Welcome, everybody, to the climax of Shaunie's story! Here, we're going to get through Bowser's Castle, one of my FAVORITE stages!
Chapter 57: The Great Rescue
Volcanic region outside of Mushroom Kingdom
The airship sailed out of hyperspace, passing under a sky littered with dark, terrifying storm clouds that roared with thunder and lightning. Dead ahead of them was a mountainous landscape boiling with molten lava, and a massive castle sat atop the highest mountain as the dark clouds circled around it. The airship came to a land at the edge of the mountains, and the main Koopa castle stood miles away from where they were.
"So… th-that's Bowser's Castle?" Shaunie asked terrifyingly.
"Boy, he sure made the place a lot scarier since the last time we were here." Luigi said, a little worried. He shook his fears off and said, "Well, I'm going in. You ready, Bro?"
"Mmm." Mario nodded.
"Yoshi!" Yoshi cheered.
"Um, I'll just stay out here, if that's okay." Toad said, quaking in fear.
Mario also noticed Shaunie quaking a little, walking up to the boy and making movements with his mouth, indicating that he was saying something which they couldn't quite hear, but still understand. "What? I can stay here if I want?" Shaunie asked.
"Well, yeah." Luigi followed. "Bowser's Castle's a scary place. There's no shame in staying behind. We'll go rescue your friends for you."
"No." Shaunie shook his head and looked more determined. "I came this far. I'm going all the way. I'm giving Bowser a piece of my mind and rescuing my friends."
"Then I guess it's the four of us together." Luigi decided. "Come on, team! Let's teach Bowser a lesson he won't soon forget… until the next Mario game probably." With that, the four stepped off the ship and started their venture toward the castle.
"Good luck, guys! Save the Princess!" Toad cheered.
Shaunie stopped for a minute and felt his fears returning when the lightning brightened the sky once more. He's never seen any place more scary, he thinks. He felt so tiny and wimpy, wearing only sweaty house clothes as his bare feet began to feel the magma's heat. However, he pressed forward nonetheless. He was determined to save his friends. (Play "Bowser's Lava Lair" from Mario Galaxy 2!)
Stage 51: Koopa Kore
Mission: Rescue all of the heroes from the castle and stop the Koopa King once and for all!
Act 1
The four started along a path down a river of lava, many magma geysers bursting from the ground as Pyro Guys, Shy Guys made of fire, leapt out of the lava and charged at them, but Mario quickly shot water at them using F.L.U.D.D., dissolving them in seconds. At the path's end, Mario broke open a box holding an Ice Flower, absorbing it to become Ice Mario and skid along the lava, freezing a solid path for the others to follow him safely across. The ice power was wearing off just in time for them to make it to a safe foothold, going up a small staircase before reaching a series of unstable platforms sticking out of the lava.
The heroes began carefully jumping one platform to the next before they collapsed into the lava, and screaming when a Blargg popped out beside the last one and chomped down, but they dodged quickly and jumped to the ground on the other side. As they trekked up a wider staircase that went around a mountainside, lightning zapped down from the sky and struck the top of the mountain, causing boulders to crumble down and forcing the four to hurry up faster. At one point, Shaunie tripped on a stair and was about to be crushed, but Yoshi shot his tongue out to grab and pull him before such could happen.
Once at the top of the stairs, they entered a small cave which held several Lava Bubbles, floating flames with yellow eyes, each spotting the heroes and floating over to burn them, but Luigi drew out his Poltergust 3000 and sucked them in, gaining the Fire Element in his vacuum. They noticed that the ground in the middle seemed to have a hole, with rocks clogging it, so Mario switched to F.L.U.D.D.'s Hover Nozzle and squirted down, using the double jets to push the rocks away, allowing them to jump into the underground cave below.
They found a river of magma with a pathway of several large spinning rock wheels, running along them quickly before they could push them in the magma. Afterwards, they jumped to a flat path that was nearly in the lava, but had magma waves brushing over them. Whenever a wave came by, they had to run onto one of the hills that stuck out taller than the waves. At the end of that path, they found several metal platforms hanging by chains from the ceiling, jumping across them fast before the platform collapsed into the lava.
They reached the end of the path and found platforms leading upward out of the cave. They started jumping their way up right away when the magma was beginning to rise. A couple Goombas ambushed them along the stairs, but Shaunie was able to punch and push them off, letting them melt in the molten rock. When they reached the top of the mountain, they got into another cannon and took careful aim at Bowser's Castle ahead. Once they thought it was good enough, they launched out of the cannon just before the volcano they were in erupted. They were about to crash in the lava, but Yoshi noticed some Peahats and shot his tongue at one to begin swinging across, the others grabbing onto him as he did so, landing them on a safe pathway.
They quickly ran along as more Blarggs popped out and started eating the pathway, getting onto Yoshi as he Flutter Jumped them over some lava, landing them before a long, straight stairway that seemed to lead straight to the castle. They dashed straight up as Bowser's maniacal laughter echoed in the distance, and the Bowser head that rested atop the front doors spat out massive flaming boulders that rolled down the stairway, the heroes quickly dodging to the side so they would miss. They stayed to the side as more fireballs rolled down and missed them, finally reaching the top and seeing the entryway across a drawbridge.
Bowser's laughter echoed once again as the drawbridge lifted up and prevented them from going across. Afterwards, a huge Heartless suddenly crashed down from the sky, made of purple armor, no arms, legs, or neck, but just floating separate body parts, and a silver knight's mask hiding his face. Like all Heartless, he wore the Heartless insignia on his chest. The Heartless, Guard Armor, spun his hands around and smacked the four with his sharp fingernails, but Yoshi was able to catch one of his hands in his mouth and turn it into an egg, hurling the egg at one of the gears holding up the drawbridge and making it drop a little.
Guard Armor stepped over to Shaunie, who quickly dodged before the Heartless tried to stomp on him, and Luigi shot fireballs from his vacuum at his feet, making him hop around in pain. Yoshi caught his foot and turned it into an egg, spitting the egg at the other foot and destroying it. Still able to float, Guard Armor swung his other hand at the plumbers, but Yoshi once again caught it, and threw the resulted egg at the gears. Guard Armor then spun the rest of his body around the area, nearly able to push Mario and Shaunie into the lava moat around the castle, but Mario grabbed the lad and used F.L.U.D.D.'s hover to lift them up back to safety. Yoshi then jumped up and stuck his tongue at Guard Armor's head, pulling in and turning it into an egg before flinging it at the gears, making the drawbridge drop all the way.
The remainder of the Heartless' body fell to the ground afterwards, releasing a blue heart from its chest that floated up and vanished into darkness before the body disappeared. The heroes proceeded to enter the first hall of the castle, already to be shot at by Wendy Koopa statues along the walls, running through the halls to avoid the lasers before reaching a dead end with a pool of water. The path continued underwater, so they held their breaths as they dove under and began swimming. Since Shaunie wasn't the best swimmer, he only held on to Yoshi.
The underwater hall became pitch-black, so the Mario Bros. had to toss fireballs ahead of them to use as lights, also shooting them at Bloopers and Cheep-Cheeps that came for them as well. They kept swimming until they found the water's surface, making it out of the tunnel and finding a river of lava, having to jump across some floating platforms quickly as the platforms sank upon landing. When they reached and entered a door on the other side, they came to a room where the lava river ran downward, carefully jumping across the platforms to reach the safe foothold at the bottom.
