Chapter 28

Everyone was having a good time. The sunlight through the shimmering stained glass windows and the glowing chandeliers was more than enough to brighten the days of the various couples below, all of them dancing across the ballroom floor to the music of the orchestra. All the while, the king and queen of Mario Land were sitting in their respective thrones with their children on their laps. The father had Mario and the mother had Luigi.

"It's great to be back, isn't it, dear?" the mother said.

"Yes, it is," her husband agreed. "What better way is there to celebrate Mario and Luigi's births than to throw a party?" In response, the royal woman merely smiled and closed her eyes. The two parents continued to bask in the warm-hearted radiance of the get-together...

Meanwhile, right next to the stage that the orchestra was performing on top of, two men in tuxedoes were busy talking to each other. One of them was kind of short and stocky, and the other was a little taller and more muscular. The two of them had their swerving brown hair slicked back and their mustaches were as stylish as ever. The shorter one had an especially curly mustache and the taller one had a mustache that was basically just two big, loopy, black tufts coming out of his large, sharp nose. As for the other guy, his nose was more bulbous. Comically, it protuded from his face like a doornob, much unlike his wide blue eyes. However, the other man's eyes couldn't be seen as he had just slipped a devious-looking pair of shades over them.

"Like my new shades, Guido?" the one man said to the other in a cocky, relatively deep voice.

"Yes, sir," said the man named Guido. "Much better than the ones that Dr. Kamenstein swiped from you."

"You don't like my old shades?!" the taller man blurted. The other one backed up a little.

"Well, um, it's not that, necessarily..." he stammered.

"I liked my old shades," the stronger man said, "but that Kamenstein took 'em from me. Can't that guy take a joke?!" He then turned and got a good look at the king and the queen. "Well, it's his loss," said the man. "I'm running things now." The man dug his hands into his pockets, shook his head, and tisked. "Toys can break, Guido," the man said, looking at the mountain of balls, rocking horses, and stuffed animals next to their royal rulers, "but a song can stick with you..." That being said, the orchestra continued playing, the dancing went on, and the two men waited a while longer...

Not too far from there, Bowser was busy riding with Kamek in the backseat of his broomstick. One of them was in lower spirits than the other.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"NO."

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"Are we there yet?"

"Rrg..." Kamek grumbled, but then he saw a mighty castle built in the middle of a nice moat getting closer to them. In the center of the front of this abode was a massive, shiny, golden coin with an M on it. This was definitely the place. The intelligent Magikoopa let a triumphant smirk slowly creep onto his face.

"Well, Kamek?" Bowser pestered. "Are we-"

"For the thousandth time, YES!" Kamek barked.

"Yay!" Bowser cheered. "You remember the pwan, wight, Kamek?"

Kamek sighed. "Yes, Bowser," he responded.

"Good!" Bowser said. With that cleared up, he sat back and resumed enjoying the ride. Kamek rolled his eyes up and brought them back down. He went back to flying towards their designated area...

Finally, the orchestra wrapped up their song, the people stopped dancing, and started applauding. The second that died down, another man in a tuxedo walked up to a microphone on the stage. He cleared his throat.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "the king and queen send their thanks for all your thoughtful gifts..." At the sound of this, the crowd turned, looked at the nice couple, and applauded once more upon seeing them waving back and smiling. "We have one more gift, yYour Highnesses," the man on the stage said, being the center of attention again. "Our dear Foreman Spike will now come up here and sing us a song..." The man stepped aside and walked off the stage backwards, clapping with the audience and facing the shades-wearing foreman as he ascended his way onto the stage, waving to the people. Once the other guy was gone, the foreman grabbed a hold of the mic and the clapping died down.

"I'd like to make this one out to Their Majesties, the king, the queen, and their two delightful little princes," Foreman Spike said. "It's called Mario Land." Foreman Spike whirled around and slammed one index finger forward, pointing to the instrumentalists behind him. The instant he did this, they immediately started playing an upbeat, jazz-type song, complete with trumpets, saxophones, and various string instruments going off with swinging notes. Once their part was over, the foreman took the mic and started singing in that deep voice of his, and with quite a bit of style at that. This time, the guests weren't the only people dancing in the room; the foreman was as well...

I've been here,
I've been there,
I've been everywhere,
But there's no place
With a smiling face
Quite like... Mario Land...

It would seem
It makes me beam.
Everyday here is like a dream.
I'm tellin' you,
I'm never blue,
Not in... Mario Land...

But, you know what?
Call me a nut,
But that is nothing when you are here...

The dance move the foreman paired this up with was one where he pointed to the king and queen and winked. The couple was quite taken by this. The foreman continued singing...

You make it fair
With special care.
You make it seem like love is in the air.
It's never tragic
With your magic
Cast in... Mario Land...

It's a party room,
Flowers bloom,
It becomes one big thing of perfume,
It's extra nice
With that special spice
Of you in... Mario Land...

But that's all;
We have a ball
Only truly when you are here...

The two descendants of royalty felt flattered by each word. This whole party was in no way a huge mistake. There wasn't a single soul in the room that wasn't dancing or having a good time. Little did they suspect that two big surprises were headed their way...

Surely, by far,
It's like a star;
It shines like the sun wherever you are.
It's quite sublime
At any time.
That there is... Mario Land...

It's number one,
We're having fun,
Especially when you are here...

At that point, it was just dancing for Foreman Spike. The rest was left up to the band behind him. They played their hearts out, making the already uplifting mood of the song swing even more. Once its escalation was at its peak, Spike took it from there...

It's not a jest.
This place is the best.
Give me that good old,
Nice old, classic old,
Unforgettable,
Absolutely incredible,
Reliable,
Totally undeniable,
Mario Land...

Then Spike and the band finally went for the big finish...

Especially when
Yooou arrre heeere...

The band rang out one last note and wrapped up the song. Spike took a bow, the dancing stopped, and the audience let loose another round of applause. Waving to everyone, the foreman walked off the stage as though he were the best thing in the world, and the man that was on it previously walked back on, clapping with the audience. Once the mic was back in his hand, he got to talking again.

"I'm telling you, that Foreman Spike is a miracle-worker!" he said. Everyone in the room agreed whole-heartedly. The man got to talking some more. "Surely, that was the best gift of them all..." The crowd went into a fit of murmuring various agreements, the king and queen included.

"He's a talented one," said the king.

"I had no idea we were missed so much!" said his wife. Praise was in the air. Indeed, Foreman Spike's performance was a success. In spite of this, two things continued flying towards the castle...

Beneath the sea, Kammelina and Kammeo were still floating around in those bubbles of theirs hunting down that monstrous pig they wanted. While Kammelina was remaining the alert one, Kammeo looked as though she were about to collapse.

"Sister," she rasped, "I don't think it's even worth it. Let's go back."

"NO!" the elder spazzed. "We've come too far! We must keep going!"

"But we know where our cottage is, whereas the whereabouts of that pig are completely unknown to us! Please, Sister?" the younger one reasoned. At the sound of this, Kammelina stopped her broomstick and turned to face her sibling. She stopped as well.

"Let me explain to you something, Kammeo," she said. "Somewhere out there, the enemy is up to no good. We have to stop them before it's too late! Now we can either continue hunting that pig down and do something about it, or go home and hate ourselves for the rest of our lives!"

