"Mario, Luigi!" Billdit and Maykit ran up to them as they finished linking the new island.
Mario waved.
"You two should come back to Rumbla Island, otherwise it might meet its end," Maykit said.
"We've still got a way 'till the Great Lighthouse," Snoutlet said. "We should hear them out."
"The art!" Billdit exclaimed. "It's being smashed to bits!"
They needed nothing else. Straightaway, they headed back to Rumbla Island with the siblings. Rubble lined the ground, and the arc was knocked over.
"I hope mom's okay..."
"We'll check on her," Luigi said proudly. "But I'm sure she's fine!"
Snoutlet nodded once. "Yeah, she may have some years but she's a tough lady. Gotta respect her for that."
They headed up the path, passing Willma's house on the way and seeing she wasn't there. Mario kicked bits of rubble aside.
"Weegee?"
"I know something's bothering you," Luigi said. "Just say it, I'm all ears."
"Back at the Lighthouse on Florall Island...I saw some sort of vision. Kind of like the one I had in that dream but...different."
"Okie dokie. What happened?"
"Connie's mentor, Cozette, was talking to someone. They looked like a Concordian too, and seemed familiar but I don't know why. He'd given her flowers, and she gave him a little lecture and left. He said he loved her at the end too..."
"That's kind of sweet."
"But it didn't seem like she had any interest in him."
"That's a little bit sad."
"I wonder what that was about. Stuff like this never happened before-besides the Antasma thing-and it makes me wonder if somebody's showing me this stuff because it's going to be important later. Like your dream."
"I guess I haven't had a dream-vision since then..."
Snoutlet got an idea. "Oh! Mario! You could keep a record of all the things you see! We just need to get our hands on a journal..."
Mario pulled one out his hat. "Luckily, I always keep one on me. It's been filled with important notes and such from our past adventures. Want to see it?"
"I'm in! Show me the juicy gossip, eh?"
Mario flipped open to a random page. "Oh, Fawful. I wonder how he's doing."
"Fawful looks like a bean."
"He is a bean. He's a Beanbean, which is the kingdom next door to the Mushroom Kingdom. He used some crazy dark magic against us."
He looked at one of his notes. "Supposedly survived, as an article was posted about a mysterious merchant recently. Known to sell dangerous mushrooms. Don't approach unless you're certain he's changed."
"Anything else?"
He flipped a couple pages back. "DANGEROUS! Cackletta is a powerful magic user. AVOID HER HANDS."
"Oh, I remember that!" Luigi said. "That's how I'm able to do this!" Luigi created small sparks in his hand with Thunderhand.
"Weh?!" Snoutlet jolted. "Since when have you been able to do that?! It's cool and all, but don't point that at me! I don't want to be a barbeque!"
Mario closed his book. "I'll write the dream-visions down when we get back to Shipshape. Come on, Weegee! We have an art smasher to stop!"
"Yahoo!"
The sound of boulders breaking came closer as they ran further up the path. They stopped by Willma, who was catching her breath.
"Ah, there you rascals are! The art-ender is just up ahead. I'll catch up with you in a bit. I can't run like I used to." Willma panted. "Go on, boys. Show them what Rumbla's Pride means."
They nodded to her and continued up the path.
"They stopped paying attention to me, so they're gonna get it now..."
They slowed to a stop, seeing a towering figure ahead. He mumbled to himself, smashing a sculpture and scooping the pieces into the large purple bag-like hood on his back.
"Hey! You!" Snoutlet yelled, puffing out his chest to look intimidating. "Stop smashin' that art! It ain't yours anyway!"
He looked over his shoulder to the group, then turned fully around. He looked like a variant of Guardarm, bearing similar patterns and colors, with a taller and stronger build overall. His eyes were also kinder, being white, beady eyes rather than having a sclarea like the other Guardarms. However, a black mask-like coloring hung around his eyes.
"They sent you here to stop me, didn't they?!" He stomped, and the ground shook. "Well too bad! I'm gonna destroy it all, and you're too late to stop me! I'm gonna make sure they pay attention to me!"
He attacked without introduction, or warning. Mario noted the stone guards on his arms as a manner of defense.
This guy attacked by straight-up punching the bros., or by throwing large stones at them. Mario and Luigi had to hit them back at him. When threatened, he protected himself with the stone guards, as per what Mario thought he'd do. A large stone, which he'd missed the bros. with, landed in the arms of a statue in the distance. Mario noticed that with a little rocking, it could be flung at the boss.
He tested out this idea, and sure enough, it worked! Unfortunately, the boss caught the boulder and tossed it at Luigi. Luigi stopped it with his hammer, and Mario jumped off the boulder (as he'd practically thrown himself at the boss with the rock, and remained on it as it flew). Mario smacked Luigi's hammer with his, and the boulder hit the boss in the face.
The boss' guard was now completely down, and he was wide open. Mario and Luigi worked together to land a couple of hits on him before he snapped back and attacked them again. One more combined attack from the brothers (hitting the boss with the boulder and beating him to a pulp while he was stunned) and he fell unconscious. Mario and Luigi high-fived and Luigi cheered.
Willma came running up right after they'd finished him off. "Gorumbula! I should have known you were behind this! Your spoiled butt was always looking for attention."
Gorumbula got to his feet, frowning. "Auntie..."
"Oh no, don't 'auntie' me. You know what you did, and for that, you need to be taught some discipline!"
"Wait, no!"
Willma took no thought to his begs of mercy and uppercutted him into the sky with her hammer-shaped hair. Mario and Luigi watched as he became invisible as he flew off to who-knows-where. Mario saw that distant speck again, except it was close enough to see it was purple.
"Mario, Luigi, sorry you got to see that."
"Don't worry about it," Mario said. "But I think I just saw..."
Willma held up a golden pipe. "Here. I've been working on this since I saw how much you've been running from island to island. It connects right to the blue pipe on Shipshape, so you can go to any island united by Connectar instantly. I hope you find it useful."
"Those two...Lord Zokket won't be pleased. I'll need to keep a closer eye on them."