Dead ahead of them was a large Bowser statue engraved in the wall, with big, green double-doors in it, which Mario remembered usually led to Bowser's chamber. However, when they opened the doors, all they found was a dark-red and black portal, emitting a Nightmarish aura. The heroes stepped back in fright of this, but exchanged nods before they progressed into the Nightmare Realm. (Play "Bowser's Galaxy Generator" from Mario Galaxy 2!)
Act 2
The four heroes now stood within an endless, vast dark realm, lightning blazing across the sky, made entirely of the Fear Element, as dozens of scattered planetoids floated about the realm. The inside of this Nightmare Realm appeared very similar to the inside of Parallax, except it was black and dark-red rather than brown and yellow.
"W-Where are we?" Shaunie stuttered.
"It seems that the deeper interior of Bowser's Keep has been transfigured." F.L.U.D.D. observed. "I am detecting massive levels of Fear Chi. Possibly, Bowser could have designed this realm using the fear he's been forcing out of his miniaturized captives."
"Well, that's it." Shaunie said, looking more serious. "It's time to teach that bully a lesson. Let's go, team."
They walked along the first floating platform, where they were ambushed by a squad of Boomerang Bros., all rapidly jumping and tossing their boomerangs. Shaunie leapt off Yoshi and bounced one of the boomerangs over to the Koopa, landing perfectly on his helmet and poking his eyes out, afterwards pushing him into the dark abyss. Yoshi grabbed a boomerang with his tongue and sent it at the thrower, sending him screaming into the darkness as well.
After Luigi destroyed the last two via fireballs from his vacuum, some Heartless appeared out of thin air, designed like the heads of hummingbirds and flying using propellers. Luigi sucked one into his vacuum and shot it into another, destroying the two, then Yoshi caught another in his mouth and made it an egg, taking aim at two more of them lined up and firing, destroying them both. One of them was buzzing around Shaunie, but the Fulbright was able to land on the Heartless, who tried to shake him off, but Shaunie stayed on and was able to tame it. Yoshi wrapped his tongue around the monster and held on while Mario and Luigi got on his back, letting Shaunie ride the Heartless and slowly carry them to a faraway platform down below.
The Heartless was slowly sinking as it struggled to withstand their weight, but when they were close, Yoshi simply swallowed the monster and let Shaunie get onto his back, proceeding to Flutter Jump and was able to carry them the rest of the way. They noticed the next platform down lower, over a lava river and between two lava falls, so Yoshi carried them across with Flutter Jump once again. As they did so, Bombshell Bills, golden Bullet Bills, launched from cannons from down below and to the side, barely missing them as they came so fast. One of the powerful bullets unfortunately hit the dino and made them all drop, but they safely landed onto the platform.
The path ahead of them was blocked by flames, but Mario easily put them out using F.L.U.D.D.'s water. At the small path's end, they stood before a deep chasm with boiling lava down below, between them and the next path. Yoshi noticed an oddly placed tree to the side growing some grapes, and also noticed two fire Cheep-Cheeps jumping high up out of the lava. Yoshi ate the grapes and turned purple, allowing him to squirt purple juice at the fish and turn them into purple square platforms, the crew hopping onto his back as Yoshi jumped to the left one, beginning to ride it across.
From the path ahead, two cannons were taking turns firing Banzai Bills over the two parallel Cheep-Cheep platforms, so the heroes had to alternate and jump between them to avoid being blasted off. When they reached the other side, the team took a path that went around where the Banzais came from, over some more lava. They found a rather long path with an obstacle course, with a closed gateway on the other side. Luigi noticed and stomped on a switch that made the gates open, but they were already beginning to close. Mario switched to F.L.U.D.D.'s Turbo Nozzle and began to dash across the course, nearly as fast as Sonic, going up ramps, going around crates in the way, and also avoiding fireballs and lava geysers from the river.
The red plumber dashed into the gates just before they closed, pulling a lever that made them open and stay open so that the others could get inside, too. Afterwards, they found another cannon, which seemed much bigger than the other ones. They hopped into the large cannon, which came out of the ground and took aim on its own into the fear-filled sky. The four heroes screamed loudly as they were launched straight at the darkness, only to find they were passing through a tunnel of the substance, flying around the curvy tunnel before flying into an even bigger area of the realm. The fear was spiraling around in the sky, similar to the clouds outside, around and above a gargantuan silver statue of the Koopa King himself, and his echoing laughter could be heard louder than ever. They no doubt assumed this to be the true Koopa Kore.
They took land onto a platform next to another long stairway, hurrying up the stairs as Magikoopas appeared and sent spells coming their way. At the top of the stairs, Yoshi ate one of the Magikoopas and sent the resulted egg to knock out the other one, seeing the next path hundreds of feet below where they were. They got on Yoshi as he jumped down, using his Flutter Jump to soften their landing. Behind them, however, was a humongous cannon, and as they stepped up a small staircase and continued along a path, an equally large Bullet Bill, called a King Bill, stuck his face out and fired.
The green dinosaur hurriedly dashed across the path as the King Bill came and destroyed the path, seeing two statues up ahead: one of Bowser Jr., holding his magic brush, and one of Bowser, holding a scepter with horns on it, the two standing side-by-side as they crossed their weapons in an "X". Yoshi tried to catch his breath and run faster as the King Bill drew closer, successfully making it between the statues and letting the King Bill crash on the "X". They now stood even closer to the Bowser statue in the core of the castle, seeing another platform that seemed awfully too far to jump. But the green dinosaur caught his breath, feeling more ready and determined than ever before to save the Princess. He charged and took a leap over the edge, kicking his legs as fast as possible to get his friends across.
The three riders instantly noticed Yoshi sweating tiredly, the green dinosaur slowly sinking lower than the targeted platform. "Oh no! We aren't gonna make it!" Luigi said worriedly.
"What'll we do?" Shaunie asked.
"Hurrrff! I can't… but you guys can!" Yoshi stated weakly, still struggling to stay airborne. "Go. Save the Princess. I'll be fine."
The two brothers felt a little unsure about this, but felt there was no other way to make it. "Okay… you be careful, Yosh." Luigi told him. And with that, Luigi grabbed Shaunie as the two stood up and were able to leap the rest of the way across, barely landing on the edge as they turned back and watched their friend fall and scream into the endless abyss.
"YOSHII! !" Shaunie cried.
"It's okay, Shaunie. Yoshi's… pretty used to this stuff." Luigi told him. Afterwards, the three faced back as they now stood dangerously close to the colossal Bowser statue. They saw one last platform ahead of them, lower and close enough for them to jump as Mario hovered over using F.L.U.D.D., and Luigi Super Jumped over, holding onto Shaunie. After landing, they finally stood before the grand Bowser statue, seeing the massive door in the pedestal where the statue stood. (End song.)
The door before them seemed to be locked tight with a huge lock with a gaping keyhole. Mario looked up and gasped when two figures suddenly dropped from the sky, landing on their heads with a thud before they stood up. They appeared to be two identical clones of Mario and Luigi, made of pure, silver metal. "Wa-hey! Metal Mario Bros.!" they cheered in gargled voices that almost sounded like they were underwater. (Play Metal Mario's Theme from Super Smash Bros.!)
