In recognition of AlphaDream going bankrupt last week, I plan on inserting significant references to their RPG "Tomato Adventure - トマトアドベンチャー" that was released only in Japan for the GameBoy Advance. I have been itching to post this particular chapter, as it contains what I feel to be one of my funniest gimmick ideas!

Chapter 7

Toadette was the first to recover from their wipeout, as she was the most resilient. Lifting her head, she found herself facedown on the beach.

"Blech! Sand in the mouth!" she gagged. She tried to spit out as much of the sand as she could.

"*Ah-choo* Sand in the nose!" she snorted. "I wish I had a tissue!" After finally getting her sinuses clear and brushing herself off, she took a look at the surrounding area.

The Odyssey was badly damaged, and Power Moons were scattered across the beach. She saw some of her friends also wiped out in the sand, and walked over as best she could to Dreambert, who was nearest to her. It was extremely hard to do so, as the sand was quite dry, and kept shifting from under her feet and made all the more difficult with her short legs.

"Dreambert?" she said when she reached him. She helped him up to his feet. The Pi'illo turned to face her.

"Ugh . . . I'm okay, Toadette. Where are the others?"

"They should be around," Toadette responded. "But the more imperative matter is that the Odyssey's shot!"

"Toadette, it's not shot!" came the voice of Cappy. He hovered over to them. "It just needs repairing. The Power Moons can easily return it to its former glory, but it looks like we're gonna need to get a new Harnessphere, as our present one is definitely shot. The Harnessphere was the one storing the energy from all of the Power Moons. It was that glass globe on the roof of the cabin. Without it, we can't harness the power of the Moons, hence the name."

"So where are we gonna get a replacement Harnessphere, Cappy?" Toadette asked him.

"I'm not sure about that," he answered, shaking his head. By this time, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach had all recovered and walked over to them.

"That was quite the monkey wrench he threw at us!" Peach said. "Are you guys alright?"

"Yes," Dreambert said. "Do you know where we are, Princess?"

"Well, I believe we should be somewhere near Dire Dire Docks. It's a major shipping port on the Mushroom Kingdom's southern coast. That was also the theme of one of the paintings that Mario had explored at the Castle, too. If we head east, we should hit it." They then saw Stuffwell walking over to them, though he, too, was having difficulty walking in the dry sand.

"Indeed, that is quite correct, Princess," he said. "By my calculations, it is positioned at a distance of approximately 6 miles and 3528 feet, from our present location."

"I think 6 and a half miles is enough, Stuffwell," Peach said to him. "Well, let's get moving . . . after cleaning the place up first."

And after they gathered all of the Power Moons together in a big pile next to the Odyssey, they eventually headed inland to find a small town just on the edge of nearby Boo Woods named Trembleton. Despite the name, the place seemed quite peaceful and relaxing. They replenished their supplies and spoke with a few of the Toads there, though they were quite surprised to encounter none other than Goombella.

"Omigosh! You're Princess Peach, right?" she said.

"Yes, I am," the Princess replied. "You must be Goombella . . . that archeology student from the University of Goom, aren't you?"

"How do you guys know that?" Goombella asked, slightly shocked.

"Well," Peach began, "we're familiar with a Paper counterpart of you. A counterpart that had assisted Paper Mario on one of his adventures."

"You mean the Paper counterpart of this guy?" she said, looking in the plumber's direction. She studied his features. "He does look kinda cute with that moustache. Totally looks like the sort of person I could get to like and hang out with."

"What brings you here to Trembleton, Goombella?" Peach asked.

"I'm visiting my cousin, Christibo. We hadn't seen each other in, like, forever! So, we scheduled a time to meet and go over all the crazy stuff that's gone on since we last saw each other. It's great to see her again! What are you guys up to?"

"We're on our way to Dire Dire Docks," Peach told her. "Our airship has been damaged, and we need to get it repaired."

