Mariopocalypse 3: Lost Levels (Patreon)

Also, I'm thinking about making a freebie month next time around; everyone gets to vote, view and voice. See what it does for the donations, good or bad. Anyway, here's Pink, Player, and a few familiar faces.

Travel by chain chomp chariot wasn't the fastest, but it was steady and Peach pointed out how much it saved them on gas. Andrew had managed to get Rusty to turn by carefully attaching a shorter chain to his "tail" and tugging one way or the other like a sled dog. It led to the occasional bounce and the kart could go faster when they needed it, but it was a conservative middle ground. Even when they sped up, Rusty dragged behind them next to the Bowser shell, barking happily while snapping at the occasional cactus or horsehair plant. Peach seemed to put up with him, but Andy was starting to enjoy the sphere's strangely enthusiastic company on the way to Wario's Stadium.

"Hang on," Drew called, tapping Peach on the shoulder. He had the map pressed against her back, trying to catch up on their route and what the strange little dots meant to his "meta-vision," as he'd started calling it. Peach drank from a flask and looked back at him. "There's some marked areas coming up." He leaned forward and tugged on Rusty's chain, getting him to bounce to a stop and circle his leashed area eagerly.

"What kind of marks?" Peach turned and helped spread it out over the dusty kart.

"Territories, I think. Big see-through circles... here, here... and one over here. Smaller one. Two blue, a red, one yellow."

Peach frowned and looked at the map, annoyed that she was only seeing half of it. "What's that mean?"

"I... don't know. Usually in video games, red is bad, yellow is medium, green is good. Blue might be green in this case..."

Peach sighed and leaned over the map. "Which is which?" It turned out to be as Drew had guessed; they were factions. She didn't know the two blue ones, but yellow belonged to the kongs. They were borderline cavemen, she'd explained, and more strong than they were armed. They didn't have many weapons to rely on, but that just meant that they were that much more dangerous when you ran out of bullets. They were deep in the woods and mostly stayed in their territories, so the Koopas didn't bother taking their chances on them. The red was the base belonging to Morton Koopa Jr. He ran the biggest gun factory in the Mushroom Wasteland. "We are NOT crossing his path. Not without anything short of an army or a hit squad."

"Or a giant kid and a chain chomp?" Drew offered. Peach snorted, but ignored the idea.

"These two... I don't know for sure." She poked at where Drew had indicated the blue zones. "That's cult territory."

"You have cults?"

"Kid, we had about four different apocalypses hit us at once until stars fell out of the sky, our heroes died, kingdoms crumbled, and everyone stopped having dreams. Yes we have cults. People get weird and desperate for anything they could hold onto, even lies and fanaticism. They're just... a mixed bag. Some of them are healers or monks. Won't even look at you, or may even help you out of some stupid goodness of their hearts. The others... that's your classic eat your heart for the dark gods types." Drew gulped. "So... there's at least a chance we can get by them. That'll take us right to Wario's Stadium, and that fatass knows a goldmine when he sees one." She nodded over to the shell they had been dragging. Even after several days of lugging it behind, it was dusty, but the spikes and plates looked every bit as sharp and solid. "So... which is it?"

As Drew looked at them, he saw the text appear over the two blue spots: Fallen Star and Booster's Tower. "Let's do... this one. The tower." Things from space didn't sound especially friendly, considering that the giant sword Smithy had come from there, and the tower was just a building. In a worst case, they left.

"Good. Maybe they'll barter and save us the trip. Most of them don't care about Bowser anyway." Peach rolled it back up, spitting in the sand and climbing back into the dusty kart. She fastened on her goggles and tugged on the chain to spur on Rusty to bound over the hills.

Booster's Tower was tall and narrow, somewhere between a tiny apartment building and a radio tower. It ended with a broad, flat balcony, only really made clear because it looked to be crumbling apart. Whole walls from some floors were wide open, and it was surprising that it still stood at all. On one side of the door was an old skull on a stake wearing a jester's hat. The other had an impaled and cracked white mask with three holes.

"Shy guys," Peach noted as she nodded at the skewered mask.

