Baby Troubles

Chapter 1
Baby Troubles

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Chapter Description: Just read the summary of the story.

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Baby Troubles

From Lemmy’s Campfire Tales

"Let’s move!"

A group of Koopa Troopas run through a set of ancient ruins that are rumored to contain a powerful monster. They walk through the twisting corridors of the temple until they reach a door. Once they reach it, one of the Koopas puts his head to the door and hears nothing. He then cracks the door and slips inside, with the others waiting outside.

After a minute or so of waiting, the Koopas impatiently kick the door open and gasp at what they see.

=======================

Bowser sits on his throne, eating a sandwich, when the door opens suddenly. Kammy Koopa walks into the room carrying a large box containing several things. She sets it down and walks up to her king.

"Your Rancidness, your men have successfully captured the monster spoken of in the ruins."

"Excellent. So, exactly what is it and what can it do?"

"I was just getting to that, Sire. The creature in question is a very powerful red Mr. I. It has a... unique ability."

"And that is...?"

"Well..." Kammy reaches into the box and pulls out...

"A baby?!" Yes, what Kammy has pulled out is a baby Koopa Troopa.

"You see, the creature has the power to turn people into babies. It can also turn those people back to normal," says the Magikoopa.

"I see... That’s it! I’ve got a brilliant plan! We’ll turn everyone who helps Mario, along with Mario and Peach, into babies! Be sure not to tell those little brats of mine. though."

But little does Bowser know that his oldest Koopaling is watching him via a hidden camera.

=======================

"Hmm... I do believe that this is just the kind of thing I should spend my time on! I will turn a few villains into babies and reraise them to be loyal to me and only me! Moohoohoohahoohoohahoohahhahaha!"

"What are you doing?" questions Roy, right behind him.

"Ah-duh-wha? Nothing. At least nothing you can understand. Now get out of my room before I’ll test my new Matter-to-Ash 4,000 on you!"

Roy leaves in a hurry.

"Finally. Now to make the plans." Ludwig takes out a sheet of big, blue paper and quickly jots down the ideas rushing in his head. "Oh, yeah. I really feel the burn now! Work it, brain!"

=======================

Meanwhile, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, and Toadette are sitting in the dining room of the Mushroom Kingdom castle, waiting for Peach to finish her special cake recipe passed down from generation to generation: the Uber Strawberry Seventeen Layered Vanilla Cake! Growling tummies echo throughout the room.

"Ugh, I could eat a tire," says Mario. "Peach, are you done yet?"

"Give me just a little bit longer. Oh, by the way, I just checked and we’re out of Kerokero Cola."

"Oh," Toadette replies, "I’ll go get some. then! Be right back!"

Toadette hops up and walks out of the room whistling.

=======================

Ludwig walks into the room where the Mr. I is being contained.

"So, you’re this monster, huh? Well, as I am the second-in-command of Dark Land, I declare that you have to use your baby-turning powers on the inside of," Ludwig pulls out a strange beaker, "this!"

"Um... okay. Sure."

The Mr. I does so. Ludwig snickers and leaves with the beaker, planning to convert it into a chemical for his evil scheme.

Right after Ludwig leaves, Bowser, Kammy, a few Koopa Troopas, and a few Koopatrols walk into the room.

"All right, we’re ready! First we’re gonna stop by Toad Town, then we’ll visit all of Mario’s friends..."

"Okay. Whatever," the Mr. I says.

The Koopatrols picks up Red Mr. I and Bowser gets his Clown Copter. They go to the entrance to Peach’s castle. They see Toadette going into the garden.

"Blast here!" orders Bowser.

"Sure," says Red Mr. I. The red Mr. I blasts a beam at Toadette.

"I’m going to the garden, I’m in the gardeee- What the?!"

=======================

"Shouldn’t Toadette be here by now?" asks Mario.

"Give her time," says Toad.

=======================

Baby Toadette looks around a little and then begins to whimper as she hugs Bowser’s leg. She then begins crying.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Bowser kicks off the girl, making her cry harder, and shouts, "Okay, let’s go on!"

=======================

Ludwig stealthily sneaks through the hallways of Wario’s castle. He reaches the throne room and sees the owner of the castle playing a game of poker with his brother and the sisters Kat and Ana. He laughs and opens the bottle, ready to splash the contents onto all four.

=======================

Bowser walks into the castle with his troops knocking out any guards they come across. The group then begins searching all of the rooms for Peach.

=======================

A yellow-hatted Toad walks into the garden and sees Toadette, who is still crying. He picks her up.

"Who’d leave a baby lying out here like this? I’ll take ya inside here and see if Peach can find a place for you to stay."

The Toad begins to walk toward the castle, then stops for a second, catching a bad smell that’s begun to fill the air. "Maybe I should see if she happens to have a clean diaper to get you changed into as well."

=======================

Peach is in the kitchen when Bowser’s fist comes through the door, followed by his head.

"Princess, I’m home!" Bowser says calmly.

"Oh my, it’s Bowser!!!" Peach screams.

Peach runs around Bowser as he comes in and runs up the stairs as Bowser follows behind. She goes in her room and locks the door.

"Little pig, little pig, let me in!" Bowser says playfully.

“Not in your dreams, Bowser!” Peach yells non-playfully.

"What’s that? Not by the hair on your chinny chin chin? Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and blow your house in!" Bowser shouts playfully.

"Oh my dear!" Peach says, scared.

A fist goes through the door and Bowser sticks his head in. "HEEERE’S BOWSER!" he says playfully.

The others, having heard Peach scream and all that, run out of the dining room and go up to see what’s happening, with Luigi going to search the hallways to see if Bowser might be hiding there. They sling open the door to the room and find that Bowser is nowhere to be found and that a baby looking like Peach is sitting on the floor, bawling. Mario, Yoshi, and Toad turn around only to see Bowser and the Mr. I.

=======================

Ludwig throws the chemical onto the Wicked Bros. and Kat & Ana, reducing all of them to infants. He picks them up and puts them inside a large ship he has hidden in a hallway, then hops in the driver’s seat.

"Good, my next stop is a certain pirate..."

=======================

Bowser aims the Mr. I at Mario and Co.

"Say cheese!" Bowser says with much humor in his voice.

"Drat-a! He a finally got us!" Mario says, irritated.

"Ya got that right! Yeah baby!"

The Mr. I turns to Bowser for a second. "That was a really lame pun. Say it again and you’re next."

"You got it."

The Mr. I turns back to the three and shoots a beam at all three.

=======================

The yellow Toad walks into the castle, carrying Baby Toadette. "Anyone here? Hello!"

=======================

Just as the Mr. I shoots his beam a passing by Popple sees the show from a window.

"Woah! That’s a great item worth stealing, see!" he says to his new "rookie".

Bowser looks at the babies in front of him.

"Now to finish the job!" he says happily.

He raises his foot about to squash the babies, while Popple and his new rookie sneak up from behind. The Mr. I hears their breathing and spins around, baby-fying Popple and his new rookies, Booster and a Chomp Bro. Bowser, hearing the sound made, stops and turns around and sees the three. He grabs them and roars, throwing them out of the window and into the distance.

=======================

Ludwig stands on the deck of the S.S. Teacup, having just turned Syrup into a baby. He picks her up and puts her onto his ship. Just after he gets on himself, Popple, Booster, and Chomp Bro fall and land a few feet away from the ship, out of his sight.

=======================

Bowser turns to the Mr. I and says, "Okay, no sense in killing them. After all, they won’t survive long alone anyway. Now let’s go get that cook and those friends of Mario’s."

The two turn and leave, along with all of the soldiers and Kammy. Soon afterward, both the yellow Toad (with Toadette) and Luigi reach the room, where they see babies Peach, Mario, Yoshi, and Toad, who are all crying, sitting on the floor. They see the babies and gasp.

"Are-a those," Luigi begins, "Mario, Yoshi, Toad, and the princess?!"

"I think so," the Toad replies. "But if they are then that means that this must be Toadette!"

"I-a think you’re right-a."

They both says, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

=======================

"Houston, we have a problem," says an astronaut a few seconds after hearing the scream.

=======================

Ludwig arrives in Sub-con. There, he goes into Wart’s castle and comes back a few minutes later with baby-fied versions of Mouser, Triclyde, Fry Guy, Clawgrip, and Birdo. He also baby-fied his uncle Wart, but he decided to just leave him in Sub-on for his two cousins to deal with.

"Okay, I’m done with that plan. Now to go home and get you all hid somewhere so that no one can find out.

Ludwig walks into the helicopter he built for his plan and flies away to Bowser’s home. He looks at the magnificent bird’s-eye view as the babies keep crying and whining. Ludwig can’t concentrate on flying with them screaming like, well, babies. He gets out of the pilot’s seat and yells, "WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" This makes the babies cry even more. Ludwig is so confused.

How do take care of a baby? thinks Ludwig, Think. Think. Who knows about childcare and will keep his or her mouth shut on my plan?

Ludwig suddenly sparks up an idea. Just then, the copter starts to lose control and Ludwig suddenly realizes he wasn’t piloting it! He grabs hold of the controls and pulled back into the air.

"Whew," sighed Ludwig. "Now to go home."

Ludwig finds a spot to land that is near home. He lands right on it and carries the babies on the carrier.

"Ha," says Ludwig. "The copter worked like a charm. And they say I can’t build any..."

The copter suddenly combustes, leaving ash on the dark ground. Ludwig ignores it and hopes that everyone else will too. He walks right into the castle.

=======================

Meanwhile, Luigi and the yellow-spotted Toad are in a fix. They, too, do not know how to take care of a child. They are all still crying and they can’t figure out why.

Luigi tries giving them bottles, giving them toys, and making ridiculous faces, but nothing works.

"Uh, Luigi," says the yellow-spotted Toad, "what if they need to be... changed?"

"Survey says, dirty diapers!"

Luigi looka down at every one of their diapers and says, "Ding! We have a match! Four points!"

"Make that five. Toadette needs to be changed, too. What are we going to do?"

"Not we, you. You’ll have to take care of them while I find a way to reverse the process."

"What? Wait! Can’t we talk about..."

It is too late, Luigi already ran out the door. The yellow-spotted Toad looks around, totally confused.

"I’m going in." The yellow-spotted Toad puts a clothespin on his non-existent nose and walks towards the toddlers.

=======================

"All right, now then, I’ll just get these babies put in that sound-proof dungeon I built for no real reason and that I didn’t figure I’d ever have a use for and then I’ll have to go find that person. But I’ll need to make sure that they don’t make too much noise..."

Ludwig pulls out a small ball which he throws into the air. He shields his eyes quickly as the ball begins to flash, causing all of the babies to fall asleep. He uncovers his eyes after a few seconds, then takes them inside.

=======================

Luigi walks through Toad Town, seeing that Bowser had gone a bit crazy with the Mr. I around town, blasting almost everyone. He decides to check inside some houses. In most he finds adults, but in Tayce T’s he sees a baby girl crawling on the counter toward the oven. He grabs her and sets her on the ground.

"Okay, so much for free healing things and stuff... Jeez, Bowser had a pretty good plan this time."

Just then, the door opens and he sees a large crowd of people holding babies, including Frankly, Goombario’s family, Beldam, a random Koopa from Koopa Village (along with, in addition to a Koopa baby, a Bob-omb one), Poddley, Koopie Koo, and other relatives and friends of Mario’s numerous partners. Noticeably missing are baby versions of Flurrie, Ms. Mowz, and Gonzalez Jr.

Beldam speaks up. "We’ve been looking for you! Now then, hurry up and fix this mess! I can’t stand Vivian anyway, but it is even worse whenever she’s puking on me and wearin’ diapers!"

"Yeah!" the crowd yells.

"Perhaps we haven’t given Bowser enough credit in the past..."

=======================

Ludwig gets the babies into the soundproof dungeon and quickly shuts the door, then leaves the room, but not before locking the door.

=======================

Bowser sits in his throne room, looking thoughtful.

"I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like there’s someone I didn’t get..."

=======================

Meanwhile, in another part of the kingdom, Baby Popple is angry and wants revenge. "Wistem up, you Wookies!" Baby Popple shouts. "We got to get bwack at that Pwan Wecker!"

His two Rookies just look more confused and stupid than ever.

=======================

Luigi, as well as all of the adults and babies from before, are sitting in an inn. Most of the babies are crying, but Goombella and Goombario aren’t. They are instead talking to each other but none of the adults can understand them.

"Why do you think we can still think like ourselves but the others can’t?" asks Goombella.

"Maybe," replies the male Goomba, "it’s because we’re smarter than most, so we were able to resist it a bit. We should find some way to let them know that, though."

=======================

Meanwhile, Syrup, Waluigi, and Wario have just managed to climb onto each other’s shoulders and open the door. As they begin to crawl out of the room, they are found by Roy. He grabs them and tosses them back into the room, then laughs.

"Heh heh. I think I’m gonna have me some fun with Ludwig."

=======================

While Goombella and Goombario are trying to figure out how to let the others know that their minds haven’t changed, Luigi is trying to figure out how to get the babies back to normal. "Hmm... If that Mr. I can change people to babies, maybe it could change them back!" Luigi says.

"Maybe you’re right," says Frankly, "but we need to find the Mr. I..."

"I don’t think that will be a problem. Find Bowser, and we find the Mr. I," says Luigi.

=======================

Roy sneaks into Ludwig’s room and goes to his computer, the only electrical appliance that hasn’t exploded, because Ludwig bought it before he started inventing stuff. Roy types a message on Ludwig’s computer. It reads: "Dear Ludwig, I know about the babies. And if you don’t want me to blab to King Dad, you must give in to my demands! Love (not), Roy"

Roy then keeps the message on screen so it will be the first thing Ludwig sees. Then, with an evil laugh, he sneaks out of the room.

=======================

"Okay, I have an idea," says Goombella to Goombario. "Try to steal a pen from one of them or something, and I’ll get some paper. Then we can try writing something to them."

Goombario says, "Why don’t YOU go get the pen?"

"Does it really matter?" Goombella asks. Goombario proceeds to try to take a pen from Luigi’s overall pocket.

=======================

Ludwig walks into his room and reads the message. "We’ll just see about that," he says with a grin on his face.

A few minutes later, Ludwig walks through the hallway very quietly with a bottle of the substance in hand, heading for Roy’s room. As soon as he reaches the door, he kicks it open and thrusts the liquid out of the bottle all over the room. He then notices that Roy not only wasn’t hit, but isn’t there. He turns around and sees, of course, his younger brother Roy.

"You gonna try that again?"

"I would, but I’m out. All right, what do you want me to do?"

"Gimme all the money you have on you," Roy commands. Ludwig reaches out and opens his hand, revealing 3 coins. "That’s all you got?" Roy questions.

"Don’t you remember? King Dad grounded me last week and took all my coins," Ludwig replied.

"Oh, yeah," Roy says. "All right, now turn the babies back to normal."

"I would, but then that would not only ruin my plan, but it would also wreck your blackmail on me by destroying all the evidence and making you look like you’re the one who snuck and watched him because, with all I know, I could easily act as though I have no idea about it."

"ARGH! Logic hurts! But you’re right, so we won’t be doing that. Instead, I’ll make you suffer not only by doing stuff for me but also by still taking care of them! Haha!"

“This is so dumb...”

"What did you say?"

"Uh, is your brain still numb?"

"Huh? Must be another logic thing... Now take care of these babies while I go do my daily exercises."

Roy leaves the room and Ludwig with a plethera of toddlers.

=======================

Goombario gets close to the pen, but just as he’s about to grab it, somebody picks him up from behind and sets him on the floor.

"The little brat was close to fallin’ off the table!" says Beldam after doing so. Goombella and Goombario, not sure of what else to do now, both begin crying.

"Oh no! Please don’t do that!" Beldam cries, but it is too late.

"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they both shriek.

"Oh my! I’ve got to silence them, I’ve got to silence them.... Eureka! I’ve got it!" she says in desperation. Beldam then tries to sing, but it was bound to fail. "LA LA DO DOO DUM!" shouts Beldam, attempting to sing.

As soon as Beldam begins singing, the other babies begin crying and all of the adults in the room cover their ears, screaming for her to stop themselves. A few seconds later, the adults begin crying too.

"Oh, shut up! ALL OF YOU!" shrieks Luigi. He hurls the nearest available object- his pen- at Beldam. It bounces off her and conveniently lands on the table.

Everybody cheers. Beldam starts screaming much more loudly than usual because of the pen.

=======================

Ludwig sits in the sound-proof dungeon, watching the babies play and do whatever else that babies do.

"I hate this!" he yells suddenly. "The payoff’s great, but I don’t think that it’s worth it! Oh well, I’ll probably get used to it after a while..."

Ana then starts teething on Ludwig’s tail.

"Then again..." Ludwig says.

=======================

"Oh great," the yellow-capped Toad comments upon inspecting the crib that Toadette is supposed to be in. "NOW where did she wander off to?"

Outside, baby Toadette is just crawling around by the main entrance, when something shiny catches her eye. She waddles towards it, but the object looks like it is moving away. Toadette continues to follow the shiny object around, when suddenly...

"Got ya!" Popple yells as he jumped from above with a sack in his hand. He quickly stuffs Toadette into the sack, which happens to have air holes.

"Boss," Booster comments, "why do we need this Toad?"

"I’ll tell ya later," Popple replied as they headed in the direction of Toad Town.

=======================

Meanwhile, Bowser is sitting on his throne, looking at the alphabetical list of people he turned into a baby.

"Lessee... Lakilester, Mario... Nope, I don’t see anyone not on here. Must be my imagination."

"Lord Bowser," Kammy comments as King Bowser reads his list aloud, "I think you missed somebody."

"GAH!" Bowser yelled out in shock. "Of course! Why wasn’t it obvious? There’s supposed to be a name in between Lakilester and Mario!"

"Does this mean what I think it means, Lord Bowser?" Kamek asks as he enters the room.

"You bet it does!" Bowser replies. "Get all the troops together! We’re going after... MALLOW!"

And so, Bowser and his army leave the castle and head towards Nimbus Land.

=======================

Meanwhile, Luigi is preparing to leave for Bowser’s Keep the next day. Goombella still has the pen, keeping it inside of her hat, and is looking for a piece of paper. But, just then, Popple slams the door open and walks into the room! His two rookies, Chomp Bro. and Booster, follow.

"Now what was the reason I came here again?!" Popple askes himself as a crowd starts to form around them.

"Ah great, even more of them," remarks the bartender inside the inn. "Well, somebody go ahead and find a room for these three babies as well, I guess."

Popple immediately runs over to the bartender and shakes him violently. "Who ya callin’ a baby, ya wuss?!" Popple yells.

"He meant that you look like a child," Goombella explains in her baby-talk voice.

"Ah, shut ya trap!" Popple replies.

"Is it just me," Goombario asks in his baby-talk voice, "or can he understand us?"

=======================

Meanwhile, far above the location of everyone else...

"Goo ga!" comes the voice of the baby-fied prince of Nimbus Land.

"Well, that’s all of Mario’s friends! Now what?" Bowser asks.

"How about we laugh fiendishly?" Kamek suggests.

"Good idea! MUA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Bowser laughs. Kammy sighs and shakes her head, figuring that Bowser’s apparently slipped into being senile a few years early.

=======================

Meanwhile, in another part of the castle, Roy sits at a computer, typing stuff he plans to have Ludwig do. Someone comes up behind him.

"Hello Roy, what are you in the middle of doing, typing, working on, etc?"

"Just blackmailin’ Ludwig, Blabbermouth. Wanna help?"

"Nah, I can’t. Gotta go write a speech, monologue, you know."

Morton leaves the room, and Roy continues.

=======================

Ludwig stands in the dungeon looking around, too stressed out to notice that Syrup, Waluigi, and Wario are again attempting their escape. He suddenly feels something tugging on his tail. He turns to see Kat, who looks like she’s about to cry. He smells something funny.

He picks her up, then checks her diaper before realizing something.

"I don’t know how to change a diaper!"

=======================

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away...

"Pull my finger," Smithy says to Yaridovich.

"You’re kidding, right?"

=======================

At that same time, in a place that actually matters...

"WHERE ON PLIT IS TOADETTE?!" The yellow-capped Toad then turns to find that Mario is hanging from the curtains, Peach and Toad are fighting, and Yoshi is eating a blanket.

"Ugh!" the Toad sighs. He breaks up Toad and Peach’s fight by separating the two, then he performs CPR on the choking Baby Yoshi and he spits out the blanket. It takes a while, but Toad even manages to get Mario off, although he rips the curtains at a weird angle. Then the babies start crying again.

=======================

Ludwig, meanwhile, is busy standing at a table with a clean diaper in his hands, sweating up a bullet. Kat lies on the table, waiting to be changed. Ludwig stands, confused.

How am I supposed to open it?

=======================

At that exact same time, Toadette manages to wriggle out of her sack. Unnoticed by anyone, she heads outside. She looks up and manages to spot Bowser’s doomship heading back from the mission in Nimbus Land. Curious, Toadette follows the ship from below.

=======================

And, back with the yellow-capped Toad we’ll call Yellow T. from now on, all of the babies start to cry. Upon closer inspection, they all have dirty diapers. Yellow T. quickly runs to the nearest Save Block.

"This may take a couple of tries before I get it right," Yellow T. mutters as he activates it.

=======================

Back with Ludwig again, he just can’t understand how to change the diaper. Using a special satellite system, though, he manages to discover the location of the only character on Plit who can help. Quickly, he sends a message to the Goomba Force, the only ones Bowser didn’t take with him.

"We’ve got an urgent message from Lord Ludwig," King Goomba tells the lower-ranking Goombas. "Kidnap Yellow T. at all costs!"

=======================

Goombella, meanwhile, is still looking for paper, but isn’t having much luck.

=======================

But in a secluded area of Poshley Heights...

"Crump!" Grodus’s head booms. "Come here now!"

"What is it, Sir Grodus?" Lord Crump asks as he approaches his boss.

"Remember when we decided to turn good? Forget all that!" Grodus replies. "It has come to my attention that at this point in time, we can not only gather the Crystal Stars again, but we can also collect the 150 Power Stars, the seven Star Spirits, the seven pieces of Star Road, AND the Eight Rods of Nib!"

"What’s a Nib?" Lord Crump wonders.

"Forget that!" Grodus yells back. "Just collect them all, and then we will be the most powerful force in the galaxy!"

"How do you know that this is the right time?" Crump ponders.

As a response, Grodus pulls out a pocket calculator.

"What’s with the calculator?" Crump asks.

"This," Grodus answered, "is what is left of TEC-XX after Bowser got to him. According to my sources, he has baby-fied every character that has ever helped Mario in his entire life. That means there’s nobody to stop us!"

"As you command, Sir Grodus," Crump says as he heads to the door.

=======================

Bowser, meanwhile, is sitting on his throne, again feeling as though he forgot someone.

"Hmm... I got Toadstool, Mario, that stupid dino, the Mushroom guy and girl, the computer, all those partners of that pesky plumber’s except the Yoshi ’cause it would defeat the point and that wind thingy, Mallow, that cook lady... Hmm... Who could I be forgetting this time?"

