PM14: Chapter 2 Inter

Bowser sat down in the surprisingly dark Dungeon of Princess Peach's Castle, thinking aloud,"Here I am, trying to think of a way to get my Castle back, because I'm stuck here in the basement of the person-I'm-trying-to-kidnap's Castle and..... HEY! YOU OLD HAG, WAKE UP!!" Bowser roared a great wall of fire towards Kammy Koopa who was laying on the ground enjoying a rest.

"WAH! Y-yes, your Fieryness?!" The aged Magikoopa asked holding her now charred bottom.

"You're supposed to help me think of a plan to get out of here..."

"But your Cunningness, there are Gaurds laid all across this castle, and we're completely powerless. Besides, we have no castle."

"We aren't completely helpless," The Tyrant grumbled pointing to the wand Kammy still had. Top-notch guards, his left foot!

"Oh! Of course your smartness! My wand, I forgot I had this. What do you have in mind?"

"Make us both invisible, that way we can get out of here so they won't see us."

Kammy lifted her wand and prepared to make the spell, but Bowser stopped her.

"Wait. The guards will come down in a few minutes with food. Then we can get out of here the easiest way possible."

Kammy nodded and waved her wand. The colourful geometry of square, triangle and circle shaped magic left the magicial staff and smashed into both herself and Bowser, turning them both invisible.

Rapping on the door, followed by,"Your Breakfast is here, King Koopa," alerted the Devious duo of his arrival. The guard opened the door and looked around.

"Huh!? W-Where are they?" The Toad stuttered,"H-hello?" He muttered as he set the trays down and creeped into the room. Bowser shifted a bit and stepped on some hay that shot rats and dust up into the room; to say the least scaring the lights out of the Toad.
As the guard yelled obsenities at the walls of the dungeon, Bowser and Kammy slipped away through the door. "Your stealthyness, that was close...Now we need to make an exit through the Front D-!" Before she could finish her sentence, the Guard shot out the door like a bullet yelling(screaming),"Code RED,Code RED!!" knocking Bowser and Kammy over in the process.

"That, insensitive little spore sucker, how dare he knock over the Great Lord Bowser King of the Koopas and my own BEAUTIFUL DARLING-self! For miles around I shall be known as such and shall.....knocked.....how dare........some Toad.......... .... ..... .. ."
Bowser quietly waited for her raving to end as he tuned the old hag out. Finally he just couldn't take it and breathed his ever famous Fire Breath once again on her, shutting her up. "OoOoOh! WoOoOow!" A Toad guard came up to where the fire had shot out of seemingly nowhere.
"That was awesome, I wish I could see that again." Bowser pondered and took it as a compliment. He gave a smirk and breathed Fire again, and again, and again. "Your Roastyness, we must be leaving now!"

"Hold your aging Yoshis' for just a second, RROOOOOOAAAARRR!!" More Guards came to the the fire show and soon a whole group of guards came, clapping and whistling. Soon the first one stopped clapping and raised his spear, "GET HIM!!" Bowser gaped,"That's not FAIR YOU CHEATERS!" Bowser dodged the spears and sheilds as best as he could, but a group of 20 or so Toad Guards even though unable to see him, easily outweighs 1 Koopa Tyrant. Soon the group was toting the invisible Bowser back to his room. "Your, decitfulness!" Kammy waved her wand and shot magic at the Guards, but missed and hit Bowser square in the forehead. Bowser leaped into the air from the blow and fell back down crushing the Toad Guards into pancakes. Mumbles of 'Ow' and 'Ouchy' and even 'It smells like coliflower down here!' came from under the Koopa King.

"I apoligize your jumpiness, however we must leave quickly before the magic wears off...I can already see my hand starting to come back," she raised her hand showing some fingers already visible,"and I can't make the spell again until it has completely worn-off."
Bowser nodded and continued through the Castle Basement. The Duo walked through the maze-like basement. Bowser would not have minded their trek through the Castle's bowels, If it didn't smell like a Castle's bowels!
'Does no one do maintance around here?' Not only was there a rancid odor, but they were up to their waists in water. At least, Bowser was; Kammy was barely able to keep her head above the surface. There were torches lit across the walls, but the torches seemed to end right where they were, so Bowser ripped the last torch off the wall. "I just hope we can find a Doorway, and soon." Bowser mumbled walking into the darkness, praying the water would not get any deeper.