"As if we don't already hate-"

"Now you listen to me! I-" Kammelina interrupted herself soon after interrupting her sister. With a clawed finger pointing upward, she suddenly looked down and saw something rather eye-catching. She gasped. "Look, dear Sister!" she said. She swooped down on her broomstick, grabbed the thing, pulled it into her bubble, and held it in front of her face. "Victory at last!" she squealed.

Kammeo wasn't impressed. She raised an eyebrow at the other Magikoopa. "Another broken bottle?" she exclaimed.

"We're on the right track, Sister," Kammelina stated. She turned her head and pointed. "And look! Another one!" Unquestionably, there was another discarded bottle on the seafloor.

"Hm?" Kammeo said.

"A trail, Sister! We must be getting closer!" Kammelina said excitedly. The witch soon began to float along on her broomstick, following the newly discovered path of broken bottles, although at a faster rate than usual. Kammeo hesitated before returning to following.

"Hoy..." she breathed. The hunt resumed. This time, however, it looked as though they were getting somewhere...

FFWWIISSHH! A big cloud of steam burst forth from the pile of coals, and began to swallow the room up in a thin, white layer of fog. With that out of the way, Gorroh set down the ladel and sat back, enjoying the nice, hot moisture of the air soaking into his scales. Both he and Doppel were quite enjoying themselves while sitting around in the sauna of Monet's Mansion. The two of them had towels wrapped around their waists, and were evidently feeling the effects of all this. Gorroh's hair was lying flat with wetness across his scalp, and Doppel's four horns were looking a little on the droopy side.

"My goodness, Doppel," Gorroh said, "you just have everything in this mansion of yours, don't you?"

"J-J-Just about..." Doppel stuttered. Gorroh looked over at him, eying him strangely. The ghostly man was shivering and rubbing his arms for warmth.

"Doppel," Gorroh asked, "is something the matter? It's steaming hot in here and you're shivering up a storm!"

"It's-s-s nothing," Doppel said.

Gorroh wasn't convinced. He scratched his chin with his claw and looked skeptically at the artistic man. "You sure?" he said.

"I'm s-s-sure," Doppel said, continuing to shiver and rub himself.

"Hm," Gorroh replied. "If you say so..." The Koopa King shrugged it off and continued to enjoy himself. It was a nice sauna, after all.

He's been acting strangely ever since we got here, Gorroh thought. Well, no use worrying about it, I suppose... or is it? ... FFWWISSHHH...

Following the trail was uneventful at best. Kammelina and Kammeo stuck to it as faithfully as ever. One of them had her hopes up while the other one was grouchy with doubt. Finally, after about the zillionth broken bottle, they found something.

"Behold, Sister!" Kammelina said. "The cave of the swine!" There was every bit of truth to what she said. Undoubtedly, there was, right in front of them, a tremendous hole in the stone wall of the ocean floor. Victory was nearby.

"Well," Kammeo huffed, "looks like you're not as incompetent as I thought, Sister."

"Silence!" her sibling spat. "We go in!"

Kammeo rolled her eyes. The elder sister hovered into the cave and soon disappeared into its darkness. The younger one was close behind her. Once nothing but pitch black was all around them and a circle of watery illumination was right behind them, one of the two witches raised her wand, conjured up some magical energy, and FWOOSH! The jewel of the wand became a makeshift, albeit surprisingly bright flashlight.

The duo began to scan the vicinity with this cone of light as they trekked onward. Nothing here... nothing there... but wait! What was that? Kammeo stopped her wand's beam of light on a downed crate lying on the floor of this place. Through its open roof, the sisters could see that, lined inside of it, were rows of bottles with a red substance inside them. Looking inquisitive, the elder hovered down to this crate and got close enough to make this thing start sharing her bubble, although the bottles were still coated in various little droplets of seawater. Not caring, the blonde-haired Magikoopa wrapped one clawed hand around one of these damp bottles and pulled it up to her spectacles. She rotated it around until she could see letters engraved onto it.

"'Gadd Science Inc'," she read aloud, "'Red Essence'?"

Kammeo went wide-eyed. "That's why we couldn't hurt that blasted pig!!" she pointed out. "But... how could a creature at the bottom of the sea get a hold of something like this?"

"GRRRrrr..." Their heads bolted up. The water around them vibrated with the sound of bloodthirsty growling. The two witches turned, looked at each other, stared, and nodded. They then sped off on their broomsticks to battle...

Once off the stage, the foreman was greeted by his sidekick, Guido, yet again. "That was wonderful, sir! You blew everyone away!" he said excitedly.

"Yup. I'm a work of art, ain't I?" said the foreman.

"No doubt about it," Guido concurred. "Man," he added, "I'd like to see someone top THAT..."

The shorter man's timing couldn't have been more impeccable. As though in response, at that very moment, when things couldn't possibly have gone wrong, CRRAASSHHH!!! The stained glass window was history. All eyes pointed to it as gasps and shrieks of shock accompanied this maneuver. Out in the open, flying around on a broomstick, was a Magikoopa and some little punk Koopa Kid. With a very unsettling air surrounding them, the duo floated down to the middle of the room, where the people stepped away from them, allowing them to hop off the broomstick and start looking at everyone straight in the eye. The king and queen were glaring at this unexpected duo extra fervently. Bowser got a kick out of how shocked and confused these people all were, but Kamek was more interested in the two princes up there. Mario and Luigi gulped at the sight of a familiar enemy.

The Magikoopa put away his broomstick. "I suppose you're all wondering why we're here," Kamek said loud enough to make sure everyone could hear him. "I shall tell you," Kamek said. He placed a scaly hand against his chest. "I am Kamek, servant of the Koopa Klan, and this is our future leader, Bowser." The Magikoopa gestured to the Koopaling, who just folded his little arms and smirked at the crowd. "I had a vision a little while ago," Kamek explained. "I saw two Marios bringing about the downfall of the Koopa Klan. Naturally, I wouldn't want something like that to happen, so you know what I did?" No one in the audience responded to this. "I kidnapped them." This was a different matter. Everyone gasped in utter shock. They all started pointing and whispering amongst themselves.

A servant snuck up beside the king. "Shall I get the guards, sir?" he said. The king waved him down.

"No, let's hear him out." The king was being surprisingly patient in spite of the anger that showed in his face. His wife looked equally steamed. Aware of all this, Kamek continued.

"Mario and Luigi... Their disappearance can be explained by me. I came here to do it again..." This time, people's outbursts were even more prominent. The queen gasped and started pressing Luigi against her chest even tighter. Some of the audience members even started scowling and shaking fists at the Magikoopa. Kamek lifted a hand to get them to quiet down. "Of course, we CAN come to peaceful terms," he reasoned. "Name your price, Your Majesty. You shall have it."

The king grimaced. No one in the room could ignore the fury he had just developed. "What kind of fool do you take me for?" he said. He grabbed Mario beneath his tiny shoulders and stood up. He handed the child over to his spouse so she was holding two babies. "The Koopa Klan has a long record of crimes, felonies, and acts of deceit committed all over the world. You kidnap our children, you break our beautiful, priceless stained glass window, and now this. What makes you think we're going to trust you?"