"Maybe it’s Lu-"

"I got it! It must be Donkey Kong! He could surely stop me with the help of his clan!"

Kammy slaps her head and thinks, Yeah, he’s senile all right.

"Yep, definitely DK. I’ll just send the Goomba Force after him," Bowser continues. "Hey, does anybody know where they even are?"

=======================

"PUT ME DOWN!" Yellow T. bursts as he is being tied up by the Goombas Ludwig sent after him.

"Silence!" King Goomba yells. "Ludwig von Koopa requests you appear before him, no matter what it takes!"

"But I have these baby-fied heroes to take care of!" Yellow T. replies.

"Then we’ll have to kidn- I mean, request that they appear before him, too," King Goomba replies.

=======================

"King Smithy! King Smithy!" Yaridovich shouts as he runs down the metallic corridors to tell his master urgent news.

"What is it now, Yarido?" Smithy says boredly, as he hasn’t done anything all day except the "pull my finger" thing.

"Good news! The Mushroom Kingdom is in a vulnerable position! We can establish a link back to the planet and takeover completely!" Yaridovich answers excitedly.

"Okay, okay, but we’re going to need a few things. Any suggestions?" Smithy asks his crew.

"We need an arsenal of weaponry!" Axem Black replies.

"We need tanks galore!" comes the reply of Yaridovich.

"We need a fifer!" Axem Green replied.

Everyone looks at Axem Green with blank stares.

"What? A fife is just a small flute," Axem Green tells the others. "It’s used mainly with drums in playing marches. I thought a victory parade would be nice once we conquer the place."

"... Excellent idea, Axem Green!" Smithy compliments. "Yaridovich, call up a fifer!"

Smithy must be getting senile, Yaridovich thinks as he walks to the nearest telephone.

=======================

Meanwhile, in Rose Town...

"Pro archer and amateur fifer Bowyer, this is!" Bowyer greets as he picks up his phone. "Call, why did you? NYA!"

"We need a fifer," comes the reply at the other end of the line.

=======================

Back with Toadette, she has finally caught up with the doomship and has reached Bowser’s Castle.

=======================

We see Ludwig for a second, sitting in a chair in the room while nearly all of the babies sit, crying. Just behind him, Wario, Syrup, and Waluigi are looking through papers and stuff to find an answer as to how to reverse their condition.

Let’s see what we have to work with, Wario thinks. How to un-clone yourself, how to un-shrink yourself... Gah! Nothing about un-baby-ing yourself! One of these papers is just a coupon for Shroom Mart!

Wario folds the useless coupon into a paper airplane, and sends it flying. Somehow, it slips through the bars on the windows and sails away...

=======================

Darn! Goombella thinks, back with Luigi and the others. Where am I going to find a useless piece of paper?!

It is at about that time that Wario’s paper airplane hits her in the back of the head.

=======================

"Come on, whatever-your-name-is!" Lord Crump tells the Elite X-Naut he brought with him to Shy Guy’s Toy Box.

"I keep telling you, my name is X-Cellent!" the Elite tells Crump. "I’m the head of all the other Elites! I’m right up there with you and Grodus!"

"Well," Crump replies, "if you keep talking like that, your current position in our ranks will be a mere memory once I’m done with you! Now, hurry up! I hear that General Guy has managed to get his hands on one of those so-called Rods!"

"Which one?" X-Cellent asks.

Just then, various Shy Guys with muscles bigger than you’d ever imagine surround the two intruders.

"I’m going with the Power one," Crump answers.

=======================

And now, back with Toadette...

Toadette crawls into the castle. Inside there are two guards standing and talking.

"You’re kidding me, right? So you’re sayin’ that you been seein’ babies sneakin’ around the hallway near that door that Prince Ludwig instructed us to avoid, huh? Get real!"

"It’s true!" replies the other guard. The two don’t notice as Toadette crawls onward.

=======================

Yet once more, with Crump and X-Cellent...

"I can’t believe we defeated them," Crump comments as he looks at the unconscious bodies of their enemies.

"I could," X-Cellent also comments, "especially once you pulled out that ray gun, laughed menacingly, and shot blasts set to Stun at each one of their hearts."

"Well, at least that’s over," Crump replies. "Now, all that’s left is to grab that Power Rod!"

"You think that it’s going to be just that easy?" the now-muscular General Guy asks as his tank pulls into view. "Well, I have a surprise for you! Those were the weakest ones in my new revolution of Shy Guys!"

"They were?" Crump and X-Cellent say meekly as they hear many loud footsteps approaching.

=======================

And, in Rose Town...

"Believe you made it, I can’t!" Bowyer exclaims as Yaridovich, Smithy, the Axems, Count Down, the Ding-a-Lings, and the rest of Smithy’s forces teleport into view.

"So, how good can you fife?" Yaridovich questions.

Bowyer starts to play the worst fife music ever heard in the history of any planet.

"BAD FIFING ALERT!" the Ding-a-Lings yell.

"... Well, it’s a start," Yaridovich comments. "Plus, you work cheap. As cheap as Cheep Cheep cheap. You’re hired, whether we like it or not."

=======================

Back with Luigi...

Luigi sits, figuring how he is to enter Bowser’s Castle.

"If I go right through the front, I’ll easily be turned into a baby myself. Hmm..."

Luigi then notices Goombella scribbling on the paper airplane that came from Bowser’s Castle. "Hey, I have an idea!" Luigi tells himself. "I’ll go to Rogueport, find that cursed chest that Mario was talking about one day, and be cursed! I’ll then just fly into Bowser’s Castle!"

Luigi then rushes back home, leaving the other adults with their own babies, not to mention Popple and Co. Anyway, Luigi pulls out a suitcase and begins putting stuff in.

"Let’s see, if I’m going to go to Rogueport, what do I need? Let’s see... a hammer, some sturdy boots, and a lot of badges. Now, what am I missing? ... Wait, I know! I need... a fifer!"

(Yes, that may become a new run-on gag.)

Luigi pulls out a phonebook and calls the first number for a fifer he sees.

"Pro archer and amateur fifer Bowyer, this is!" Bowyer tells Luigi from the other end of the line. "Sorry, I am! NYA! Travelling with Smithy and his minions so they can takeover Plit, my current job is! Later, I’ll see you!"

Luigi hangs up the phone, runs back to the adults, and tells them the news he just received.

"Smithy’s back," Luigi says, "and he’s going to conquer Plit at what is probably the worst time ever!"

"I can’t believe this!" Beldam yells after hearing the news. "Why, I’d rather face hundreds of hulking Shy Guys and try to take back a powerful artifact from them rather than this!"

=======================

Speaking of which, back with Crump and X-Citing...

"So, you defeated that wave," says General Guy, "but now you have to deal with the ones who are in the elite class of my army!" Crump replies to this by shooting one of the wheels off General Guy’s tank, causing it to topple over and fall.

"As they say," Crump comments upon his actions, "actions speak louder than words."

Turning towards the direction in which the footsteps are coming from, Lord Crump and X-Cellent spot the oncoming troops. They are led by Gourmet Guy, who is now 100% muscles instead of 100% pure blubber.

"Let’s do this," Crump tells X-Cellent. Crump then sets his ray gun to "Mild Damage", lets out another menacing laugh, and begins to fire upon the Shy Guys.

=======================

At that same time, in Moleville, Sir Grodus and a X-Naut Ph.D. are exploring the mines.

"If I left only Crump and that Elite to retrieve all those powerful objects, I knew we’d never win," Grodus explains to the Ph.D. upon being asked why they’re here.

"But Sir Grodus," the X-Naut Ph.D. questions, "why did you choose me, and me alone, as your companion in collecting these objects?"

"Because," Grodus answers, "you’re the only member of my army, besides the Shadow Sirens and Crump, that doesn’t call me Dude! Now, X-Periment, on to the matter at hand. My sensors don’t detect a piece of the Star Road here, like last time, but I do detect that another of those Rods of Nib has appeared."

"Which one?" the X-Naut PhD, now known as X-Periment, asks.

"The body modification one," Grodus replies. "It seems the best one to collect right now, as in case Bowser and his new minion get a hold of us and turn us both into babies, we should be capable of changing ourselves back. Mind you, Bowser’s magic might now be stronger than the rods themselves. However, if we are able to change back, we can easily escape and continue with the tasks at hand."

"That’s very wise of you, Sir Gro- UMPH!" X-Periment starts to say as he collides with a person who looks much like a punching bag.

"The name’s Nello! PUNCHINELLO!" the punching bag-like character yells. "And you’re trespassing in my personal hangout, just like that Mario character some years back! But since then, I’ve returned stronger than ever!"

"You’re the guardian of the mines? Seriously? GACK ACK ACK!" Grodus laughs. "That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in days!"

"Well, I am too the guy who guards this place! And I’m gonna get you for saying mean stuff like that! Let’s settle this in a one-on-one battle, just me against the laughing head!" Punchinello challenges. "I’ll even wager this neat stick thing that I found! Dunno how it works, but it looks neat!"

"Deal," Grodus accepts upon hearing that the winner of this fight gets the Rod of Nib.

=======================

Back with Crump and X-Citing, they have just subdued most of the buff members of General Guy’s army, and are about to fire upon the muscular Gourmet Guy before attacking the head of the army directly.

Crump begins talking while he and his partner fight the Shy Guys. "I wonder what Grodus is doing. Well, I guarrantee that it isn’t fighting an eggplant-robot with an unhealthy obsession with explosives."

=======================

Meanwhile, Ludwig is sitting in the dungeon, which is filled with numerous bawling babies. The room already smells horrible, and it is gradually smelling worse and worse as more of the infants start to cry and time goes on. Suddenly he hears a knock on the door and, upon answering it, finds Roy standing there along with the Goomba King, Yellow T, and the four toddlers that are with the Toad. The Koopaling comes in along with Yellow T. and the children, and the Goomba King walks away without paying any mind to any of it. Ludwig closes the door after everyone’s inside.

"Great, now that you are here," Ludwig starts, addressing the Toad, "change these little brats’ diapers!"

"I don’t think he will," says Roy. "How about this: for every one he changes, you change two! Haha!"

Roy walks out of the room, while the Toad looks confused and all of the babies except Wario, Syrup, and Waluig, look either a) confused, or b) scared by the fact that in the past few minutes they’ve seen two giant turtle mutants and a large living fungus with bad fashion sense.

=======================

Back with Grodus...

"Let’s get this party started!" Punchinello exclaims as he lights a tiny Bob-omb and tosses it at Grodus. Grodus merely hops over it, but the Bob-omb hits X-Periment and does some light damage.

"Ow..." X-Periment groans.

Grodus retaliates by shooting streams of purple lightning at Punchinello.

"AUGH! AWAWAWA! OTHER NOISES INDICATING PAIN!!!" Punchinello cries out. "You’re gonna pay for that! BIG BOB-ULK SUMMON!"

An enormous Bob-Ulk that has never been seen in the existence of Plit materializes in Punchinello’s hands.

"This... will... show you... who’s the... best! Man... this thing... is HEAVY! Anyways... I’m... gonna- ACK!" Punchinello yells out as he fell from the immense weight of the explosive device.

"GACK ACK ACK ACK ACK!" Grodus laughs at his opponent.

Grodus then summons one bolt of purple lightning, which light the wick of the Bob-Ulk. After Grodus and X-Periment run away, the same event from Super Mario RPG happens all over again. Upon returning, Grodus and X-Periment find a fallen Punchinello covered in cinders on the ground.

"Here, take it! But I’m none too happy about this!" Punchinello says before slipping back into unconsciousness. X-Periment picks up the Rod of Body Modification and hands it to his boss.

"Yes! One of the great Rods of Nib is ours! I only hope Lord Crump’s mission goes as well as ours have," Grodus tells the X-Naut PhD before they both leave the area.

=======================

Speaking of which, Lord Crump and X-Citing have finally knocked down all of General Guy’s army, including Gourmet Guy.

"GRR!" General Guy growls in anger. "You may have beaten my army, but you will never catch me!"

General Guy hops into his tank, only to remember that it had fallen mere moments ago. Seeing this as his opportunity, Lord Crump sets his blaster up to "Shots of DOOM" and fires blasts upon the tank.

"Aw, nuts," General Guy sighs as he sees a barrage of laser blasts heading towards him.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

The tank goes up in smoke, and all that is left is General Guy who is covered in cinders.

"Lord Crump, if you had that "Shots of DOOM" setting all this time," X-Citing asks, "then why haven’t you used it before?"

"Those shots require a lot of energy, and I use them as a last resort," Crump explains. "Now, General Guy, hand over that Rod of Power!"

"Fine! Just don’t hurt me!" General Guy cries like the little coward he really is inside. He then hands over the Rod of Power, which Lord Crump puts in his inventory.

"Perfect! Now all that’s left is to head back to our base in Poshley Heights!" Crump happily tells X-Citing.

"Yep!" X-Citing replies. "I just hope that Sir Grodus Dude was right about there being no force on Plit able to stop us."

"Well, Sir Grodus is always right," Crump tells the X-Naut Elite. "Unless, of course, some beings from an alien planet arrive. Then, we’d have some real competition!"

=======================

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SOMEBODY ELSE ALREADY HAS THE ARTIFACT HERE?!" Smithy furiously yells at one of the residents of Moleville.

"That’s right," replies Punchinello, "some little domehead thing and a weird guy wearing a lab coat beat me and took it."

"Argh!"

"Don’t worry, King Smithy," Yaridovich tells his master, "I am picking up the location of a different artifact; one of the Crystal Stars. Apparently, it has landed in Nimbus Land. Thankfully, Bowser has already taken down their defenses. All we need to do is swoop in, grab it, and get out!"

"Excellent!" Smithy replies. "There’s just one more thing we have to do!"

Smithy then casts an Ultima spell on Punchinello, blasting him into the distance.

=======================

Meanwhile, back in Poshley Heights, Crump and X-Citing have just come back with the Rod of Power.

"Good work, Lord Crump," Grodus compliments, which is rarely seen.

"Thank you, Sir Grodus," Crump replies to his superior. "Now, I understand that you and the head of the PhDs went out and obtained another artifact yourself while we beat the Shy Guy army?"

"Yes, but it wasn’t much of a challenge. Just an explosive-loving punching bag to slow me down before we obtained it," Grodus tells him.

Just then, Punchinello breaks through the roof and lands on the ground with a thud!

"That’s him now, actually," Grodus comments upon the recent event.

"Oww... Nimbus Land... Crystal Stars.. Defenses are down... Oh, my head..." Punchinello mutters before falling down again.

"That was convenient," Crump says upon hearing the latest information. "It looks like he’s recently heard something about the artifacts. He seems too dumb to lie, so there must be a Crystal Star there! If we hurry, X-Citing and I can be there within the hour!"

"Fine, fine, but I may as well come too!" Grodus replied. "Pack your bags, X-Periment, for we are heading to Nimbus Land!"

And so, they get there within the hour, as expected. However, none of the X-Nauts expected what happens next...

"WHO ON PLIT ARE YOU?!" Grodus and Smithy yell simultaniously as the two teams finally encounter each other.

=======================

"This is bad, very bad," Luigi mutters as he paces back and forth in front of his house. "Bowser has baby-fied Mario and all of his friends except me; Smithy is taking over the world using everything my brother has ever used to save it; and now it seems that Yellow T. and my baby-fied pals have been kidnapped as well! Plus, knowing how things turn out, another bunch of bad guys are probably taking over the world as well as Bowser and Smithy! What should I do about this? CAN I do something about this? Decisions, decisions...

"If only I had some help... that’s it! I know the one person Bowser forgot! Well, besides me."

=======================

Back in Nimbus Land, the two evil parties were furious once they found out that their goals were the same.

"What do you mean, you’re here to collect that Crystal Star? I’M the only robot who should have the honor of taking over the world!" Smithy tells Grodus.

"Oh yeah? Well, Bowser Koopa could fit through the eye of a needle before your dreams of conquest comes true!" Grodus retorts.

"An idea, I just have!" Bowyer announces just then and there. "Work together, why don’t we? Rule the world together, we all can!"

"NO!" comes the reply of everyone else in either party.

"Only the X-Nauts should rule supreme!" Lord Crump shouts.

"You’re wrong! Only King Smithy can preform such a feat!" Yaridovich shouts back.

"Yo, listen up!" Axem Red announces. "We’re all after that Crystal thing, so why not settle it Battle Royale? You X-Nauts versus us guys from Smithy’s gang; winner takes the prize!"

"Deal!" comes the reply from Grodus as he prepares himself for another match.

=======================

"I’m sick of this place, see?" Popple tells his two baby-fied rookies. "So, we’re gonna break out of this joint and do something!"

"Right!" comes Booster and Chomp Bro’s reply. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the room, Goombella has managed to write something saying that she and Goombario are different from the others, and now she is having the problem of getting people to notice it.

=======================

"Man, I’m getting sick of this place," Wario mutters to himself. Bored, he then proceeds to make more paper airplanes out of Ludwig’s notes and send them flying.

=======================

"I don’t get it!" Goombella tells Goombario in their baby-talk language. "Why won’t they pay attention?"

At that time, another paper airplane flies in.

"Don’t worry; I have an idea!" Goombario tells Goombella. He then proceeds to scribble something on the new piece of paper.

"I’m telling you, we’ve got to- Hey, what’s that?" Beldam exclaimes as he sees Goombario’s sign. It reads,

Free 1-Ups for anyone who reads Goombella’s note!

"Sounds good," Beldam comments. "I mean, what could a baby Goomba want to tell us, anyways?"

=======================

Meanwhile, the fight between Smithy’s Gang and the X-Nauts is raging onward. Now, normally Smithy’s group would probably easily blow them out of the water, considering that a lot of his guys were bosses and stuff. However, because of the rods the X-Nauts are putting up quite a fight.

As the battle rages onward, it soon becomes apparent that the fight is a stalemate. Axem Green, noticing this fact for himself, slips away from the fight as quietly as he can. He then proceeds to sneak into the castle, where he finds the Crystal Star. Specifically, it is the Ruby Crystal Star, which grants the owner the special ability Art Attack. However, he also notices something else...

Back outside, the battle is still even on both sides, when, suddenly, an orange line starts to appear around the X-Naut army! The line then forms a complete circle, and the X-Nauts take severe damage!

"Excellent!" Smithy yells out as he sees that one of his followers has obtained the Crystal Star.

"Joined us, you should have! NYA!" Bowyer tells the dazed X-Nauts, as Smithy starts to leave the area and head back to their base in Rose Town. By the time the X-Nauts are out of their daze, Smithy and the others are miles away.

"DARN IT!" Grodus yells upon their defeat.

Lord Crump, who is also angry, stomps the ground in frustration. However, it isn’t exactly ground he is standing on, and he eventually passes through the clouds and starts to fall.

"HELP!" Crump cries out as he plummeted downwards at a high velocity.

=======================

Later, in Poshley Heights, Lord Crump is in a body cast.

"I’ll recover soon," Lord Crump tells his superior, "but I must sit the next mission out."

"Very well then," Sir Grodus replies. "X-Citing, X-Periment, and myself will head to the Pineapple Kingdom, where another Rod has been located. You can stay here and try to gather more information."

"Pineapple Kingdom, sir?" Crump questions. "Isn’t that place ruled by Donkey Kong since he conquered it during his ’Jungle Beat’ adventures?"

"Yes," Grodus answers, "and I have a strong feeling that those other collectors won’t be there to interfere with our plans this time!"

=======================

And, in Smithy’s base in Rose Town...

"You have done well, Axem Green," Smithy compliments his underling, "but I fear that those annoying X-characters will be even more powerful next time. My joints haven’t been the same since I was repaired after Mario first defeated me, and I fear that I won’t keep up this pace much longer."

"Don’t fear, King Smithy, for we happen to have a trump card!" Axem Green tells his leader. "You see, even though our radars detected a Crystal Star, it didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything else there!"

Axem Green then proceeds to pull out the Grass Rod.

"A Rod of Nib! This is perfect! This collecting business is in our favor, now!"

"The readings detect that Muscular, one of the Star Spirits, has now been located somewhere on Waluigi’s Island!" Yaridovich declares as he steps back from a nearby computer monitor.

"Why do you think Bowser imprisoned the Star Spirits again?" Axem Yellow whispers to Axem Red.

"I dunno," Axem Red whispers back. "Maybe Bowser, having a strange feeling that he would forget somebody on his list of people who have helped Mario, did it so he or she wouldn’t get their help without going on a long and tedious adventure first. That way, by the time he or she finds them all, Bowser would have completely ruled the world."

"Wow," Axem Yellow whispers again. "And all this time, I thought he was going senile."

=======================

Meanwhile, back to Popple and his rookies...

The three are standing near a window while all the attention is on Goombella and Goombario. Booster climbs onto Chomp Bro’s shoulders, and then Popple climbs onto the boss of the Snifits 3’s shoulders. Popple tries to open the window then, but can’t push it up.

"This stinks!" Popple says to his two rookies. "If we weren’t so small I could do this easily!"

"Boss, maybe we should just find another window," Booster tells Popple.

"Oh yeah?" Popple questions. "Well, if this window is shut, then what makes you think that somebody didn’t shut all of the other windows, too?"

"Well," Booster explains, "how do you explain those paper airplanes?"

"... Good point, Rookie number one," Popple replies. They then crawl along, searching for the one open window in the place. The three crawl window to window, eventually reaching an open one. As they pile up to climb out of it, the bartender notices and closes the window, then picks Booster and Popple off of Chomp Bro and sets them on the floor.

"Argh!" all three yell. "WE’RE NEVER GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE, SEE?" Popple yells out. "Whenever there’s an opening, somebody shuts it! It’s just not fair!"

"I think they forgot to close that one," Chomp Bro. comments as he sees the open doorway behind Popple.

"Good eye, Rookie number two," Popple comments as the three of them run to the exit. They manage to make it out before the bartender notices them, and they just keep running until they are far into the distance.

=======================

Meanwhile, back with the green brother of Mario...

"Man, it’s a good thing you came soon!" Luigi tells the character who has just arrived.

"Well," replies the character, "it’d have been quicker if Bowser hadn’t gone so far as to turn Gaz into a baby. This body’s even got some teeth marks on it from him now. I fail to see what harm Gaz could cause Bowser anyway."

"Well, either way, Geno, it’s good that you’re here, ’cause I can’t think of anyone else who could help."

"What about that Yoshi?"

"Bowser got Yoshi too."

"I don’t mean THE Yoshi. I mean that Yoshi fighter. I think his name’s Gonzalez Jr. or something."

=======================

Speaking of Gonzales Jr...

"Another day, another fight!" Gonzales Jr, the youngest Glitz Pit fighter in existence, tells himself with a grin as he walks back to his dressing room after another one-on-one rematch with Rawk Hawk. However, once he opens the door, he finds that somebody is waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?!" Gonzales Jr. yells out in a shock.

"Something horrible has recently happened. Could you please help me?" the guest asks.