"What's that mean?" Drew whispered back. They had left Rusty behind the hill after Peach insisting that he was sure it wouldn't run away. She'd pounded a stake through his chain just in case.

"Traders, usually. They're a wishy washy group. Lost their leadership ages ago, and now they wander around imprinting on whoever they find. General Guy's a military psycho out North, but I know a guy Greaper who does good deals on kart parts. You never know."

There was no sign of inhabitants until the tall door creaked open. A purple shy guy wandered out, clad in tattered robes and a chipped and smudged mask. He carried a broken half of a broom, sweeping across the short stone steps in front. Drew looked to Peach, who scowled at the tidying tenant.

"Hey! Buddy!" Drew leaned over the dune and waved. The shy guy looked up at him with a bird-like bounce of his head, honking out something in a mumbly little voice. "Do you understand me?"

The shy guy made a few more gurgling noises before seeming to adjust its posture. "Yes! Hello!" it replied, its voice vaguely feminine but with a bubbly effect to it that made a real gender unclear. It was like she was speaking underwater in a cartoon. "Please, come down. I am unarmed. I can do you no harm." She shrugged with stubby arms, and Drew had to note he was about twice the guy's size. She had a good point. Drew looked back at Peach and slid down the dune, with Peach finally following him down. The masked creature watched them curiously before hopping back up his steps, finishing his sweeping hurriedly to remove the last of the inevitably returning sand. "Do you need drink? Food? We have some to spare."

Drew looked back at Peach again with a smirk but didn't say what he was thinking. See? Trade?

"We can't stay," Peach insisted dryly. "But we can talk." The shy guy nodded and waddled inside, setting his broom near the door. Drew wasn't sure what he expected, but this was about it; a few dozen shy guys, patching or working on various parts of the crumbling tower. They mumbled and babbled in their odd language, the same that the purple guy used at first. Purple waved to them, and if they reacted, it was mild and underneath their masks.

"So... what do you guys do out here, mister... Miss...?" Drew struck up when he realized Peach wouldn't be talking.

"Veil, will do. And salvage, mainly," the waddling little creature explained as he led them down a checker-floored hall. There were a few others, most of them collapsed with sand or rubble. Several had more shy guys working on excavating them. "We do not eat or sleep. It is why we've food to spare. There is, unfortunately, many deaths in this world. It is a shame. Such a shame." He shook his masked and hooded head, tisking slightly. "It is why we stay here. We hide, we get by, we search for lost knowledge. And we pray."

"Pray, huh? Who do you pray to?" Drew had been curious about that. He didn't remember there being any gods in Mario lore. It must be like those movies where people worship a bomb or a car, but what was there of that scale in this kind of place?

"The great frog," Veil said rather proudly. He turned a corner, where they saw a few small heaps of gold coins, mushrooms, wrenches and variously useful or valuable trinkets. They were all thrown down around an 8-foot golden statue of a bipedal frog wearing a crown and robe. Drew walked on into the room before he realized that Peach had frozen in the threshold to the room. "We come from the world of dreams. With no more of them to nourish us, we slowly wither. But our worship! Our praises to the old god Wart of dreams, he replenishes..." Veil froze in midstep, turning his upper body all the way around to look behind him. It raised more questions about what was inside that robe. "Is something wrong?"

"I remember that frog," Peach muttered quietly. "In my nightmares. Years and years ago... Player! We're going!"

"Because of a nightmare?" Drew asked, looking back at her strangely. "Pink, just because you had a bad dream..." The last link in the chain came together. Super Mario 2. The one that took place in a dream. The one with Wart the toad as the final boss.

"Excuse me?" Veil asked, but Drew saw that he had turned back to face the statue. "But master, these are... yes, guests. I suppose yes, they are the first humans... oh. Oh... right away then, Lord Wa-"

Peach drew her boomerang, reaching out and grabbing Drew by the arm. "We're GOING, kid!"

"Come back!" The shy guy barked more urgently, whirling around and reaching for them. He caught Drew by the arm, unable to resist Peach's sheer power in the tug of war but slowing them down. There was a grinding and creaking from the statue as the gold warped and cracked, as if some misshapen egg starting to hatch.