The crowd started glaring even more harshly at the Magikoopa. Kamek frowned. Why did I listen to that little brat? he thought, glancing over at the young Koopa, who was still folding his arms and looking arrogantly at all the people, but less so than before.

"We can fix that," Kamek said. "You can have anything you want. Gold, oil, weapons, half of the Koopa Kingdom... Anything, Your Highness. Just name it."

The king squinted his eyes at the blue-garbed man and placed his fists against his hips. "Is that all you Koopas ever think about?" he said. "Money and power?" Kamek shifted his eyes left and right, feeling people's cold, icy stares going through him. This wasn't going well. "Admit it: you people can't govern. Now get out of my sight lest you want security to escort you out."

Bowser wasn't smiling anymore. Even he could tell how this had gone. Still with the room scowling at him, Kamek breathed a sigh. "Very well then," he said. "Your Highness, you leave me no choice..." Kamek raised his wand into the air. Everyone gasped and started to back away upon seeing its red jewel beginning to glow.

"We've got a psycho," Foreman Spike said, drawing his sledgehammer cautiously.

"Looks like it, sir," Guido agreed, pulling out a smaller hammer.

Lots of attention was drawn to Kamek's wand. Still, it was powering up. The king definitely couldn't stop glaring at it. As Kamek's wand charged, the king slowly started raising his left hand.

I'll show you who can't govern... Kamek thought grimly. Then... FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH! Various spirals of circles, squares, and triangles started bursting from his wand, each of them aimed at something different. The people all started shrieking and ducking. This seemed to work seeing how the bursts of magic Kamek had sent upon them merely sailed past their heads. Perplexed, they looked up, wondering if it was over. Then all of a sudden, WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP! Hors d'oeuvres, instruments, and even plants had been transformed. Thwimps started hopping all over the place, knocking things over and causing all kinds of ruckus. Then the people started running and screaming. Kamek watched all this passively. He then turned and looked at the king. The royal man looked horrified. A bead of sweat formed on his temple.

"That's not all..." Kamek growled. He pointed his wand upward, made it glow, and fired a spell at the chandelier. FWOOSH! The work of art became a humungous Thwomp. Those who weren't too busy being pestered by Thwimps had the time to look up and see what had happened. They were stunned. The Thwomp looked down at them, grinned maliciously, clenched its teeth, and came crashing down. WHAM!!! The stone beast blew a ring of destruction into the ballroom floor, and tiles and guests alike went flying. This was mayhem at its finest.

The king's face burned red with hatred. He threw his left arm into the air. "GUARDS!!!" he bellowed. Soon, assorted mustachioed soldiers with uniforms and hammers started piling into the room. The whole lot of them stood by either side of the upraised floor where the thrones were.

"All present and reporting for duty, sir!" yelled one of them.

The king placed his hands against his hips and looked at two of these soldiers. "Aberto, Brando," he said, "take the queen and the princes to the queen's room. Let no one in."

"Yes, sir!" said the two men, saluting their king and running up to the queen, Mario, and Luigi. The queen held on tightly to her two children as she was was led away by these two guards. Then it was just the king and the others.

"As for the rest of you," he said. "Take care of those Thwimps and the intruders!"

"YES, SIR!" said the whole lot of them. The king watched gravely as they then ran off and soon became a part of the melee...

Foreman Spike and Guido were way ahead of them. All around them, they were socking Thwimps to the moon with heavy blows from their hammers. It was as though baseball had just been taken to the next level.

"Easy, huh, sir?" Guido commented after thwacking another Thwimp. The foreman pounded another one into the ground with a downward maneuver from his hammer. He held up his weapon and looked around at all the madness.

"Ehh," he exclaimed, "it's easy all right." The muscular man suddenly turned around and saw another Thwimp flying right towards him. WHACK! By smacking that thing horizontally, the foreman was able to send it soaring in the opposite direction. WHACK! His sidekick got another one. "Too easy, if you know what I mean," the bigger man added.

"Hm," Guido grunted.

"URPHH!!!" The duo turned their heads and saw that the Thwomp Kamek made earlier had just slammed into the ground, blasting a few of the castle's soldiers away in the process. It looked as though backup was going to need backup.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Foreman Spike asked.

"Yes, sir," Guido agreed, holding his hammer up once more.

"All right," Spike added. "Let's do it!!" With an agreement having been reached, the two mustachioed warriors ran off to carry the fight even further...

In a different part of the ballroom, a ring of soldiers were surrounding Bowser, all of them with their sledgehammers ready. Bowser just looked around and glared at them. He suddenly started waving towards himself with one monstrous hand. "Come on, you dummy-heads!" he taunted. "Let's do this!" Not taking the insult nicely, the soldiers charged and the fight began. WHUMP! BAM! WHACK! They all had their hammers raised, but Bowser could see through this. He swung out a leg and tripped one, then flew up and socked one of them squarely in the jaw, and kicked another one in the head while he was still airborne. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Bowser used the rest of their heads as a makeshift floor as he ran across the lot of them, kicking them in the process. Once he reached the edge, he leapt off, landed on his feet and turned around. He could see the mob was in a state of confusion. They were all swinging their hammers in vain.

Ha! What nincompoops, Bowser commented. He then took a deep breath, gathered a whole bunch of heat into his throat, bent forward, and released it. FFOOOOMMM! Bowser bathed them with a wave of his fire breath. He puffed out a cloud of smoke, closed his mouth, and smirked. The soldiers were all lying on the floor, burnt to a crisp. Piece of cake, he thought. He looked around and saw that some of the other troops were struggling to deal with the Thwimps. He decided those little creatures weren't enough on their own. He rubbed his claws together mischievously and ran off to deal more damage...

"Stand back, men!" yelled one of the troops. "It's going to come down again!" This guy along with a bunch of other Marios were all poised and ready to give attacking the Thwomp another go. They glared upward at it as it rose into the air, all of them with killing intent on the brain. Finally it happened. The Thwomp started plummeting downwards and the troops were bracing themselves for the impact.

Then, out of nowhere, Foreman Spike and Guido ran forward. Everyone was shocked by their sudden appearance. Right when the Thwomp was split-seconds from slamming into the ground, the two mustachioed guys leapt up, and WHAMM! Not only did the Thwomp collide with the ground once again, but also Foreman Spike and Guido had slammed their respective weapons right into the beast's eyes. The creature roared in pain as they jumped back and started admiring their work. The other troops seemed to be equally impressed. However, the mood changed once, growling in frustration, the monster started leaping into the air and pounding into the ground repeatedly. More panic started to sweep the room.

This is gonna be tougher than I thought, Foreman Spike thought in pessimism. He, Guido, and the other Marios started frowning, clutching at their hammers, wondering what to do next...

Bowser, on the other hand, wasn't at a loss. To aid the Thwimps, he was tripping feet, punching stomachs, and burning hides left and right. After punching one guy in the face, he turned around and noticed a guy about to swing his hammer at one of the Thwimps. He ran up behind him, dove to the ground, and grabbed a hold of his ankles. The guy shrieked and fell flat on his face. His hammer flew from his grasp, and the Thwimp jumped up and pounded his head even deeper into the ground. After that the Thwimp started pounding its way off to do more harm. Bowser got off the ground and clenched his fists excitedly. This is fun! he thought sadistically. Then the Koopaling ran off to make the situation even worse...