"Well, I’m not certain how exactly you got in here," Gonzales Jr. answers, "but you know I’d help you however I can. So, Flurrie, what’s the matter?"

"I won’t say much," the Wind Spirit replies, "but I can tell you one thing. The entire existence of Punies may rest on this one event."

=======================

Back with Luigi and Geno...

"It looks like he’s just stepped out for a while," Luigi tells Geno as he hangs up the telephone. "However, Jolene did tell us that she’ll call back when he returns. I’m rather surprised Bowser hasn’t struck Glitzville yet, though."

"Well, it looks like we’ll have to do without his help for a while. However," Geno tells Luigi, "I did bring along somebody to help, just in case."

"Who?" Luigi asks.

"He’s a little Star Kid named Twink," Geno answeres, "and I have a good feeling about him."

=======================

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Pineapple Kingdom...

Grodus walks (he used the Rod to restore his body) through the jungle with his two lackies following, finding it surprisingly quiet.

"Where is that monkey? If Bowser has gotten to him too then that leaves us with-"

Grodus’s sentence is interrupted by being tackled to the ground by two monkeys, one with long blonde hair and the other with a red hat.

"Stop right there!" the monkey with blonde hair declares. "I, as co-leader of this island during DK’s absence, refuse to let you pass on the account of trespassing! Isn’t that right, Diddy?"

"You’d better believe it, Dixie!" Diddy Kong replies.

"It looks like we’re going to have to do it the hard way," Grodus tells X-Citing and X-Periment as he starts to summon a bolt of lightning. It barely misss Dixie Kong. However, it does mess up her hair.

"GRR!" Dixie Kong growls. "You’re going to pay for that!" Dixie Kong then tackles Grodus, while Diddy begins throwing bananapeals at the other two.

=======================

Meanwhile, Luigi, Geno, and Twink have just reached Rogueport.

"All right," Luigi says to the others, "while we’re here we have to find some black chest and it’ll make us able to turn into paper airplanes, and then we can get into Bowser’s castle."

"Good idea," says Geno, "but with Smithy and Grodus both trying to conquer Plit that seems to be the least of our worries."

"Well, yeah," says Twink, "but if we turn Mario and Yoshi and Mallow and all of those others back then we can beat them a lot more easily."

"Exactly," says Luigi. "Say, I wonder whatever happened to all the other villains? It seems like since Bowser started this the only villains who have been doing anything are him, Grodus, and Smithy."

=======================

Speaking of other villains...

"Mwa ha ha!" the evil purple alien we all know as Tatanga cackles. He is currently inside the Great Boggly Tree, and has recently trapped all of the Punies for reasons that won’t be revealed until later.

But, just then, Gonzales Jr. and Flurrie storm in!

"Release those Punies, evil purple alien thing I’ve never seen before in all of my very short so far life!" Gonzales Jr. demands.

"Oh, but where’s the fun in just giving them to you? Sorry, but I need these little creatures for my latest devious plan that involves ruling over the world!" Tatanga says in return.

"Well, we won’t let you get away with this without a fight!" Flurrie shouts with a determined look in her eyes.

=======================

Back in Rogueport, with Luigi, Geno and Twink...

Luigi, Geno, and Twink are down in the sewers, where they see Punio, who is hiding behind a large metallic box in front of the entranceway to the Boggly Woods, so no one can get into the woods. This box, oddly, was not there before. "Odd," Geno comments upon seeing the box. "Now, why would anyone block access to the Boggly Woods? I sense that something bad is happening..."

"What, are you telling me that you didn’t get that feeling until now?!" Twink replies. "HELLO! Are you paying any attention? Every single hero-type character that we’ve encountered has turned into a baby, Grodus and Smithy are competing for the title of supreme ruler of anything that exists, and you’re worried about a box blocking the path to a rather unpopular area? What, does being in the body of a puppet give you sawdust for brains or something?"

"Shut up, Twink," Luigi remarks. "We’re just here to become cursed, so we can fly into Bowser’s castle and return everyone back to normal."

=======================

Meanwhile, in Rogueport’s main square...

"Ah, the life of a thief is the life for me!" Croco comments as he steals all the stock from the Lovely Howz of Badges. "It’s like stealing badges from a baby! Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing, but I don’t care! Man, I just wish my three crooks weren’t on vacation. This sack is H-E-A-V-Y!"

Croco finishes stuffing his sack with badges. He waves to the baby-fied Ms. Mowz, who is there alone since the clerk is on vacation, and leaves. However, just before he exits, he notices something laying on the ground.

"Hey, this is the coolest trading card I’ve ever seen!" Croco comments as he examines it. "It even has a picture of one of them Star Spirits on it! Skolar, or whatever his name is!"

And with that, Croco leaves the store with a good haul of stolen merchandise.

=======================

At that exact same time, in Bowser’s castle...

"What am I forgetting?" Ludwig askes himself while he and Yellow T. deal with the babies. "I have the strongest feeling I got my mental capability from King Dad’s side, because it is as if I am forgetting just one character. Then again, even if I did, he or she would probably not do anything of much importance, anyways."

=======================

"So, where’s this Star Spirit located?" Axem Black asks Yaridovich as they fly to Waluigi’s Island on Blade.

"I have no idea why I’m telling this to somebody of lower rank, but if you must know, it’s located somewhere on the south side of the island," Yarodovich answers. "However, we must tread with caution once we get there, as the slightest misstep may trigger an explosion."

"It’s okay, I’m extremely careful!" Axem Black replies. He then tries to take a step forward, but trips on a loose screw and falls flat on his face.

"Yes, I see what you mean," Yaridovich sarcastically notes as Blade starts to land.

=======================

Meanwhile, back at the Great Boggly Tree...

As our heroes start to walk into the sewer, Twink spots Punio, though none of the three know who he is.

"Hey, I see a weird-looking thing behind that large metal box!" The others look in surprise only to see Punio scurry off.

"HEY! Come back here!" Geno shouts. And the chase begins.

=======================

"AH HA! We made it out, see!" Popple says with triumph.

"Yes, but where exactly are we?" the Chomp Bro asks.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Popple starts.

=======================

Back to our heroes...

They have finally caught Punio after a very long chase. "Who and what are you?" Luigi asks, trying to sound tough.

"I-I-I’m P-Pu-Punio," the Puni stammers in fear. "P-please d-don’t hurt me, I-I-I’m just a h-harm-harmless Puni!"

"HEY! Aren’t you the creature that was hiding behind that large, metallic box?" Twink asks.

"Y-yes I am," Punio replies. "S-s-sorry if I s-sound too n-ne-nervous, but a g-g-giant purple a-alien has recently t-t-taken over my homeland, and h-has enslaved all my f-friends! I j-j-just made it out in time b-before I was t-t-t-toast!"

"Tatanga’s here, too?" Luigi comments. "Well, this day can’t possibly get any worse now!"

=======================

However, at the west side of Rogueport...

Croco is just gambling away the cash he has just earned from selling the stolen merchandise, when he decides to do some eavesdropping. Spying a pair of Nokis talking nearby, he sneaks up silently to listen to their conversation.

"Did you hear that Grodus is back?" the red Noki tells the other. "I heard from this green plumber recently that he and some older robot named Smithy are searching for a whole bunch of ancient artifacts to grant themselves limitless power!"

"Yes, I’ve heard," the blue Noki replies. "I just hope that the good guys are brought back to normal first."

It is at this point that Croco decides to stop listening on their conversation. Instead, he now decides to hear what a nearby Boo and a Buzzy Beetle are talking about.

"Hey, do you know what the artifacts that I’ve been hearing about lately are?" the Buzzy Beetle asks.

"Sure! First off, there are the 150 Power Stars that are hidden in Peach’s Castle," the Boo explains. "Next, there are the seven Star Road Pieces, which form the path to Star Haven. Then, there are the seven Star Spirits, who live in Star Haven itself. Then, there are the-"

"Wait a second!" the Buzzy Beetle interrupts. "What’s that about Star Spirits?"

"Well, they are the wisest and most intelligent beings in Star Haven," the Boo answers. "They were imprisoned by Bowser into cards when he launched an attack with the ancient Star Rod. However, it seems Star Spirits don’t age, so Bowser trapped them in cards again. It is said that the being that releases a Star Spirit is granted its powers for a limited time."

Once more, it is at this time that Croco decides to stop eavesdropping. However, he doesn’t just move on to another target. Realizing that the card he has found is an actual Star Spirit, crazy and nasty thoughts begin flowing through his mind...

=======================

Back with Luigi, Geno, Twink, and Punio...

"S-so," says Punio, "c-can you h-h-help?"

"I don’t know how we could," replies Luigi, "I don’t know if we could break this box..."

"I have an idea," says Geno, "but it’s a bit dangerous so all of you should get behind me."

They do so. Immediately afterward Geno yells out, "Geno Whirl!" Bam! The 9,999 version of the Geno Whirl hits the box, causing it and most of the wall to explode.

=======================

Meanwhile with Yaridovich and the Axems...

"Be very, very careful!" Smithy warns his troops as they sneak through the field of explosives. "That Star Spirit is almost in our grasp!"

"Don’t worry; I’m being as careful as I can-" Axem Black begins to say, but stops as he trips over a bug and falls on a detonator switch!.

"NOOOO!!!" Yaridovich cries out as he and the other troops dive to the ground and take cover.

....

....

"NO EXPLOSION ALERT! NO EXPLOSION ALERT!" the Ding-a-Lings yell.

It is true; there was no explosion.

"Well then," Yaridovich comments, "that wasn’t very dramatic!"

Yaridovich then proceeds to walk further up ahead and grab the card that Muscular is trapped in. However, as he turns around, he steps on another detonator. This time, there actually IS an explosion. Thankfully, only one member of the team is seriously hurt...

=======================

Later, back at Smithy’s base...

"Hurt seriously, my bones do!" Bowyer whines. The pro archer and amateur fifer is now in a full body cast.

"Oh, shut up! I can’t take any more of your whining!" Smithy complains, obviously not showing any compassion for his fallen lackey.

Just then, Yaridovich enters the room.

"King Smithy, I think now is the best time to collect the Power Stars," Yaridovich tells his leader. "It looks like there’s no competition for them yet, and we can easily collect a bountiful amount in just a few areas."

"We may as well," Smithy replies. "I mean, what other competition could we have?"

=======================

As luck would have it, at Toad Town Docks...

"Man, I can actually smell opportunity in the air!" Croco comments as he steps off the cargo boat that had recently arrived from Rogueport. "Now, to break into Peach’s castle and take those Power Stars that the Boo mentioned!"

And with that, Croco rushes off in the direction of the castle, remembering to pick the pockets of every Toad he comes across.

=======================

Meanwhile, in the Great Boggly Tree...

Gonzales Jr. and Flurrie are trying their hardest to defeat Tatanga, but with no success.

"Can’t you see, foolish dinosaur and Wind Spirit? I am more powerful than you two, and more! Neither you, nor anyone else can defeat the great conqueror that is myself!" Tatanga gloats.

"Something seems different about you... like you’ve got the Power of Stars on your side or something," says Flurrie to the alien.

"Nice observation. I stopped and grabbed me about 30 Stars from some castle. And now, Tatanga the Conqueror is even more invincible than before!"

=======================

Meanwhile with Toadette, the baby Toad has reached somewhere around the middle of the castle and has fallen asleep in a corner, though none of the guards seem to notice. Suddenly, a Chao crawls into the castle.

"Hey! Who are you, and why do you look like one of those things from the Sonic games?" asks one guard.

The Chao simply turns and crawls away at the speed of light, bumping into the Toad somehow.

"Goo?" Toadette babbles, confused about what just happened.

"Hey, did you hear something?" the first guard asks the second.

"Meh, it’s probably just nothing," the second guard answers.

"Yeah, you’re probably right," the first guard replies.

=======================

Meanwhile, at Peach’s unguarded castle...

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 30 STARS HAVE ALREADY BEEN STOLEN?!" Smithy yells at Yaridovich.

"I’m sorry, my King! Grodus and his men must have gotten here first! Please don’t hurt me!" Yaridovich pleads.

"Fine, but this is your last chance! However, I have the feeling that we’re going to have a much more difficult time than you first planned. You see," Smithy explains, "Grodus and his men are top-notch forces. They wouldn’t be idiotic enough to leave without collecting all 150 Stars! I have a feeling that there is at least one other who is hunting the artifacts, if not even more."

Just then, as if on cue, Croco opens the door.

"Huh?!" Croco stammers. "What on Plit are you guys doing back here?"

"That’s for us to know and you to find out," Axem Red tells the thief.

"Let me guess; you’re here to steal the Power Stars and use them for your own personal gain?" Croco asks.

"Drat," is all Axem Red can reply.

"Well, tough luck! With one of the seven Star Spirits in my posession, I’ll find them all in no time!"

"A Star Spirit?!" Smithy gasps. "Where did you find it?"

"On the ground in a badge shop," Croco answers.

"Some people get all the luck," Yaridovich mutters.

"Hand over that Star Spirit, you common crook!" Smithy demands. "Otherwise, we’ll have to fight you for it!"

"You can’t fight what you can’t catch, you bunch of losers!" Croco taunts as he dashes past them, up the stairs, and to the second floor.

"AFTER HIM!" Smithy demandes as they give chase.

=======================

Popple sits on a rock, with the two rookies sitting on the ground nearby.

"All right, how are we supposed to get back to normal?" asks Popple of his two rookies. "And how are we going to get back at Bowser for this?"

=======================

Elsewhere, Luigi, Geno, Twink, and Punio are within the Boggly Woods, heading for the Great Tree.

"I wonder," says Luigi, "what Tatanga has to gain by holding Punis hostage anyway."

"Hard to tell," replies Geno. "Chances are that he’s got some sort of complicated plan. I wonder where all of his minions are. You’d think that he would have them stationed throughout the woods to keep guard, but aside from the usual Clefts and Piranhas I don’t see anything hostile."

=======================

Meanwhile, in the temporary X-Naut base...

"Ah, this feels much better!" Crump remarks after finally getting out of his body cast.

"Lord Crump! Lord Crump!" a regular X-Naut says as it enters the room. "We have detected another of those Rods of Nib! And guess what? It’s on the moon!"

"Perfect!" Crump exclaims. "We can gather the artifact, AND we can repair the main base as well! This is perfect timing!"

"Should I report this to the other X-Nauts?" the X-Naut asks.

"Well, of course!" Crump answers. "Even though they’re expendable, we should bring them all in case an emergency happens!"

"Right, Dude, I mean Lord Dude," the X-Naut stammers, "I mean Lord Crump Dude, I mean Dude Dude Dude, I mean-"

"JUST DO IT!" Lord Crump booms. The X-Naut then leaves the room.

=======================

Grodus is the only one of the X-Nauts still standing as Dixie continually thrusts Diddy at the group repeatedly with her hair. As Diddy repeatedly hits Grodus as he attempts his spells, Dixie is holding onto what the X-Nauts are there for. Just as it appears as though Grodus is completely useless against their speed, he gets an idea.

"Heh... heh... I almost forgot about that Rod. Good thing it’s fast!"

As the X-Nauts’ leader says this, he whips out a Rod and points it at both Diddy and Dixie. As the beam shoots from it, the evil being laughs maniacally.

=======================

"What do you plan to do with the Punies?!" demands Gonzalez Jr. again.

The evil alien laughs and replies, "I might as well tell you, since otherwise you won’t live to find out. You see, I’ve bought a powerful machine from some Clubba that drains energy from living beings and puts it into me. I’m going to take the energy of every single Puny and make myself completely invincible!"

=======================

Grodus laughs again, waking up the two unconscious X-Nauts he has with him. The X-Naut, while laughing, takes what he came for while watching the two angry-looking babyfied monkeys.

"I am so glad I brought this Rod with me," Grodus chuckles as he walks away with his two men following. "Those two just about had me beat." Grodus then realizes that he has forgotten to check what the new Rod does, so he points it at a plant, causing water to come from the ground and sprinkle onto the plant.

"Controls the flow of water, huh?"

=======================

Later, in Poshley Heights....

"What happened here?!" Grodus gasps as he sees that there is nothing left of the base there except for a note. Reading the note, Grodus, X-Periment and X-Citing find that the others are rebuilding the base on the moon, and will contact them when ready.

"Well, Sir Grodus," X-Periment comments, "we should probably head to Peach’s Castle and collect some of those Power Stars. I doubt that anyone else is even there yet."

=======================

Speaking of which, at the castle...

"GET BACK HERE YOU STUPID ALLIGATOR!" Smithy yells as he and his army chase Croco around the second floor.

"Not a chance, tin can!" Croco taunts as he only proceeds to go faster.

=======================

Meanwhile, in Bowser’s Castle...

Bowser sits on his throne, looking over his list once again. "It seems to me as though there is still one crucial person I’m missing. One guy who could just cause it all to fall apart."

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, Roy is currently listing all the stuff Ludwig has to do.

"Hmm... clean my room, listen to one of Morton’s speeches, let Iggy beat him up, hmm..."

=======================

Luigi, Geno, Twink, and Punio have now reached the Great Tree. Outside it they see four small pillars in a square around the tree, approximately 200 feet away from each other.

"I wonder what these are for," says Twink.

"Let’s see," Luigi replies, "I think we have to stand on top of these!"

Seeing no other possibility at the moment, the three teammates and Punio manage to climb each pillar and stand on top of them. After a few seconds, the entire top half of the tree flies off!

"Just like what Mario had to do in Shifting Sand Land," Luigi comments as he and the others hop off the pillars.

=======================

Meanwhile, in Fahr Outpost...

"A-a-are you s-sure t-this is t-t-t-the only way b-back to the m-m-moon?" Crump shivers as he and the X-Naut forces head down the path.

"Y-y-yes, L-Lord C-C-C-Crump," an anonymous X-Naut replies. "O-only the c-c-cannon l-located here has e-e-enough p-power to g-get us that f-far."

Meanwhile, Croco is running through the Wet-Dry World with Smithy’s Gang giving chase. The crocodile is stopping to grab Stars here and there while the main villains of SMRPG are far behind. By now it is late, around 10 or so.

=======================

Ludwig sits in his room with an ice pack on his head.

"Ugh. Today was even worse than the past few have been. Finally, I can sleep..."

Meanwhile, Yellow T. is still in the dungeon. Most of the babies are asleep, including all of the heroes, but he is still having difficulties with some of them.

"Hush little babies, don’t say a word," Yellow T. sings as softly as he can, "for I’m gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird can’t sing, I’m gonna buy you a golden ring. If that golden ring don’t shine, I’m gonna buy you..."

Yellow T. then looks around. By now, all of the babies have fallen asleep. Deserving some rest himself, Yellow T. lays down on the floor and closes his eyes.

Elsewhere, Roy had fallen asleep while trying to think of more punishments he could give Ludwig. Out in the hall, Toadette is napping peacefully in the corner, oblivious to the two guards on night duty. And, Bowser and his troops are also fast asleep, so they will be fully charged when the invasion begins.

=======================

Just barely inside Fahr Outpost, Lord Crump and his troops have fainted from the cold. A few Bob-ombs spot the fallen characters, and as they are good-hearted, give them a place to rest up until morning.

=======================

In the Great Boggly Tree, Flurrie and Gonzales Jr. have been knocked out by one of Tatanga’s blasts and locked inside a cell. Deciding that he needs some rest, Tatanga pulls out an inflatable mattress and falls asleep upon it. And, just outside the Boggly Tree, Luigi and the others have pitched camp so they can deal with the evil forces inside in the morning.

=======================

In Peach’s Castle, Smithy and his troops are as exhausted from chasing Croco as Croco himself is from running away from them. They all instantly collapse on the main floor of Peach’s Castle, and lay there until the morning comes.

=======================

In Poshley Heights, Grodus and his two troops decide to stay at the inn before following Crump and the others back to the abandoned moon base. After paying the sum and riding the elevator, they get into their beds, pull up their silk blankets, and rest for the night.

=======================

With Popple and his two rookies, they have recently decided to sleep in a cave that was close to their current location. After entering the alcove, the three thieves manage to lay down on the stone ground and fall asleep.

=======================

And, as for that Chao that made that single apperance... let’s just say that he’s fallen asleep back at wherever he came from in the first place.

Sir Grodus, X-Citing, and X-Periment are the first to wake up the next morning. Quickly retrieving their belongings and accepting the free gifts for spending the night there, they set out to Fahr Outpost, as they have a strong feeling they’ll catch up with the others there.

=======================

Luigi and his crew are the second to wake up.

The four carefully enter the tree, looking around for signs of anyone. They do not see anyone inside at all.

"I would guess," says Geno, "that Tatanga probably has the Punies locked away. He also is probably sleeping somewhere."

"Then let’s find him," replies Twink, "and take him out in his sleep!" Suddenly the ground begins to rumble beneath the heroes. Shocked, they turn around to see the living sphinx known as King Totomesu charging up a fireball. Dirt is falling from him like he’s been underground (which would explain the rumbling).

=======================

"WHAT?!"

"Yes, numerous villains have already beaten us to conquering different areas," says Kammy to her king. "K. Rool easily took over the DK Isles and Sub-con, the X-Nauts have taken a few jungles and such, as well as Nimbus Land. Smithy and Croco are also both currently inhabiting Peach’s Castle, working against each other to collect the Stars, and Tatanga has taken the Great Tree and Sarasaland. Nobody has seen any other villains since you returned Mario and his pals back to diaper days, oddly."

"Argh! I knew I shouldn’t have waited so long to attack! Well, ready the Koopa Cruiser anyway; we’ve gotta hurry up and take anything we can get!"

=======================

Yellow T. wakes up to the sound of some of the babies crying. He looks around, not recognizing where he is for a minute, then remembers.

Oh yeah, the Toad thinks, I’m here. I’ve got to try to get some time away from Ludwig to find whatever it is that turned them into babies, and quick. But how?

His thoughts are interrupted by feeling something warm on him. He look down to see the one of the babies has puked on his leg.

"Ew..."

=======================

Croco, laying on the floor of Princess Peach’s Castle, quickly wakes up. Glancing at the army of mechanical figures behind him, he quickly gets a head start and hops into the nearest painting.

=======================

"M-M-MAN, IT’S C-C-C-C-C-COLD HERE!" X-Periment stutters as he, Sir Grodus, and X-Citing trudge their way through the snowy path that leads to Fahr Outpost.

"Q-q-quit c-complaining; I c-c-can see the p-p-place just o-over that next h-h-hill!" X-Citing tells the PhD.

And so, the three characters enter the Outpost

=======================

At that same time, in another entirely different Outpost...

"Things haven’t been the same since Bowser retrieved that baby-fying Mr. I of his," Mr. E. sighs as he walks around Dry, Dry Outpost.

Just then, three quick little figures bump into Mr. E.

"Hey!" Mr. E. yells out. "Watch where you’re going!"

The three figures run by without even saying a word. Mr. E. then heads into the nearby store to buy some Dusty Hammers. However, when he reaches into his pocket...