Sub-boss: Metal Mario Bros.
The Metal Bros. stepped toward their opponents slowly, making clanking sounds with their metal shoes as they walked. Mario & Luigi ran to punch them across the face, but they looked barely hurt as their metal skin made them impervious. They tried to punch their chests, but the metal clones grabbed their fists and hurled them overhead behind them. Shaunie then ran to try and kick Metal Mario's leg, but ended up stubbing his toes upon impact of the metal. The clones heard the plumbers get back up and jump, looking up and seeing them about to aerial-punch, but they jumped back as the plumbers started swinging punches and kicks, which barely knocked their heavy bodies around.
The metal clones grabbed their legs at one kick and nearly threw them over the edge, but the Italians grabbed and climbed back up as the clones walked over, running over to start punching at them again. The clones leapt over the brothers, who turned and threw another punch, but they grabbed the plumbers' fists again. The plumbers added more force and tried to shove them over the edge, but when they did, the clones grabbed the ledge as well and recovered, slide-kicking them off their feet. The Metal Bros. flipped over and tried to Ground Pound their counterparts, but Mario & Luigi rolled away just in time. Afterwards, they flipped over the clones and Ground Pounded them, damaging them a bit more, but were still too heavy to knock over.
The Metal Bros. then shot fire at the brothers, but Mario & Luigi countered with their own fire, though the flame still wasn't enough to hurt the strong metal. The plumbers went to punch at the clones again before jumping behind and kicking them down. They stood up and faced them, but Metal Luigi was taken by surprise when Luigi ran over and rapidly punched across his face. He was able to push Metal Luigi over the edge, quickly grabbing on, but Luigi pelted a fireball at his face and made him drop into the dark abyss, the heavy metal making him drop real fast.
Angered, Metal Mario charged over and threw rapid punches at Mario, but the mute hero performed Tornado Punches before kicking the clone away. He then squirted water at the clone using F.L.U.D.D., who held up a hand by his face in defense, then Mario ran over and spin-kicked across his face, knocking him over. When he got up and turned, Metal Mario right away felt himself being rapid punched some more by his counterpart, eventually shoving him over the edge. Metal Mario climbed back up and tried to grab Mario, but the red plumber bounced off his head and went over the edge himself, switching to F.L.U.D.D.'s hover nozzle and hovering far over the edge.
Metal Mario ran, leapt, and grabbed Mario's legs, attempting to pull Mario into the abyss with him. Mario struggled to stay airborne with the heavy body adding more weight, but he kicked at the clone's face enough times to make him drop himself, Metal Mario giving a gargled scream as he vanished into the endless darkness. F.L.U.D.D.'s Hover Nozzle wore off just in time for the plumber to make it back to the platform.
They then heard a twinkle sound and looked up, seeing a big golden key with horns drop down from the sky, landing on the ground. Mario grabbed the key and stuck it into the lock, turning and making the lock explode and the double-doors open, exposing the dark-red portal inside. The three heroes exchanged determined expressions and nodded, stepping into the gateway that would lead to Bowser's throne. (End song.)
The door immediately closed behind them as they entered a dark, straightforward hallway, with walls aligned with paintings of various castles. "I think we made it, Brother. Bowser's straight up ahead." Luigi figured. Mario nodded.
As they quietly trekked across the hall, Shaunie's worried expression came back. Not only was he about to face probably the scariest monster he's ever encountered (ever since the Giant Fanny incident), he was even about to fight the boss he could never beat in any Mario game. However, he looked around and studied all the paintings of his castles throughout the years. His very first castle, made of bricks, from Mario's very first adventure. His castle stationed in the Valley of Bowser when he attacked Yoshi's Island. His Koopa Clown Castle with Peach's Castle rested on top of it, from when Bowser took the Star Rod. His volcano lair in Corona Mountain from when he attacked Delfino Island. His lava realm castle which he had during Mario's adventure for the Wii. And finally, his planet-sized space castle from Mario's second galactic adventure.
The more Shaunie looked at the many castles Bowser's had throughout the years, he's come to realize something. His whole life, Shaunie's been bullied around, too weak to defend himself, always taking cover behind his older sister, letting her deal with them. And from what he's noticed in the Mario games, Bowser's castles have always been difficult levels and very heavily guarded. With this in mind, he continued to press onward, feeling he's finally found Bowser's weakness.
As they slowly passed down the final hall, they dodged fireballs that came flying down on the other end. They could feel the heat getting stronger as they got closer to the room ahead. Once they entered that room, the door behind them slammed tight. Mario and Luigi looked bravely up to the evil tyrant on his throne. Shaunie, however, was slightly shivering in fear as the Koopa King glared down at him with his vicious eyes.
"Hmmm. SO… the Italian plumber pests are back to foil my plans again…" Bowser spoke in his loud, tyrannical voice. "And what's this?" His eyes focused on Shaunie. "If it isn't the little pipsqueak brother of that Irish pain in the ass. Come here to join the rest of your pitiful team?"
Shaunie shook off his fear and put on a more fierce expression. "N-No! I'm here to save them and stop you! I may not be the biggest, but I have enough strength to beat you!"
This made Bowser furious, as he frowned and shot Shaunie a glare before jumping down from his throne. The 5-year-old was startled, quivering as Bowser stomped right in front of him, moving his head lower to the boy as he whispered. "You wanna talk about strength?" And with that, Bowser smacked the child across the face, his muscular arm sending the tiny child sliding across the bridge, nearly falling over the edge into the boiling lava below. "You don't know what real strength is!"
At this, Mario and Luigi charged to attack the Koopa, but Bowser quickly spun and whacked them with his tail, knocking them against the wall as he turned back to Shaunie.
Shaunie could feel the floor quake, the Koopa King stomping closer as he still lied on his back from the smack, looking up as Bowser stood over him. "You think you're strong just by coming here? You don't know the HALF of what I've been through!" Bowser reached down and gripped the boy's shirt in his claws, picking and holding him up by his face as Shaunie tried to push the monster's hand off, but his tiny arms proved no use as Bowser spoke loudly at his face. "For AGES now, I've been sentenced to BURN in the very bowels of Hell, but always missed my trip. For MANY YEARS, my skin has been ripped and torn from my bones, but soon revived itself! And EVERY! LITTLE!", he held Shaunie by one of his legs as he bashed the Irish's head hard against the floor, "attempt for someone to send me to the Underworld has been all for NAUGHT! Because every time I've been put to death, the Grim Reaper always missed his appointment. Do you know who I am, Shaunie? ! A SURVIVOR! !"
Bowser threw the child against the floor, the boy now severely torn and battered as Bowser stomped his foot on him, keeping him down. Meanwhile, the shrunken prisoners in the next room watched this whole scene via camera monitors, and the operatives looked absolutely worried for the child, Fanny especially.
"And you think you're strong!" Bowser continued. "An insignificant pest like you couldn't POSSIBLY endure the pain and hardships I've lived through! If there was one thing that truly made me suffer…", he picked the child up by his leg once again, making him face the Mario Brothers, "it's the humiliation of being BESTED by these Italian imbeciles EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! !" He bashed Shaunie's head against the floor at each shouted word, then throwing him against the wall where the Mario Bros. stood. Bowser stomped a bit closer and spoke once more as Shaunie lay there. "And I will NOT stand here and be beaten by ANY of those fools EVER AGAIN! Let alone a shrimpy, limbless pincushion like you! You don't know the first thing about strength. Coward!"