The king watched all this in horror. Sweat began to drip down his face as he observed what was going on. Here, Thwimps were thrashing about, there, his soldiers were busy trying to handle a massive Thwomp jumping around madly, and in the other direction, that blasted Koopa Kid was terrorizing the vicinity. Not only that, but he could see that all the guests had run for their lives. Not a single one stayed behind. He prayed nothing would make this dreadful occurance sink any lower. That was when he noticed that blue Magikoopa walking up the stairs of the platform towards him. The king scowled at the unwelcome visitor as he came closer and closer. Then the Magikoopa stopped, stared at the king, and began to speak.

"This is but a small portion of what we Koopas are capable of," Kamek said. "We can make your entire country suffer." The king suddenly imagined a bunch of Koopatrols, Goombas, and other Magikoopas invading the land he worked so hard to protect. There was blood and mayhem everywhere, even in the most innocent of villages. He clenched his gloved fists and made them tremble as his fingers dug into his palms. Kamek went on. "Now tell me," he said, "where are those babies?"

The king stared hard into the Magikoopa's eyes. "I'll never tell you," he growled.

"You'll only endanger your country with that attitude," Kamek threatened. "Now tell me," he added more firmly, "where are they?"

"I told you, I'll never tell!" the king spat back.

"Never you say?" Kamek mused, tapping a claw against his chin. He remembered something he read in a book once and strummed his fingers against his wand. He lifted it up and took his hand down from his face, allowing its palm to point towards the royal man. "We'll see about that..." The king began to watch cautiously and a little bit curiously as the Magikoopa began to wave the wand and the free hand around. No doubt, this intruder was up to something...

Gradually, the entire ballroom was becoming more and more of a wreck. There was just no controlling that blinded Thwomp! The troops of the castle tried in vain to chase it down, but to no avail. This whole thing wasn't starting to look any prettier.

"What should we do now, sir?" Guido asked.

"Hmm..." the foreman hummed. "We split that thing right down the middle," he suggested, watching it commit more destruction. "All we need is to get on top of it..."

"I see..."

Away from those people, Bowser was still acting like a menace. Within seconds, more Marios had fallen victim to this little tyrant and the Thwimps he was assisting. The amount of wounded soldiers lying on the floor clutching at their sore spots was increasing, and Bowser had his own two fists to thank. Standing around, smirking at his accomplishments, Bowser wondered what to do next. Then he started to hear some heavy footsteps. Thinking quickly, he turned around and saw a rather deranged Mario stampeding towards him with his hammer up in the air. Bowser scoffed, ran forward, thrust his fist up and BAM! The guy released his hold of his hammer and went sprawling. Another job well done.

These guys are losers! Bowser thought, standing with his hands against his hips. Where're the REAL tough guys?! Without even having that answered, Bowser just ran off to serve more pain...

Foreman Spike and Guido watched the Thwomp thrash about a little while longer. After a few more bounces and failed attempts by the other troops to attack it, they could tell it was starting to turn in a different direction. More specifically, it was headed towards them.

"All right, Guido, you remember the plan?" the foreman asked.

"Yes, sir!" Guido responded.

"All right," Foreman Spike said, watching the Thwomp getting closer. "It's showtime!" Carrying out the plan, Guido got in front of his superior, knelt down, and held out the palms of his hands. Foreman Spike placed one foot in each, and let Guido make the next move. The sidekick thrust himself and his palms up, even under the weight of the muscular man. At the peak of this, Foreman Spike used the extra lift to jump extra high up into the air. He grabbed a hold of one of the many curvy, golden hooks of the one chandelier that remained, and started making it swing back and forth. He saw the Thwomp coming, and he got his timing together. Once the chandelier swung forward, Foreman Spike leapt off of it, pulled out his hammer, and came speeding down towards the Thwomp with his weapon pointing at the middle of its flat top.

In the middle of pummeling more unworthy opponents, Bowser and pretty much everyone else in the room heard a loud noise... CRACKK! Foreman Spike haddriven his hammer deep into the center of the top of the stone creature, and jumped off of it. He landed on his side and rolled to safety. He got up just when the other Marios along with Bowser were busy staring at the results of this.

The Thwomp stopped moving. It stood there in the middle of the ballroom with an extremely agonized look on its face. Then it happened. CRICK. The spot where Foreman Spike had nailed it suddenly turned into a small spiderweb of cracks. Slowly it spread, gradually consuming the Thwomp's rock-hard body. Then BBOOOMMM! The entire monstrosity split in two. The two halves fell down, letting clouds of dust escape from them. Both of them had half of a horrified facial expression on them. Foreman Spike, Guido, and the rest of the soldiers all cheered at this.

"Now that that's been taken care of," Foreman Spike said to Guido with his arms folded, "there's just one more matter to attend to..."

"Yes, sir," Guido concurred, as usual. The duo turned around and started heading for their next victim. Bowser watched the foreman run by in pure fascination.

He's the one, the young Koopa thought. He's the one I want! Bowser punched another Mario flying at him in the face, and started chasing after the mustachioed duo...

A short amount of hovering was all they needed. In moments, the two witches, Kammelina and Kammeo, were finally back in the presence of their prize. Kammeo shined her light onto the pig's face, revealing its unsightly mug, complete with its big, lower lip, the tusks sticking out of its mouth, its ugly snout, and its glaring eyes.

"All right," Kammeo said. "Time to get its blood and complete our journey!" She pointed her wand above the aquatic pig and fired. POW! The light that shined from her magical weapon shot off like a firework and turned into a glowing ball of white light, illuminating the cave, thus providing the two female Magikoopas with the sight they needed to combat this thing.

"Good thinking, Sister!" Kammelina said. She saw the monstrous pig start to lick its lips once more. "Hee hee," she chortled. "Not this time, my little piggy..." The witch reached into the folds of her robes, but found nothing. Suddenly frantic, she started patting around herself in order to find what she was looking for. Then it hit her. "DRAT!" she blurted. "I forgot! That pig ate it!" Kammeo looked at her sister disapprovingly. The elder sibling hovered away and started watching from a distance. "You're on your own, Sister!" she called.

Kammeo grumbled. "Whatever you say," she exclaimed. She looked up and became wide-eyed. "EEK!" She hovered out of the way, seeing the pig was rushing towards her with its maw open. SMAASHH! The thing plowed the side of its head into the the cave wall, causing the whole place to shake. It backed away from what it had run into, shook its head, and started swimming back towards Kammeo. "You're not gettin' me!" she proclaimed, raising her wand up. The jewel glowed and she swung it forward. ZING! She fired a threesome of symbols at the space between the pig's eyes, but they just splattered harmlessly against it. The pig continued coming towards her, about to take a bite. "NO!" she yelled.

After that, the Magikoopa began to hover around the pig, turning this confrontation into a chase scene. ZING! ZING! ZING! She fired repeatedly at the beast, but all of them were as useful as the first attack was. She gulped, dove out of the way, and got the monster to slam into the wall again. SMAASHH!

"I don't believe this," she puffed. "It's still invincible!" As she was saying this, the humungous pig was floating around slowly with its eyes rolling around in its head.