"MY WALLET! SOMEBODY HAS STOLEN MY WALLET!" Mr. E. cries out.

=======================

Meanwhile, in Bowser’s Castle, Toadette has just woken up. Seeing that the two guards have fallen asleep, she quietly crawls into the room they were guarding.

=======================

"Heh heh heh!" one of the three figures laughes as he checkes how much money is in the wallet they stole.

"Croco’s going to be SO surprised that we’re not sick anymore!" the second of the figures comments.

"He’s going to be even MORE surprised when he sees how much we’ve stolen since then, B!" the third figure remarks.

"You said it, III!" the figure now known as Crook B. replies. "We’ve gotten 50 coins, a Mushroom, and even this card with a picture of Misstar on it!"

"Yeah! You know, it’s strange," the figure now known as Crook III comments. "Every time we get slapped by somebody really, really hard once they manage to catch us, we just look at that card, and we’re all right!"

"Come on, you two!" the first figure, who you should have already guessed is Crook 1, tells the others. "Our boss was last spotted at Princess Peach’s castle! We’re gonna have to hurry up to reunite with him before he leaves!"

And so, the three crooks dash off in the direction of Mt. Rugged, hoping to catch the next train to Toad Town.

=======================

Back in Rose Town, Bowyer has completely recovered. To celebrate this fact, he petrifies the first ten villagers he sees before heading off towards Princess Peach’s castle.

=======================

Totomesu fires at the heroes, blowing them into the air in separate directions. Luigi shoots straight up, landing on the ground in severe pain; Geno lands near a tree, which his cape gets hung on; Twink, because he’s so small, is thrown much further than the others, flying down Flurrie’s chimney.

=======================

"Wake up, Crump! I command you!" Grodus commands Lord Crump, who is currently sleeping in Fahr Outpost’s inn.

"Wha... oh!" Crump awakes with a shock. "Sir Grodus! I’m surprised that you’ve caught up to us!"

"Yes, and I’m even more surprised that YOU STILL HAVEN’T GOT OUT OF BED YET!" Grodus yells, causing all of the other X-Nauts to awake as well. Soon, they are all back on their feet, and ready for their commands.

=======================

Back in the Great Boggly Tree, Gonzales Jr. and Flurrie have just awoken from the sound of Totomesu’s blast. Thankfully, though, Tatanga is still sound asleep.

"Did you hear that?" asks Flurrie of the Yoshi.

"Yeah. I wonder what that was..."

"Well, never mind about that now! We’ve got to find a way out of here!"

"But how? It’s not as though we can turn into..." The Yoshi then realizes that they actually can do what he’s saying, "paper..."

=======================

"So, where do you think the boss is?" Crook B asks Crook 1 as they enter the castle.

"Let’s see... knowing our boss, he always has somebody chasing him about something. So, we just look for a bunch of guys that don’t really belong here, and that’s where we’ll find him!" Crook 1 explain.

"By guys that don’t really belong, do you mean guys like them?" Crook III asks as he points to the sleeping bodies of Smithy and his army.

"Yep, pretty much," Crook 1 answers. "Now, let’s just sneak past these guys and jump into that magical-looking painting over there."

Crooks 1 and III then tiptoe past the bodies and enter the painting world. However, Crook B stays behind and manages to pilfer another Star Spirit card from Yaridovich’s body before following the other two.

=======================

Back in the Great Boggly Tree, Flurrie and Gonzales Jr. have managed to slip through the bars of the cage using the paper-related abilities they had received from their journey with Mario. They make their way to a lower part of the tree, only to find that more trouble is waiting for them!

"GGRRRAAAWWWLLL!!!" Totomesu roars at the two. This roar then wakes up Luigi, who then notices the two himself.

"Flurrie? Gonzales Jr? Man, am I glad to see you two right now! I haven’t seen you two since I told you guys about my adventures in the Chestnut Kingdom!" Luigi tells them.

"Aren’t you forgetting something?" Flurrie asks.

"Like what?" Luigi asks back.

"GGRRRAAAWWWLLL!!!" Totomesu roars again.

"Oh, him," Luigi says to himself.

=======================

Meanwhile, back in Bowser’s Castle...

Bowser walks onto the Koopa Cruiser, which is set to depart for the Beanbean Kingdom, as numerous Chomp Bros, Hammer Bros, Koopas, Koopatrols, and Goombas are also boarding the ship. Noticeably missing are all of his Magikoopas.

"Hurry it up!" the Koopa King yells at his minions. "We gotta make sure nobody beats us to anywhere else!"

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, Ludwig is awake and again back to taking care of the babies with Yellow T, Roy is still working on ideas, and Kamek and Kammy are loading up a doomship with all of the Magikoopas, a bunch of Koopas, and a few Lakitus, planning to launch an attack upon Rogueport.

=======================

"Zzz... Zzz... Zzz..."

"King Smithy, wake up!" Yaridovich yells.

"Zzz... Zzz... Huh? What’s the meaning of waking somebody as powerful as me up like that?!" Smithy demands.

"Well, it seems that Croco has gotten away from us," Yaridovich tells his superior. "And, it seems that he has taken away the Star Spirit I was holding on to, as well."

"WHAT?!" Smithy cries out.

=======================

"GGRRRAAAWWWLLL!!!" Totomesu roars as he fires once more at those who opposed him. Thankfully, everyone manages to dodge his blasts.

"We’ve got to find a way to defeat this thing! But how?" Luigi comments as he just barely dodges another blast.

=======================

Meanwhile, Bowser and his troops have managed to make their way to the Beanbean Kingdom. Considering how much they prolonged their attack on the kingdoms, it was amazing how fast they arrived. However, just as the Koopa Crusier lands, it is immediately attacked! The entire ship is being pummeled repeatedly by... chestnuts? Looking in the direction the blasts are coming from, Bowser manages to see one rather large figure aiming at them.

"Who on Plit do you think you are, and why are you blasting my ship?!" Bowser demanded.

"Who am I? WHO AM I? I SHALL TELL YOU WHO I AM! I AM THE GREAT CHESTNUT KING," the figure booms, "AND I SHALL BE THE ONE WHO DEFEATS YOU!"

=======================

"Well, we’ve arrived in record time!" Kamek tells Kammy as their doomship begins to land somewhere near Rogueport.

"Excellent," Kammy comments. "Lord Bowser is going to be pleased."

=======================

Back with Popple and Co.

The three wake up to find themselves on top of a crate. As they wake up and look around the babies find that they are- mysteriously- now in some dark room filled with tons of boxes and items of all kinds. The area is also quite hot.

"I don’t think we’re in that cave anymore..." says Chomp Bro, whose suspicions are confirmed soon after when Hinopio walks into the room.

=======================

"Mario told me about the time he fought this thing," answers Gonzalez Jr. "He said he had to use a ship, but where will we find one of those?"

Geno replies to the Yoshi by saying, "I’d go try to find Tatanga’s if somebody’d get me down from here."

=======================

Meanwhile, in the Pineapple Kingdom...

"I can’t believe we lost to a guy with a domehead and two small guys in weird suits, Dixie," Diddy tells his pal in baby-talk.

"Yeah, I feel the exact same-" Dixie starts to reply, but stops when she sees who is standing right in front of them.

"Well well well, it seems that two little chimps have lost their way home!" the menacing character says.

"K. Rool! I thought we’d seen the last of you!" Diddy yells.

"You’re wondering what I’m doing back here, aren’t you? I can tell by that look in your baby-ish eyes that you’re surprised. Well, I’m like a salsa stain on your favorite sweater; no matter how much you try to get rid of me, I’m always going to stick around and cause problems!" King K. Rool tells the two baby-fied Kongs. Just then, the two Kongs fall through a hidden trapdoor, and into a cage below!

"Obviously, K. Rool has never heard about Child Endangerment Laws before," Dixie baby-talks to Diddy just before the trap door closes up again and leaves them in the dark.

=======================

"Ow... What happened?" Punio wonders as he awakes inside Madame Flurrie’s house. "The last thing I remember is that I was blasted by that monster’s attack."

"The force from that attack must have blasted us all the way here," Twink replies from nearby. "We’d better hurry up and head back there, though, before that thing can cause any more harm!"

Twink quickly floats out of the nearest window and soars towards the Great Boggly Tree. Punio grabs an Ultra Shroom laying out on a table before following Twink on foot.

=======================

"Yes, I shall finally defeat the great Koopa King! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" the Chestnut King laughs as his attack upon the Koopa Cruiser continues.

"Wait a second," Bowser thinks as he’s pelted with chestnuts, "the Chestnut King isn’t actually evil according to that book I read, and it was actually because of Croup. So either you’re not the real thing or you’ve been possessed by Croup again!"

"Darn. But how is that supposed to save you from me?"

"Because, stupid, you can’t take credit for it if you’re not the real thing."

"Blast!" yells the imposter as he returns to his true form.

=======================

"Where is that stupid crocodile?" asks Smithy of himself and his men. "He’s likely still somewhere in the castle, but where?"

Elsewhere in the castle, Croco walks through a door and inside sees a blank painting in the place of where the Mario one had been.

"Hmm... Mario was trapped in this, wasn’t he? Perhaps I can slow down those robots for awhile by getting one of them stuck inside this..."

=======================

"Are you completely, absolutely, 100 percent certain that THIS is the only way back to the base?!" Grodus yells. "This cannon is completely cramped!"

"Don’t worry, Sir Grodus," Crump tells his superior, "we will be back on the moon in no time!"

BOOM!!!

=======================

"Man, I only wish those three Crooks of mine were well enough to enjoy this," Croco says to himself as he finds another Power Star, raising his total amount to 50. But just then, Croco sees three figures jump out of a painting.

"What the?" asks Croco.

The three figures then turn around, revealing themselves to be Crooks 1, B, and III.

"Boss?" asks Crook 1. "Is that you?"

"CROOKS?!" shouts Croco with surprise. "I thought you were sick!"

"We got better," says Crook III. "But what are you doing here anyway, boss?"

"I came here to collect the Power Stars!" replies Croco.

"Really?" asks Crook B. "We’ve already found five Power Stars!"

"Great!" says Croco. "We’ll have the others in no time! But first, we need to take care of those guys chasing me..."

=======================

Back in the Beanbean Kingdom, the being that pretended to be the Chestnut King reveals his true form to be... Doopliss!

"Doopliss?" asks Bowser. "I thought you became an actor! Why are you attacking us?"

"Simple, Slick!" replies Doopliss. "I got bored of my job as an actor and quit! But soon after that, I was paid a large amount of coins to kill you!"

"By who?" asks Bowser.

"It doesn’t matter for you, Slick!" says Doopliss, "You’ll soon be dead, anyways!"

=======================

Back in Bowser’s Castle, Toadette has woken up and is back to crawling, but to where? At about this time her stomach begins to growl, and the young Toad stops crawling, sits down, and promptly begins crying for food. The castle is almost deserted, however, because of the invasion that has commenced.

The crying attracts a certain Yoshi who sees the girl and sighs. "I wonder how some baby Mushroomer got in here. I bet it’s Poofball’s fault."

Karma then picks up Toadette.

"I’ll take you to my room until I can figure out what to do with you," she says.

The Yoshi then walks away with Toadette.

=======================

Back in Cranky Kong’s house the Pineapple Kingdom, Cranky is giving the babyfied Donkey Kong a bottle of milk while Tiny, Chunky, and Lanky are sitting on the floor.

"I wonder what’s taking Diddy and Dixie so long from their scouting patrol?" asks Tiny.

"I’ve been wondering that, too," says Cranky. "You three youngsters better go find out."

"Right!" says Tiny, Chunky, and Lanky all at the same time. They then get up and leave the house.

=======================

Twink flies forward extremely quickly, not looking where he’s going and instead watching Totomesu when... BAM! He nails Geno in the back, hard, knocking Geno loose from the tree and causing Twink to suffer some damage himself.

"Not quite the way I wanted to get down," Geno says as he lifts himself from the ground, "but it works. I’ll go find Tatanga’s ship! You all keep him distracted!"

"Okay! ... Uh, how?" Luigi asks. Just then, he notices something shining underneath his foot. Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be...

"It’s the Misstar Star Spirit Card!" Luigi yells out. Realizing that this would work for now, he concentrates hard on the image printed on the card. And then, by the power from the Star Spirit, a light melody starts to play throughout the entire tree! It is so soothing that almost everyone is put to sleep the moment they hear it. The only ones left awake are Luigi, since he was the one that used the power, and Geno and Twink, since they are Star Spirits themselves.

=======================

"Okay, who are you, and what do you want with three little baby-fied characters such as us, see?" Popple asks Hinopio as he approaches menacingly.

"If you must know," replies Hinopio, who can bizarely enough understand them, "I started running one of them foster homes here in the Barrel Volcano, and it has been getting way too many requests, and we’re quickly running out of children for it. When I heard about Bowser’s baby spree, I hired some Duplighost to do two things: eliminate Bowser and bring me the Mr. I and any babies he may find along the way. And that’s how you three got here."

"How can you understand us?" asks Booster, being the only one insane enough to actually pick up on this during a situation like they’re in right now.

"While here in the volcano, I’ve had time to learn a ton of languages. I can even speak Podoboo when I want to, which is extremely hard to learn, since it’s comprised entirely of popping noises and that weird sound they make when they jump."

=======================

Smithy’s Gang walks up the stairs to the third floor of the castle when...

"HYAAAAAA!!!"

Croco slams the blank portrait over Smithy’s head, but rather than causing him to be transported inside, it merely breaks over him.

"Heh heh... Gotta run!"

"After him!" Smithy yells furiously as the crocodile speeds away.

"Quick, boss!" Crook III yells. "Into that alcove!"

"Why would I want to do something like that?" Croco asks. "It just leads to Rainbow Ride, and I’ve already collected all of those Stars!"

"Because," Crook III replies, "robots can’t fly. And, from personal experience, I know where they end up once they land!"

"You mean in the... Hey, that’s a smart idea!" Croco compliments as they head towards the entrance to the course.

=======================

"How am I ever going to get out of this blasted prison?" Croup asks himself as he walks in circles inside his cell. However, his answer comes soon enough, as a blast of magic completely demolishes one of the walls. Seeing that this is his chance, Croup runs out and into the streets as quick as he can.

"Hey, who do you think that Waffler guy was?" Kamek questions as he sees Croup running away.

"The better question is why those guys at the Waffle Kingdom are sending this place their criminals. Now, we’d better get back to work, or else Bowser will charbroil us both!" Kammy tells him.

=======================

"It’s completely fixed, Sir!" Lord Crump tells his superior. "This entire base is officially as finished as possible! We’ve even got a TEC-XX 2.0!"

"Excellent job, Lord Crump! And in such good time, as well!" Grodus compliments. "So, how is the search for the artifacts going?"

"Just watch!" Crump tells him as he activates a nearby moniter.

"I am TEC-XX 2.0. How may I be of service?" the computer asks.

"Perform a complete search of any artifacts on the planet!"

"Computing request... Finished. Here are the results:

CURRENT POWER STAR LOCATIONS:

30 Stars: Tatanga

50 Stars: Croco

Total Stars Collected: 80

CURRENT STAR SPIRIT LOCATIONS:

Eldstar: Crook B

Mamar: Luigi

Skolar: Croco

Misstar: Crook III

ALL OTHER SPIRITS UNKNOWN

CURRENT CRYSTAL STAR LOCATIONS:

Garnet Star: Axem Green

ALL OTHER STARS UNKNOWN

CURRENT ROD OF NIB LOCATIONS:

Power: Lord Crump

Plant: Smithy

Body Modification: Sir Grodus

Water: Sir Grodus

ALL OTHER RODS UNKNOWN

CURRENT COMPASS PIECE LOCATIONS:

Piece 1: Princess Eclair

Piece 8: Croup (still kept it after his arrest)

ALL OTHER PIECES UNKNOWN

OTHER ARTIFACT LOCATIONS:

Golden Bananas: Cranky Kong

ANY OTHER ARTIFACTS UNKNOWN

I hope I have been helpful," the computer says.

"There seems to be a few glitches in the computer," Grodus comments, "as not all of the artifacts that have already been found are mentioned. However, I do commemerate the fact that this machine is even finding artifacts I never even knew existed. Keep up the good work, Lord Crump."

"I will, Sir Grodus, and I’ll try to fix those bugs as well," Crump replies.

=======================

"Come on, come on...." Luigi mutters, as he hopes that Mamar’s ability will last long enough for Geno to retrieve the ship.

=======================

Geno, meanwhile, is running through the tree, looking for the ship. He is not, however, having much luck.

"Where could it be? If I were to invade a giant tree, where would I hide such a thing?"

Geno then gets an idea as to where the ship is...

=======================

"Where to hide, where to hi- UMPH!" Croup tells himself until he accidentally runs into the side of a building. Two Magikoopas, seeing the incident, decide to capture the Waffler and bring him to their bosses for further investigation.

=======================

"I think I’m getting something!" Crump yells out as TEC-XX 2.0 receives another transmission.

"I am picking up readings of the Diamond Crystal Star located in the Noki Bay area of Delfino Island. Also, the Speed Rod of Nib has been detected in the Pianta Village area of the same island."

"Perfect!" Grodus yells out as he walks into the room on his newest body. "Crump, you can search for the Rod, while X-Citing and X-Periment head after the Crystal Star. I’ll stay here, so I can help search for the artifact on the moon."

=======================

"So let me get this straight," Kammy says to the Waffler. "You kidnapped a princess of a foreign land, possessed the body of the Chestnut King, were beaten up by Luigi, and they wouldn’t even keep you in their own dungeon? Man, that’s low."

"WAIT!!!" Kamek yells out upon hearing the recap of what Croup had stated. "Did you say Luigi?! I KNEW we were forgetting somebody!"

"Oh, come on! Do you really think that Luigi, even if we DID miss him, could possibly defeat us all by himself? That’s absurd!"

"Bet you the title of Head Magikoopa that he defeats us."

"You’re on!"

"I may as well join you two Magikoopas," Croup comments, "especially if this means I can get back at Luigi!"

=======================

"It’s got to be there!" Geno whispers to himself, trying not to awake Tatanga or Totomesu. "Where else could you possibly hide something like that?"

=======================

Diddy and Dixie, meanwhile, are still sitting in the dark, waiting to see what K. Rool has in store for them.

"Hey Diddy," Dixie suddenly baby-talks to her friend, "I’ve been thinking, and I just realized something."

"What?"

"K. Rool’s name is a pun."

"It is? Hmm... hey! You’re right!"

=======================

Back with Doopliss and Bowser...

"By the command of Hinopio, I have been asked to defeat you. And, as he offered me a satellite dish for my TV set if I do this, I have no choice but to beat you up in a cruel and unusual fashion!" Doopliss tells Bowser.

"Nuts," is all the Koopa King can say as a reply.

=======================

"Hang on, this is going to be a windy ride!" Croco tells his Crooks as they hop aboard a flying carpet in Rainbow Ride. Just as Smithy and his troops try to follow them, they accidentally slip and fell far down below. They land in the ocean nearby the castle, where they instantly short-circuit and are officially defeated.

"What a lousy death sequence," Crook 1 comments as he manages to swipe the Garnet Star, the Plant Rod, and whatever else they were holding from the mechanical bodies.

"I can’t believe we just killed off one of the major villains of the story! This calls for a celebration!" Croco exclaims. "We need balloons! We need a cake! And to top it all off, we need... a fifer!"

On cue, Bowyer finally shows up. "Happened here, what has?!" he asks as he sees his employer’s body unconscious in the water.

"I’ve heard rumors about what’s been happening with you lately, Bowyer. You’re still an archer, but you’re also an amateur fifer?" Croco asks. "Well now, since we blew up the bodies of your former comrades, you want to join us in our pilfering spree?"

"Blown up, they have not yet! A chance, I still have!" Bowyer replies.

Just then, a giant shark swims by and eats the bodies of the defeated Smithy army. It then swims out into the middle of the ocean until it spontaneously combusts and fireworks fly out in various directions.

"Do I start, when should I?" Bowyer asks his new employer, Croco.

=======================

Back with Bowser and Doopliss, the famous Duplighost has stolen Bowser’s body and proceeds to BBQ the shadow formerly known as Bowser repeatedly.

"You think you’re so slick, do you?" the shadow formerly known as Bowser says. "Well, I know that I just have to say your name to get my body and name back! DOOPLISS!

Nothing happens.

"Did I tell you that Hinopio guy also upgraded my magic? That won’t work anymore, former Koopa King!" Bowser, formerly known as Doopliss, tells the shadow that used to be Bowser.

"Oh, nuts," the shadow replies.

=======================

The X-Nauts are still standing in their base, watching the screen of TEC 2.0 for any updates. As they watch they suddenly see that everything of Smithy’s suddenly switches to being Croco’s.

"That’s odd," says Crump.

"Indeed. If I’m correct we won’t have to deal with those robots anymore, though we’ve got a much bigger problem..." answers Sir Grodus.

=======================

Back with Karma and Toadette...

"STOP THAT, YOU LITTLE RUNT!" Karma A. Koopa yells as Toadette begins to scribble on the walls with her lipstick.

"Goo? ... WAH!!!" Toadette screams, having a temper tantrum over Karma yelling at her.

"Oh, great! Fine, scribble on the walls, you tiny little runt you," Karma tells the baby-fied Toadette. Toadette immediately stops screaming, and returns to scribbling on the walls.

"Why didn’t I just let the guards handle her?" Karma mutters to herself as she sits down at the foot of her bed.

=======================

"Now, where could those two have wandered off to?" Lanky asks the other two Kongs as they search for Diddy and Dixie.

"I dunno," replies Tiny. "Maybe they got their tails caught in a tree again or something."

"Do you think," says Chunky while his teeth are chattering, "that K. Rool got them?"

"Even if he did," replies Tiny, "we could take ’im!"

=======================

"Hey Diddy," Dixie says to her fellow baby-fied Kong, "what are we supposed to do if we need to use the bathroom?"

"I dunno. Why do you ask?"

"Beca- never mind."

"Ew!"

=======================

Geno walks into the room where the Punies fought the Jabbies, and chuckles upon entering.

"I knew it. This is the only place big enough in this tree to put that ship."

Geno takes a step toward the ship, but finds that his body won’t move with his legs. The possessed puppet turns around to see Tatanga holding him by the cape.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

The alien throws the puppet into the wall, then hops in the ship himself. Geno stands up as the aircraft rises into the air, then begins running from the ship back toward Totomesu, all while the purple alien inside fires away.

Eventually Geno reaches the main room, where Totomesu has Luigi pinned under one foot with the Star Spirit laying nearby. Twink and Punio are laying unconscious on a rock nearby as well. The ship flies into the room a few seconds after Geno, shooting away at the star.

"That’s it! Geno Whirl!"

Bam! The Geno Whirl hits the ship, sending it plummeting... straight into Totomesu’s face! A huge explosion occurs, and Totomesu falls to the ground as Tatanga flies off into the distance, unconscious.