"Hey, there's a warp pipe not too far away from here that can take you directly downtown," Goombella told them. "That's how I got here, since I came in from Dire Dire Docks. Anyway, Christibo and I have reserved a table at this local restaurant she's told me about. Catch you guys later!" And the young Goomba walked away.

"It almost looked like she was starting to develop an instant crush on you, Mario." Peach commented. "I could see it in her eyes." Toadette looked at Mario and giggled at the thought. "Let's head over to the Docks and see what we can find." And they soon found the pipe at the far end of town and entered it.

Dire Dire Docks was quite a bustling seaport. There were a host of pedestrians of all different races passing through: Goombas, Koopas, Piantas, Buzzy Beetles, Tostarenans, Beanish, Dry Bones, Gao, Boos, Bob-ombs, Nimbi, Sprixies, Clefts, Volbonans, and a slew of others in addition to the hosting Toads. They walked through town chatting with some of the pedestrians and natives.

They had a significant encounter with a pair of pedestrians named DeMille and Patharan: a young couple from the Ketchup Kingdom that had traveled to the Mushroom Kingdom to watch the eclipse. DeMille had heard about Mario and his adventures and recalled an adventure that he had some time ago that resulted in overthrowing his country's old ruler to rescue Patharan, who at that time was his girlfriend. He had a friend back in his home town named Salem who was fascinated with their Bros attacks, which he consistently called "Gimmicks," and asked for a demonstration so he could tell his friend in detail. In return, DeMille gave them one of his own "Gimmicks" for them to use in their quest, as he didn't need it anymore, calling it the "Gimmick Gear." Impressed with his heroism, Peach invited DeMille and Patharan to her festival back at Toad Town, who readily accepted after they found that very few of the dishes that Peach had planned contained tomatoes.

After parting ways with their new friends, they found, to their delight, a shop called Bonneters' Airship Service, and it looked like it had just opened. There were several small airships undergoing maintenance behind the main building.

"Hey guys! Take a load of this! It's Mario and Cappy!" the Bonneters in the shop suddenly shouted. "Hey! Over here!" The party approached them. Cappy assumed his real form and hovered over.

"Well! I didn't think I'd see any of you guys way out here!" Cappy said to them.

"I know! We just opened this place last week!" they replied. "Seeing how popular airship travel is becoming, we thought we might start a chain of repair and replacement shops for them. Our airships are probably some of the best out there right now, and who else would be most appropriate to repair them than us Bonneters? I'm sure there are other talented airship mechanics out there, too. We just want to be able to extend our personal service and knowledge around to make it more convenient."

"This makes things easier for us," Cappy continued. "We got shot down from the sky by Bowser, and out Harnessphere is shot. Do you have any?"

"Not yet," they said. "At least none of the common models yet. They're being shipped as we speak. However, we did receive an early order for the latest Harnessphere model: the Cirrus 2020. It's supposed to be the most durable and efficient model out there and should be compatible with the Odyssey. It's just that the SRP is a whopping 10,000 coins. You'd have to save up for it."

"Goodness! That is expensive!" Cappy said. "We could save up for it, but you see, we are kind of on a time crunch. Bowser appears to be up to a new scheme. We'll come back when we've got the funds, okay?"

"We're rooting for you!" the Bonnetons called out to them. "We get the feeling that something's gonna come up, and you'll have all the Coins in no time! Seriously!"

The party continued to walk down the streets of Dire Dire Docks discussing how they might be able to earn all the Coins in such a short period of time.

"We don't have anything, or enough of something, of particular value that we could sell," Starlow mentioned. ". . . except perhaps Peach's Crown — but that's obviously out of the question."

"Perish the thought, indeed," Peach said. "It's been in my family for many generations. Don't worry, everyone. We'll think of something."

Continuing down one particular alley, they were suddenly ambushed and sprayed by a large group of Snifits. After a brief fit of violent coughing, they all collapsed unconscious while the Snifits carried them all away.