"COME ON, YOU DINGUS! FIGURE IT OUT!" Kammelina shouted. Kammeo scowled at her sister, as did the pig. After getting its act together, it started swimming towards the older of the two Magikoopas. "Oh, heavens, NO!" the blonde-haired witch flipped, flailing her arms like crazy. The swine picked up the pace, forcing the Magikoopa to turn around and start speeding off into the cave for her life.

"FEAR NOT, SIS, I'LL SAVE YOU!!!" Kammeo shrieked. Soon, this other witch had become a part of the chase as well.

Kammelina raced down and down the stone hallway of this cave. As she did so, the light got dimmer, so there was less and less to show her where she was going. In a few seconds, all was pitch black again, and a claw of terror began to wrap itself around the witch's body. "This isn't good," she breathed, looking around in desperation. Then she began to hear some heavy snarling. She turned her head in the direction of where it came. She could suddenly feel the water around her becoming very warm.

One of us is going to die very soon, the sorceress thought morbidly.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY-"

-CHOMP! Kammeo was right behind the pig, but apparently had come so far in vain. Her yelling had been interrupted the instant the pig had ensnared her sister in its huge mouth and swallowed. She stopped hovering and could feel her heart stop. Then the pig swooped around and started staring at her. She swallowed, forcing a huge lump down her throat. The pig began to swim towards her, and she started backing up on her broomstick, pointing a shaking wand at the enemy. ZING! ZING! ZING! Her aim was off. Her bursts of magic just kept colliding into the wall harmlessly. ZING! That last one nicked the pig's ear, but it still wasn't enough.

"SHOOT!" she cursed. The younger sibling turned around and started to race away from the monster. This just made the starving creature begin to give chase even harder.

It can't end here, Kammeo thought. There's got to be something I can do... but what?! Kammeo drew closer to the light. The cave got brighter and brighter, but she was still at a loss. The pink-haired hag kept wondering and the pig kept pursuing...

Near the thrones, Kamek seemed to be taking his mischief even further. He had the king watching unblinkingly the rotating movements of the Magikoopa's hand and wand. The king felt as though he were being sucked into a vortex like the one they'd used to warp back to Mario Land. "That's it, sire," Kamek said in a low voice. "Just relax. Everything's going to be all right. You're feeling comfortable, soothed, devoid of stress, guilt, and pain. Only sweet paradise awaits you..."

Sure enough, the man was obeying this sorceror's commands. He actually did start feeling completely calm and worry-free as though someone were massaging his shoulders. He felt as though he were drifting through seas of clouds. In fact, he had forgotten all about the chaos that was overtaking his ballroom. His eyes closed and Kamek had him where he wanted him.

"Good," Kamek purred. He then lifted his wand up, pointed it at the air above the king's head, and fired. POOF! A triangle, a square, and a circle materialized. The three shapes began to rotate around in the middle of the air as though they were a trio of planets. Kamek's wand remained pointing to them. "Now by the time I reach 'one'," he continued, "you'll tell me exactly where they are..." Kamek made his free hand start holding up three fingers. "Three..." he said, curling his pinky back into his palm. As he said this, the symbols above the king's head grew brighter. "Two..." The middle finger curled in as well and the shapes got brighter. "One..." The final index finger curled in, making the Magikoopa's hand into a fist, and the symbols became completely white. Once this happened, he lowered his wand, pointed it at the king's face, and the shapes exploded into a shower of magical confetti, sprinkling onto the man's shoulders and disappearing. Kamek put his wand and his hand down beside him and moved on with the next part of the spell. "Now tell me," he said, "where are they?"

The king stood still with his eyes closed dreamily. Then he opened them up, revealing a blank, unblinking stare. "The queen's chamber," he said emotionlessly. "It's safe there," he added.

Kamek smirked and put his wand away. "Very good," he said quietly. He made a formation out of the thumb and forefinger of one of his hands as though he were holding an invisible battery. He raised it to his face and...

...WHAP! A brawny hand hidden beneath a white glove grabbed a hold of the Magikoopa's blue-garbed wrist, stopping its movement. Kamek was a bit annoyed, if not confused. The hand harshly spun him around. The next thing Kamek knew, he was face-to-face with an angry-looking man wearing a pair of shades.

"Not so fast, Kamek," Foreman Spike said. He was backed by Guido and a bunch of equally dangerous-looking Mario soldiers. Kamek's expression didn't change in the slightest, however. "I don't know what you're planning," Spike continued, "but it ends here..."

Kamek scoffed. "Does it?" The wizard in blue whipped the thumb and forefinger of his free hand into his mouth and blew. TWWEEEEE! The foreman jolted at its high-pitched, shrill sound...

WHACK! WHAM! BAM! By this time, the other Marios of the ballroom had managed to fell the rest of the Thwimps once and for all, but once they heard Kamek's whistle, all eyes turned towards the hole in the stained glass window from before, including Bowser's...

"What the-" the Koopaling pondered aloud, even though he cared more about reaching Foreman Spike and challenging him. He stopped running, and directed his eyes to what everyone else seemed to be focused on and could tell that this was the source of a certain noise.

It sounded like mischievous, high-pitched, gremlin-like laughter. This unsettling chortling got louder and louder as everyone watched and listened. Then they could see four specks in the center of where the window had been broken. These four specks flew closer and closer to them, gradually unveiling to their audience what exactly they were.

They were a quartet of little creatures, donned in red robes, with big, ugly, beak-bearing faces poking out. Their eyes hid behind swirly glasses and some rather unsightly teeth were sticking out of their mouths. Aided by the whirling propellors sticking out of their scalps, they flew over the heads of the gawking patrons and stopped above that of Foreman Spike. The instant these creatures did so, they gave their chortling a rest, and Kamek looked up at them.

"To the queen's room, boys," he commanded. "You'll find the babies there." Kamek's Toadies all saluted in unison and zipped off, chuckling as they did so.

Foreman Spike saw where they were going, and growled. He turned back towards their Magikoopa of a leader, still with a death-hold on the wizard's wrist. "We'll settle this later, scumbag," Spike threatened.

"I'll hold you to it," Kamek retorted.

Spike sneered. He turned to his sidekick behind him. "Guido, take care of this guy," he ordered. "I've got to go after those things."

"Yes, sir," the smaller man said.

Spike turned around, and glared one last time at the Magikoopa. Kamek just snorted in response. Spike released him, and ran off, down the steps of the throne's area, and disappeared into one of the two large doorways it was between. Bowser ran after him.

"Wait up, tough guy!" he called. "I wanna beat you up!" Once the Koopaling had disappeared, all was left up to the rest of the Marios as well as Kamek, Guido, and the king.

The high-ranking descendent of royalty remained staring emotionlessly while the others did quite the opposite. Kamek's enemies were all scowling at him, getting their hammers ready.

"This is your last chance, sir," Guido said to the blue intruder, pointing his hammer at him, clutching it with both hands. "Call this off and leave us in peace, or prepare to be subdued!"

"Fifty against one," Kamek mused, a small smirk on his face. "Don't think you've got the upper hand..." The sorceror's opponents looked relatively perplexed by this. Kamek smirked a second longer, and suddenly took a leap behind, landing right next to the king. The angry mob of Marios lunged a step forward with their hammers upraised. "STOP!" Kamek yelled. They did so, but they weren't looking any less angry. They saw Kamek grab the entranced king's left arm with his left hand and yank him to his knees. He whipped out his wand with his other hand and pointed it to the back of the royal man's head. "One step closer, and your king dies..."