"Well, I guess that worked out!" Luigi comments as he picked up the Mamar card he’d dropped. He then walks towards the 30 Stars Tatanga dropped, and absorbs their power into himself.

=======================

"Well, it looks like two villains have already been knocked off," Crump comments as he sees Tatanga’s 30 Stars being switched over to Luigi.

"Yes, it seems so. Because of this, I feel that it’s necessary that we hurry things up a bit. The artifact here has recently been found and obtained, so I will join you in searching for the Speed Rod. However, it’s just a matter of time until the other artifacts have been found, so we can’t waste any time!"

=======================

"My first mission, what is?" Bowyer asks Croco as they finish collecting the remaining 70 Stars in the castle, bringing their total to 120 out of 150.

"Well, I heard a rumor going ’round that Croup guy has busted out of jail. That made me think about those Compass Pieces I’ve read about. So, I think we’d better see if we can find a piece of our own!" Croco tells him.

=======================

"You DO know that we’re defenseless as babies. How do you expect this to be a fair fight?" Popple asks Hinopio.

"I don’t," Hinopio replies as he leaps towards the baby-fied thief. The three toddlers roll out of the way, resulting in Hinopio hitting the wall head-first. Unfortunately, however, his hat prevents the damage.

"I wish my Snifits were here right now!" Booster says as the angry Toad merchant approaches them.

=======================

Meanwhile with Toadette and Karma...

"I can’t stand this any longer!" Karma yells as she stomped out of her room, completely furious that Toadette has drooled all over a stack of her favorite magazines. She marches over to Wendy’s room, hoping to get some help in taking care of Toadette.

=======================

"So, would you three like to join us?" Luigi asks Flurrie, Gonzales Jr. and Punio after absorbing the Stars.

"Of course!" comes Gonzales Jr.’s reply. "What could possibly be better than battling hordes of enemies and saving the world?"

"The entire Puni civilization owes you their lives, Luigi. It would please me greatly to join your quest," comes the reply of Flurrie.

"I don’t quite know how I could help, but I would be glad to help you guys in any way possible," Punio replies.

"Excellent! Now, let’s head to Bowser’s castle and defeat King Koopa himself!" Luigi yells.

=======================

Back with Toadette, Karma, and now Wendy...

"You gotta be kiddin’ me!" Wendy yells upon seeing Toadette. "You mean that a baby Mushroomer somehow managed to sneak in here? What is with our guards these days?!"

"They’re not even here," answers Karma. "Bowser took most of them to attack the Beanbean Kingdom or something and Kammy and Kamek have the rest in Rogueport."

"Oh. What do you expect me to do with her?"

"I was hoping you could help out."

"Why bother? We could just toss her in a dumpster or something!"

"No, ’cause think about it: knowing Bowser, he probably would want to re-raise her to be a spy."

"Hmph. Fine."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The two are cut off by the baby-fied Toadette starting to cry.

"What’s she whining about now?" Wendy asks, obviously annoyed.

Karma checks her diaper and her face grows pale as she replies, "I think I might have an idea..."

"Gross!"

=======================

Meanwhile with Croco, Bowyer, and the Crooks, the trio have now reached a large, dark cave.

"All right, a piece of the Marvelous Compass is inside there," says Croco to the four.

"Safe, are you sure it is?" asks Bowyer.

"There are probably some monsters and stuff inside, but I don’t think there’ll be too many problems worrying about rockslides or the roof falling in or something.

=======================

Meanwhile with Ludwig and Yellow T...

"Nobody’s known the trouble I’ve seen; nobody knows my sorrow..." Yellow T. sings as he changes his fifteenth diaper and Ludwig changes his 30th.

"We have got to stop Roy before we are both worked to death!" Ludwig tells Yellow T, as he is sick and tired of being blackmailed.

"I agree. Even though you’re a Koopaling, I’d be glad to work with you and get rid of that tyrant," Yellow T. replies.

"Good. I’ve got an idea on what to do about him, but I need your help..." Ludwig starts telling Yellow T.

=======================

"HOW ON PLIT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BEAT YOU UP IF I DON’T EVEN HAVE AN ACTUAL BODY?!" the shadow formerly known as Bowser yells.

"That’s the point! I don’t want to be beaten up, so instead, I’m gonna beat YOU up with your own body!" the Koopa King that was formerly Doopliss replies. "Now, FIRE BREATH!"

"EEEYYYOOOWWWW!!!" the shadow shrieks as he flies straight up from the pain he received from being scorched.

=======================

"Hey, do any of you guys have a strange feeling that our boss needs us right now?" Snifit #4 asks the others somewhere near Booster’s Tower.

"Yeah, now that you mentioned it!" Snifit #2 replies.

"We’d better go out and save him!" Snifit #5 comments.

"Are you kidding? We’ll get killed!" Snifit #3 yells.

"Who cares? Anything to get away from Valentina! I don’t get how our boss could fall in love with somebody THAT bossy!" Snifit #1 comments.

"So, let’s get going!" Snifit #2 tells the others. The five Snifits then run in the direction they somehow sense Booster was in.

=======================

"So, this is Isle Delfino," Grodus comments as they teleport onto the Airstrip. "It’s rather... tropical."

"HEY! You four! Stop right there!" a random Pianta policeman yells at the four X-Nauts. "You’re charged with spreading grafitti over the entire island!"

"Oh, nuts," X-Citing comments as they are all handcuffed and led towards a courthouse.

=======================

"Oh DAD, how on Plit are we going to beat this thing?!" Booster suddenly yells out.

"Don’t worry, boss! We’re coming!" Snifit #1 shouts as he and the other four head Snifits charge into the room through a random wall.

"My Snifits! You came!" Booster happily yells.

"Uh... What’s he saying? And how did he shrink like that?" Snifit #3 asks the others, not being able to understand Booster while he is baby-fied.

"I dunno, but it probably has to do with HIM!" Snifit #5 yells as he points to Hinopio.

"He probably did this to our boss! Let’s get him!" Snifit #2 exclaims as they all charge towards Hinopio.

=======================

"You four have been spotted across the island, spreading trash and random junk across the island. As we are very serious with charges against littering, I instantly proclaim you GUILTY!" the Pianta judge tells Grodus, X-Citing, Crump, and X-Periment.

"But this is a big mistake! Don’t you remember that Mario was charged for the exact same thing, and he was framed? WE’RE INNOCENT, I TELL YOU!"

"That may be, but I’m not buying it! I sentence you all to four years in jail, starting IMMEDIATELY!"

The four are then handcuffed again and dragged to jail.

=======================

Back with Luigi and his five comrades...

"Oh no!" Luigi exclaims. "It’s not here! Now what are we supposed to do!?"

Yes, the chest is not where it was before which, of course, is not what Luigi and the others wanted to see.

"Hmm..." thinks Geno aloud. "Maybe we’ve been going about this wrong. Perhaps we should charge straight in after all!"

"What makes you say that?" asks Twink. "Did you go stupid on us or something?"

"No, ’cause think about it: with all the conquering going on right now, it is likely that Bowser isn’t even home!"

"That is a good point," says Luigi, "but should we really take a chance on that?"

=======================

Meanwhile with Karma, Wendy, and Toadette...

"Maybe we should take her to Ludwig," Wendy suggests. "He’s probably just working on an invention or something."

"Good idea," Karma replies. "I mean, what else could he possibly be doing? Planning to beat up Roy and stop him from revealing a gigantic secret? I doubt it."

=======================

"Fine, we’ll just-a storm into the castle once we get-a there. But what if Bowser left the Koopalings to-a guard the castle? Then-a we’d be in trouble!" Luigi tells the others.

"Oh, come on! We could beat them all easily!" Gonzales Jr. tells Luigi. "Besides, would you rather wait until Bowser finds out he didn’t baby-tize you and comes after us?"

"Good point," Luigi replies. He, along with Geno, Twink, Punio, and the others, then head back to the main area of Rogueport.

=======================

"Ya know, I’m surprised you even knew that I wasn’t the real Chestnut King! What book did you read to find that out?" ’Bowser’ asks as he tries to barbeque the shadow again.

"Oh, that’s simple! I read Super Luigi: Volume... oh, #$&)!!!" the shadow that was formerly Bowser yells as he finally figures out who he had missed after all this time.

=======================

"Spooky, this place is! NYA!" Bowyer mutters as he, Croco, and the three Crooks walk farther into the cave.

"Yeah, but that’s the price we gotta pay if we want to rule the world," replies Croco. Soon the five reach a huge empty room with no other paths inside it but a small well in the corner.

=======================

"I... hate... changing diapers," Beldam says as she is changing one of the toddlers. Elsewhere, Goombario and Goombella are talking to each other.

"What should we do now?" asks Goombella. "I bet that they probably turned Luigi into a baby too!"

"I dunno," replies the male Goomba, "but we have to do something to help out..."

=======================

"This place stinks. Quite literally, I might add," Grodus comments as he inspected the jail. It is comprized of a single cell in which every criminal is contained. However, there aren’t any other criminals in the cell at the time. In a far corner, a pair of Mario’s stinky socks from when he was arrested can be seen.

"I don’t get it," Crump asks himself. "Who could have possibly framed us? It would be understandable if it was Bowser Jr, but what kind of grudge could he have against us? Does he even know we exist? Does anybody on this island even know who we are?"

=======================

Back with Goombario and Goombella...

"I have no idea what we can do," says Goombario. "After all, right now we’re not even old enough to talk! What are we gonna do to Bowser, throw our diapers at him?"

"True," answers Goombella.

=======================

The Koopa Bros. walk through Delfino Plaza, laughing. Each is carrying a magic paintbrush. "Boys, I love it when a plan comes together!" says Red to the others. "Bowser’s sure to promote us since we took out the X-Nauts!"

"Yeah," answers Green, "but what about their artifacts?"

"Simple," replies Red. "They’re keeping those in the policestation’s vault. We’ll go in, take ’em, and be on our way!"

=======================

"How on Plit are we going to get out of here?!" X-Citing asks, obviously worried about being sent to jail for four years.

"We break out of here, of course!" Grodus tells him. "Remember, I have my body back now! I told those guards that I needed my staff because I had a problem walking without it. Those fools didn’t even have a clue of what power it holds!"

Grodus then pulls out his staff, and uses it to summon more powerful blasts of purple lightning than he could before. An entire wall breaks from the force, and the X-Nauts run out through it.

"Alert! Alert! The prisoners have escaped! Over," a Pianta guard yells into his walkie-talkie.

Sir Grodus, Lord Crump, X-Citing, and X-Periment quickly dash away from the jail. By mere coincidence, they run right into the Koopa Bros.

"How in the world did you guys break out of that jail?!" Red asks in a harsh tone.

"You... I know who you are! You four work for Bowser! And, judging by the paintbrushes you all hold, you must be the ones who have framed us!" Lord Crump says.

"I knew we should have hidden these things," Green mutters.

"Listen, you X-Jerks!" Yellow yells. "Lord Bowser deserves those artifacts, not you! And, after we pulverize you, we’re going to give them to him and earn a big, fat promotion!"

"In your dreams!" X-Periment says as he pulls out a beaker, indicating that he is ready for a fight. Soon, everyone else holds out their weapons, and the two sides begin fighting.

=======================

"I don’t know what you want with our boss, or why on Plit you shrunk him, but you’re going to have to get through US first!" Snifit #1 tells Hinopio.

"I didn’t shrink ’im," says Hinopio, "but I still won’t let you ruin all the money I’m about to rank in! *weird popping noises*"

Suddenly four Podoboos appear in the room and charge the Snifits.

=======================

Karma and Wendy walk into Ludwig’s room, finding no one there.

"I wonder where he is," says Wendy, who is holding the toddler-ized Toadette.

"I bet he’s in that dungeon thing he’s been spending all his time in lately."

The two walk over to the dungeon and walk inside, seeing all of the toddlers but not seeing Ludwig or Yellow T.

"What in the world..." asks Wendy, but she is cut off by two voices yelling, "Got ya!"

The two find a strange liquid being poured on them and then start to get younger. Ludwig and Yellow T. then realize their mistake upon seeing Baby Karma and Baby Wendy on the ground, along with Toadette.

"I think we made a mistake," sighs Ludwig.

"Oh no!" the Koopaling then realizes. "I’ve got to find a way to get these two back to normal before King Dad gets back!"

Ludwig then rushes out of the dungeon, and heads towards the room the Mr. I is being kept in. Quickly unlocking the door, he grabs the creature and heads back into the dungeon.

"What on Plit is that thing?!" Yellow T. asks, pointing at the monster in Ludwig’s hands.

=======================

"How much farther do we have to go, boss?" Crook 1 asks Croco.

"Just a bit farther... I hope," Croco answers.

=======================

Back with Bowser, who was previously Doopliss, and the shadow formerly known as Bowser...

"Argh!" the shadow yells as another blast of fire hits him.

How am I supposed to beat this stupid ghost?! he thinks while dodging a few attacks from Bowser/Doopliss.

=======================

"I’m a Mr. I," replies the red eye. "So, whatcha want me to do this time?" asks the Mr. I of Ludwig. "It’s been forever since I had anyone drop by here."

"Well, I have accidently turned my sister and my friend into infants, so can you change them back to normal?" Ludwig asks.

"Fine, fine, as long as I’m good for something," the Mr. I replies. The Mr. I then shoots out a red beam at Wendy and Karma, which turns them back to normal. However, the beam manages to hit somebody else, too....

"What on Plit just happened?!" Toadette, now back to normal, asks as she takes a quick look around the room. But, quickly spotting Ludwig, Wendy, Karma, and the Mr. I, she quickly dashes past them and hurries out of the castle before they can catch her.

"Well, that may be a problem," Ludwig comments as Wendy and Karma get their senses back.

=======================

"You may not have done something to Booster yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to let you!" Snifit #5 yells. As the other four Snifits fight the Podoboos, Snifit #5 manages to hit Hinopio right in the stomach. The boss is hurt for a second, but then returns to normal.

=======================

At that exact same time, "Bowser" is about to swipe at the shadow with his claws, but he suddenly reverts back to Doopliss! This only lasts a second, though, and Doopliss automatically transforms into Bowser again.

I have the strangest feeling that quick transformation is connected to something else, the shadow thinks as he dodges a swipe from his foe.

=======================

"Okay, Ludwig, you’ve got some explaining to do!" Karma yells at the eldest Koopaling as she grabs him angrily.

"Yeah, what’s been going on?!" demands Wendy.

"Well, you see, I sorta spied on King Dad via camera and used this Mr. I to turn numerous villains of Plit into babies in hopes of re-raising them to make a super-army. Then Roy found out, and began blackmailing me. Anyway, I kidnapped this yellow Toad to get him to help take care of the infants, and he brought along the baby-fied Mario, Yoshi, Toad, and Peach. We’ve been taking care of them and we attacked and turned you two into babies, thinking you were Roy coming in again to make us do even more."

"You mean I changed TOADETTE’S diaper?!" Wendy moans. "As though I didn’t feel sick enough about it already!"

"Wait a second... How about you cut us in on this plan?" asks Karma. "As long as we get use of this army as well."

"Fine, but you’ll have to get rid of Roy first!" Ludwig answers.

"Forget it!" Wendy yells. "Either you let us use this army, or we’ll tell King Dad-"

"Hold it, Wendy," Karma interrupts. "We’ve got nothing better to do today, so we may as well get rid of Roy anyways. Besides, he shouldn’t be too hard to get rid of!"

And so, Karma and Wendy head over to Roy’s room. However, in mere seconds, they are thrown straight back out and into the hall.

"This could be more difficult then I thought," Karma mutters.

=======================

"Ah, here we are!" Croco tells the others as they finally reach the end of the cave.

There, the five see a small pedastool with the piece of the compass lying on it. They pick it up and nothing happens.

"That was anticlimatic," Croco says. "I was expecting some huge fight or a thrilling escape scene."

The crocodile is cut off by the ground starting to rumble. Suddenly out from the ground emerges a giant blue Triclyde.

"Folks call me Snake Eyes!"

"Too soon, perhaps you spoke," says Bowyer to Croco.

=======================

Luigi, Geno, Twink, Gonzalez Jr, Flurrie, and Punio reach the castle and, just when they are outside it, Toadette runs into them, causing all seven to be knocked down.

"Man, that hurt... Wait, is that you?" Luigi asks, now realizing that Toadette has turned back to normal.

"Luigi? I’m glad to see you again! I can’t remember what happened since I suddenly fainted back at the tea party at Peach’s Castle, but when I awoke, I was inside Bowser’s dungeon!" Toadette tells the main heroes of this tale. "I looked around, and I saw that various babies that looked like our enemies and our friends were crawling all over the place! I then quickly saw Yellow T, but right beside him were Wendy, Ludwig, and Karma! By luck, the door was still open, so I quickly dashed out. I then ran out of the castle, and that’s when I collided with you."

"So, Bowser also has baby-fied our villains and kidnaped Yellow T?" Luigi asks himself. "This is getting more mysterious as time passes."

=======================

Back with K. Rool...

K. Rool stands in front of a monitor, watching a list of artifacts similar to the one the X-Nauts have at their base.

"Hmm... this ’Croco’ has quite a lot of these. What shall I do with him? Hmm... KAOS!"

The mechanical Kremling known as KAOS rolls up.

"Go find and destroy this ’Croco’ person."

=======================

Elsewhere, with Diddy and Dixie...

"Pull my finger," Diddy says to Dixie.

"Oh, come on! It wasn’t funny the first time it was used in this story, and it isn’t funny now!" Dixie tells him.

"How do you know that we’re in some kind of story?" Diddy asks.

"Um..." Dixie begins, but thankfully for her and the fourth wall, Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky come just in time!

=======================

"Quick! Use those arrows to get rid of this guy!" Croco tells Bowyer. Following orders, Bowyer grabs an arrow and uses himself to shoot Snake Eyes, ironically, right in his snake eyes. The creature is immediately petrified, and Croco and the others quickly escap.

"Now what, boss?" Crook III asks.

"Well, if I’m right, this piece will point in the direction of the next piece. We’ll just keep collecting pieces until we find them all and create one big mega artifact!"

"A mega artifact? What’s that?" Crook 1 asks.

"Well, from what I’ve heard, certain artifacts make even greater artifacts once you have them all. Those Star Spirit cards, for example, give you the power of the Star Beam. Those Rods of Nib, for another example, create a medallion called the Treasure of Vanquishment. As for these compass pieces, they come together to create one big magic compass!" Croco explains.

Croco then holds out the compass piece in front of him. It immediately points to the north, and so that is the way Croco and his crew then head.

=======================

Back to Goombella and Goombario...

"I’m still wondering," Goombella says to Goombario, "how we can do our part to help out. I mean, as you said, we can’t even talk or take care for ourselves in any way, shape, or form."

"I’ve been thinking, and maybe that’s how we could help," replies Goombario. "We could distract him somehow."

=======================

Meanwhile with Hinopio and the Snifits...

"Take THAT, you weak little fireball!" Snifit #3 yells as he and the others defeat the Podoboos. Now without any more distractions, the five Snifits all aim themselves at Hinopio. Firing at the exact same time, they deal enough damage to harm Hinopio greatly. Booster himself then runs up to the creature and performs a powerful punch... or at least as powerful as a baby can.

"I... can’t believe... that I lost... to... such... insignifigant... people!" Hinopio mutters before he finally falls for good.

=======================

"Face it, Shadow! You’re never gonna-" ’Bowser’ begins to say, but is cut off when his magic fails altogether. The shadow is given his name and body back, while Doopliss reverts back to normal.

"As you were saying?" Bowser says, claws extended. Doopliss lets out a pitiful gulp before he is quickly defeated with one slash.

"Lord Bowser, should we head back to the castle and stop Luigi?" a random Koopatrol asks, not wanting to get involved in the previous fight because he couldn’t tell which was which.

"We’d never get back in time to stop him, so we may as well takeover the Beanbean Kingdom while we’re here," Bowser tells him.

=======================

Back to Kamek, Kammy, and Croup...

The three are onboard the doomship, talking.

"I find it likely that Luigi will be at the castle when we get there," Kamek says to his two companions.

"We’d better go ahead and get together a plan to beat him then," says Croup.

"I bet we don’t even need a plan," says Kammy. "Luigi cannot possibly take on us, King Bowser, the Koopalings, and all of our minions. Plus, it’s not as though there are any others Bowser forgot.

=======================

"GET US OUT OF HERE!!!" Dixie and Diddy scream at the other Kongs.

"I have no idea what you’re saying, but I’m gonna get you out of there!" Lanky tells them as he looks for the lock on the cage. Finding it quickly, he picks up a nearby twig with his feet and uses it to pick the lock. Soon, Diddy and Dixie are free, and the five Kongs hurry back to Cranky’s Cabin.

=======================

"I hope those whippersnappers get back soon," Cranky says to himself. "I can’t stand taking care of that baby version of Donkey for much longer. Plus, I’ve got to get back to guarding the Golden Bananas from K. Rool!"

"Did I hear somebody call my name?" K. Rool asks as he, Klump, and Krusha barge into the cabin. Quickly, K. Rool’s two henchmen capture Cranky and the baby-fied DK.

=======================

"Let’s see," Crook 1 mutters as he examines the compass piece. "According to this, the next piece is... directly in front of us!" Crook 1 then looks up from the compass piece, and sees KAOS staring him in the face. The compass piece is imbedded in his chest, giving the creature energy.

"A problem, this might be..." Bowyer comments as KAOS knocks Crook 1 to the side and heads straight for Croco.

=======================

By now, Yellow and Green Ninjakoopa have been knocked out, as have X-Periment and X-Citing.

"Hmm," says Grodus. "This is starting to look pretty close. You know what to do, Crump."

Crump raises one finger into the air and right afterwards a large golden orb floats down toward him. Crump jumps in it and it reforms into... Magnus Von Grapple 3.0!

"It’s about time I gave this new upgrade a test run," says Crump.

=======================

"Hey, Cranky! We’re ba-" Lanky yells as the five Kongs enters the cabin, but is interrupted when Krusha knocks him out with a single punch. The four other Kongs look around. Cranky and DK are tied up in a corner, and staring right at them is none other than K. Rool!

"Show me where your Golden Bananas are, or else nobody’s going to like what I’ll do with your pals!" K. Rool threatens. Seeing no other choice at the time, the Kongs surrender and begin to lead K. Rool to the hidden vault. It is quite far away now, though, because it had been re-located since the last time K. Rool took their bananas. However, somebody happens to be watching them at this very moment...

"Yo, chimpette!" Funky Kong calls to his assistant, Candy. "Check dis out, man! I was looking at some sweet-colored birdies using dis pair of binoculars, when I spotted K. Rool kidnappin’ the others and forcing dem to lead them to the banana vault! We’ve got to stop dem!"

"For DAD’s sake, read a dictionary! This isn’t Jamaica, you know!" comes Candy Kong’s reply. "But, we’ll worry about your grammar later. Let’s stop those crocs!"

=======================

"So, Ms. We-have-to-get-Roy-now-because-of-my-big-mouth, what are we going to do now?" Wendy asks.