They eventually came to themselves to find that they were in a small room contained within what looked like an old, abandoned warehouse. There was hardly any light, and they tried to look around before Mario and Luigi finally brought some light using their hand abilities like candles. The small room was now dimly lit.

"Where are we?" Toadette muttered, rubbing her head.

They walked out of the small room into the main chamber of the warehouse. There, they thought they could make out a colorful, decorative theater stage and seats. It suddenly occurred to them that most of the seats were occupied. In the next moment, a bright spotlight shone on one end of the arena to reveal a Snifit in a bowtie. Was this supposed to be some sort of gameshow? At the sight of the Snifit, Luigi suddenly shrieked in terror.

"And here they are!" the Snifit announced. "Ladies and gentlebuddies! Please welcome our contestants for another exciting round of:

"SNIFIT . . . OR . . . WHIFFIT!"

Mario & Luigi Edition

"'Snifit or Whiffit'?" Peach muttered. "Never heard of . . . Luigi! Where are you going?" The group quickly grabbed Luigi before he could bolt out of the room. Luigi started to ramble on about how they might not come out of there alive. Paper Mario had told him about the Seabed Edition, which had a giant Urchin that could pop Paper Mario's bubble causing him to drown.

"I'm your host, Snifit!" their host addressed the crowd. "I must admit, I have been LOVING this wonderful gameshow introduced to us by our Paper counterparts! I can't believe we had never thought of this ourselves! How many of you agree with me?" The crowd gave him a standing ovation in response.

"We have a wonderful party of very special guests on our show today. Give it up for the Superstar of the Mushroom Kingdom: Super Mario!" Mario stepped up to the center of the stage and waved to the wild crowd.

"Next up is the kid brother Costar of the Mushroom Kingdom: uh . . . Green 'Stache!" Luigi stamped the ground in annoyance.

"Third, the fair ruler of this great Kingdom. Give it up for Her Highness: Princess Peach! Aka, Toadstool!" The Princess went up and curtseyed.

"And finally, we have perhaps the greatest girl-Toad explorer and inventive genius out there, as well as a founding member of the Toad Brigade: Toadette! Aka, Kinopiko!" The mentioning of "inventive genius" made Toadette blush, and she too stepped forward and curtseyed. The crowd was still clapping and cheering wildly.

"We've got a lot of great ideas planned for you guys to show off your form, your skill, and your brains! Give 'em something to cheer about, and you can win big money and awesome prizes! In fact, our grand prize is 10,000 coins and a secret bonus! Judging by the behavior of Greenie out there, it appears that you guys already know our terms and conditions. Are you guys ready to get started?"

Peach looked at the others. "10,000? . . . That's enough to purchase the Harnessphere! Whatever they have coming our way, I'm sure we're up to the challenge. Who's with me?" She laid her hand down for the others to follow. Mario, Luigi, and Toadette all laid theirs down in turn, though Luigi did hesitate. "Awesome! Let's kick some gameshow butt!"

The minutes passed as the heroes showed off their skills to the crowd. There were four checkpoints: 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000. Each section contained different aspects of either their abilities or trivia. And all the time, the Snifits kept a poisonous fog on the ground, giving them only a certain amount of time to complete the challenge before they passed out from it. They eventually cleared all four rounds.

"Congratulations!" their Snifit host said. "You guys are real champs! Look at the crowd out there! They're going wild for you! I'd say you've given them a good show, don't you think? It can only be made better if you can but pass our grand finale, but you guys are free to walk away now if you want."

"We'd like to continue," Toadette told him. "Whatever it is, we're sure we can handle it!"

"I love your attitude there, Toadette!" the host responded. "Just remember: we're not liable for anything that might happen. This is a monster of a challenge! Are you guys sure you're ready?"

"We're prepared," Starlow said.