Peach turned and kicked the dream monster in the face with the heel of her boot. It was knocked off-center, strapped to a random spot on the side of its head rather than where its eyes should be. Veil didn't even slow down as its apparent face slid to the other side of its head, no opening on its dirty robe. The only real indication of any anatomy was a set of beady glowing dots near the center of its mass like an eerie pair of eyes. Veil still pulled back on Drew and kicked at his legs, returning to its loudly mumbled language.

"Get the mask off!" Peach shouted. Drew stared at the little embers of eyes and then back at the Wart statue, which was now chipping off pieces of what was apparently just a golden shell. Some black, wispy force started to creep out of it, like a tentacle made of a starry night sky.

"PLAYER! MASK!" Drew snapped out of it and without anything better in mind, grabbed and ripped off the mask. The old leather strip that held it snapped off, and with a noise like a whisper as loud as a scream, Veil crumbled to the ground. This was by no means figurative; the robe and slippers fell to the floor while a thick heap of black sand slid out from the old clothes.

Peach yanked him away before he could truly contemplate how shy guys were black sand walking around in robes and masks. Things were a bit of a blur, his head throbbing as they left the treasure chamber. Peach swiped with her boomerang as a few more shy guys rushed after her, kicking and slashing a way through their shoddy temple. She booted the mask off of one to send it flying into the air, crumbling him in an instant. She lopped off the arm of another, pouring more dark sand from its torn sleeve. She turned and slashed again, snapping off the strap to another's mask to finish it off. She was taking leaps and long strides to bound over the pawing and grabbing cloaked creatures that tried to flood them, but she was making progress. It wasn't quicker than the thundering noise behind them as a bloated mass of shimmering black light like a cloud of oil filled with glitter. It flopped and groped afte them, tramping and absorbing shy guys as it groped with long, stubby-fingered limbs. Drew stared at it, some deep instinctive fear and awe of it welling up inside him. It was like the shy guys, but so much more bright and intense. If the guys were things of dreams, this was clearly some kind of god. An old, primordial nightmare from when cavemen cowered at the sounds of wolves in the moonlight.

"Kid! Kid, look at me! Look away! Dammit!" Peach smashed a kneepad into another shy guy's mask, splitting it down the middle. She was still a good ten yards from the door, and whatever remained of Wart was catching up to them. She pulled an arm free from one of their attackers, whistling sharply. A loud and distant barking answered her, and after a few booming leaps Rusty came smashing through one of the stone walls. The shy guys babbled and scattered in its wake, Rusty's permanent grin turning and snatching up a pair of them in one clanging bite. The chomp crushed them in half with a quick clench of its jaws, shaking them once like a happy dog before flinging them and bounding after Peach and Drew, the kart, its cargo, and Peach's stake from earlier still dragging behind him. The rampage he'd left behind him still toppled as the rickety tower's debris started to fall from overhead.

That seemed to be enough to wake Drew up from whatever he was thinking. "We gotta get out!" Drew declared.

"No shit, kid!" Peach had already righted and jumped into the kart, Drew hurrying right after her. Peach revved up the engine while Rusty squashed and chewed up incoming shy guys, finally shooting out of the tower and swerving around various falling bricks. Rusty was dragged along after them, still snapping at the cultists like a massive, deadly tail until they rocketed back out of the building.

The shadowy blob spilled its front half out of the door after them like a starving animal, but between it and the chain chomp's rampage, Booster's Tower could take no more. Too many beams and walls were down, and whatever dark magic and complex architecture had kept the old thing standing gave out.A large balcony from a few floors up slammed down on what might have been Wart's head, jarring it as more rubble started to bury it. Drew gave a triumphant laugh while Peach sped away from the scene.

"The tower's down! He's stuck!" Drew shouted back to her as he leaned over the back of the cart. "We don't have to outrun him!"