"Simple. We begin Operation: Trapdoor Kaboom!" Karma replies.

"That sounds like the kind of thing you’d here on the Super Show or something."

"It’s supposed to."

=======================

Croco tackles KAOS, not doing any damage, then is grabbed by the neck and raised into the air. The mechanical Kremling begins to leave, but Bowyer fires an arrow through the center of it. KAOS drops Croco, then turns around, grabs Bowyer, and throws him straight through a wall in the cave, obviously taking out the fifer. When it turns back, Croco and his Crooks are retreating. The Kremling-bot merely gives chase.

=======================

"So, you’ve got that big machine to fight against us with? Well, we’ve got a surprise of our own!" Red tells the X-Nauts. He then pulls out the Diamond Star and the Speed Rod, the two artifacts that the X-Nauts had come for in the first place.

Red uses the Rod on the Crystal Star, powering up its Supernova attack even quicker. However, because Red is currently power-hungry, he charges it too much! The powerful attack misses its target and hits the Koopa Bros. themselves! They shoot straight up from the blast, and land back down unconscious right into the jail!

"Well, that takes care of that, I guess," Crump comments as he packs away the Magnus von Grapple 3.0. "Now, let’s get our artifacts back!"

=======================

"Now, just keep quiet, you guys," Luigi whispers to his partners, now including Toadette, as they sneak through the castle. "We don’t want to set off any traps."

Luigi and the crew continue walking silently down the hall. However, as they walk in front of Roy’s room, they immediately fell down a hidden trapdoor. Luigi turns on a flashlight to see where they landed, and is shocked to see the faces of 1,000,000 Bob-ombs staring him in the face and about to explode.

=======================

Bowser stands on the deck of his ship, looking at the kingdom his troops are now occupying as the ship itself heads back home.

"I’ll just come back with the Clown Copter later," says Bowser to himself while watching the chaos going on below.

=======================

"Glad to see you’re okay, boss," Snifit #2 tells Booster as he brushes off the dirt that had landed on him. "Don’t worry, we’ll get whoever shrunk you like this!"

"What should we do about these two?" Snifit #4 asks while pointing at Popple and Chomp Bro.

"Bring them along," Snifit #1 tells him. "It seems that they have some kind of friendship with the boss. Besides, what kind of trouble could they get us into that we haven’t seen already?"

"Good point," Snifit #5 remarks. "By the way, while we were running over here, I picked up this weird shiny thing hidden in the bushes. It looks like a piece of a compass, and it seems to be pointing back towards the tower."

"We may as well get out of here now," Snifit #3 comments. The five Snifits then grab ahold of the baby-fied characters, and escaped through the hole they made in the wall.

=======================

"Darn thing isn’t even slowing down yet! Quick, into that tower over there!" Croco tells his crooks. They quickly dive in, and lock the door tightly before KAOS can get in. Somehow, the mechanical monster can’t break through the door. Relieved, Croco and his crooks turn around, only to find that their troubles aren’t over yet.

"Who are you, and what on Plit are you doing here?! I should have you arrested for trespassing, breaking and entering, and invading personal space!" Valentina yells.

=======================

"Well, we finally... WHAT ON PLIT IS THAT THING?!" Snifit #1 yells as they approach their tower. KAOS is pounding on the door, attempting to bust in. "We’ve got to get rid of that guy before he knocks the whole place down!"

=======================

Luigi and the gang look around at the Bob-ombs.

"This isn’t good," says Geno. "I don’t recall this trapdoor being here any other time though..."

"Well, Bowser does remodel frequently," replies Twink. "Almost as much as Peach."

"Now REALLY isn’t the time for a discussion like this," Luigi tells the two stars while nervously watching the Bob-ombs.

=======================

Meanwhile, Grodus and the others have just been pardoned and given their artifacts back, as well as the Diamond Crystal Star and the Speed Rod. It is just then that Lord Crump receives a transmission on a radio he had brought with him.

"Good news, Sir Grodus!" Crump tells his boss as he put away the radio. "It seems that some of the rare and valuable Compass pieces have been spotted around Booster Hill. However, there have also been sightings of a powerful robot there recently, and personally, I don’t want to die in the line of duty!"

"Nonsense! What robot could possibly be better than I?" Grodus gloats. "We will head there immediately, and show that piece of scrap metal a thing or two!"

=======================

"Just stay really, really calm, and maybe we can get out of here with our lives," Luigi whispers to the others. All of the others act as calmly as possible. They believe this includes Punio, though in actuality he is so terrified that he is simply unable to move or speak.

=======================

Karma and Wendy stand behind a corner, talking while occasionally glancing at the trapdoor.

"Well, we didn’t quite take care of Roy, but we did get rid of Luigi!" says Karma to the Koopaling.

"That still doesn’t get us out of this mess, even if it helps."

"Yeah, I guess you’re right," Karma replies. "I can’t believe what I’ve gotten us both into! The only way we could probably get rid of Roy is if we had the sneakiest, most cunning, and yet simplest plan to pull off! The question is, where are we going to get a plan like that?"

...

"Larry!" Karma and Wendy shout at the same time as they rush to the youngest Koopaling’s room.

=======================

"This boat should reach Marrymore in no time," Crump tells his boss as they sail on a ship from Delfino Island to their next destination. "From there, it’s only a hill away to the tower where the pieces have been located!"

"Good, very good," Grodus simply comments as devious thoughts flow through his mind about how to rule the world once the artifacts are his. He would start by demolishing Peach’s castle entirely, and having his slaves build a gigantic monument of himself in its place. He would be the only and complete ruler of the planet, as he would have to kill Crump and his other two lackeys in order to stop any chance of rebellion. It would all be a matter of time...

=======================

"Hurry it up, you idiot apes! Take me to that storage area of yours within the hour, or else I’m going to seriously damage all of you!" K. Rool orders as the Kongs are forced to lead him to their treasures.

=======================

Meanwhile, in the far-away kingdom of Sub-con...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" King Wart whines at a glass-shattering volume. Meanwhile, Nick and Susan, who had luckily avoided being baby-fied, are trying to figure out how to change his diaper.

"Let’s see... What on Plit is a Tab A?" Susan wonders out loud. "And why do you insert it into Slot B instead of Slot A? This is so confusing..."

"No sweat; I heard of a guy at Peach’s castle that knows how to do this kind of thing," Nick tells his sister. "But, rumors have been going around that our cousin Ludwig has already taken him. I don’t know why he’d do that, but let’s steal that Mushroomer for ourselves!"

"In a minute; I just have to figure out which one of these things is Tab A," Susan replies. "They all look the same to me..."

=======================

"I’m bored," Captain Cortez tells himself from within his secluded area of Pirate’s Grotto. "Bored, bored, bored. Bordey bored, bo-bored, bo-nanza bored, and etc. I hate my afterlife."

One of Cortez’s Ember lackeys suddenly materializes in front of him. Instead of speaking, however, it performs a series of odd movements which Cortez translates into words.

"So, you’re saying some of the baddest enemies on Plit, as well as a common thief, are attempting to take over the world using artifacts?" Cortez somehow deciphers. "Well, not on my watch! Alert the others; we’re going to find those things before they do!"

The Podoboo then disappears.

"And I thought this day would never get interesting!" Cortez tells himself as he goes to his pile of treasure. Picking up the Sapphire Crystal Star, a Compass piece, and his best cutlass, he then leaves the room and prepares to set sail.

=======================

Back with Goombario, Goombella, and the adults who are still standing around in the bar for no apparent reason whatsoever... Goombella and Goombario are sitting on a table, plotting how they can help.

"All we have to do," says Goombella to Goombario, "is get out of here, make it to Bowser’s Castle, and return ourselves back to normal. From there, we need to trick the Mr. I into turning himself into a baby, via what I call the "Typical good-guy revenge plot". We then just need to find Luigi and offer our help, and see how it goes from there."

"Right. But how should we escape?"

"You leave that to me," answers Goombella.

=======================

"So, this is Marrymore. It’s much too cheerful for my liking," Grodus comments as they get off the boat. "Quick, let us hurry to those pieces! I refuse to waste any time when I could be one step closer to world domination!"

"Right, Sir Grodus. The pieces have been located just south of here. We should be there within the next hour or so." Lord Crump tells his master, wondering to himself what will happen once they become the rulers of Plit. Things would probably be okay for them all, but he has a strange feeling that Grodus has something else in mind...

=======================

"First off, you nasty croc, wipe your feet on the mat! I just scrubbed there this morning! You’d better be careful, or your hide will become my new purse!" Valentina orders.

"Right, like anybody actually carries around crocodile-skin purses anymore," Croco comments as he purposely doesn’t wipe his feet.

"You meatball head!" Valentina yells in disgust. "If you break any more of my rules, that robot banging on the door will have nothing left to pummel once I get through with you!"

=======================

"We made better time than I thought," Crump comments as they spot Booster’s tower nearby. However, they also noticed KAOS trying to barge through the door.

"That’s it?! GACK ACK ACK ACK!" Grodus laughs, obviously not scared by the robot’s appearance. "That thing will be nothing but loose springs and gears by the time I’m through with him!" Grodus then runs towards the robot, staff in hand.

I just hope that same fate doesn’t come to him, Crump thinks to himself as he sees his boss approach the monster.

=======================

"Hey, some big-headed guy with a staff is approaching that robotic lizard thing!" Snifit #3 comments as he sees Grodus approach.

"You think they’re working together?" Snifit #5 asks. "They’re both robots, after all."

"Very unlikely," Snifit #1 answers. "That big-headed one looks more like he’s going to beat the other one up!"

"Well, shouldn’t we help him?" Snifit #4 inquires. "I mean, we’re both fighting the same guy, after all."

"Good idea, #4!" Snifit #2 compliments. "Let’s kick some robo-lizard tail!"

The five Snifits then temporarily leave Booster, Popple, and Chomp Bro. to help Grodus beat KAOS.

=======================

Back with Karma, Susan, and now Larry...

"So, let’s get this straight: you two want me to take out Roy, and in return I get to use this army without having to help take care of it?"

"That’s right," replies Karma.

"Isn’t it Ludwig’s army though? Wouldn’t you need approval from him?"

"We’ve got Ludwig right where we want him. He’ll agree to anything we want," answers Wendy.

"All right then!" the youngest Koopalings replies. "I’m gonna nab us a Koopa!"

=======================

"What are a bunch of weaklings like you doing here?!" Grodus asks as the five Snifits run up to help him.

"Well," Snifit #1 explains, "we just knew that you wanted to get rid of that robot. Well, we want to get rid of it, too! So, why not work together and blow the thing up?"

"I must admit, you’d make excellent distractions. But, you must agree that whatever the robot drops is mine! You got that?" Grodus asks.

"Agreed!" the five Snifits answer together. Then, they all get ready for battle and approach KAOS.

=======================

"Anybody else wondering what we’re all doing standing around in this bar?" Beldam asks the other adults.

"No," they all reply.

=======================

"Mario’s been turned into a baby, huh?" Jr. Troopa says to himself as he reads a newspaper. "Great! Now’s my chance to get revenge!"

=======================

"*sigh* I’m so lonely now," Princess Eclair tells herself as she looked out of a window. "I wish something would happen to spice up my life."

And her wish is immediately granted, as two Piantas grab her from behind and start carrying her away! The castle’s guards were already knocked out, so it would be useless to scream for help.

"Where are you taking me?!" Eclair demands.

"Well, da boss wants that compass thing on your crown. He plans on using its power to take control of Rogueport entirely, or somethin’ like that," one of the Piantas explains.

"Well, if you’re kidnapping me, then the least you can do is answer one question: Who’s your boss?" Eclair asks.

"His name’s Frankie, son-in-law of the former Don Pianta," the Pianta answers as he and the other Pianta carry her out of the castle.

=======================

"Yo, Candy! The K-Rock has been spotted at 11 o’clock!" Funky tells Candy through a radio system. Funky is currently in his Barrel Plane, about to stop K. Rool from discovering their vault. "The mission is a-go, yo!"

=======================

Croco meanwhile is sitting at Snifit 1’s desk with his feet propped up on it.

"What are you doing here?" asks Valentina once more of Croco and his Crooks (and yes, she has her cocktail in hand like always). "Don’t make me call in Dodo!"

"Relax. There’s a large robot Kremling out front that wants to kill us, so we’re just lying low until he’s gone."

"What?! Argh! Fine! Hmph."

"Hey," asks Crook 1 of the woman, "got any more of them cocktails around?"

=======================

Just outside the tower, the combination of the Snifits’ bullet blasts and Grodus’s lightning has finally attracted KAOS’s attention. Turning around to see the attackers, KAOS then begins to attack them back.

=======================

"What’s this all about?!" Eclair asks after being rushed to Rogueport’s West Side from her own kingdom in a hurry. She is strapped to a chair, and a blue-skinned Pianta is looking straight at her. A yellow-skinned female Pianta is also standing nearby.

"Yo, how’s it hangin’? Name’s Frankie, and right now, I’m runnin’ this joint. Now, hand the thing over!" the blue-skin Pianta demands.

"Oh Frankie, you always know just when to take charge!" the yellow-skinned Pianta compliments.

"Thanks, Francesca. Now, back to da matter at hand here. Eclipse, was it?" Frankie asks.

"Eclair," the princess simply answers.

"Right. So, Eclair, your crown is imbedded with a piece of da Magic Compass. I figure somethin’ like dat ought to be powerful enough to blast Ishmael over on the East Side to smithereens! That ought to make da Don proud!" Frankie explains. "So, hand your piece over, and you can go back to ya kingdom. Deal?"

"No deal," Eclair replies. "This piece may not be too powerful by itself, but it still gives me enough power to help all of my subjects who need me!"

"Fine. If that’s the way you want to play, so be it. Guys, escort the princess here to ’Da Room’. We’ll get her to hand over dat piece one way or another!" Frankie orders. Eclair, still strapped to the chair, is then dragged by the two Piantas that brought her here down a hallway.

=======================

Back with King Goomba and his troops, last seen handing Yellow T. over to Ludwig...

"Goombas, the time has come for us to rise up against Bowser and prove why we are the superior race to the Koopas!"

"AWWWWW..." they all reply, groaning.

"What’s wrong with that?"

"Well Goom- wait, is your name Goomboss or the Goomba King?" asks Red Goomba.

"To be exact it’s Goomboss the Goomba King, but you know."

"Oh. Well, King, the Koopas are superior to us in every way!"

"Not anymore. For I have this!" the Goomba King says as he withdraws a Rod of Nib. "This is the rod that has the powers of all of the others combined! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

"You mean the Unification Rod?" Blue Goomba asks.

"Well, DUH!" the Goomba King answers. "What, it’s not like any OTHER Rod can have the powers of all the others!"

=======================

"Man, I wish that us run-of-the-mill X-Nauts could get a part in this tale," a random, regular X-Naut tells another as he breaks the fourth wall.

"I know," the other one replies. "How come only the head of the PhDs and the head of the Elites get all the attention? There’s a head for us regular guys, too!"

Just then, TEC-XX 2.0 starts to beep.

"After much processing, I have downloaded information of all current artifacts," the computer tells them. "Here is the complete list..."

"Excellent," one X-Naut says as the information appears on screen.

=======================

Cortez’s ship docks in Toad Town. There, he comes off the boat, looking around and finding absolutely no one.

"Aye, this don’t look good. I wonder where everyone is...

=======================

Meanwhile, in Peach’s Castle, a certain Koopa is searching for the heroes.

"Where are they?" Jr. Troopa asks himself while looking throughout the castle. "It’s not as though they were, say, taken by a giant Goomba in red and white pants or something."

The Koopa continues searching and finds a Rod lying on the ground.

"Hmm, what’s this? Might as well give it a try..."

Jr. Troopa points the Rod into the air and a blast of fire comes out, then dissipates.

"I see... this must be one of them Rods I’ve heard so much about."

=======================

"You sure we have to go through here?" Susan asks, pointing at an open window in Castle Koopa.

"Yeah, it’s that whole ’element of surprise’ thing," Nick tells her. "Because, if we get caught, WE’RE going to be the ones raising Pops instead of the other way around!"

"Good point," Susan comments. "If I stand on top of your shoulders, I might be able to get up there."

And so, Nick lifts Susan onto his shoulders. Susan looks into the room, and falls right in! She brushes the dust off of her shell, and then realizes that she has landed inside a room completely filled with Goombas!

"Well, look at that. It’s Target Practice time," the Goomba King remarks as he aimed the Unification Rod at Susan.

=======================

"You see that?" asks Syrup of the Wicked Bros. "There’s our answer to how to turn back! Now we just gotta figure out this: how do we trick it into turning us back?"

"No clue," replies Wario. "You know that after this we’re still going to be enemies, right?"

"I wouldn’t have it any other way."

=======================

"Oh yeah! I rule! I must be the greatest guy in the world now!" Jr. Troopa gloats to random Toads, oblivious to the fact that others, such as Croco, have already collected more than a single Rod. However, as he isn’t paying too much attention to where he is going, he accidentally runs into a certain giant living skeleton.

"Arr! Watch where ye be going, boy!" Cortez sneers, upset about the run-in with the young lad. However, he then notices the Rod of Nib Jr. Troopa has tucked into his eggshell.

"Arr, give me that Rod, you little land-lubber."

"Um... no. How about I show you what it can do instead?"

Jr. Troopa whips out the Rod, points it at the skeletal pirate, and fires (literally). The pile of bones falls apart after the huge blast.

"Was that it? Heh heh..."

Jr. Troopa walks away, snickering. He doesn’t notice, however, that the bones are moving towards each other...

=======================

"Hey, it looks like Sir Grodus is winning!" X-Citing comments as he watches the fight. He, Crump, and X-Periment take cover in a nearby bush.

"Hey, get out of dis shrub! This be our hidin’ spot, see?" Popple tells the X-Nauts, as it is the same bush that he and his two rookies had taken cover in.

"Oh look, a semi-understandable munchkin. Listen, you little toddler, either we all take cover in this bush, or we’re all open targets out there. And since I’m stronger than a baby like you, I’d rather we share this bush than fight for it," Crump tells the baby-fied thief.

"Fine, fine," Popple agrees, realizing that he’d obviously lose in an argument.

=======================

"Ha ha, guess I showed that pile of bones a thing or-" Jr. Troopa tells himself, but then hears something behind him.

Jr. Troopa turns around, seeing that Cortez is reassembling right at this very moment. The Koopa merely decides to run, hoping to conserve energy for later. However, the skeleton follows him...

=======================

Valentina sighs angrily as Dodo gives some cocktails to Croco and his Crooks.

"Dodo, you weren’t supposed to actually give it to them! I’m docking your pay for this..."

"Not again!" Dodo mumbles in response.

"You know, if you worked for me, you wouldn’t be treated as rough as you are now," Croco tells the flightless bird, knowing an opportunity when he sees one. With that bird on his side, Croco knows he could collect the loot cluttered throughout the entire tower with ease.

"Don’t talk like an idiot, alligator! Dodo would never turn against me, right?" Valentina replies.

"Well, actually...." Dodo begins to tell her.

"WHAT?! STOP THAT NONSENSE TALK RIGHT NOW!!! IF YOU DARE EVEN THINK ABOUT SWITCHING SIDES, I’M..." Valentina yelled. She then realizes that yelling isn’t helping her right now, so in a sweet and innocent voice she adds, "Um, what I meant to say is that you would never ever leave sweet little me all alone with someone like that stinky winky Booster, would ya?"

Dodo responds by beginning to look at Valentina, then at Croco. As soon as he looks out at Croco, he walks over and stands next to him and the Crooks.

"Dodo, you traitor!" Valentina yells. "You really could’ve chosen a better time than when somebody’s attacking the tower, ya know!"

=======================

Luigi and his partners are still looking at the many Bob-ombs that they are surrounded by.

"So... can I interest you all in a bribe? ’Cause we would prefer not to die via explosion at this time."

"Why would we hurt you?" asks one of them. "How do you think we got down here? Wendy and Karma tossed us into here!"

"You’d think they would’ve at least thought of using their own minions instead of random Bob-ombs... unless there aren’t any here," Geno says insightfully.

"Okay, okay," says Luigi. "They’re not angry, so all we gotta do is not aggravate them at all."

"Aggravate?" says one of the Bob-ombs. "What’s that supposed to mean? I have a short temper or something?"

Luigi and his party disagree with worried thoughts.

"You’re lying! I know you are! That... makes... me... so... ANGRY!!!" The Bob-omb turns red in fury, already lit from the fuse.

"Nice going," says Geno.

=======================

"So, you two have to tell me something," Larry comments to the two girls. "What happened to make you come to me?"

"Well, no matter what happened, Roy didn’t fall into any of our own traps," Karma tells him.

"Yeah! We even wasted a good million Bob-ombs on our last one, and then Luigi came and messed things up!" Wendy comments.

"WAIT! Did you say a million Bob-ombs could be exploding at any minute?" Larry gasps.

"Yeah, why?" Wendy asks.

...

"RUN FOR IT!!!" Larry yells as he jumps out of the nearest window.

"What’s his problem?" Karma asks herself.

=======================

"Oh... my... DAD!" Luigi gasps as every last Bob-omb surrounding them turns red.

KABOOM!!!

And with that, the entire castle blows up. Luigi and his comrades aere sent a surprisingly small distance, to somewhere in the middle of Toad Town. Karma, Wendy, and Roy are blown all the way to the middle of Dry, Dry Desert. Ludwig and the babies fly quite a distance, all the way to the Waffle Kingdom. Susan, Nick, and the Goombas land in the West Side of Rougeport. Bowser is still making his way back from the Beanbean Kingdom, and Kamek and Kammy are still invading Rogueport, though they haven’t yet captured the West side. And, Larry has already run into the bushes and is completely unharmed.

"Ow... That was one big blast," Luigi comments as he gets up and starts to brush the ashes off of him. Thankfully, he didn’t receive as much damage as the others in his group did.

"At least you aren’t in a body made of wood," replies Geno, who is reconstructing himself.

=======================

The Goomba King and his forces are meanwhile in the Kero Sewers, looking for a Crystal Star that is located there. "Hey, King, how did we get here all the way from Rogueport?" Red Goomba asks.

"A warp pipe, how else?" King Goomba replies. "But, now isn’t the time for questions! Go and guard those two Koopas we caught!"

Red Goomba then walks over to a cage that the other Goombas are carrying. Inside the cage are Nick and Susan.

"I blame you, Nick," Susan mutters as she tries to ignore the awful stench of the sewers.

=======================

"Wow, what a blast!" Larry comments as he examines the remains of Koopa Castle.

Larry then remembers something. "The Mr. I! I hope it’s still there!"

The youngest Koopaling begins searching through the rubble until he finds the eye, then picks it up. It is conscious.

"Heh heh," Larry says to the eye, "I could take out Roy to get partial control of the army... or I could use you to take the army, and even the entire kingdom to myself! Hahahahaha!"

"Oh, goody," the Mr. I replies sarcastically.

=======================

Speaking of Roy, he has recently awoken.