Kamek's audience grimaced at him, starting to feel the cruel touch of cold sweat creep up on them. No one moved a muscle, not even those that were standing by the corpses of the recently downed Thwimps. Guido stared hard at the dangerous Magikoopa. "You wouldn't dare," he slowly elicited.

"Would I?" Kamek replied. He glanced at his adversaries, then leaned a bit closer to the king's left ear. He muttered something into it barely even audible to anyone else in the room. Then he leaned back and returned to looking at the crowd.

"Better do as he says," the king suddenly stated. All eyes turned to him. They noticed, not just the king's monotone, but the strange look in his eyes. They were unsure of what to make of this.

"You see?" Kamek said. "Even your king agrees. Now what say we put those hammers down and back off, hm?"

The mob looked shifty-eyed. Very slowly, they started lowering their weapons and taking a few steps back. Guido remained standing with his hammer held up, however. He twisted his fingers around it nervously and made his eyes dart. This isn't looking good, the hesitant man thought.

"You, too, short one," Kamek growled to him. At a pace even slower than the others had, he started to do so as well.

Guido cursed as he backed up and lowered his weapon. What do we do? This guy's impossible... and what's with the king? He took another look at the high-ranking man's unusual gaze. I don't like where this is going... Not one bit...

Back in the cave, things weren't looking up for Kammeo. The monster that had eaten her sibling was still chasing after her. There was plenty of light for her to see, but little options were at her fingertips. Is this it? Was it all for nothing? she wondered. Have we lost? The pig was beginning to close in on her. It opened up its fanged mouth and picked up the pace. Kammeo's broomstick had failed her. Perhaps... she thought. Oh, what a world... She gritted her teeth, waiting for the inevitable, feeling the beast's hot breath heating the water around her. Soon it would have its prey...

Suddenly, Kammeo could feel the water get cold again. Before she could hit a wall, she spun around on her broomstick and looked down. She could see the aquatic pig writhing in pain, twisting its body this way and that.

What on- she wondered. She watched a bulge in the center of its underbelly start to twitch. She cocked an eyebrow at it, staring carefully. Then, in an explosion, SSPPLOOICHHTT! Something round and red shot out of that bulge like a bullet. Kammeo dropped her jaw, not sure what was more impressive: the sight of the pig floating upside-down, drifting down to the stone floor of the cave with a big, bloody hole in its stomach, or the fact that the thing that had made that hole was none other than her sister. Kammeo stared excitedly at her sibling as the older witch flew up to her, letting blood and other gunky stuff get swept off of her surrounding bubble with the underwater current.

"SISTER!" Kammeo blurted. "You're alive! Oh, thank Veyran!" Kammelina grinned mischievously. Her younger sister looked simultaneously relieved and a bit confused. "But how?" she added.

"I found my wand in there," she said. "And remember that bottle of Red Essence I took?"

"Yeah?" Kammeo responded.

"Well, while I was in that thing's stomach, I drank it and became invincible. With this new power, I used my wand to blast my way out, and NOW look what's in the bottle..." The elder witch reached into the folds of her robes and pulled out that very same bottle and showed it to Kammeo. The younger one looked at its red content, but noticed it was thicker than usual.

"YOU GOT THE BLOOD!" Kammeo shrieked triumphantly. Kammelina winced at the loud reaction. "Well done, Sister! Now we can go home!"

"Yes," Kammelina said, still with a smile on her face.

"But first, I think we should start stocking up on that Red Essence. It could come in handy," the younger one suggested.

"Good idea," her sister agreed. Leaving the inanimate corpse of the Marinotropolan swine they'd worked so hard against behind, the two witches began to head on out. Kammeo pointed her wand at the ball of light she'd made earlier, concentrated, and made it vanish. The total darkness of the cave didn't last long. Once again, Kammeo turned her wand into a makeshift flashlight, but this time, Kammelina did so, too. On their way out, they stopped by the crate from before, gathered all of its bottles, and moved on. This may have been well and good for them, but a mysterious someone outside that very cave had different thoughts on his mind.

"So this is where they disappeared off to," the person considered. "Well, they can't hide in there forever. They've got a man with a mace right out here waiting for them. They can bet their lives on it..."

"Don't worry, Mario, Luigi... It'll all be over soon..."

Outside the double-doors leading to the queen's chambers, the two Mario guards, Aberto and Brando, were standing with their arms folded, remaining ever alert, constantly on the look-out. The three royal family members they were designated to protect were safe in that room they were guarding, but something didn't seem quite right.

"This is driving me nuts," Aberto said. "What's going on down there? Are we winning, or not?"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Brando replied. "We've got troubles of our own."

"Yeah," the other Mario agreed. "I guess you're-" He stopped himself. Making his eyes move left and right, he said, "Wait a minute... You hear that?"

"Hmm..." Brando started looking around, scratching his chin. "It sounds like...  laughing..."

The two guards continued to look about themselves, wondering what the source of this noise was. Before they knew it, it was coming from right over their heads. The two of them looked up and saw the four of Kamek's Toadies staring down at them.

"What the-" Aberto said. "What are those things?"

"I don't know, but they look like trouble," Brando exclaimed. He got his hammer out, looking cautiously at the four little freaks. "You ready?" he said to his partner.

"You bet!" Aberto responded, getting his hammer out as well.

"All right," Brando stated. "Let's-" ZOOOM! In the next split-second, the two Marios saw a few blurs of red. "What in-" Brando got out, just as confused as his teammate. Then the two troops gasped, shocked to find out they were holding air. "Hey! Where did-" The duo looked up. They could see that two of the Toadies were holding their hammers directly above their heads with their feet. "Uh oh," Brando pointed out.

"Not good," Aberto agreed. BANGG! The Toadies released their loads, letting them conk their two bystanders right on their craniums. The pair of Marios grunted in pain and dropped unconsciously to the floor as a couple of heaps, like two sacks of patatoes. The Toadies guffawed in their high-pitched voices at what they had accomplished, and regrouped. Together the four of them started slamming into the doors repeatedly with their shoulders as though the lot of them combined formed a crude battering ram of some sort.

BAM. BAM. BAM. Sitting on her gigantic, fanciful bed with Mario and Luigi on her lap, the queen gasped and looked up, pure horror in her eyes. She saw the doors pulsating like a heart gone mad. Each loud, pounding sound resulted in more splinters and pieces of wood flying off. She held her two children even tighter against her, turning pale and beginning to whimper. Little did any of them know that two people were running up the stairs as fast as they could...

WHAMM! The two doors burst open, revealing two knocked out soldiers. Four strange creatures floated in, all of them giggling demonically. The queen made a hoarse gasping sound at the sight. They began to hover in her direction. The queen jumped off of her bed, and began to walk around it, facing these things as she tried to get herself and her two children out of range. "NO!" she shrieked. "STAY AWAY FROM ME! PLEASE!"

Unfortunately, the Toadies weren't a bunch to obey orders like these. In one fell swoop, ZOOOM! The queen had seen red, and her babies were gone. She tilted her head upward and saw the two of them had been sent into a fit of tears upon being captured by this fiendish quartet. They all laughed at the queen's horrified facial expression.