"You're wrong, Bowser!" Shaunie yelled back, weakly standing back up to face the demon turtle, the child bleeding tremendously. "I may be small, but I AM braver than you! YOU'RE the coward! You always hide in your ginormous castle, letting your Koopas go out and do all the work. You never come out and fight Mario yourself! You're nothing but a big bully who hides behind his cronies and try and act all big and tough and make other people feel as helpless as YOU are! I should know. I spent my whole life hiding behind my friends or my sister whenever someone comes to bully me. But now: I came here. I came here to stand up to you, even if you look scary, and to rescue my friends! That's a better reason for this than kidnapping a Princess!"
"Who apparently can never hold her own for some reason." Luigi commented, earning a glare from Mario.
"YEAH! TELL HIM, SHAUNIE!" Patton cheered in the next room as the operatives all smiled.
"So get ready, Bowser! We're taking you down, and THEN we're rescuing my friends!"
"Yeah! So let's do this! You ready, Mario?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah!"
"Hmm…" Bowser closed his eyes for a minute in curiosity and thought. "I admit you do have a lot of guts to say that to my face. But it only proves your brain is as tiny as your muscles." Bowser reopened his eyes and faced them. "Alright then! You think you're so tough, then FINE! I'll squash all three of you once and for all! Get ready, Mario, Luigi, and Shaunie. Today is the day I FINALLY flush you down the drain, to the VERY bowels of HELL! BLAAAH!" (Play Bowser's Theme from New Super Mario Bros. Wii!)
Boss fight: King Bowser Koopa
The Koopa King started coughing fireballs at the trio that they easily dodged. Mario tried running around him, but Bowser spun over and whacked him back with his tail. Luigi then noticed the button behind Bowser. "Hey! We gotta press the switch!"
Shaunie tried running for the switch, but Bowser immediately got in his way. Shaunie looked fearfully at the snarling demon, running back before Bowser burned him with fire breath. Luigi then tried to Super Jump right over him, but Bowser jumped just as high and kicked him back. While he was in the air, Shaunie tried running for the switch again, but Bowser crashed back down and stood in his way, stepping side-to-side as Shaunie tried to get around him. But seeing the small space between Bowser's legs, Shaunie took a few steps back and ran forward, ducking and sliding on his belly and successfully going under Bowser before he could scratch at him.
Shaunie quickly jumped and pressed the button down, the Mario Bros. quickly running over to his foothold as the bridge crumbled, Bowser screaming as he fell to the pit below. "GRAAAAAHHH." But as a result, the foothold holding the three collapsed as well, and they all landed on a floor that seemed littered with cracks. The Koopa King leapt high over Mario and tried to Ground Pound, but Mario dodged and made the floor that Bowser hit crack. Remembering something like this before, Mario had an idea, and dodged some of Bowser's spin-punches before running onto that same spot. Bowser attempted another Ground Pound, but the floor crumbled beneath him and sent the Koopa falling once more.
The rest of the floor crumbled shortly after and sent the rest of them to another battlefield. There, Bowser climbed into his Koopa Clown Car, going airborne and started swooping back-and-forth over the ground, trying to slice them with his propeller. After failing to do so, Bowser tossed two Mecha-Koopas down at them. Mario simply grabbed one and kicked it up to bump Bowser's head. The Koopa King then turned his craft upside down and started dropping giant bowling balls around the area to crush them. Luigi avoided them and grabbed the other Mecha-Koopa, tossing it up to hit Bowser again.
Angered, the Koopa started to bounce around the field to squash them with his vehicle, making the ground shake at each bounce. One of the quakes caused Shaunie to bounce high enough for him to actually grab onto the Clown Car, getting into the cockpit and messing around with the controls, causing the flying pod to zoom around out of control before it exploded, sending Bowser and Shaunie falling down lower with the others jumping after them.
They landed on a circular field, which had the chasm surrounding it, along with four mines. Bowser stomped toward the little Fulbright child and unleashed more flames around the area, but Shaunie quickly ran around behind him. He suddenly remembered how Fanny beat him before and grabbed hold of the turtle's tail. He used all the strength in his tiny arms, but was unable to lift the big brute up. Bowser hissed and wagged his tail, throwing the child closer to the edge, and he nearly fell over. Shaunie screamed when Bowser charged toward him, but he was able to dodge just in time, making Bowser nearly fall over.
As the Koopa wobbled to keep his balance, Shaunie bit his tail and was able to make Bowser yelp and fall over. "So long, Big Bowser!"
However, the Koopa was easily able to leap back onto the field, making the ground shake. He coughed more flames into the air and made them scatter all around, along with some blue flames that bounced their way over to Shaunie and Luigi. Bowser yelped once more when Mario suddenly grabbed his tail from behind, swinging the turtle around faster and faster before tossing him straight into a bomb. The explosion sent Bowser flying across the field and falling over into the chasm. The field suddenly turned over however and sent the team falling, landing them on the side of a toxic pool.
Bowser emerged from the center of the pool as boats floated around him, shooting Missile Bills that homed in on the heroes. Shaunie attracted the attention of the missiles and evaded them, leaving Mario and Luigi to run separate directions around the pool. Bowser blew some flames in Mario's path, but he switched to F.L.U.D.D.'s Rocket Nozzle and shot right over them. Luigi arrived at one of the two weak points of the pool, Super Jumped, and Ground Pounded with enough force to rip that point off and make the whole pool shake. Bowser leapt up and splashed down in the pool to make waves of it come out to wash Mario away, but the plumber stayed on and Rocket Jumped over the last weak point, Ground Pounding, and making the entire pool turn upside-down, dropping them all lower into the pit.
Mario and Luigi fell down lower than the next platform, unfortunately, while Bowser and Shaunie landed face-to-face. Bowser angrily glared at the Irish lad, who quickly started running as Bowser stomped after him, which wasn't easy seeing as there was even less room around. Shaunie noticed the five switches around the field and ran to press one of them. Before Bowser could breathe fire at him, Shaunie ran and pressed the next-door switch, causing the two to connect electrically. He saw where this was coming and ran to push the one straight across, connecting all three and creating a triangle. He lured Bowser into the triangle, getting the Koopa King injured when lightning suddenly struck down on him.
Bowser roared to the heavens as the gravity suddenly pulled them off the platform and dropped them onto a small, spherical planetoid with its own gravity. Bowser curled into his spiked-shell and started zooming around the sphere at high speeds, but Shaunie was thankfully able to avoid him by a few inches. Shaunie then noticed the planetoid was filled with lava, and had six weak glass spots around it. When Bowser stopped and was preparing to Ground Pound, Shaunie ran onto one of the glass spots so that he would try and crush him there, dodging right away and causing his tail to get burned by the lava once he pushed through. Bowser frantically ran around as Shaunie then took this time to grab one of the discarded glass shards and throw it at his left leg, making Bowser scream even louder.