---

General Blakk stood in his throne room, pondering to himself aloud.

"So this Mario fellow is still wallowing around looking for the peices of the Light Ztar...I must figure out a way to stop him before he gains too many peices. Hahaha. I have just th-"

"Lord Blakk," Two Blanks rose through the floor," We have news conserning Mario."

General Blakk turned with a look of discontent on his face.

"How many times have I told you, do NOT barge into my room unnoticed!" Blakk snarled. The two Blanks bowed,"We are sorry Lord Blakk but we must inform you of the status of Mario."

"I'm listening..." Blakk sighed.

"According to eyewitnesses, Mario has defeated the dragon, Dirtail, sir."

"Is that it? What are you going to give a status update every time his shoelaces come undone!? This was a waste of time!"

"No your Highness, that is not all. You see, Mario entered a sort of tournament, which was to defeat Dirtail. The winner gains a massive trophy. The Trophy IS the next Light Ztar peice. Mario is on his way to gain it as we speak, in the town of Explotton, sir."

"Hmm...Well 'lucky' for me, I have a minion set in every town of the Mushroom Kingdom. I want for you two to contact the one in Explotton immediatly." The two Blanks nodded and vanished into the ground.

"Now what was I talking about?...Oh Never mind. The main point is this Mario is getting on my last nerve. I must dispose of him quickly if I think to continue my plans," and with that, Blakk vanished too.

---

Mario and his crew walked back through the valley and were about to enter the town gates when something dropped on Mario's head. It was big heavy and blue,"Oh dear me. Please accept my sincerest apologizes, Mario. My wings gave out...Mario? Mario! Wake up. Dear heavens. Here, this should help." he lifted his hand and his eyes turned magenta. Mario slowly opened his eyes to see the blurry form of Merlon standing next to him.

Mario stood up shaking his head and raised his hand to Merlon, with a short "Oh!". Thankfully Merlon took it as a "Oh! Merlon," and not a "OH COME ON!"

"I am truthfully sorry Mario for the quite literal 'barging in'. Anyways I heard of your victory and had come here to teach you a new technique of sort. But you must obtain the next Light Ztar peice; from Mayor Frons I beleive. Well, I shall met you In town." And with that Merlon floated pass the entrance of the small settling. Mario and his partners followed suit and walked into Explotton. They were shocked to find the barren, and desolate place they walked through before was bustling with life.From Red and Green Koopa Troopa street venders to Pink and Black Bob-omb entertainers.
As the team walked into town a Koopa came by and yelled "EVERY ONE! THE DRAGON SLAYER IS BACK!!" Then utter chaos broke loose and people started crouding the Plumber and companions and lifted them up and cared the four heroes to the Main Square where they started. Mayor Frons had already set up the stage and microphone. The Trophy was on the side again being held by the two Goombas. Merlon was standing alittle off center of the stage.
The ocean of townsfolk finally dropped Mario off on the stage and cheered like crazy animals.
"My townsfolk!" Mayor Frons had to shout over the yelling crowd, even with the microphone,"The question still remains! Has the brave adventurer Mario, and his faithful friends, felled the dragon Dirtail?"

"Uh... Mr. Frons..." Marko Boolo hovered over to the Mayor,"Are you saying they don't even know if we actually did it?"

The Mayor pulled the microphone away from his face and whispered,"Well, the townsfolk sort of have a mind of their own. Normally I would stop such foolishness but I thought there was no harm in celebrating."
The Mayor cleared his troat
"So! Again I ask, Mario have you slayed the dragon Dirtail?"

The crowd became silent as Mario walked up to the microphone. They all jumped up and down in anticipation. Mario grabbed the device of the stand and nodded in the the most non-chalont way ever, and the crowd screamed, whistled and praised so loud the Mario head hurt.
The two Goombas came on stage with the trophy. Mayor Frons added,"I do believe this belongs to you." Merlon walked up and said with great triumpth,"Mario, my dear boy! Good show. This is absolutely stupedious. Now bring the trophy over here so I can transform it."