"Man, whoever did that is gonna get a poundin’ when my fists get a hold of him!" Roy tells himself. He then looks around, and notices that he has landed in Dry, Dry Desert. Spotting Karma and Wendy on the ground nearby, he quickly abandons them and runs to the east.

=======================

"We’ve almost got that bot!" Snifit #2 comments as he, the other four Snifits, and Grodus manage to knock KAOS’s health down to a minimum level. However, the bot has enough energy to fire one last attack before it explodes.

KAOS fires a powerful beam at Grodus, hitting him in the side of the dome thingy and cracking it. The X-Naut leader falls to the ground, as does KAOS. Crump runs over to his leader.

"Crump... we need to... get back to the base."

Crump pulls Grodus to his feet and drags him out of the area. The two X-Nauts follow. While Grodus is being dragged, however, he drops the artifacts that the group has collected.

Snifit #2 then notices the artifacts himself. "Hey, you guys left behind your..." he calls out, but the X-Nauts are already too far away to hear him by now.

"You know, these things are kinda shiny... How about we keep them for now, and if those guys show up again, we’ll just give them back?" Snifit #5 suggests.

"Smart thinking," Snifit #4 compliments. "Not only would it be a good thing to do, since he saved our lives and all, but maybe we can find something to do with them while we wait for them to return!"

The Snifits walk into the tower and see Croco, who is sitting at Snifit 1’s desk watching Dodo and the Crooks beat up Valentina.

"Hey, leave her al- ah wait, nevermind. Can we help?" asks Snifit 1 over Booster’s protests. Of course, they don’t understand him.

"Sure," replies the alligator. "I can show ya a way to make them babies grow up quicker too. Just hand me that Rod," says Croco while pointing to the Body Modification Rod.

=======================

Meanwhile, in the X-Naut base on the moon, Lord Crump and X-Citing are waiting outside of the medical ward. X-Periment is operating on Sir Grodus, trying to see if he survived the attack.

Some very stressful moments later, X-Periment comes out. He would have a sad look on his face, but nobody can really see what an X-Naut’s face looks like under his uniform. "Sir Grodus... He wants to talk to you, Lord Crump," the X-Naut PhD tells them.

Lord Crump, obviously very scared at this moment, enters the room where Grodus is being held. "You... wanted to see me, sir?" the Lord asks.

"Crump, I have something important to tell you," Grodus tells Lord Crump with a tear in his mechanical eye. "I have become unimaginably weak from that robotic crocodile’s attack. My life support systems are near failing, and I have little time before my hard drive has a complete and total meltdown. I wish for the X-Nauts to continue to grow strong and proud, even if I am not the one leading them. Crump, I promote you to Sir, and deem you worthy of leading the X-Nauts."

"Grodus..." Crump replies, a tear in his eye as well. He then reaches for Grodus’s hand, and holds on to it with much emotion. Grodus also feels the emotions Crump is feeling, and tells him how great the X-Nauts will be under his control. In mere seconds, Grodus completely shuts down, and Crump leaves the room.

"How did it go, Lord Crump?" X-Citing asks, having not seen the events for himself.

"You should now call me Sir Crump, but that is not the most important matter I have to tell you. Our former leader has been terminated, and I regret to say there’s no hope in trying to revive him," Crump regretfully tells him. "But, under his final command, I am to command you with the same power and respect that he had over you, and lead this army with the memory of Grodus in our hearts and minds forever."

=======================

Back on DK Isle...

"Ah ha ha ha ha!!!" K. Rool laughs as he opens the vault, looking inside at all the bananas.

"Heh heh... yes..."

The Kremling turns around toward the Kongs upon seeing all of the Golden Bananas within, and is promptly nailed into the vault by Chunky, who looks worried while doing so. Cranky Kong then slams the door shut.

"I’ll get you Kongs!" K. Rool yells out loudly enough for them to hear outside the vault.

Klump and Krusha, seeing this, rush the Kongs, but Tiny sticks her foot out, sending them both tripping head-first into a tree.

"Well, that settles that!" says Tiny. "But now we gotta get Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie changed back to normal!"

"That ain’t the only changing we gotta do!" adds Lanky while looking at Diddy and Dixie, before beginning to hold his nose. The two baby-fied Kongs realize what this means, and their faces turn red with embarrassment.

=======================

Meanwhile with Jr. Troopa...

"Get out of here, ya pile of bones!" the toddler yells out as Cortez gives chase. However, the pirate king isn’t stopping at all, and is only catching up to him. Jr. Troopa even tries to knock him off course with his Rod of Nib, but Cortez only dodges the fire that comes from it with the Crystal Star he has.

"You won’t get rid o’ me that easily, ya landlubber!" Cortez yells as he picks up even more speed. Jr. Troopa suddenly makes a sharp left turn. His stalker does the same, falling for the Koopa’s trick, and falls apart once more.

"Ha ha, sucker!" yells the Koopa as he walks off. Once again, the bones regroup...

=======================

"Ow... what happened?" asks Susan.

"How should I know?" Nick replies. "I’m betting Bowser got mad and blew up the castle... again.

"Shut up, you twerps!" the Goomba King yells at the two. "You’re our prisoners, and I won’t stand for prisoners that complain as much as you do!"

"Hey! As King Wart’s little girl, I demand that you release me! Oh, and Nick too, I guess," Susan demands.

"No way, you brat! Doing that would easily get me killed from the attacks you’d hit me with, and I’m no idiot!" the Goomba King tells her.

"Who said we were going to hurt you? I just merely thought that your troops would have more energy for battling enemies on your way if they didn’t have to carry us!" Susan explains with a sneaky look in her eye.

"Oh. In that case, I’ll let you out!" the Goomba King says. He then aproaches the cage the Goombas are carrying, unlocks it, and lets Nick and Susan out.

"Sucker," Susan mutters as she stomped on top of the Goomba King’s head. Nick follows the attack with a swift kick, which knocks the leader of the Goombas into the sewage water nearby. The Goomba King is merely carried by the current a long distance away, and isn’t going to be coming back any time soon.

"Okay, you Goombas!" Nick barks at the Goomba King’s former army, taking personal control of them. "That Goomboss the Goomba King or whatever you guys call him was down here looking for something, and if you don’t find it, you will receive the same fate as your fallen leader!" Immediately, the Goombas hurry along past Nick, searching for the Crystal Star before they are knocked into the sewage as well.

It is then that Nick notices something laying on the ground that the Goomba King dropped. Looking down he realizes it’s... a Rod. The Unification Rod to be exact.

"Hmm, I wonder what this does," says the Koopa as he picks it up and looks at it with an evil glint in his eye.

=======================

Larry sneaks slowly upon Wendy and Karma, Mr. I in hand. The two female Koopas are still asleep.

"Hmm... It is time I take care of two fourths of the problem keeping me from having the army to myself," he says to himself whilst approaching the sleeping Koopas evilly.

=======================

"Savages, pure savages," Kammy mutters while looking at the remains of the Keep.

"I told you Luigi could stop us," Kamek says to the witch in one of them gleeful yet insane kind of ways.

"Oh, just shut up! For all we know this could’ve been the work of one of those wretched kids of his!"

"Would you two Magikoopas just stop bickering for one moment? We’re never going to catch Luigi if we do nothing but argue all day!" Croup yells.

"He’s right; it is our duty to protect the Koopa Empire from various heroes that are out to eliminate it," Kammy tells the other Head Magikoopa.

"Fine," Kamek agrees. "But, how are we going to explain this mess to King Bowser?"

"Just leave that to me," Croup tells the two.

=======================

"Ouch..." Wendy moans, finally waking up. She then makes her way towards Karma, and nudges her until she awakes as well.

"Ow... What happened?" Karma asks.

"Operation: Trapdoor Kaboom literally backfired," Wendy answers.

"Ah. But, why are we in the desert?"

"I guess we got blasted all the way over here."

"Yes, that would make sense."

"... Hey, I feel kinda weird. Could you check my diaper?"

"Oh sure, why... DIAPER?!" Karma yells in shock. Quickly looking at themselves, Karma and Wendy immediately realize that they have been baby-fied. In the distance, the two girls can just see Larry running away with the Mr. I tucked under his arm.

"That crook! He must have done this to us!" Karma tells Wendy.

"Yeah! Oh, when I get my hands on him, I’ll... wait, how are we going to get out of this desert, anyways?" Wendy asked.

"That, I’m not so certain of," Karma replies.

=======================

Roy walks into the Dry Dry Outpost, heading for the warp pipe so that he can get home quicker. Larry follows, being careful to avoid being seen, planning to attack when Roy reaches the Toad Town Sewers.

=======================

Ludwig wakes up and looks around, seeing that all the babies are there (with the exeption of Syrup, Wario, and Waluigi, who have snuck away), as is Yellow T.

"Ugh, what happened?" he asks of the Toad.

"I don’t know," Yellow T. replies. "I heard an explosion, then I woke up here. Three of the babies are missing, though."

"Hmm... we’d better find them," Ludwig replies. "They’re probably just busy looking at a bug or something."

=======================

Wendy and Karma sit in the middle of the desert, still trying to figure out what to do. Okay, they’ve actually kind of drifted off to other matters, but you know.

"So, did you check?" asks Wendy.

"Yeah. No wonder you feel funn... Umm... Could you check my diaper real quick?"

=======================

"Darn those Kongs," K. Rool mutters to himself as he paces back and fourth in the vault. "However, they did miss one vital fact: they left the Golden Bananas in here with me!"

K. Rool then approaches a Golden Banana and attempts to bite it, thus gaining temporary super abilities. However, the only thing he gets after he eats the entire thing, is potassium.

"WHAT?!" K. Rool yells out loud.

=======================

"Da plan worked! We switched the treasure with regulars in time, man!" Funky tells Candy as they make their way back to their businesses.

"Yeah, those cousins of ours did a great job of distracting him and his crew as we put on the finishing touches," Candy replies, hiding a can of gold-colored paint in the bushes.

"You said it, girl!" Funky compliments.

However, that is the last sentence either of them ever heard again, as a blast is immediately fired at them. When the smoke clears, all that ss left of either of them is Funky’s bandana.

"Excellent shot, Sir Crump!" X-Periment compliments as the former lord puts away his laser gun and examines the remains of the two Kongs for himself.

"They were related to DK, all right," Crump comments as he examines the bandana. "This means that we’re hot on the trail of obtaining the Golden Bananas!"

"Hey, did you two notice that we’re speeding along to different places unimaginably fast, while some of the other villains in this story are more or less stuck in the same place they were before?" X-Citing wonders out loud.

=======================

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, GAS PRICES HAVE INFLATED AGAIN?!" Bowser booms as his doomship pulls into a truck stop halfway to where his castle is.

=======================

"That is interesting, but we have more important things to think about right now," Sir Crump tells the head of the Elites. "Such as, where on Plit did those artifacts that we dropped end up?"

=======================

"Okay, so the castle’s completely destroyed. However," Luigi tells his team, "our job isn’t done until we can retrieve that thing which is baby-fying all of the heroes that aren’t in this group right now. But, I don’t think we should have many problems doing that."

"What are you talking about? We don’t even know where it is anymore!" Toadette replies.

"And we’re tired, hungry, and broke!" Gonzales Jr. complains.

"And I’m guessing those other villains are stealing the multiple ancient artifacts like Tatanga did before we beat him!" Flurrie adds.

"Yeah, but except for all that, I don’t think we should have many problems," Luigi says.

"But-" Geno is about to add, when Jr. Troopa dashes right into him.

"Augh! Of all the times for someone to be in my way!"

The Koopa then stands up and sees Luigi. "It’s you, the stupid brother of that stupid plumber! Well, no time for revenge, so I’ll be back! Just get out of my way!"

The Koopa runs past them, and Cortez soon comes following. The heroes stop him to ask what is going on.

"Arr, that tyke be posessin’ a Rod o’ Nib! I was goin’ to stop him usin’ my Crystal Star an’ help out in tryin’ to defeat dem evil blokes!" Cortez explains. Luigi then gives the pirate king his explanation on what they are doing. Cortez is greatly impressed, and decides to join Luigi’s team himself.

"It’s great to have somebody like you with us," Luigi tells him. "Now, let’s get that Troopa!"

=======================

"Hey, we finally found it!" Lanky shouts as the Kongs finally make it back to Cranky’s Cabin. However, when they open the door, they find that somebody is already waiting for them.

"How are you gentlemen? All your base are belong to us!" Sir Crump tells the Kongs. "Man, I’ve always wanted to say that! Now, show us where your treasure is, or you’ll face the same fate as Funky and Candy did."

Crump then proceeds to pull out Funky’s bandana from his pocket and hand it to the Kongs. Yet again, as they once more have no choice in the matter, they agreed to show the X-Nauts the vault where the REAL Golden Bananas are being stored.

=======================

"HURRY UP, FOR DAD’S SAKE!" Bowser booms again. This time, it is because it is taking too long to refil the gas tank of the doomship. "Pick up the pace! At this rate, the castle could be blown up entirely by the time we get back there!"

=======================

"How is the search for the artifact going?" Nick asks Red and Blue Goomba after waiting a fair amount of time.

"We have an idea," answers Red Goomba, "and we have sent a party to investigate to see if it is where we think it is."

"Excellent," Nick replies, still looking at the Rod evilly.

=======================

Meanwhile with Goombario and Goombella...

"So, why haven’t we escaped from this bar yet?" Goombario asks Goombella, still in baby-talk.

"All good plans take time. You just wait a while longer, and we’ll be out of here in no time!" Goombella tells him.

=======================

"Finally!" Bowser comments as the gas tank finishes filling up. Bowser then gets into the doomship, but is stopped by a Boom Boom working at the station.

"Here’s your bill for the gas," the Boom Boom tells the Koopa King as he hands him a long piece of paper.

"I HAVE TO PAY HOW MUCH?! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! NOT EVEN GAS CAN BE THIS UNBELIEVABLY HIGH-PRICED!" Bowser furiously yells.

=======================

"Come on, I don’t think we’ve checked over here yet!" says one of the Goombas who is searching for the artifact. The others follow him, and immediately spot the item on a pedestal. However, they suddenly hear the sound of something licking its lips behind them. The last things that those Goombas ever saw was a large tongue.

"Meh, that was the most bland meal I’ve ever had," the yellow dog-like creature which had just eaten the Goombas alive comments as he searches for more food.

=======================

"What’s taking them?" Nick asks impatiently of Red Goomba, who is shaking with fear.

"I d-dunno," the Goomba replies. "M-maybe they ran into some p-p-problems."

=======================

Luigi and the gang chase after Jr. Troopa, who eventually dives into a warp pipe, hoping to find himself as far away as possible. The group, sans Cortez (he wouldn’t be able to fit), follows.

=======================

Roy walks through the Toad Town Sewers, hoping to find a pipe that leads him back to Dark Land. As he walks, he hears a voice saying, "Roy..."

The Koopaling turns around only to see Larry pointing the Mr. I at him. Larry fires, reducing the Koopa to a toddler, and then turns to leave the way he came when he sees several figures fall out of an overhanging warp pipe: Luigi, Geno, Twink, Punio, Flurrie, Gonzalez Jr, and Toadette. The Koopa runs off, and as he runs the heroes barely make out the Mr. I in his arms.

"Let’s follow him!" Twink yells.

"It’d be a waste of time," Geno replies. "He could easily go through just about anywhere via the pipes. We could spend the rest of our lives searching and never find him."

It is then that the seven notice Roy.

"What should we do with him?" asks Toadette while pointing to the infant.

"Well, we might as well take him with us," Luigi answers. "I’d love to see the look on Bowser’s face if we dumped a baby-fied Roy off on him."

=======================

"Now, hand dat piece over nice and easy-like, got it?" Frankie Pianta demands of Princess Eclair for the 368, 105th and final time.

"Never! I would rather die than sacrifice the item which gave my subjects happiness! And take a grammer lesson! You really need to talk in a more civilized way!" Eclair tells him.

=======================

"Did we really have to eliminate them all?" X-Periment asks Sir Grodus. "You could have just let them live once we obtained the Golden Bananas!"

"It was something that Grodus would have done if he was the one leading this mission," Crump tells the head PhD. "Word could have leaked out, and then there would be even more trouble for us. No, we had to eliminate all of those Kongs for the good of the team."

Crump’s communicating system then starts to beep, and he immediately answers it. "Sir Grodus, we have managed to collect almost every artifact left!" a random X-Naut tells him. "However, I’m sad to inform you, certain pieces have already been collected. One Crystal Star is in posession of the guardian of Kero Sewers; 30 Power Stars, a Crystal Star, and Mamar are in one Luigi Luigi’s ownership; a Compass Piece is still imbedded in Princess Eclair’s crown; Nick Koopa has a Rod of Nib; Jr. Troopa also has a Rod of Nib; and pretty much everything else belongs to Croco now that he’s formed an alliance with Popple and his rookies."

"That is excellent news," Crump comments. "Now we know the exact location of the remaining artifacts! Quickly, we should head to the Waffle Kingdom! Eclair should be there protecting the kingdom. I mean, where else could she be?"

=======================

"How on Plit are we going to get out of this mess?" Yellow T. asks Ludwig, forgetting the fact that he was kidnapped. The two characters and all of the babies they have in their posession are currently stuck in a tree near Eclair Castle.

=======================

"This is taking too long," Susan complains as she, Nick, and the two remaining Goombas look for the Crystal Star themselves. "Nick, I demand that you search faster for me!"

"THAT’S IT!" Nick snaps. "Even when I’m the one in charge, you are always barking commands at me! I’ve had it up to HERE with you!" Nick, in a blind fury, then pushes Susan into the sewage water. As Susan’s body floats the same way King Goomba’s had, and as Red and Blue Goomba zre completely startled that Nick hax just killed his own sister, Nick merely continues searching.

=======================

Luigi and Co. walk through the sewers of Toad Town while carrying Roy, looking around for anything that might be there before returning to Cortez. As the two walk on they see a small island lying in the center of the water. The Goomba King lies on the island, soaked and appearing to have been swept there by the rapids. As the two watch, Susan washes up onto the same island.

"I wonder what the deal with that is," Luigi wonders.

=======================

Larry walks through the jungles of Lavalava Island, having gone there to lie low for a bit. He is still carrying the Mr. I.

"You know," starts the eye, "you could’ve just used my powers on them."

"Wouldn’t it have taken too long? Plus, then we’d either have to leave them there, which would be in extremely bad taste, or take them with us, and do you really want to have to deal with seven babies coming with us?"

"True," replies the Mr. I.

"Say, what did you do with intruders in that temple thing once you turned them into babies?"

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about that. Basically there was a button to a trapdoor situated underneath me, and whenever someone would invade I’d turn them into babies, then use the button to cause the floor, except the part I was sitting on, to open up, dumping them through a system of pipes that deposited them into the woods."

"Who exactly built all that anyway?"

"You know, I never thought about that."

=======================

Croco, the Crooks, Popple, Booster, Chomp Bro, the Snifits, and Dodo all walk out of the tower, all with one goal in mind: to attack the X-Nauts and take everything they have.

"So, Crook B, did you check on the location of the X-Nauts?" asks Croco of his second Crook.

"Yes sir. Apparently they are in the DK Isles, getting ready to steal the Golden Bananas."

"All the better," Croco replies before the large group sets out.

=======================

Back with Wendy and Karma...

"Remind me to respect King Dad more for raising seven children when we get back to normal," Wendy reminds Karma as they start walking through the desert.

"Tell me about it," Karma replies. "If you guys had as much stink in your diapers as the two of us do now, I’m surprised that he even lasted a second."

The two babies continue to walk eastward. However, their little legs can’t support them for long, and they fall down onto the sand-like bricks. However, a certain green Nomadimouse is passing through at the time, and decides to help out the poor babies.

"They’ll be much safer under my roof then out here," Moustafa tells himself as he heads towards the Dry, Dry Outpost.

=======================

"Why do I sense an inconvenient plot hole?" Croco mutters as he sees that all of the boats to the DK Isles have all been rented, sold, or mysteriously vanished.

"Guess we’re going to have to find another way there," Crook B tells him.

"Duh... Maybe we could take the Toad Town Sewers?" Dodo asks.

"Hmm... You may be two sandwiches short of a picnic, see, but you’ve got a good sense of basic thinking," Popple tells the flightless bird. "Taking the sewers would be the most obvious and best bet for us, see?"

"You’re right!" Croco agrees. "Let’s head into the Toad Town Sewers!"

=======================

"WE’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF THESE SEWERS!" Red Goomba yells as he sees the giant yellow dog-like creature we all know as Belome directly in front of them.

=======================

"Wait a second..." Booster starts out. "Didn’t they drop everything they had and then the Snifits picked it up?"

"Yes," replies Croco, "but they found more stuff since then. In fact, everything that hasn’t been found by someone else. Plus, we gotta take them out anyway because they’ve been the main villains for way too long."

"Ah, okay."

What’s he mean by "main villains"?, wonders Dodo.

=======================

"Quickly; we are almost there!" Sir Crump tells the other X-Nauts. They are currently riding on Blade, which they had recently salvaged from the location where Smithy’s group was last seen before they were short-circuited. The X-Naut troops are now piloting the Axem Ranger’s former ship towards the Waffle Kingdom, where Princess Eclair is believed be located. Soon, as the ship has immense flight power, they fly down to the city in mere minutes after they had departed.

After a smooth landing, Sir Crump and a force of regular X-Nauts rush towards the castle and explord it. However, after an hour searching the place from top to bottom, the only people they find are a Koopaling, a Toad, and a few babies stuck up a tree.

"Could you please get us down from here?" Yellow T. politely asks as Crump wonders where Eclair could have vanished to.

=======================

Croco and his allies walk through the sewers, looking for a warp pipe they can take to the DK Isles.

"All right, when we get there, I have a plan," Croco says to the others.

"What is it?" asks Crook 1.

"Well," answers the crocodile, "what we are going to do is let them shoot us with that beam thing of theirs, as I’m betting that they grabbed some type of teleportation gun by mistake, and will send us straight into their fortress."

=======================

And sure enough, Croco and Co. have just found the warp pipe and appeared outside of the fortress walls.

"Now we let my little plan fall into action," says the wily crocodile.

And before they know it, the guards are upon them.

"Well well well, you thought you could sneak in here unnoticed, hmm? Well, looks like you’re in for a rude awakening," snickers an Elite X-Naut.

"Do with us as you wish, but please don’t shoot us with those ray guns," replies Croco, who is about to pull a Buer Rabbit.

"You’ll get the worst we have!" scoffs a regular X-Naut.

Popple decides to add his two cents. "You can whip us, burn us, and beat us, but please don’t shoot us with those ray guns!" whimpers Popple.

"Silence while we decide your fate," the Elite X-Naut snaps.

"You can push us off a cliff or drown us in a lake, but please don’t shoot us with the ray guns," pleads Dodo. The Elite X-Naut catches the bait.

"I know what we’ll do! We’ll blast them with our ray guns!" exclaims the Elite X-Naut.

"NO" all the Crooks yelp with deceit.