Shaunie grabbed another shard and stuffed it in his pocket, just in case, but the gravity soon dropped them off the planet, landing them on another platform. This time, a hat flew onto Bowser's head, and a row of dark hats appeared before him. Bowser sent the hats spiraling at Shaunie, the boy swiftly dodging before Bowser tossed his own hat. Shaunie was able to duck low enough to go under a hat, and he jumped up to take command of it. Punching gloves emerged from the hat, so Shaunie ran at Bowser, who nervously jumped around the field and coughed fireballs at him. Luckily, Mario ambushed him from behind, holding Bowser by the tail while Shaunie ran up and pelted him with the hat's fists. Bowser tried to defend, but the hat overpowered him and blasted Bowser off the platform.
Shaunie and Mario jumped down to yet another bridge where Luigi waited. Bowser tried to cough fireballs at them, but Mario and Luigi only pelted him with their own fireballs, eventually pushing him straight over the edge, where he finally fell into the lava. (End song.)
With that, Shaunie ran over to press the switch, dropping the bridge entirely as they stood on the safe foothold. "Yeah! We did it!" the Italian brothers cheered.
"Mweh heh heh heh!" cackled Kammy Koopa, immediately flying down on her broomstick. "You Mario Brothers don't know anything. Where do you think his son gets it? It's time for Bowser's REAL power to be unleashed!" And with that, the witch flew around the pit, sprinkling tons of sparkling rainbow magic down below. The heroes immediately felt the earth begin to shake as the lava below was bubbling. (Play Giant Bowser's Theme from Mario Bros. Wii!)
Kammy Koopa was suddenly flung away when the Koopa King shot out from the pit, even bigger and more terrifying than ever before. "GRAAAAAARRRRRGH!" At that instant, he swung his massive arm and swatted the two plumbers away, missing only Shaunie since he was shorter and able to duck it. Shaunie seemed more afraid than ever now, screaming as Bowser tried to claw him, but missed, seeing a tiny hole in the wall and proceeding to crawl in.
He hurriedly crawled to the other side, scared out of his wits when the massive Bowser smashed through the stone wall and began to chase him. He ran and jumped across the small platforms, dodging as Bowser sent fireballs coming his way, also having to stay on his feet when Bowser took leaps closer and made the area shake. Shaunie grabbed onto a jagged wall to the side and hurriedly climbed across to a platform too far to jump, trying his best to hold tight when Bowser slammed his fist in the wall, making debris crumble from the ceiling. When Shaunie made it over, he found a handle on a chain hanging from the ceiling. Hoping it may do something, he jumped and grabbed hold of it, too small to pull it down, so he shook around a little until he was able to force it down.
To his relief, a hatch opened on the ceiling above Bowser, dropping down tons of lava and holding him down. Shaunie dropped back to the floor, but was immediately ambushed by more of those hummingbird Heartless, but Shaunie took the glass shard he saved and started cutting them, releasing their hearts. He leapt onto the last one and was able to tame it again, but that's when Bowser splashed back up, sending waves of lava his way. Shaunie quickly rode the Heartless downward into a lower part of the tunnel, trying to stay as far above the lava as he could when Bowser splashed more waves at them. He unleashed massive flames from his mouth, so Shaunie was forced to jump off and let the Heartless get burned.
He grabbed the ledge of the next foothold and weakly climbed up, screaming when Bowser crash-landed beside the platform and slammed his claw down, trying to grab him. Shaunie was thankfully small enough to crawl right through his fingers before he could grip him, getting back up and dashing across a rope bridge. When Bowser unleashed his flames again, the first half of the bridge was burned, but Shaunie made it to the second half, holding on tight when the bridge fell and dangled over the fiery pit. He looked back and saw Bowser approaching, climbing as fast as he could to reach the top, avoiding Bowser's flames just in time before continuing to run.
The Fulbright child saw another giant switch up ahead, running and climbing on top of it, but was too small to press it down. When Bowser stomped over and slammed the wall again, Shaunie noticed a giant boulder come down from the ceiling above him and rolled off, letting the stone press the switch. The castle quaked once more as the ceiling, not too far above Bowser, exploded on his head, dropping tons of gallons of lava on his face that forced him below the flaming river.
Shaunie saw a door behind him and hurried through, stopping a minute to gaze up at the thousands of platforms and stairs that seemed to lead back up to the top. Shaunie started his walk and went up the first set of stairs, then went across a small bridge to get over to the next stairs. After reaching the end of that set, "BRAAAAAARRRRGGH! !" Bowser emerged from the depths of the flames below, hideously torn from the lava just poured onto him. Many parts of his skin were melted off, exposing his skeleton, and his right eye was burned and left only blood, dried quickly from the extreme temperatures.
Shaunie immediately dashed up the next stairway to his left as Bowser started launching quick fireballs to destroy the path behind him, afterwards turning left again down a bridge. He turned right and went up another staircase, then turned right again to cross a stone bridge. But that's when Bowser popped up from below and destroyed the path, standing in his way as he tried to claw at Shaunie again. Shaunie stepped back in fright, but then found a rock from the debris beside him, picking it up and throwing it at Bowser's left eye, making him scream in pain as he tried to shake it out. While he was distracted, Shaunie ran and grabbed onto the Koopa, holding on as he shook around and was able to climb across to where the path continued.
He hurried up more stairs and across bridges before Bowser stopped shaking around and glared at him with his now-black eye. Bowser coughed flames straight upward as he climbed the upward pathway, getting his face level with Shaunie when he crossed a bridge, but still missing when he coughed a fireball. When Shaunie dashed up another staircase, and the platforms Bowser was holding onto eventually crumbled to his weight, causing the Koopa King to fall and splash in the lava below.
It took a while for Bowser to recover, allowing Shaunie to run a good chunk of the way up with no interruptions, and by the time he made it to a dead end at the top of the path where another switch was, he was absolutely exhausted, sitting down to catch his breath. Shaunie screamed at the top of his lungs when Bowser shot up to where he was, the Koopa holding onto the platform with his right hand while raising his left hand and slamming down at Shaunie, gripping him in his fingers as he held the Fulbright boy closer to his face, about to roast him and bite off his head.
Shaunie felt around for his glass shard again and grabbed it, pulling his arms free of Bowser's grasp before successfully throwing the shard straight in his blackened left eye. "GROOOOAAARR!"
"AAHHH!" Shaunie was sent screaming and flailing his arms when Bowser hurled him far away. At this time, however, Mario was dashing along the walls of the hundred-story cave using F.L.U.D.D.'s Turbo, grabbing onto the 5-year-old before taking a great leap back to the safe foothold. Luigi used his Super Jump to successfully bounce his way to where they were, giving everyone a good look at the severely injured Bowser with two bleeding eyes. Shaunie looked back at the final switch and proceeded to jump and press it. (End song.)
Packs of dynamites tied to the ceiling, as a result, exploded all around, dropping tons and tons of debris onto Bowser, forcing him to let go and plummet into the fiery abyss. Bowser rapidly flung his arms around as the massive boulder chunks came down on his head, unable to see them as he was slowly buried beneath all of the rubble. Eventually, an enormous pile of rubble was formed with the Koopa King buried underneath, and the lava that lit up the entire underground was buried as well, making the whole place fade to a dim light.
After that long and violent battle, the three heroes took a minute to catch their breath. "Finally…" Shaunie panted. "Is he gone?"
"I doubt it." Luigi replied. "Knowing Bowser, he never stays gone for long. He wasn't kidding before. But this should knock him out of the race long enough. …You were pretty good back there, Shaunie."
