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Early morning sunlight filtered through high castle windows, illuminating Peach's simply decorated pink bedroom. Grandma, the chambermaid was surprised to see the princess still asleep, with the sun this high in the sky. She had cared for Peach since her day of birth, and her mother before that. Before that she worked on the kingdom warp pipe travel system, but that's another story. In all that time however, she had never known the princess to be oversleep or lollygag in her bed. She always rose with the sun.
"Princess?" She said quietly, as she stepped into the warm room.
"Nnngh." Peach replied, making no movements to get out of the bed. Grandma waited a moment, but when Peach opted not to elaborate on her previous comment she dared to venture all the way to the bedside. Peach had a flushed pink face, her forehead was hot and sweaty to the touch and she was shivering despite the temperature of the room. "Head hurts." She mumbled, coming at least part of the way awake. Her eyelids fluttered but did not open.
Grandma pulled out her pocket communicator that linked all the castle staff together, calling one of the under maids. "We have a code eleven in the making. Bring to the princess's quarters a cold cloth, some Megavitamins, and a bottle of Banana Juice." She carefully adjusted the blankets around Peach's body.
"Aye boss, on my way." The underpaid chirped on the dual-scream device. Grandma wasn't too worried, all things considered. The princess had been under some degree of stress lately and had probably just overdone it. Unfortunately bad news loves company, and it was at this time that the castle warning sirens went off, indicating something bad was happening somewhere.
"Bowser." Peach feverishly murmured as Grandma frowned.
"While you're in the kitchen bring me a frying pan." Grandma added, speaking again into the communicator.
"Yeah, mum" came the reply through the communicator. Bowser would not be taking the princess this day.
Meanwhile at the Mario Bro's house, Luigi was taking practice swings with his tennis, warming up for some light game play in anticipation of the fast approaching Star Carnival. It was a time period marked by competitive sports, go-kart racing and wacky game amusements in general. It only came once a year and everyone was encouraged to take time off, relax and just foster camaraderie with their fellow citizens. Or short of that, settle existing scores with frustrating neighbors in 'non-violent' competitions. Needless to say it was a very popular time of year.
The younger of the two brothers may not have been as well-known for heroics as his famous sibling, but he was an absolute demon at certain sports. Most especially at tennis. In fact, this year he would be defending his title against Tori, a Royal Tennis Academy graduate. Her power shot was rumored to cause mild injuries to opponents. Despite this (or because of it) Luigi was increasingly excited to test her skills on the court. Therefore it was with some dismay that he received the kingdom-wide email alert on his communicator.
"Mama mia! What'a time for this!" Luigi lamented to himself.
The timing of this move was as brilliant as it was sinister. The false sense of security that followed a recent Bowser defeat, Mario being far away in Sarasaland dealing with some trouble for Princess Daisy, and of course everyone was distracted with the carnival season. Bowser must have been planning this move for months in advance. Grabbing his hat and battle gear, he set his face as best he could and went to take his defense post.
Inside the castle was borderline pandemonium. Toads were either pantomiming their regulars duties out of terror shock, looking for places to hide, or using the invasion sirens as an excuse to ask for the day off. Grandma was having none of it. "Rally the staff, Toadsworth! We defend this castle to the last man."
"Oh no! Yeda blahblah blahblah!" The elderly toad babbled, his eyes spinning with panic. Grandma gave him a few hard shakes before dropping him to the floor.
"Hold your post with the princess." Grandma told the under maid through the communicator. Things were going about as well as expected. This is why she had always insisted on emergency drill sessions. She briefly considered moving the princess, but there was no way they could do it between just the two of them. "We'll do our duty as long as we are able." Grandma paused a moment. "Its been an honor serving with you, little one."
"A privileged, ma'am. Send Mister Bowser up to see me when'e gets in. I got some'n for'em." Came the plucky response. Grandma started to say something when she heard the cannons being fired outside. Grandma's hands tightened on the frying pan handle.
The Mushroom Kingdom army (largely consisting of toads and therefore fairly useless) took their dutiful place in front of the castle, most of them armed with spears to compensate for the height difference and tiny arms, others manned the Bill Blaster cannons, while secret bunkers installed underground opened their hatches and prepared to launch Bullet Biff missiles at the incoming airship armada. In the distance could be seen the steady march of legions of Dry Bones. An army that didn't fear dying, needed no rest or supplies, and were very annoying to put down.
'Spicy meatball! This isn't just a regular kidnapping' Luigi realized. 'This is a full on invasion from the Dark Land'. The Dry Bones foot soldiers would be immune to fire attacks and spears. Jump attacks and hammers would only slow them down. 'If only I had a Super Star' he lamented. But those were an ever rare power up. Regardless of this, Luigi took his place at the head of the line, armed only with his hammer and a strong sense of duty. No one on either side of the conflict was prepared for what was about to happen.
"Fire!" Luigi yelled to the Bill Blaster cannon operators. Entire columns of Dry Bones were shattered apart, but left many more intact. Even most of the broken soldiers would soon reconstitute themselves. "Charge!" Luigi raised his hammer and led the front line to battle, when a sudden explosion rocked the sky above the two armies, a ball of fire ripped through the side of Bowser's flag airship. Luigi thought someone had fired upon the ship without orders, but he quickly realized the damage was coming from inside the flying structure. Something was wrong and the ship was now self-destructing.
The Dry Bones continued to march mindlessly forward, seemingly unaware of what was happening above them, or else not caring. The many were crushed to dust by the flaming wreckage raining down from the sky. Others began to burn as they marched, unfazed by the flames surrounding them.
Luigi quickly reorganized much of his crew into a firefighting troop, re-arming everyone with F.L.U.U.D. packs. The fire itself would rage for hours but was prevented from spreading, and was eventually extinguished without major incidents. The remaining Dry Bones were fairly easily apprehended and sent to the dungeon until the princess decided what was to be done with them.
The biggest surprise of the entire day was still to come however. Lying blackened and broken in the ashes of his former flagship were the skeletal remains of King Bowser.
"Dead? Are you quite positive?" Princess Peach was able to sit up in bed, and enjoying eating a steaming bowl of Grandma's Spicy Soup. The headache and weakness was gone but she still felt a bit flush, though that may have been from the soup. It was quite spicy after all. "He's been dropped in lava before and survived falling from pretty far up. Hard to imagine this is what finally did him in for good."
Luigi just shrugged. "It looks like his skull and it's awfully big, uh, to be any other koopa we know."
"Doesn't he have a younger brother or a sister or something?" Peach replied after another uncharacteristic slurp of soup. "There will have to be an investigation. If it is him then there could be backlash from the Dark Lands, even if his death was not our fault, by your own account. Don't let anyone contaminate the scene. I'll call in an investigator."
"Ummmm" Luigi shuffled his feet uncomfortably. He had hoped this wouldn't come up in the conversation.
"They've already contaminated the scene, haven't they?"
"Selfies with the skull." Luigi confirmed.
"Can you see to it that no one else messes with the scene?" She replied, sounding a little testy.
"Yes Princess." Luigi bowed and left the room awkwardly, nearly tripping over his own shoes in the process. The princess didn't seem to notice. She obviously had other things on her mind.
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