"NOO! GIVE THEM BACK!!!" she wailed. The four Toadies just laughed some more, and turned around. They headed for the door, and the queen started to run towards them in desperation. Just then, a muscular man wearing a tuxedo skidded his way in front of the two downed Marios and the busted doors. The Toadies stopped and the queen looked relieved by the appearance of this man. He looked up, saw the Toadies as well as their kidnappees, and whipped out his hammer.

"All right, you little freaks, unhand the babies!" Foreman Spike demanded.

The four little red monsters just stared at the man and laughed. Then they began to hover on out of the room. The queen's eyes started misting over and the foreman turned around to face where the enemies had flown off to.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" he yelled. He turned around and saw that the queen had slumped to her knees and buried her face in her hands. Foreman Spike frowned, jumped over Aberto and Brando's bodies, and jogged up to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, feeling her body shaking between sobs. "Don't worry, Your Highness," he reassured, "I'll get them back. I promise."

The queen sniffed, wiped a tear from her eye, looked at the man, and said, "Thank you." Foreman Spike nodded. He turned to face the door and started running out of it. He jumped over Aberto and Brando again and turned to the right.

The queen saw him disappear. Then she heard an "AAUUGGHH!" and a THUD. Widening her puffy eyes, she got up off the floor and ran to see what the commotion was. Peering around the doors, she was surprised to see the foreman had been tripped by that Koopaling from before. Spike lay on the ground, muttering foul things beneath his breath.

"Come on, you, let's fight!" Bowser taunted, putting his fists up.

Spike pushed himself up and looked at the young Koopa. "Forget it, kid! I've got bigger fish to fry!"

"'Bigger fish to fwy'? What does dat mean?!" Bowser said, uncurling his fists so he could scratch his head. Then he noticed his target was getting away. "HEY! GET BACK HERE! I STILL WANNA FIGHT YOU!"

What's wong wit dat guy?! Bowser thought, preparing to give chase once more. Am I not good enough for him?!

The little tyrant began following after the muscular man, but he quickly stopped after a few steps. SHHINNGG! Hearing a loud noise like that and seeing a white light coming from behind him made the Koopaling hinder his pursuit of the foreman and turn around. He saw a woman in an elegant dress kneeling beside the two unconscious bodies he'd witnessed earlier. He noticed the hands she had against their heads had something glowing white beneath them and the hair-tie at the base of her ponytail appeared to be shimmering like water reflecting starlight. Bowser watched in great interest. He noticed how once the light beneath the woman's hands died down, the hair-tie stopped shining and became a regular, black garment again. Then he saw the soldiers get off the floor, awake and good as new. "Hmm..." Bowser hummed.

"Are you two all right?" the queen asked.

"Yes, Your Highness, thanks to you," Brando said, rubbing his head as Aberto was, even though they weren't hurting anymore.

"Good, because we need all the help we can get," the queen said. Aberto and Brando nodded. Then the three residents of Mario Land got their attention stolen.

"HEY, LADY!" Bowser yelled to the queen. "That guy won't let me fight him unwess I'm weally stwong, so gimme your hair-tie!"

The queen along with Aberto and Brando started looking a little confused and nervous. "Umm..." the queen said.

"I said GIVE IT TO ME!" the crazy Koopaling demanded, beginning to advance towards the trio.

"Oh, dear," the queen muttered.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. We've got 'im," Aberto said, grabbing his hammer that fell earlier. Brando did the same. The two Marios rushed forward at the stampeding Koopaling and swung their hammers at his head. WHUMP! Bowser caught both with his scaly hands.

"Oh, wise guys, eh?" he sneered. Mustering up what strength he could, Bowser shoved the hammers he had caught out of his way, causing the Marios holding them to fall back and land back-first on the floor. The queen looked shocked at this turn of events. Bowser continued to run forward. "WOAH!" Just in time, Brando caught Bowser's right leg in his right hand, causing the little brat to fall flat on his face. "OOF!" Bowser looked back at Brando in anger. "HEY! Lemme go, you big oaf!" The young tyrant began to squirm, attempting to break free from his enemy's grip. He and his adversary exchanged equally ticked looks. Then he saw a shadow being cast over him. He looked up and saw the other one, Aberto, was about to send his hammer down on him. Bowser went wide-eyed. WHAM! Aberto's hammer demolished the floor, and Brando's hand was clutching nothing. The two Marios remained confused for a second, and then they say saw a big, whirling, spiky, green shell between them. WHAM! WHAM! The thing smacked both of them in the faces like a ping-pong ball, resulting in two unattractive nosebleeds. After that, Bowser was back on his feet, making beckoning movements at the two soldiers with his hands. "Come on!" Infuriated again, the duo tightened their holds of their hammers and ran forward once more. All the while, the queen just sat back and watched anxiously...

Meanwhile, Foreman Spike was busy running like mad down those stone steps from before. Those four red things were quicker than he'd anticipated. This is not looking good, he thought. We could really use a miracle right about now...

Helga was sitting in one of the two oversized, cushy chairs in front of Doppel's fireplace. Between the two chairs was a small coffee table of wood with a complicated design coiling around it. The rest of the room was quite large and lined with bookshelves. Very little of it could be seen, actually, for the orange, flickering glow of the fire could only stretch so far. Using such a light, Helga was reading a book entitled "Curse of the Pyrosphere". After finishing up page 67, Helga pinched the page and began to flip it. That was when the door far behind her opened up and shut. Suddenly distracted by the noise, she turned around and looked behind her. Realizing who it was, she smiled.

"Gorroh, honey! How was the sauna?" she asked her husband.

"Helga, it was heavenly," the Koopa King replied as he moved past the table and sat down in the one vacant chair of the room.

"That's good to hear," Helga commented. She finished fipping the page and resumed reading the particular sentence that was split between the page-turning. She then looked up and noticed a worried look on her spouse's face. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Well," Gorroh said, "it's Doppel. He hasn't been himself lately. First he says he's airsick for no reason, then he inexplicably gets this headache out of nowhere, and just now, in the sauna, he was complaining about how cold he was. I try to ask him what the matter is, but he never tells me. Oh, Helga, what's my friend coming to?"

Helga tilted her head condescendingly at her significant other. "It's probably nothing, dear," she said, "but whatever it is that's going on, sooner or later, it'll all work out in the end."

"Hmm..." Gorroh said. "Perhaps you're right, Helga. Perhaps things WILL turn out." The flaming-haired tyrant and his wife exchanged smiles. "Perhaps even soon..."

Bowser glared at his two opponents, and they stared back. All three fighters were covered in bruises and were panting heavily. All this, and, still, the queen just watched.

"Okay," Bowser puffed. "You guys are tougher than I thought, dat's for sure..." Aberto and Brando twisted their fingers around their hammers some more as they watched this Koopaling cautiously. "But you're all losers now!" Bowser added. He puffed his chest out, leaned his head back, and started breathing in. The two Mario guards raised their hammers and started running towards the enemy, screaming at him while they were at it.