"Ah-huh." Mario agreed.
This made a smile appear on Shaunie's face. "Hey… I did it, didn't I? I defeated Bowser! Yaaay!"
"Hehe. But no time for that, now. We gotta go find everyone else." Luigi reminded.
"Right. Let's go!" Shaunie cheered. They looked above and found several more square platforms leading out of the basement. Shaunie got on Luigi's back as the green plumber Super Jumped while Mario used F.L.U.D.D.'s rocket to get them higher. At the last platform, they were close to the ceiling, where they saw a small ladder leading to some sort of sewer hatch. They easily got there with one last leap, Mario going first and grabbing onto the ladder, followed by Luigi as Mario climbed up through the hatch. Still holding onto Luigi, Shaunie glanced back down to the pile of rubble where Bowser was buried, seeing no trace of him as Luigi climbed them through the hatch.
The three heroes finally climbed out of there, immediately finding their selves in the chamber of the many shrunken prisoners inside hamster cages as everyone turned and faced them. "Shaunie!"
At this voice, Shaunie noticed his tiny sister pressing her hands and face against the glass of her cage and smiling happily, running over for a closer look. "Fanny?"
"Dude, I can't believe you made it!" Paddy exclaimed.
"Paddy?"
"SHAUNIE!"
The 5-year-old looked over and smiled, seeing the cage holding his shrunken friends and hurrying over. "Luvbi! Guys! I'm so glad you're okay!"
"Ay, thanketh the gods for that, yea? Now, how about thou goest about getting us out of hither before great fiery demon climbeth back up and gets us, eh?" Luvbi asked.
"Yeah, so we don't have to spend the rest of our lives as bugs." Sonic said, snarkily.
"Well, we can let you out, but we aren't so sure about the 'getting you bigger' part." Luigi replied.
"Use Celebi to rescue us." Nova told them. "She's trapped in that machine over there." They looked and noticed the large machine with Celebi trapped in a capsule.
"Bowser's been using that thing to suck away her energy and our fear to turn this castle into a Nightmare Realm." Cosmo explained.
"So that's how he's been redecorating." Luigi deduced. "Well, I'm afraid his little paintjob is over." He said, stepping over to the machine. He grabbed hold of the door-handle which would open Celebi's capsule and struggled to pull it open a little, but was finally able to do so, Mario grabbing the Forest Spirit and taking her out. Celebi weakly opened her eyes and studied her surroundings, able to flap her fairy wings as she flew to the center of the room, seeing everyone Minish-sized and trapped in cages.
"Biii, BI!" Celebi charged a power in her hands and released a ton of tiny sparkling dust specks, flowing over and sprinkling onto the captives in their cages. In a few seconds, everyone zapped back to their regular sizes, their cages shattering as a result, and everyone who was bunched in one cage fell on top of each other.
"Oh, FINALLY!" Ace exclaimed, shoving Lizzie and Henrietta off of him.
"Let's get outta this dump." Lizzie stated grumpily, already stomping out of there.
"Uh, coming, Lizzie." Herbie called, running after.
"SHAUNIE!" Fanny yelled in joy, immediately embracing her brother in a hug. "We saw the whole fight! I'm so proud of you!"
"You are?"
"Yeah, Dude!" Patton exclaimed, walking over and ruffling up Shaunie's hair. "You totally kicked Bowser's can! Guess toughness really runs in the family."
"And ya didn't even have ta turn giant." Fanny said.
"Uh, hey, we were there, too." Luigi intervened. Mario just touched his shoulder and shook his head. "Sigh, you're right, Bro. Let 'im have his moment."
"Yeah!" Tommy exclaimed. "He was all, 'GROOOAR!' And you were all, switch-stomp! And then he BURNED in the lava!"
"To put it simply, as the Greeks wouldst calleth thee, a true hero." Luvbi told him.
"Gee… thanks, guys." Shaunie smiled and blushed.
"You know, we could always use someone like you in the Kids Next Door." Rachel said. "You aren't at the proper age yet, buuut… I can pull some strings."
"Well… thanks, Rachel, but I'd rather stick with my own team."
"I understand."
"Hold on now! I believe there was someone else we needed to rescue." Luigi spoke up.
"We saw them drag Peach into that room over there." Jagar replied, pointing to a door behind the machine.
"Go get 'er, Bro." Luigi said to his brother, and Mario nodded. The others followed the red plumber as he slid open the doors to the dark room. Sitting in the very center, turned away from them as the light shone on her from the door, was the Princess of Mushroom Kingdom herself. Mario smiled and approached the girl he's risked limb-and-limb to rescue for years, happy to be reunited with his loved one once again.
"Ohhh…" He stopped just inches away from the pink-loving princess, who gasped quietly and was about to turn to her savior. Mario closed his eyes and awaited a possible kiss as everyone else eagerly awaited as well. And just when the girl turned and faced her hero…
"MMMMMMWAH! !"
"HUH? ! ?" Everyone gasped in pure shock as Mario immediately pulled away from the kissing girl.
"WENDY?!" Luigi exclaimed.
"OOH, Mario! I'm so glad you came here to rescue me!" Wendy O. Koopa exclaimed, throwing off her pink dress and blonde wig.
"…H-Hey! You're not the Princess!" Luigi shouted. "Where's Peach?!"
"Grah ha ha ha har har." Echoed the ominous laughter that only came from one person. A dim light switched on from the ceiling, shining down as Bowser stood a few feet away from Wendy, who ran behind him into the darkness.
"B-B…Bowser?" Shaunie asked frightfully, seeing the regular-sized, totally uninjured Koopa King.
"You thought I was going to die that easily… did you?" Bowser asked calmly, though his voice was still frightening and full of rage.
"Well… you usually stay down a little while longer." Luigi said.
"No matter… because now…now is the time… I end your miserable lives…" The entire room alit with lights, exposing seven laser turrets around the walls, all taking aim at Bowser. "For I have absorbed enough of Celebi's power and YOUR fear to create the ultimate transformation device. Now… CRUMBLE at the hands… of the new and improved… GIGA Bowser!"
The Seven Koopalings stood around each of the seven turrets as Wendy spoke first. "You did your best, Mario Brothers."
"As did YOU, Junior Prospectors." Roy followed.
"But now is the time for revenge." Morton said.
"NOW is the time for ACTION!" Lemmy and Larry cheered.
"To rid ourselves of your miserable existence!" Iggy smirked.
"But vhat BRILLIANT device have ve here today!" Ludwig exclaimed. "Too brilliant for you, ja?"
"FIRE UP THE LASERS!" Bowser ordered.
"As you command, Lord Bowser!" Kammy Koopa responded, flying above on her broomstick. The Seven Koopalings did as told and switched on the turrets simultaneously. Each of them fired dark-green lasers that fueled the Koopa King with incredible power.
"Ohhh…oh, yesss… I can feel… the power…"
"Oh no. I'm not-a liking the look of this…" Luigi said worriedly.
"AH HA HA HAH!" Iggy Koopa danced and cheered. "And there's NOTHING you can do about it! Ha—Whoa-oa!" The magic Koopa nearly slipped off the platform he stood on, wobbling around a little before accidentally touching the laser, getting forcibly stuck and shocked. "WAAAH!"