"Not what I'm running from!" Peach shouted back, struggling with the wheel as she squinted through the kicked up dust, goggles still over her hair in their rush. Her blond hair whipped behind her as Drew looked back and up. The tower wasn't crumbling straight down, but tilting like a felled tree. Its shadow fell over them as Drew ducked down instinctively. Peach was flooring it and their odds were still in question when she shouted back at him. "Mushroom! Give us a boost!" Drew fumbled through the gear before slamming the item into the tailpipe, rewarded with a huge burst of bright red fire that launched them forward. "That's the shit!" Peach laughed, half-mad on adrenaline. "I'll see you on the Rainbow Road to Valhalla, bitches, but not today!"

The kart was flung out of the crumbling tower's shadow, but they hit the edge of a hill at top speed. They spun out of control, both sideways and vertically. Rusty soared along behind them, snapping quizzically at the air while Drew hung on for dear life in the kart. It smashed into the sand below, everything spinning and shaking as pieces of cargo, items, coins, and car parts were sent flying. Drew hung on and pressed himself as flat as he could, Peach's padded body bouncing into him every few seconds. They finally landed with the kart upside down, caught against the side of another hill to keep from crushing them. Drew popped off his seat belt, plopping into the sand with a groan. Peach did the same a moment later, landing with her leather-wrapped butt in Drew's face. Not the worst thing that had happened to him today.

"Well... that's one thing to add to your fucking map," Peach grunted, rolling her arm and pressing a few spots to make sure nothing felt ruptured or broken. She slid off of Drew and helped pull him into a sitting position, letting him cough some air back into his lungs.

"Is Rusty okay?" he gurgled.

"It's a cannonball made of iron and teeth. He's fine." Peach had her claim confirmed by a few quick barks from behind them. They looked back to see his chain tangled among a few tall rocks, but apart from a few more scratches on his black coat, he seemed fine.

On the other hand, several crudely humanoid figures were on the dunes above them. Drew saw several chipped wooden figures, something like human-sized marionettes. They had their arms raised and pointing at them, some with the forearms popped back or fingers removed as if uncapped pens. Peach went for her boomerang, but there was a sharp snapping noise and she screamed. Peach went down to her knees, clutching a bloody spot on her forearm. The dolls had guns built into their arms. Drew's eyes went wide and he threw up his hands.

"Whoa! Hey! Easy! We don't want to fight! We just ran from the cultists! Booster's Tower? The shy guys were after us!"

"Did these fucking dolls just shoot me?!" Peach demanded furiously, but the fingers on her shot arm had a concerning twitch to them.

"Let's not make them mad. Maybe they're... well, like you. Paranoid but nice."

"I'll fucking show them nice as soon as I'm in punching distance..." Peach growled, but she gripped her arm and stayed kneeling. The oversized dolls moved in, a pair grabbing each of them and dragging them off into the hills while the rest worked on gathering up their kart and supplies (and a snippy Rusty).

Once again, they were brought to a chamber. This was was even more openly concerning to Drew. The dolls seemed to live in a simple village of stone huts and tunnels in the hills, taking the prisoners into a cave. None of the dolls spoke, but they seemed to look and gesture at each other. Never to Drew or Peach. The cave itself was wide and sealed by a large pair of wooden doors, where a pair of larger marionettes guarded and opened them. Peach and Drew had their hands bound as they were set before... what must be their own cultish deity. A tremendous black star shape was smashed through the top of their mountain, a vague shape that Drew had recognized poking out of the top as well. It had to be 3 stories from tip to tip, one of which were rammed right into a space at the end of the cave. Somewhere between crushed or impaled, ther was a human skeleton at the end of the lower tip, wearing a crown and an ancient blue dress. A small, clean dish was in front of the dusty skull.

One of the puppets gave a grinding noise from somewhere in its head, holding up a withered green mushroom. A 1-Up.

"Hey, that's mine!" Peach snapped, struggling against her guards before one just squeezed down on her bullet wound. They had allowed Drew to bind it for her, but didn't trust the blonde to get loose on her own. They had also stripped her of all her weapons (a few of which Drew noted he wasn't aware of after all this time) The other dolls ignored her, bowing low and setting the 1-up onto the dish before they went to leave. One kicked Peach to her knees while the other just shoved Drew down to the same position before they all left them alone with the skeleton.

