling Peach's name in the same sing-song, condescending tone. Peach let out a breath and put her hand to her chest.

"Thank Grambi," she whispered to herself. She looked toward Luigi. "What do we do now?"

Luigi hesitated, which was such a scary contrast to how brave and sure of himself he had been earlier. "I'm honestly not sure. Cackletta is a powerful opponent; no doubt about that." His shoulders slumped. "I hate to say it, but I think I underestimated her before."

Like the advisor's shoulders, Peach's heart sank. "Yeah…" she shook some more. "But we need to do something! We can't hide in this bush forever! Even if Cackletta and Fawful don't find us…" Peach's fear escalated as something occurred to her, as a thought she stored in her head took on a fully realized form. "Even if they don't find us, they're probably going to set their sights on President Mario! He is our best ally right now, and if Cackletta realizes that, she's going to do everything in her power to bring him down!"

Luigi sighed. "As if my brother hasn't faced death enough over the course of his presidency…" he took in a breath. "You're right. We need to do something." He put his hand to his chin. "I think the best bet we have is to use power-ups. If we can hit her with a power-up that she isn't expecting, that could catch her off guard and make her and Fawful retreat." His face fell. "Unfortunately, the fire flower I used earlier was the only one I had on me…"

Peach nodded. She was just about to express disappointment when she remembered something. Specifically, the end of her meeting with Tolstar. Taking her backpack off her back, she opened it up and looked through the power-ups. She smiled when she saw the colorful plants, untouched since she had stored them there.

"I think I got us covered." She gestured for Luigi to look in her bag, and when he did, he let out a happy gasp.

"Oh! Awesome! Those are some powerful power-ups! And… wait." Luigi reached into the bag, pulling out the mega mushroom. He gawked at it in the most exciting way possible. "Oh my goodness! You got a mega mushroom!" He beamed as he handed it back to Peach. "You've gotta use this one!"

"Really?" Peach looked down at it. "This… this is the mushroom that turns you into a giant, right?"

"Yep! It's a very rare power-up. It only lasts for a few minutes, but if you play your cards right…" he chuckled, the excitement showing through in his voice. "At worst, I think you'll end up scaring Cackletta away. At best, you'll teach her a lesson so well that she'll NEVER want to face off against you again!"

Peach kept her eyes on the mega mushroom. As she absorbed Luigi's words, she started to match the levels of excitement he had been displaying. "I think you're right!" She crawled out of the bush with Luigi close behind. She smiled, even as she heard Cackletta calling out for her again.

"I'm not kidding, my little princess! You really do need to come out. If you do, I might consider being merciful!"

Peach looked over at Luigi, who gave her an approving nod. Taking a deeo breath, she ate the entire mega mushroom. It didn't take long for the power-up to take effect. Peach grew and grew, higher than the roofs of the Toad Houses, even higher than the tallest tower of the Mushroom Kingdom castle. When she stopped growing, she observed her surroundings and laughed.

"Oh man, this is incredible!" she said, her voice noticeably deeper.

"Nice, Your Majesty!" Luigi yelled out to her. "Now, what are you waiting for! Go face off against Cackletta and Fawful!"

Peach nodded and stomped through Toad Town. It didn't take her long to find her opponents. As she marched towards them, making the entire town rumble, Cackletta and Fawful turned to look at her. Their eyes grew wide, their faces grew pale, and they looked like they wanted to scream for their mothers when they saw the Queen.

"Oh no!" Fawful and Cackletta squeaked in unison.

Smiling, Peach reached down and nabbed them off of their flying disc. They gasped while in her grasp, all without any hope of giving her some nasty quips. Peach smiled at them, holding them close to her face.

"I want you two to remember this," she said. "You don't mess with Beanbean royalty. No matter what trouble we're put through, we'll always come out on top. For the sake of our people, for the sake of our kingdom." She chuckled. "Remember that the next time you face off against me."

She turned so that she was facing the outskirts of the town. Taking a deep breath, she wound up her arm and threw Cackletta and Fawful away from Toad Town. They screamed their lungs out as they zipped through the air, the sound growing quieter and quieter the farther away they got. They seemed to travel for miles, a fact that satisfied Peach. She let out a breath of relief right as she started to shrink back down to her normal size.

"Your Highness!" Luigi said as he approached her. Once she was done shrinking, Luigi gave her an approving look. "That was incredible! You really showed those villains!" He chuckled. "Kind of makes me think of my brother, if I'm being honest."

"Thanks," Peach said as her face grew warm. She cleared her throat as she looked back at him. "But we're still not done. We won the battle, but Cackletta and Fawful are waging a war." She gestured toward the castle. "I still need to talk with the president to get his aid."

"Yes, yes, of course." Luigi cleared his throat. "Come with me; I'll take you to him."

…

Cackletta groaned, her entire body aching as she lay face down in the dirt. That princess… that horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE princess… oh, just thinking about the encounter they had with her filled the witch with rage. She was angrier than she had been in years, angrier than was reasonable. She thought she was so great? She thought that she would come out on top in the end?

Well, she was wrong! DEAD wrong! And Cackletta was going to show her she was dead wrong by making killing her. That way, she was just plain dead.

Ignoring her aching body, Cackletta hoisted herself out of the dirt. Spitting out some soil and grass that had accidentally gotten into her mouth, she growled as she pulled Fawful out of the hole her little henchman was struggling to get out of.

"Mama?" Fawful asked as his eyes adjusted to the light. "Is that you?"

"No, you idiot!" Cackletta rose to her feet and made the magical flying disc reappear. "Come on, Fawful. We need to get back to the Beanbean Castle. We need to think of another plan to fight off against the queen."

Fawful hesitated before nodding and getting onto the disc. Once Cackletta got on, the two of them flew away.