"Iggy!" Roy exclaimed. He ran to pull his comrade out, but ended up getting shocked himself, unable to let go. The rest of the Koopalings, save for Wendy, followed after, and each one ended up getting stuck to the other.
"Hold on!" Wendy yelled, attempting to stop the laser by jumping in front of it. This proved to be a stupid move as she took an even more powerful shock.
"NO! You fools will screw up the whole process!" Kammy screamed. That's when each of the Koopalings transformed into identical green energy and flowed back to their respective lasers, shooting inside of the Koopa King as the entire castle began to shake. "NO! ! It's too late! I have to get out of here! EEEEEEEEE!" She zoomed through the doors, over everyone else, and got out of there.
"GRAAAARRRR!" Bowser screamed, feeling intense pain. "Quick… somebody… shut this thing… down!..."
"Come on!" Rachel exclaimed. "Let's get him out-" Before she could finish, Bowser exploded into a flash of light, and a dark portal appeared in the spot where he stood. The portal grew even bigger as the castle shook more, and everyone around was vacuumed straight in the darkness.
Another Dimension
Everybody awoke to find their selves on a massive flat asteroid, floating around a strange hyperspace of pure darkness. "Whuh… where are we?" Luigi asked.
"Certainly not at Koopa Kore." Rachel replied.
"Look! There's Bowser!" Tommy pointed.
Everyone looked ahead as the Koopa King stood on all fours, panting heavily as intense thumping could be heard from him. "Is…Is he dying?" Rachel asked.
"You're half-right…" Everyone gasped when Phantom Gnaa suddenly appeared out of the shadows. The shadow directed their attention back over to Bowser, his transformation already starting to happen. (Play "Last Battle" from Romance Saga 2.)
"GRAAAAAAARRRRR! GROOOOOAAAARRR!" The Koopa King felt only horrendous pain as his transformation was coming on. His arms transformed into hideous exoskeleton-like forms of Lemmy and Larry Koopa. His legs grew longer and turned into zombie-like forms of Morton and Roy Koopa. Iggy Koopa sprouted from his tail with venom drooling from his teeth, and Ludwig emerged from Bowser's shell. A pair of arms then reached out of Bowser's eyes as his whole head was splattered, allowing Wendy Koopa's mutated form to pop out, hissing venom towards the heroes. On the stomach of the Koopa King, a hideous bulbous pimple-like bubble emerged, containing the incarnation's heart.
"Behold… anger, jealously, and lust for revenge has transformed the King of the Koopas… into a Heartless." Phantom Gnaa spoke. "Now… watch your precious Mushroom Kingdom fall, and rise again… as the Mushroom Kingdom of DARKNESS!" The shadow faded back into oblivion.
Just then, Shaunie felt some kind of energy around his left hand: a strange bow spawned from a ray of light. It had golden edges and blue interiors. "Hey! Where did this come from?!"
"Gasp!" Luvbi yelped aloud. "Shaunie… that is yonder Icarus Bow! It is the legendary weapon of the Nimbi hero, Pit Icarus!"
"Where in blazes did ya find THAT?" Fanny asked.
"It just showed up out of nowhere!"
"Mayhaps the gods hath seen potential in thee, Shaunie. Though thou hast questions, thou must not disappoint them."
"But I don't know how to shoot a bow!"
"Rip it apart at the middle! The bow also serves as swords."
Shaunie did so. The separate swords were very light, easy to swing for his little hands. "Okay! I'll do my best!"
Phase 3: Koopamalgamous
The heroes charged toward the incarnation, but the beast spun-kicked them all away. Mario aimed for Wendy's head up top and squirted water, but the Morton and Roy legs stomped the ground and sent shockwaves, knocking Mario over as Morton grabbed him in his arms, starting to gnaw his head in his teeth. Luigi dashed over and Super Jumped before Roy grabbed him, Ground Pounding atop Morton to save his brother before the two plumbers dashed away from the monster.
"Junior Prospectors, moveth out." Luvbi ordered, and all her teammates scattered and ran around the monster. Shaunie dashed toward the Morton/Roy legs and started swinging his swords at a fast pace, doing damage to the mutant parts. Tommy drew out his own G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A. as he and Mushi got behind, dodging magical blasts from the Iggy tail as he fired gumballs at it, while Mushi launched her sharp crayons. Iggy winced a little, but the Ludwig shell summoned dozens of hearts around the mutant, sending them all over the place and stunning the kids.
Shaunie dodged a swipe from the Lemmy arm and ran over, able to free his friends by smacking them with his blades. The Wendy head launched more hearts, but Shaunie swiftly avoided or batted them while Luvbi used wind to blow them away. "Man," Tommy panted, still trying to shoot the assaulting Iggy tail, "every corner on this guy has a head."
"Not every corner." Luvbi said, taking notice at the hideous bulge in the stomach where the heart rested. "Methinks yonder heart be his weak spot. Focus attacking thither."
"Okay. I just need a boost." Shaunie said, already running toward the amalgamation. The Roy leg tried to gnash at him, but Shaunie jumped onto it, the Morton leg tried to bite him, but missed and bit Roy instead as Shaunie got onto Morton, running up the leg and leaping before the Larry arm bit him. He landed on the amalgamation's back where Ludwig was, ducking as the German Koopa swung his arms before striking with his swords. Afterwards, he kicked off and landed on Wendy's head, striking the female before piercing his swords in and sliding down the front of the body, proceeding to land several blows upon the heart.
Shaunie jumped off as the incarnation screamed and fell over on its back. Mario jumped onto the stomach afterwards, used F.L.U.D.D.'s rocket to fire upward before coming down with a Ground Pound, dealing heavy damage to the heart. The Lemmy arm grabbed Mario and threw him right off, allowing the body to stand up. The demon unleashed a roar, jumping midair and spinning around as all the heads unleashed fireballs of the Koopalings' respective colors, all homing in and doing damage to the heroes while Shaunie was able to guard with his swords. The mutant came back down, creating a shockwave from the impact of his fall and knocking everybody over.
The Lemmy arm then conjured up giant green rubber balls in his hands, sending the massive balls to bounce around the field, one of them bouncing on top of Tommy and Mushi and pinning them down. One of the balls was about to crush Joey, but the Beatles baby flipped on top and started riding it himself, bouncing closer as the Lemmy/Larry hands coughed fireballs at him. Joey leapt off when the ball was destroyed, coming for Wendy's head and shoving a dodgeball in her face, then fell and landed between the Morton/Roy feet and jumped before the two could gnash at him, ramming their heads and making them dizzy.
As a result of the dizzied legs, the monster fell over on his butt. Shaunie dashed behind and headed for the Iggy tail, leaping above as his arms tried to grab him and struck at Iggy's head. He then flipped over, but was grabbed by the Ludwig shell, binding the boy's arms together and about to bite his head, but Shaunie pulled his left arm out and smacked the head with its sword, dropping Shaunie and allowing him to run up the back and reach Wendy's head, striking her again before sliding down the front of the body and dealing more strikes against the heart. Injured, the mutant fell all the way over on his back. Luigi took this time to get on the heart, Super Jump straight up, and come down with a Ground Pound to deal some more heavy damage.
Luigi was thrown off as the monster stood back up. Angered, the demon set himself aflame with purple fire, spinning all around the field and leaving a huge trail of the purple flames in his way. The kids looked around for a way out of the flames, but found nothing, and Tommy screamed when he saw the demon leap above him, running out of the way before he came down, creating another shockwave. Mario squirted water out of F.L.U.D.D. and spun around, shooting water all around, but it was unable to put out the purple flames as the beast jumped to where he was.