"Yes!" the Elite X-Naut chortles and they foolishly blast them into the fortress.

=======================

"Don’t you think that was just plain mean, Frankie?" Francesca asks as she looks at Eclair. She was recently beaten up by Frankie’s goons, and is now unconscious

"Don’t worry, sweetie! She’s gonna be fine, except for a slight headache!" Frankie tells her. "Now, let’s head over to da West Side, now dat we’ve got this Compass Piece from her!"

=======================

"Ah, I see that the toddlers are awaking," Moustafa tells himself as he watches the still baby-fied Wendy and Karma wake up.

Wendy and Karma’s eyes open, and they begin looking around at their surroundings, then see the mouse. Not recognizing Moustafa or where they are, the two begin yelling. Of course, the Nomadimouse doesn’t understand what they’re saying and merely replies with, "Don’t worry. I’ll see if I can find your homes soon enough. I do have to wonder who would leave two babies lying in the middle of the desert, however."

=======================

Meanwhile with Larry and the Mr. I...

"I’m really starting to hate these Piranha Plants," Larry mutters to himself as he turns another one into a mere sprout with the Mr. I’s help. The two then continue onwards, not knowing exactly what they were looking for. "So, how exactly were you created?"

"Ah, that’s a very interesting story," the Mr. I tells him. "You see... Mr. Is are created through a real basic process; a Magikoopa will often cast a spell on his or her eyes just before dying, making them come out and become Mr. Is, basically leaving some minions to their family. Mr. Is gradually grow larger as time goes on, but we only have a lifespan of 90 or so before we start to fade into the ground, after which we’ll become Boos or, in rare occasions, Pandorites."

"Aren’t you much older than 90, though? Plus, why is it you can use this age-reversing stuff when most Mr. Is use fire? And, if there are two, then does that mean there is another Mr. I out there like you?"

"Well, to answer your second question, the Magikoopa that created me specialized in age-altering magic, and thus he had me do the same. As for the third, he was one-eyed, so no, there’s only one of me. About that first one, well, what do you think I did to stay alive for so long? Or rather, what would you do if you had the power to make things younger?"

=======================

"This is just pathetic," Bowser mumbles to himself as one of the doomship’s engine malfunctions. Thankfully, the other engines powering the aircraft are keeping it in the air, but two Koopatrolls go back to inspect what has happened.

The Koopatrols come back a few minutes later carrying what appears to be a chestnut, though it is burnt due to being in the engine.

"Ahg, not again!" Bowser yells. "We must be getting attacking by that stupid Duplighost again!"

On the ground below, Croup merely stays hidden, planning to keep Bowser busy long enough for Kamek and Kammy to solve everything.

=======================

"WE’RE GOING TO DIE!" Blue Goomba yells as Belome approaches them. The creature is getting closer and closer to them, and the two Goombas and Nick have nowhere else to run. Just when the beast is about to eat them, it is suddenly hit by a laser!

"Take that, you monstrous sewer guardian!" Geno yells at the giant pooch.

Belome roars and charges Geno, who rolls out of the way, causing Belome to charge into a pit that, though small, is enough to contain him for the time being. Geno hops down into the pit, as do Flurrie and Gonzalez Jr, the plan being to take the dog-thing out.

While Nick is distracted by this, Luigi jumps on him and pins him down. "All right, where’s Larry?" Luigi asks the Koopa.

"I have no idea!" Nick answers. "But I do know that if you don’t get off me you’re going to regret it!"

While Luigi stares at Nick’s face, Nick begins to pull out the Rod with his tail...

=======================

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Goombario asks Goombella again, still wondering why they haven’t done a thing about getting out of this bar in over an hour.

"Not much longer," Goombella replies. "Just wait a few more seconds..."

Just then, Beldam picks up Baby Vivian and takes her up to bed, and the bartender carries a few babies up the stairs himself, and a few (but not all) of the adults do the same. Goombella yells, "Now!" and the two rush out. Outside, Goombario looks amazed.

"How did you know that none of them would follow?!"

"You ever notice that the only things any of them besides Beldam and the bartender have done is yell "Yeah!" and scream when Beldam started to sing? That’s how I knew that."

"Oh. Well, let’s get going for Bowser’s castle, then!"

=======================

"Well, I guess we’re here!" Croco comments as he looks around the dungeon cell they have been placed in. "I just knew that those X-Nauts would be there." Croco then picks the lock, opens the cell door, and escapes with the rest of his band of thieves.

=======================

Meanwhile, back with Kamek and Kammy...

The two Magikoopa are in the midst of casting a spell to rebuild the castle, trying to be as quick as possible as they are expecting Bowser to arrive any second.

=======================

Croco and his allies walk through the long hall of dungeons while listening to see if anyone is present nearby. The only thing he hears is the sound of nine infants screaming in one room. He barges into this room and sees what’s become of the Kongs...

=======================

Back with Ludwig, Yellow T, the babies, and the X-Nauts...

"So, let’s see if I can get this straight. You’re the one who baby-fied most of the world?" Sir Crump asks Ludwig.

"No, zat vhas my father, King Dad," the Koopaling replies.

"Ah, you must mean Bowser. Anyways, are you still the one that managed to imprison that Toad, these babies, and managed to keep it all a secret from your father?" Crump asks again.

"Vell, three babies are gone, but the rest of zat is true," Ludwig answers.

"Well then, you’re going to make a perfect captive when we try to overtake King Bowser!" Crump tells the Koopaling. Before Ludwig can question what’s going on, he is hit in the back of the head and knocked out.

"So, I take it that we’re going to try to make the Koopas our slaves before continuing onwards?" X-Citing asks.

"Correct," Sir Crump answers. "It will be much easier to remain a villain in this story if we have stronger forces to protect ourselves."

".... Did you just break the fourth wall?" X-Periment questions.

"Probably, but that’s not too important. Troops, we didn’t find the princess, but we now have the possibility of conquering all of Dark Land and its army! Back to the ship, and bring the others with you!" Crump demands. And so, Ludwig, Yellow T, and the babies are brought aboard Blade and kept in a tight prison as the X-Nauts fly to Bowser’s Castle.

=======================

Meanwhile, with Wario, Waluigi, and Syrup...

The three have managed to go a considerable length toward Bowser’s Castle, hoping the Mr. I is still there, but have stopped to rest.

"Ugh, I cannot take this anymore," Waluigi moans to the other two.

"Agreed!" Wario shouts in response. "The great hero, Wario, reduced to this! I can’t take it anymore!"

"While I certainly don’t agree with that ’great hero’ bit, I’m definitely on the same page as you when it comes down to our prediciment," Syrup answers her foe.

As Wario opens his mouth to reply, the three see two baby Goombas coming into view.

=======================

"Looks like we need to stop for gas," X-Periment tells his leader. "We’ll just land over there, at the Rogueport Docks, until we get a refill."

The X-Nauts then piloted Blade over to the docks and make another perfect landing. As Sir Crump and the others entered Central Rogueport, they noticed Frankie and Francesca just entering in from the West Side.

"That man..." Sir Grodus gasps. "HE HAS A COMPASS PIECE!"

Immediately, the X-Nauts charge towards the Piantas.

"Frankie, these guys give me the creeps!" Francesca whines.

"No worries, sweet thang! With just a blast, this lil’ thing I pried from Eclair’s crown will knock ’em down easily!"

=======================

"Hey, aren’t those the Wario Bros? And Syrup?" Goombario asks Goombella as they approach the three baby humans just in view.

"I dunno. It’s hard to recognize them without the mustaches."

The two go up to them and then, seeing the kinds of looks they’re being given, can pretty much tell that the three are like them.

"What happened with you all? Don’t tell me Bowser went after you all as well," Goombella says to the three.

"Bowser’s doing this, too? I thought only Ludwig was baby-fying people," Waluigi manages to tell the Goombas.

"Ludwig?! He’s involved in all this?!" Goombella gasps, still in baby-talk.

"In that case, we must stop them both!" Wario declares. "Nobody messes with my mustache and gets away with it! So, you two pipsqueak Goombas wanna help?"

"Sure, why not?" Goombella replies. "After all, it would be nice to talk to people that actually understand us for a while!"

And so, the two Goombas and the three humans join together and head towards Bowser’s Castle.

=======================

Back with Croco and his band of thieves...

"So, sir, what are we going to do with them?" Crook 1 asks, motioning toward the baby Kongs.

"Hard to say. I don’t like the idea of just leaving them lying around, but I also don’t want to have to take them with us," Croco replies.

"How about this?" Crook B breaks in. "What if we wait until we find them items and then return them to their normal ages?"

"They don’t have the Body Modification Rod!" Croco replies before realizing something. He looks at Booster and says, "But he does."

"All right, all right," Booster says. "Just make sure that we find some type of ball-riding clown to join me. Things haven’t been the same since Grate Guy left. You know, less stunts and stuff."

=======================

Speaking of ball-riding clowns, Lemmy, Iggy, and Morton landed in Dire Dire Docks, luckily landing on, well, land.

"Ow... First we haven’t been included since this tale first began, and now I’ve got a major bump on my head!" Iggy complains.

"I agree, fair brother of mine, but you just broke the fourth wall, which would be in between of the third and fifth walls if they existed, and breaking any wall is bad, and I know this because I ran right through a wall in the castle, but then I heard an explosion, and then millions of Bob-ombs blew up, which ultimately destroyed the castle, and then we were sent flying, so I think that I may have activated those Bob-ombs when I ran through that wall, and I-" Morton speaks, but is interrupted when Lemmy stuffs his ball down the Koopaling’s throat.

"You owe me a new ball once this is all over, Big Mouth," Lemmy tells him. "Now, how do we even get out of here?"

"Hard to say," replies Iggy. "I heard that King Dad has an empty sub around here. Maybe we could go try to find it and use it to get out of here?"

"Or maybe we should just pause it and go to that last option, then wind up in Peach’s Castle?"

"Lemmy, things don’t work like in the video games."

"Really? Never woulda guessed."

=======================

"Oh, Frankie..." Francesca moans as she sees her fiance wounded in battle.

"Take them both into the ship!" Sir Crump orders. "Then, let’s head straight for Bowser’s Castle!"

=======================

"Let’s see..." Croco wonders as he stars at a control panel. The babies have already returned to normal, and the thief is now staring at a control panel of sorts. "Which button should I press?"

Croco then presses a big, yellow button. The entire X-Naut base ejects itself from the moon, and begins to tumble down to Plit.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Everyone onboard screams as they approach the ground at a quick pace.

=======================

Meanwhile, in Sub-con, two common lackeys are taking care of Wart while Nick and Susan are gone.

"You change him!" an Albatoss orders.

"No, YOU change him!" a Ninji orders back.

"WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Baby Wart whines.

"Fine, I’LL change him!" the Ninji says, unable to tolerate any more of Wart’s crying. He then goes over to the sink to get some fresh water. However, as the sewers had exploded, the entire castle is lifted off the ground by a giant geyser as soon as he turns on the tap!

=======================

Meanwhile, the team of Wario, Goombario, and the others have just reached the newly rebuilt Castle Koopa.

"There, it’s finally done," Kamek comments as he and Kammy look at what they have worked so hard to rebuild.

"Yes, I... wait, what are a bunch of meddlesome toddlers doing here?!" the other Magikoopa asks as the toddlers crawl straight towards them. Also, at that very second, Bowser’s doomship just pulls up and lands nearby. Very soon afterwords, the entire X-Naut fortress comes crashing down behind them! Plus, Luigi and his crew land beside the Magikoopas after being ejected from the geyser. Soon, every single character who was ever mentioned once in this story and that is still alive converge all around Bowser’s Castle!

"Chao! Chao!" that one Chao from a long time ago whines as he appears through a mysterious portal.

"Ouch... All I did was turn on the sink!" Moustafa whines as he keeps Karma and Wendy tucked under his arms.

"Man, that sub was fast, and I mean really fast, as we arrived back in seconds and..." Morton rambles on as he looks at the sub they had retrieved a small bit ago.

"I didn’t know that beer keg was connected to the sewer system!" Beldam says as she looks around and spots everyone else from the bar.

"Stupid underground geysers..." Larry mutters as he lands with a thud on the ground, soon followed by the Mr. I.

"I may have been trapped, but I’m still alive!" K. Rool declares as he raises a fist, followed by his two henchmen Klump and Krusha.

"Okay... This is definitely a bad day for us," Kamek tells his fellow Magikoopa as they look around at everybody.

Bowser walks out of his doomship and asks himself, "How did I get here? Well at least I can see that my castle’s just fi-"

It is then that he notices the Baby Roy that Luigi is holding.

"You! What are you doing with my son... and how’d you turn him into a baby?!"

Larry, who’s there because of having gone back to the sewers just before the flood, tucks the Mr. I inside his shell and begins whistling to cover up the complaining of the eye.

"Listen, Green Bean! I don’t know what happened, but..." Bowser then stops yelling at Luigi and pots Moustafa with not only Wendy, but also Karma. "YOU! You’ve got even MORE explaining to do!"

"Too... many... artifacts! Overload, overload!" Sir Crump’s handheld link to the TEC-XX 2.0 stammers before it overheats and deletsd itself.

"You hear that, troops?" Crump asks his men. "We’ve hit paydirt! Every last artifact that we haven’t obtained yet is here! This is so... hey, what’s our base doing all the way out here?"

Croco then stumbles out of the base, as do the rest of his crew. "Note to self: No matter how many red buttons there are, the yellow one always turns out to be even more dangerous."

"Hey, look!" Snifit #3 tells Croco as he points to Crump. "Those X-Nauts are here!"

"Oh, great. And I though things would be BETTER after hurtling millions of miles through space and landing all the way back here."

The two sides begin clashing, and as they fight Yellow T. hands Ludwig something. The Koopaling sneaks up on the leader of his former captors and hits Crump in the head with it, knocking him out, then looks to see what it is to find it to be a piece of steel.

"I found it lying on the ground awhile back," the Toad says to Ludwig. As the X-Nauts notice that their leader is down, they turn to run away but the Kongs jump on them and begin exacting their revenge.

"Hey, watch it! Didn’t we already kill you off some time ago?" X-Periment asks.

"Back in my day, there were still 1-Ups, you know!" Cranky answers as he swats the X-Naut PhD with his cane.

"I’ve had it up to here with this whole adventure!" K. Rool shouts at the two apposing forces. "I’m not certain who has the Golden Bananas anymore, but I DEMAND THAT YOU GIVE THEM TO ME!"

Meanwhile, Jr. Troopa has landed on top of the newly rebuilt castle. "I officially hate travelling through the sewers from now on," he tells himself, as he also arrived via a geyser.

"Everyone, shut it!" Bowser yells furiously, making everyone stop in he middle of whatever they’re doing. "Everyone shut up and explain just what they’re doing here," the Koopa then points at Moustafa and Luigi, "especially you two!"

"I have no idea what’s going on here," sighs the mouse. "I was just taking a walk through the desert when I stumbled upon these two."

"Well," Luigi says to Bowser, "I’m not the one who did this to him, and none of my partners did either. In fact, it was your son, Larry!"

The color drains from Larry’s face as Bowser turns to look at him. "Larry, you got some splanin’ to do!"

Ludwig, Wendy, and Karma all begin sweating up a storm as Larry opens his mouth to explain.

However, before Larry can even say a word, he feels quite strange. Then, he realises that the Mr. I is baby-fying HIM! He reaches into his shell, but it’s too late. The Koopaling is already a toddler.

"AHA! So, YOU’RE the one doing all this, you traitor!" Bowser yells as he points at the Mr. I. "You’ve got some explaining to do, or-" Bowser is suddenly interrupted by the Mr. I turning him into a baby as well.

"Fools... YOU ARE ALL FOOLS!" the Mr. I booms. "AFTER CENTURIES OF IMPRISONMENT, I SHALL FINALLY GET MY REVENGE ON ALL OF HUMANITY! I SHALL TURN EVERY LAST CREATURE INTO A BABY, AND RAISE THEM ALL TO OBEY ME!!!"

"You’re nuts, you know that?" Jr. Troopa remarks from the castle’s roof.

"Well, little kid, being stuck in the same place for OVER TWO THOUSAND YEARS can do that to you!" the Mr. I screams as he quickly turns the Troopa into a mere egg.

"Okay... If TEC-XX 2.0 was still active, he’d definitely say that this does not compute!" X-Periment tells Sir Crump. The PhD runs back into Blade for cover, quickly followed by X-Citing.

"Oh, this stinks!" Croco yelles "How on Plit are we going to stop that thing?!"

"That creature is too powerful now! Unless somebody manages to gain hold of all of the artifacts that have ever existed within the next few minutes, we’re all doomed!" Kamek tells the others. He then drops the Compass Piece he retrieved from Croup and runs into Blade himself.

Croco grabs the piece, then snickers and says, "Popple, Booster, Kongs- go take the things from the X-Nauts. Me, the Crooks, and Chomp Bro. here will handle Luigi.

"Wait," Luigi wonders, "couldn’t we solve this non-violently?"

"No," Croco answers, "because we’re taking over for ourselves!"

Luigi sighs and comes running at Croco, who jumps and slashes him before doing a backflip.

Meanwhile, Nick Koopa looks around in a frantic manner. Deciding that the X-Nauts must have something valuable, as Popple, Booster, and the Kongs are all after them, Nick commands Red and Blue Goomba to pitch in and take the items for themselves. Nick then approaches Croco and Luigi, wanting to steal their items as well, but the five Snifits block his path!

"You’re going to have to get through us if you want to get to our boss’ boss!" Snifit #1 tells him.

Nick sighs and reaches into his shell to pull out the Rod, only to find that it’s not there! He turns around to see that Toadette has stolen it from him.

"Guess I’ll give this to Luigi," she says, skipping away toward her partner. Nick turns back to the Snifits and is promptly tackled by them.

"WAAAAAHHHHH!!!" cries Wart once more.

"I can’t stand this anymore!!!" the Albatoss finally snaps. He picked up the baby-fied Toad and tosses him at Toadette. She is knocked out by the hit and drops the Rod, only to have Croco dash by and grab it in seconds.

"Looks like the tables are turned now, Green Bean!" Croco yells at Luigi as he immediately uses the Rod on him. Luigi is severely hurt, and feels like he was about to finally use up his last life.

"It-a looks like this will-a be my last battle," Luigi mutters to himself as Croco approaches him. The alligator dashes towards him, raises the Rod high into the air, and...

...

"Oh come-a on! Shouldn’t I-a be dead right-a now?" Luigi mutters to himself when he realizes he wasn’t dead. He looks at Croco, and discovered that the alligator had been turned into a baby by the Mr. I just in the nick of time. Luigi grabs the 120 Power Stars and other artifacts that Croco dropped, and then goes to join the battle against the X-Nauts.

Ludwig yells out, "Why are you suddenly doing this anyway?! You seemed like a pretty nice guy before!"

"See, I realized something while I was inside that Koopa’s shell," the Mr. I explains. "I realized that with how powerful I am, there’s no reason why I should follow orders from anyone or be couped up anywhere! In fact, I should be all-powerful! Don’t worry, kid, I like ya, unlike the rest of these vermin. Plus, I need someone to raise them all anyway."

Wario turns to his four sorta-allies and says, "I’ve got a plan. We’re the only ones who can do anything right now!"

"Well, what is it? Annoy that thing to death or something?" Waluigi asks. "Face it, we’re weaklings in this form!"

"I hate to admit this, but you’ve got a point. I can barely even read what I wrote in my own Tattle Log! How can we possibly do ANYTHING?!" Goombella asks.

"Don’t worry, even as babies, this plan can’t fail!" Waluigi tells the others. He then explains the plan to them, and they agree that it is something they can actually pull off.

Meanwhile, Yellow T. is frantically running around in circles. "IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!" he screams rather loudy. "GAME OVER, MAN!"

As the Toad runs around and screams, the Mr. I looks aggravated... or rather as aggravated as a giant eyeball can look. One moment later, Yellow T.’s screaming is replaced with crying.

The Crooks begin rushing at the Mr. I, planning to attack for their leader. However, the Mr. I soon reduces them to the same thing.

"Guess it’s up to me!" Chomp Bro. yells as he throws a Chain Chomp at the eye. However, a second later, the Chain Chomp is nothing but a mere Chomplet. The Mr. I then baby-fies Popple’s rookie, and then turns his attention towards Popple’s other rookie, Booster.

Booster, along with Popple, the Kongs, Luigi, and the two Goombas, are trouncing Sir Crumps troops. "You may eliminate these troops, but there are millions more where they came from!" Crump yells as he presses a button on his belt, causing hundreds more X-Nauts to teleport onto the field. "Face it, us X-Nauts have been key villains throughout the entire story, and we’re not going to give up without a fight!"

The X-Nauts rush the heroes, but then a huge stream of lights rains down from the sky upon them! Geno, who’s merely been observing this whole time, chuckles. "Nice to see I’ve still got that one."

"Err," Crump replies, "I didn’t want to have to do this but... Magnus!"

With that, Magnus Von Grapple 3.0 lowers from the Blade and Crump jumps into it.

"Haha! Feel the wrath of-" The X-Naut leader is cut off by a blast from the Mr. I, reducing Crump to a baby and Magnus to nothing but a toy car.

"Well, I had a feeling that they wouldn’t last forever," Luigi tells himself as he stares at the former evil villain. The green plumber then manages to gather most of the artifacts he had dropped, although Popple, the Kongs, and the two Goombas still manage to get a few.

"Our king may have been defeated, and our new leader may be unable to fight, but we’ll still put up a good fight!" Blue Goomba announces as he holds out a Crystal Star and aimsd it at Popple.

The Mr. I watches as Popple and numerous others are thrown into the air via Earth Tremor. "This is stupid. Don’t they realize that they’d be better off working together?"

It’s then that he notices Wario, Waluigi, Syrup, Goombella, and Goombario approaching him. Dismissing it as nothing more than playing, he is soon shocked to discover the five running around him as well as they can, in essence trapping him as he cannot stop them because his blast will only return them to normal, and he is gradually shrinking because of it as a result.

Luigi notices this and aims the Body Modification Rod at the eye, reducing the eye to exactly what would be most fitting. Everyone stops their fighting and notices this.

"A fitting end to him," Ludwig mutters.

"Yes, well, speaking of which, Ludwig," Luigi says as he dumps Bowser, Larry, the Mr. I, Karma, and Wendy into his arms, "hope you like babysitting."

"Ugh, I can’t believe this!" Ludwig yells angrily, walking into the castle along with Iggy, Morton, and Lemmy following.

Epilogue

Luigi eventually returned everyone but the Koopas and the Mr. I back to normal, and all seemed all right. Ludwig did find a way to return his family to normal eventually, but not before receiving a beatdown from Wario, Waluigi, Syrup, Kat, Ana, and all the other people he captured and baby-fied.

Moral of the Story: In order to be in Mario Baseball, you have to babysit, get kidnaped by Ludwig, get turned into a baby, and co-star in a Fun Fic in Lemmy’s Land.

The End

 

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