"Are we... is this a sacrifice? Are we dying?" Drew muttered, realizing they were without any guards.

"Yep," Peach sighed. "Best case, we're going to be killed by some other dark dream thing. Worst, they'll starve us and use our skeletons as part of their pantheon. As least I'll get some respect once I'm dead." She shifted her shoulders, trying to work on her bindings.

"I respect you. I'd be like, dead ten times over without you."

Peach sighed as she kept working on the ropes. "That's because you're too good for this place. You belong back in your world. Your world has things better than dried turnips and sun-cooked turtle meat for breakfast."

"Yea, I guess... but I don't have adventures there. Or a giant metal monster on my side, or a pretty blonde pressed against me most of the day."

Peach snorted and gave him a short, affectionate look. "Reminds me to give you a little extra on the last one later if we get out of this," she muttered, starting to work again when the skeleton started to move. They both froze in their tracks.

The skeleton dragged itself forward, old bones cracking against its captive star as its boney fingers pulled it along. A few pieces were left behind, but most of it reached the offering of a mushroom. Peach had explained that they were a general cure all; poison, fatigue, and injuries were whisked away by a green mushroom. It stooped over the dish and tore off a piece, stuffing it into its mouth. The teeth clacked around it a few times before wolfing it down. Some of it fell through its jawline while some seemed to vanish as it chewed. Once it was done eating, it took a deep breath, a distinctly feminine sound that came out as a longing moan. 

Peach shifted to get in the way of Andrew as the skeleton rose. Flowing from the face down, pale and naked flesh spread over the bones like a poured paste. Dainty lips and closed eyes were revealed, and after a few seconds of baldness she sprouted flowing, golden-white hair. When the skinny, naked, busty, 7-feet tall woman stood before them, still looking euphorically entranced by the transformation, some sparkling aqua-blue silks started to magically grow over her. Drew stared not only for the generous and naked body, but out of recognition.

"That's Rosalina!" Drew hissed to Peach quietly.

"I know who it is," Peach snapped back in a similarly lowered tone. The dress that finally emerged wasn't quite as brightly colored and more revealing than the outfits Drew usually saw on Mario princesses, but better-made than anything he could remember seeing in the wastelands. With a few last sparkles, the woman opened her silvery-gray eyes.

"Oh my..." she mused softly, rubbing at her neck with her slender fingers. "I see that I'm awake again. Such good, dear children..." She blinked and finally looked in the direction of the only people in the room, squinting strangely at them. She took a step towards them, but stumbled randomly. Andrew looked at Peach with concern as the pink princess stayed kneeling, trying to shift her arms around in the ropes more subtly. Rosalina paused, reaching behind her as one of the loose bones that had been left behind at the black star floated over to her and sucked itself through the skin of her leg. She was a bit shaky, but was able to walk up to her guests.

"I never thought I would see the likes of you again... either of you." She held a hand outstretched. Tyler felt tempted to reach out to it, but the binding ropes didn't help that idea any. Either way, Rosalian just felt around blindly until she brushed against his hair, slowly letting her hand explore his face.

"Why do you know me?" Drew asked, looking over to Peach. His partner didn't look pleased, and he figured they had to have crossed paths before.

"I don't. I recognize this shine about you. Something special. Something... beyond." She blinked and Drew noticed her staring just past his head.

"So... you're blind?"

"To some things. I have been around a very long time, though." Rosalina gestured over his head, and he felt the ropes fall off of his wrists.

"I have lived among the stars for centuries. When I was forced to come to this land, I found them bodies that could survive this harsh environment of death and black magic." Rosalina stepped over to the scowling Peach next, giving another gesture. As soon as the ropes were cleared, Peach lunged at the blind oracle and punched her in the face. The tall woman staggered back, falling to the ground as Peach mounted her.

"PEACH!" Drew blurted, code names forgotten in his shock. "Wait! She's a good guy!"

"I know who she is!" Peach snapped back at him as she braced her forearm across Rosalina's throat. "Where the hell have you been?! How did you let this happen!?"