The distance between the two parties got shorter by a great amount each second. The queen observed this with much anxiety. The moment the two Marios were about to bash Bowser's skull in, FFOOOOOMMM! The queen was horrified by the fates of Aberto and Brando; they were knocked back by a surge of incinerating flames. Their blackened hammers flew from their hands and hit the ground. Soon after that, the two soldiers fell back as well, burnt to a crisp. They lay down on the ground with smoke rising from their twitching bodies. The queen watched them in pure despair.

Bowser smiled devilishly, letting streams of dark gray smoke squirm away from his lips. He looked at the queen, sending chills up her spine in the process. "No!" she rasped, waving a hand in front of her in a repelling gesture. "Stay away from me! PLEASE!"

Bowser just grinned some more. "Tough luck, lady! Now come here!"

"NO!" The queen started walking backwards as the young Koopa began to advance towards her. He strut past the two bodies of Aberto and Brando, witnessing the queen's desperate facial expression. After looking left and right, the queen finally turned around and made a break for it down the opposite end of the hall.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Bowser called, going into a sprint himself.

With her breath hyperventilating, the queen struggled in desperation to run as fast as was physically possible while holding her billowing dress up and wearing high-heels. Already, she was beginning to sweat. She looked behind her and noticed the insane Koopaling was gaining on her. She gasped, started looking ahead of her again, and tried to run even faster. Naturally, this only made matters even more difficult. Feeling her feet twisting about beneath those high-heels of hers every time they landed against the ground, she would have sworn they were starting to bleed. Wincing in pain and being eaten away by fear, those high-heels finally cost her. She hit the ground the wrong way, twisting her foot in the process.

The queen yelped and fell to the floor. Slapping the floor with her hands didn't help much, either. She struggled to get back up, and WHAM! She let out a scream as Bowser got himself a seat right on her shoulder blades. He placed his feet beside her head as she began to squirm and whimper beneath his weight. Bowser's next move was to wrap one claw around her fluffy ponytail and straighten it out. This allowed him to finally get a good look at that sparkly, black hair-tie. He also noticed his victim was still thrashing about.

"Hey, welax, lady. I just want your hair-tie," Bowser said. This didn't stop the woman from squirming and grunting frustratedly. Using his other claw, he grabbed a hold of the accessory in question, and slid it right off the woman's stalk of hair. Feeling this the woman yelped again. Bowser looked down at her. "Don't worry," he said as he took out his own hair-tie. "I'll give it back..." Bowser fastened on the new one and placed his fists by his sides. "...Not."

The queen felt enraged by this comment. Just when she was about to start thrashing even harder, Bowser leapt off of her back and started running back towards the way he came. A load has been lifted from her back, yet her heart grew heavier. First they took her babies, then they took her hair-tie. What next?

There was no need for the woman to thrash any longer, but there was certainly a need for something else. Her face contorted and she lifted her hands from the ground. She buried her face in them and, with her long, brown hair becoming a mess, she began to sob uncontrollably...

Away from her, in the throne room, Kamek still had everything under his control. Guido and the mob of Marios that had been advancing on the Magikoopa earlier were still standing back, letting the unlawful sorceror keep his hold of the king.

"Look around you," Kamek said to them all. "The room has been demolished, and so many of you have been wounded, if not killed. None of this would have happened had you have just cooperated."

The other Marios may have felt some guilt by the wizard's speech, but Guido wasn't licked. He couldn't stop looking at the king's empty stare. What is wrong with him? he wondered. Kamek continued talking.

"Not that it matters now," he said. "I suppose it's just a matter of time until my loyal Toadies come by with the princes. Then we'll be on our way and all of you can just go back to your daily lives..."

Oh, Foreman Spike, where are you? Guido thought, clenching his teeth. Suddenly, everyone could hear that gremlin-like laughter again, although this time it was accompanied by the sound of babies screaming. All eyes faced the door where they heard it last. Out of it came the four Toadies Kamek mentioned. In their clutches were the two princes of the kingdom. Everyone was horrified by the sight. Not Kamek, though. He looked at his quartet of minions and smiled with great satisfaction.

"Well done, boys," Kamek said to them, once they were right in front of him again. "I suppose I'm done here," Kamek said to everyone else in the room. He suddenly released his hold of the king, letting him fall flat on his face. Everyone gasped. Kamek put his wand away and pulled out his broomstick. He hopped onto his magical form of transportation, and began to hover towards that one doorway. Then, to everyone's surprise, Foreman Spike ran into the room. Guido and the Marios all looked astonished and relieved.

Finally! Guido thought.

"Ahh, no you don't, you spell-casting weenie!" Spike yelled. "You get back down here, or else!"

"Or else what?" Kamek said.

Foreman Spike scowled at the Magikoopa. Then Bowser burst into the room. "Hey, you! Tough guy! You're gonna wanna fight me now! I'm tougher than ever now!" At that moment, everyone's attention was directed towards the obnoxious, little tyrant, especially Spike's.

"Oh, for crying out loud..." he grumbled, placing a hand over his eyes in annoyance. Bowser kept charging forward, with every intent in the world on showing that guy what he was made of. Then...

...ZZIPP! "HEYYY!!!" Bowser was suddenly hanging upside-down, flying through the air. Kamek had gotten a hold of his tail and was flying his broomstick away from that place.

"Forgive me, Master Bowser," the sorceror said. He then looked down at the crowd of gawkers. "SO LONG, MARIO LAND!" he yelled. "MAY THIS EXPERIENCE BE A LEARNING ONE FOR ALL OF YOU!"

Seconds after that, all eight of Bowser, Kamek, Mario, Luigi, and the Toadies were gone. They had flown out that window they'd busted earlier, leaving everyone in the ballroom to stand around and feel a nasty, heavy sensation in their guts. Foreman Spike continued looking out where the perpetrators had disappeared off to. He drooped his shoulders and breathed a sigh. "We're dead meat," he moaned.

Meanwhile, Guido was busy running up the steps of the throne area. He picked up the king, held him up by his shoulders, and shook him. "Your Highness!" he blurted. "Your Highness! Snap out of it! Please!" The king still stared emptily. Guido then started holding him with just one hand. WHACK! Using the back of his other one, he slapped the king across the face. The man of royalty suddenly started blinking and shaking his head very quickly.

"Wh-wh-" the king stuttered. "What happened? What's going on?" Guido's was not the only solemn-looking face the man could see. As he looked around, he could see that all of his servants were looking quite glum as well, including Foreman Spike. "Oh no," the king said quietly. "Oh, please, no..." The king covered his eyes with one hand and joined the rest of the Marios in their moment of loss. Guido shifted to his side and began to pat him on the back.

Foreman Spike watched this, then turned to look at his feet. With his hands in his pockets, he had some depressing thoughts on his mind. Today is indeed a dark day for Mario Land...

Up in the sky, flying away from the scene of the crime were Bowser, Kamek, the Mario Bros, and the Toadies. This had certainly been a successful moment for them, but Kamek could have been in higher spirits. Not only could he hear Mario and Luigi screaming their lungs out, but also he could hear Bowser behind him nagging away.

"...And thanks to you, I'll never see dat guy again!! I wanted to pwove I was better than him, and you wuined evewything! I hate you, Kamek! You're a big dummy-head!"

Kamek rolled his eyes. All in a day's work, I suppose, he thought. To the sound of three very loud brats, Kamek and his Toadies flew on. The Clattagin Woods were waiting for them...

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