Without delay, Mario grabbed the huge trophy off the Goombas and walked back to Merlon. He took out a spell book, presumably, and flipped through it mumbling.
Sir Boom-a-lot walked up with a sour look on his face and whispered,"Since what time, hath the great Merlon, have need for a Book of spells?" Mario shrugged and shushed him. Merlon found the page, closed his eyes and a bright light illuminated the trophy. This bright light, morphed into a circle and exploded in a bright flash. The Light Ztar piece floated in mid-air with a blinding glow behind it.
Merlon quickly pointed past the Plumber and yelled,"NOW!"
Mario straightened in shock and before he could turn, the two Goombas slammed into Mario and his partners. Mayor Frons ran up to the plumber,"What are you two doing?"

"Sorry Mayor, but we're actually getting paid for this." One of the Goombas said with a smirk. Then Merlon pulled on his cloak and tugged it off, revealing a purple shelled Dry Bones. He hissed,"Oh, did I say pay? I meant PAY with your lives!"

"What! Y-you said you'd gives us Coins!"

"I said no such thing. HAHAHA HA!" He raised his hands and two lightning bolt shocked the poor Goombas. He pulled out a sword and got into a battle stance.
"Gonzales! Now it's time to battle!" He jumped up and grabbed the Light Ztar peice,"If you want this thing, you're gonna have to pry it from my cold, dead, hands!HAHAHA HA!"
Mario pointed at him and mumbled a,"Hey."

"What! You say I am already dead?" He remembered he was, in fact a Dry Bones,"Oh...yeah. NO MATTER! You wll fight!"

"Mariyah," GoomBarb walked up to Mario,"Why's he calling you Gonzales?"

Mario quickly explained to GoomBarb.

"So, you where a pro-fighter in some place called the Glitz Pit and your fighting name was Gonzales!? That's awesome! I never knew you fought in the ring before!"

"CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE!" The Dry Bones hollered looking a bit annoyed.

"But, how do you know Mariyah's fightin' name, unless..."

"Yes I was indeed a fighter in the Glitz Pit. A part of a trio called the Dead Bones. We were in the 16th Rank until Mario came along and knocked us into 17th. I was so mad at him I left the team trained hard until I was stronger under my new name Iron Bones. Then this wierd guy cloaked in brown with an unusually large shadow, asked me if I wanted to work for them. They said all I had to do was defeat Mario and get something called the Light Ztar piece. So that's what I'm here to do." Iron Bones look at the spell book," and, with this book I stole from Merlon, that should be easy. HAHAHA HA!"

Mario jumped up across the stage and landed on Iron Bones' head doing only 1 damage. Marko followed up with

"HAHAHA HA! My Defence is too high for your puny attacks." He charged forward slashing his sword at Mario causing 5 damage.

"Mario!" Mayor Frons rushed in past Mario and ran into Iron Bones' sword, sending him up into the air.

"OW! OW! Sorry Mario, I tried to help but I don't think I did much" Mayor Frons ran back off the stage with tears in his eyes.

"Mario!" Sir Boom-a-lot ran on stage this time,"Thine attacks doth not seem to be very useful. Perhaps I might lend a hand with mine own explosive techniques?"

"Yeah Mariyah. This guys seems to have a rather low HP count anyways so try it," GoomBarb urged him on. Mario nodded and let Sir-Boom-a-lot attack first. He ran up to Iron Bones and blew up in his face, sending his bones sky high and dropping them back down with an audible 'thud'. It seemed to do the trick because before he could lift his head back up, he fainted. The crowd cheered and applauded and were even throughing Star Points onto the stage.
"Mariyah! The audience liked us so much, they're giving us star points for free!" Mario and his partners ran around the stage picking up the Points for Mario's XP to go up.

"I-I'll......get you.....Mario....." Iron Bones barely managed to say.

Mayor Frons came on clapping and praising the plumber, saying,"Let's hear it for Mario and his friends!"

Soon the whole ordeal, after many,"Everything in my shop is free to you", or "I'll give free samples" from Shop owners or street venders, was finally over. The townsfolk went back to their lives, and Mayor Frons took the stage away. Soon only Mario, his friends, and the Mayor stood in the middle of Town Square.

"Mario, I thank you for your courage and care for our small town. We shall forever honor you as our hero, and I shall forever thank you for taking the Light Ztar piece off my hands. I'm so relieved."

"Hey, it was no prob, Mayor," GoomBarb grinned.

"Glad to be of help," Marko nodded.

"It be of mine own pleasure," Sir Boom-a-lot bowed.