The Lemmy and Larry arms tried to bite at the plumber before Mario Rocket Jumped and belly-slid at Wendy's face, dropping down only to be grabbed by the Lemmy arm. Lemmy forced his teeth into the plumber before tossing him near the field's edge, the fire fading away as the creature stomped over. Sammy pulled out a rope and tossed the other end to Jessica, the two running to both sides of the monster and holding the rope up, successfully tripping it. Afterwards, Iggy and Ludwig grabbed both sides of the rope and yanked them over, grabbing the kids and proceeding to gnaw at their heads.
Joey instantly flipped over and shoved dodgeballs in the two mouths as Shaunie ran over and whacked their arms, forcing them to drop the kids. The Koopamalgamous stood back up and turned to face the Fulbright. Once again, Shaunie held his swords ready and dashed over, jumping as the Roy leg tried to grab him, then jumped the Morton leg, running up said leg and kicking away before the Larry grabbed him. However, the arms of the Lemmy arm wrapped around and grabbed him, but Shaunie was saved when Luvbi blew a gust of air from below him into the arms, expanding it into an air ball and forcing the arms off.
Shaunie was blown over and behind the body, allowing Iggy to grab him by his leg, licking his lips as he was about to snack on him. Shaunie just whacked his teeth, then his arm, and was able to flip on top of him, swatting at the Ludwig shell before it could grab him, kicking off the blue-haired Koopaling's head to once again reach Wendy's. The female Koopa tried to grab him, but Shaunie dodged around in midair and struck at the head, sliding down to the center once again and proceeding to land even more blows at the heart. The Koopamalgamous fell over on his back once more. This time, both Mario Brothers exchanged nods and ran onto its chest, both of them leaping straight up, grabbing each other's hands, and spinning around in the air before crashing down with a double Ground Pound. (End song.)
This appeared to be enough to vanquish the monster, as its chest splattered around the ground and a burst of light emerged where it was. Mario and Luigi ran off the monster as Koopamalgamous stood up, wobbling around in defeat. The light from the broken chest grew bigger until the entire incarnation exploded, consumed in light.
Bowser's Castle
Everyone suddenly found themselves on the floor of the prison chamber. As Shaunie recovered, he watched as his new weapons vanished in a ray of light. "We…We did it!" Shaunie exclaimed, raising fists high.
"Way to go, Shaunie!" Fanny cheered.
"But where did Bowser go?" Rachel asked.
Everyone looked around. There was no sign of the Koopa King or his Koopalings. "I guess… he's gone…" Shaunie said. "I guess… I finally won."
"But where's the Princess?" Luigi asked.
"Over here." a female voice called. Everyone directed their attention toward the door where Bowser's transformation device was as the pink princess herself stepped out. Mario immediately gave a joyous smile at the girl, while Peach smiled and giggled back. The princess approached the short plumber, bent down, and planted a kiss on his nose, causing Mario's cheeks to turn red.
"Heeheehee! They're so cute together." Shaunie giggled.
"Hm hm, mayhap so." Luvbi smirked. "But he ist not the only one whom hath earned a kiss." And Shaunie was taken by surprise when Luvbi bent down and laid a kiss upon his left cheek. "Mmmmwah."
"Uh…hehehe." Shaunie blushed.
Outside of Bowser's Castle
Everyone finally made it outside the castle, finally free of its Nightmare Power, as well as the dark clouds that surrounded it, exposing everyone to the bright-blue and sunny sky. "Ah, what a wonderful way to end such an adventure." Luvbi sighed.
"Maybe for you guys, but we still have a lot of work to do." Rachel said.
"Perhaps, but I've had enough adventuring for one day." Nova replied, holding Celebi's Spirit Ball. "I'd like to go back home and just relax a while."
"Me too." Emily agreed. "See you later, guys!" With that, she and the rest of Team Forest walked off.
"What about you, Matt?" Yin asked.
"You oughta come back with us." Luna told him.
"Hmm… I can't. It just wouldn't feel right… not right now."
"Well… just so you know, it's never too late." Yin said. "We have to go look for Violet. See you around." She smiled and waved as everyone else walked off.
"You sure we couldn't just go with 'em?" Elijah asked.
"Well, we do need to see how Nolan and his gang are doing." Matt said.
The rest of the heroes gathered back down at the airship as two certain spirits awaited. "Hey, Mewtwo! Clockwork!" Misty smiled.
"So, I see you kids made it out okay." Clockwork smiled.
"Thanks ta Shaunie." Fanny said, playfully smacking his back. "I don't know how, but he got a cool weapon from an angel or somethin'."
"The Icarus Bow, was it?" Clockwork raised a brow. "Pit Icarus works for the Goddess of Light, Palutena. To lend you his bow must mean that they both see great importance in you. But, even I can't see what that importance is."
"What do you mean?" asked Shaunie.
"Until now, I've had perfect vision of the future. But, at some point… my vision is going to be cut off. Your futures are all blank to me."
"Should we be worried about that?"
"Not at all. Because the future is uncertain, even to me, you children have more potential to become anything."
"Now come with us." Mewtwo ordered as Clockwork opened a portal. "We will regroup with the others and discuss how we plan to defeat Gnaa."
"You guys go ahead." Luigi told them as the Junior Prospectors, Mario, and Peach boarded the airship. "We're going to celebrate."
"Pray, that remindeth me of something." Luvbi spoke up. "I hath always wondered… what art thou and Mario's surnames?"
"Whuh? Oh, yeah. Believe it or not, our last names are… Mario."
"So… thou art Mario Mario and Luigi Mario?"
"Yep. We're the Mario Brothers."
"Ah-huh." Mario nodded.
"…I may needeth time to wrap my head around that."
"Hey, everybody." Peach started. "Why don't we go back to my castle and I'll bake us a delicious cake?"
"I'm up for that!" Toad smiled.
"Later, Tommy!" Hoagie waved as they stepped through the portal. "Save me a slice why don'tcha?"
"Junior Prospectors, let us ship off!" Luvbi ordered. (Play the Ending Theme to Super Mario 64!)
"Later, guys!" Luigi called to everyone else as the ship was already starting to lift off without him. "Catch ya on the flipside, Tails! I'll- Whoa!" he slipped when he tried to board the airship, finding out it had already taken off. "Hey!"
"Cometh, everyone!" Luvbi called. "After we feast on tasty cake, let us head to house of talking mouse and dine upon tasty round cheese decorated with many meats and deceased fish!"
Looks of total confusion appeared on everyone's faces.
"I believest thou humans refer to it as 'pizza.'"
"YAAAY!"
"WAIT!" Luigi called. "I like pizza, too! You forgot about me! Come back!"
"Mama Luigi!" Yoshi suddenly called, flying down beside him with a new pair of wings. "I fell back outside and swallowed a blue Koopa to get these wings!"
"Great! Let's go!" With that, Luigi got onto the dinosaur, flying after the airship as they soared over the peaceful skies.
HOO, and so we end the first character arc of the story! And the first of many epic final battles with the villains! But first, guess which world WE'RE headed! ;D Hint: the White Lotus come from that world!