The blind woman blinked back at her vacantly for a moment before grabbing Peach's arm. She tried to push it back, but while tall, she was thin and Peach was clearly much more experienced and angry. "I was dead," Rosalina answered plainly before she threw her own fist into Peach's nose. There was a dull and meaty thud, but Peach stayed on top of her and pushed her arm harder against her throat.

"Looking pretty good for a dead bitch!" Peach hissed back, spraying her with spittle. "I was down here with my people dying around me and you hid in your space ship!?"

Rosalina glared back at her, grabbing the offending arm again. This time she squeezed, burying her fingers into the bandage on Peach's gunshot wound until she screamed and the cloth turned red. "I had crashed!" she snapped, raising one long leg and kicking into Peach's chest. The dirtied former princess tumbled back, landing on her knees. Rosalina followed quickly and gracefully, throwing a swift kick into her face. "The falling stars hit us from all sides. The star rod and Smithy had ruined the Star Road, sending the cosmos into chaos all around us. This is all the power that I have."

"The power to hide! You have no idea what it was like down here!" Peach growled, wiping some blood from her lip with her forearm before kicking the legs out from under Rosalina. The taller woman fell to the dirt and stone of the cave, sullying her otherwise spotless appearance. Peach reached for her neck, but Rosalina pushed her hand aside and clawed down Peach's face. Peach gave a quick snarl of pain before she bit down on the star-dweller's fingers.

Rosalina screamed and recoiled her hand. Peach caught her by the neckline of her dress, pulling her back while swinging an elbow into Rosalina's temple. She fell to the ground clutching her head, dress torn down the front from Peach's harsh pull. "This is not what I expected!" Rosalina hissed, clearly dazed and weakened by the blow. "I had lived forever among the stars and my children. To suddenly crash and lose my bond with them, dying under the wrath of the collapsing stars..."

"Let me help you understand some mortal pain then," Peach hissed. She stepped after Rosalina, Drew catching her arm to try to hold her back. She shoved him off and threw a kick into the celestial's crotch, getting a sharp howl as Rosalina cupped her groin. Peach grabbed her hair and lifted her for another punch to the face, but Rosalina threw a quick one-two strike around her ears. Peach staggered from the hits, but threw one more solid hook into Rosalina's chest. She grunted hard and fell back, coughing dryly for air as Peach stepped back. She doubled over, rubbing her head and catching her breath.

"Look, I get you're mad," Drew insisted more firmly. "We're all in a bad place here. It's like you said, princess. The cults were just people wanting something to blame and hide behind. So don't just go getting mad at everyone else going through the same shit as us!"

Peach rubbed a hand over the scratches on her cheek. She glared back at Rosalina as if not sure on her decision about her yet, but frowned. The celestial traveler pushed herself up to a sitting position, rubbing her chest gingerly. There were several ribs exposed at the edge of her breast, bloodless and chalky at the edges of her skin. Drew followed Peach's gaze and went wide-eyed.

"I was immortal," Rosalina muttered quietly. "When I joined the stars, the Lumas, they needed me to tend to them. I became like a goddess to them, and that was how I lived until time lost its influence over me." She gestured a hand over her bared breast and the bits of bone. "This is what remains of that. The damage of the crash and the lost bonds with the stars shattered by the Game Over, as you call it... this is all I have left." She held out one delicate hand, brushing the other over her wrist. The skin flaked away like old paint. "When my children bring me a powerful-enough item, I can return from my state to guide them for a short time. A day, at most, but I am already fading." She smiled and shrugged, both gestures slight and weak. "I do what I can when I am awake, but I cannot reach far."

"What if you could?" Drew offered, and the women looked to him in surprise. "Peach... er, Pink. Do you have more 1-ups?"

"A couple," Peach admitted with a frown. "They fed her one of ours, I bet. They're a hot commodity. Rare shit."

"And getting rarer," Rosalina said, looking up at the ceiling. "More time passes with each of my revivals."

Drew nodded eagerly. "Well sure. Because THEY'RE giving it to you. What if you were given the mushroom by someone who made items work better?"

Rosalina tilted her head curiously at him as if he were speaking an alien language.