Mayor Frons smile grew even more (if that were possible) and he proclaimed," Mario! I wish you a great journey! From the bottom of my and the Town's heart we wish you luck and good fortune. Happy Trails, as they say. Please feel free to visit back any time. We shall keep you in our best regards." The Mayor waved goodbye as Mario and his friends stepped into the Warp Pipe.

The gang, popped back out on the other side in the flowery fields of Blossom Bridge and crossed into Toad Town. They retraced their steps; through Amnita Marsh, across the swamp water and into the portal. Merlon greeted them into his bright neon-lit Tent-house. Safe to say Merlon wasn't the least bit happy when Mario told him about the Spell Book thief.

"I knew someone took it! How dare he? Go parading around Explotton, pretending to be me! Anyways... Mario I have a special, something to grant to you." He turned around to Mario and closed his eyes. Sparkles and glittery magic appeared and started spinning Mario around in a good four 360's. When he finished the two Light Ztar pieces rose up and spun in the air, created a spark that grew in a sphere, then the two piece touched that sphere and glowed purple. The light dimmed down and showed a slightly transparent complete Light Ztar.

"WOAH!" Did you just make the rest of the Light Ztar appear!" GoomBarb and Sir Boom-a-lot stood dumbfounded.

"Technically no," Merlon shrugged,"What I did was allow the Light Ztar to call on alittle of the other Light Ztar pieces' power. With this, I can manifest them and use my own magic to give you a new power-up of sorts."
Merlon lifted his hands and the transparent Light Ztar peice spun Mario around yet again but when he stopped, he was wearing some new clothes; A smock over his overalls, a Palette in his right hand and a beret resembling his hat. An easle appeared from the ground and the Light Ztar transformed into a Paint brush, with it's logo on the ferrule. The paintbrush had some rather funky, rainbow colored paint on it already.
"This form that I have bestowed upon you, I call Arty Mario. WIth it you can do many things, but right now you're limited to one technique."

Mario and his partners were still fawning over the clothes and the art supply.

"AHEM!" Merlon purposefully coughed, irritated by the lack of attention," Would you like for me to explain this new power to you?"

Mario nodded a yes.

Merlon started,"Well It's simple. first you need to transform, you can do that by going to the Light Ztar Powers option in your Battle commands. Then just scroll through the list of powers. Of course though you only have one right now."

Mario tried tuning out any thing that had to do with clicking on Powers in Menus, so he could understand better, knowing the 'Person from the other dimension' needed to hear it.

"You're Light Ztar Power takes up a section of the Power meter located under your FP and Coin stats. After you use the technique it goes down one section, and you have to wait two turns for it to go back up. This is bad because some sections of....... require...... sections...... filled........ ........  ... .. .. . . ."
Mario was waiting for the rambling to stop so he could actually explain the PURPOSE of the artist attire.
"NOW! Time to explain the power itself. I call this technique Art Heart. It's an Defensive move that will allow you to heal your HP and FP. Mario, In layman's terms, Draw a heart shape or a four-petaled flower on the easle. Hearts and Flowers will drop on you and your partner healing you. You can practice to your heart's content. When you're finished pick the exit command in your battle commands. Er, just tell me when, Mario.

Mario drew hearts and flowers again and again practicing. Until telling Merlon he was finished.

"Good, I hope it comes of use to you when you're in a jam. Now remember, in an actual Battle you can only use the power for ten seconds. Then the easle disappears and you loose a section of the meter."

"Okay, Merlon," Marko chimmed in," but where are we gonna go for the next Light Ztar piece?"

"Well I have done some research and I't come to my understandings that there are strange tremors accouring in a place south of Toad Town, called Hoarfrost Summit. Scientists say it's related to some energy that's leaking out of the mountain."

"Hoarfrost?," GoomBarb questioned,"Awesome! I always wanted to go there. Though I might need my scarf and some goggles."

"This is not a vacation to a snow covered villa, GoomBarb," Merlon stated,"You are going there on a mission. To find out what is making that Mountain shake and hopefully find a Light Ztar piece."

"Verily, Mr. Merlon," Sir Boom-a-lot spoke,"but how doth we arrive in such a place?"

"That's the fun part. For me at least. I'll warp you there."

He lifted up his hand and a flat disk of white light appeared, engulfed Mario and his friends' bodies and then disappeared.
The disk reappeared some where in the sky dropping the gang onto a Warp Pipe. Before the Pipe forsibly sucked them in GoomBarb said,"WAIT! I wanted to get something in Toad Town!"
Too late.