"It's true. I saw him melt an entire tank with one shot from a fire flower," Peach admitted. "Maybe it's that aura thing you feel off of him. Maybe it's something more. I..." The dirtied blonde shrugged. "I don't know why, but I think he's here to change things. For the better."

Rosalina looked down at her pale breast, where a bit more skin crumbled away. "I certainly won't refuse," she conceded, kneeling down by the black star on its raised step.

There was a quick consensus between them and Rosalina sending for one of her wooden puppets (or according to her, the star people stored inside animated toys). He took one of Peach's 1-up mushrooms and knelt down to hold it in front of Rosalina's face. He wanted to make sure that it worked through his contact, so it made for an awkwardly intimate moment with the blind cult-leader.

Rosalina felt before her until she found his hands, then pressed her mouth in between them. It was strange as she ate the mushroom with a ravenous hunger, much like she had when she was still a skeleton. Her lips and teeth grabbed at anything they could, the thin fingers squeezing Drew's wrists tightly. She took care to wolf down all of the mushroom, her teeth scratching against his skin and sucking on his fingers to get every bit she could. It sent a tingle up his skin, but the blankly staring and partially skeletal woman made it a mixed feeling. Even when she started to moan and grunt during her meal, it was as awkward as it was sexy.

When she finished every morsel, Rosalina took a huge breath and fell backward. Her skin developed a bit more color, and her figure filled out more. She was still a fairly slim woman, but she was clearly healthier than she was before. She looked over her hands and brushed them against her face with a stirring smile.

"Did it work?" Drew asked cautiously as he finally thought to wipe some of her drool off on his pants.

"Only time will tell for sure, but... yes. Yes, I think so. Thank you dearly for that. Was there anything I could do to repay you?"

"That mushroom was worth a lot of coin," Peach muttered, but Drew gave her a pleading look. "Well... I told you, the kid's changing things around here. We're looking to overthrow the koopas."

"I can't," Rosalina replied quickly and calmly.

"Are you shitting me!? You have gun robots!"

"My children live within them. They would not last long outside, should they be destroyed."

"Then what if they didn't fight. Could you make more dolls?" Drew offered.

The star queen considered this. "I suppose. But without the stars, I could not move them. They would need something else."

"I'll keep an eye out. But if we can have you do something without putting your Lumas at risk, would you?"

Rosalina nodded sincerely. "I will. If it will keep my little ones safe, you have my word. Until then..." She sat down on the step of her platform, flexing her hand lightly. A few bits of stone glittered and floated off the ground. "I will see what you have made of me."

Peach sighed and turned to Drew, patting his arm. "There you go. Happy? We have a half-promise to maybe help us."

"It's more than we had before," Drew pointed out as they started to leave the cave.

"If you want my advice," Rosalina offered carefully as she stared blindly ahead. "And I understand if you don't... what you lack is proof. The world doesn't change because those in power remain as such. Prove them wrong. Dethrone one of the bosses and you will have your proof. Show them that the world can change and that this isn't a waste of their time and their lives."

Andrew thanked her while Peach didn't answer. They walked off to find the wooden dolls pulling back the stone to rush in and see Rosalina's especially refreshed form like eager children. Outside, the kart was fixed and upright. The Bowser shell was strapped to it, now fixed on a simple but sturdy sled. Even Rusty had been polished, though his excited bouncing quickly kicked up enough dust to fix that.

"I guess when you're made of wood, you get real good at repairing things," Andy pointed out as he climbed into the back of the kart. "At least we've got one place that can fix us up if things start to come apart."

Peach pulled out a mushroom and pushed it into his hands. "Mind filling me up? I could use something to patch up that gunshot wound our 'friends' gave us." Drew broke it up into pieces and handfed her, and sure enough the wound was almost completely closed up when she removed the bandage.

"Where are we going now?" Drew asked as he buckled in and Peach took hold of their chomp's chain.

"Plan's the same. It's just different reasons." She shifted it into neutral and spurred on Rusty. "Wario's Colosseum isn't far. We pawn the shell, we get paid. With that, we can hire enough troops to band together and take out one of the Koopa Kings. Then we'll see who's boss."