"Then let's play! Ladies and gentlebuddies! Our brave contestants have decided to go for our ultimate challenge! Bring it in!" And the group soon found themselves staring into the face of a large Wiggler. It was the most unusual Wiggler that they had ever seen — it was a light blue color, but turned a deep purple when enraged. It also had spikes on its segments, making it all the harder to attack, as they needed to turn all the segments back to normal before they could attack the head, which was apparently not spiked. "If you can take this thing down, the grand prize is yours! You are free to use healing items in this round, as I'm sure it will take some time to subdue. Good luck, everyone!"

Going into the battle, it became even stranger. First, they found that hitting the segments did not change them back to its normal color, and yet they still couldn't damage the head when it was enraged. Second, they found that these segments could separate themselves from the rest and act on their own. Was this creature some sort of colony? They found that they could eventually eliminate each segment leaving the head which finally calmed down allowing them to start attacking it. The battle was made all the more difficult by the usual poison gas produced by the Snifits.

But soon, the quartet did finally bring it down. The crowd went absolutely wild at this. By this time, the crowd was no longer composed of just Snifits, there were a variety of other races that had come to watch the show as well, though Snifits still made up the majority. Even the Snifit host appeared to be on the edge of his seat.

"Zoo wee mama! That was perhaps the greatest performance I've ever seen!" he shouted. "Everyone, give it up for our Superstar team!" And as the crowd went nuts, Mario and company all waved to them. "These whippersnappers have definitely earned our grand prize, folks! Thank you all for coming, and I hope to see you again on the next exciting round of: SNIFIT . . . OR . . . WHIFFIT!"

And suddenly, a trapdoor opened up from below, and the quartet fell into the basement. There they found a big chest filled with their prize money and . . . the party gasped in astonishment. It was King Boo's Crown! How the Snifits got a hold of it none of them knew, but if this was the secret bonus, they'd might as well take advantage of it.

"Honestly! That was perhaps the most exciting game of Snifit or Whiffit I've ever seen, guys!" their Snifit host said, entering the room. "I can hardly believe you are Superstars! Please, claim your prizes, and I hope you will come back to play on our show again sometime! I'm sure that everyone at Dire Dire Docks will want to attend it next time! We hope that whenever you guys do come back, you'll have some new stuff to show us."

"You're very kind for a Snifit," Peach said to him. "We'll put it into consideration. Right now, we have some pressing matters to attend to."

"Such as putting a dent in Bowser's plans?" he said matter-of-factly. "Oh, don't be surprised. It's always the most pressing matter for you guys. Most of us Snifits here at Dire Dire Docks aren't part of Bowser's Koopa Troop, so we thought maybe you guys would have need of this wonderful work of art to help you fight him."

"Wait," Starlow said. "Did you guys plan all of this?"

"Yeah, those were some of my unpaid interns that went and abducted you, I admit," their host replied. "But hey! Nothing bad happened! You all came out okay! Anyway, you can return to the street from that Pipe over there. We hope to see you again!"

The group then went through and eventually made their way back to the Bonnetons' repair shop where they told them about their gameshow adventure and their prize money.

"Awesome!" they exclaimed. "Like we said, we had a sinking feeling you were going to find something. Pleasure doing business with you guys! This Harnessphere model should be much more capable of withstanding attacks from Bowser in the future. We had taken into account all that we had seen from your adventure around the world in the Odyssey to stop Bowser's wedding. We think even that great Ruined Dragon will have a tough time breaking through this one. Good luck, everyone!"

"Thank you all," Peach said to them. "I hope you have a successful and profitable business. We'll see you around."

The group was soon back at the crash site. But as they came into view of it, they saw to their despair that many of their Power Moons on the ground were gone. As they approached, they caught a glimpse of a small group of Boos carrying away some of them.

"Aw, come on!" Starlow cried. "How will we fix the Odyssey now?"

"With so many Power Moons taken," Cappy said, "we may not be able to fully restore the Odyssey. We've gotta follow those Boos, everyone! Come on!" They followed the trail to Trembleton, where they saw the thieves retreating into Boo Woods. Luigi suddenly began crying.

"Come on, Luigi!" Starlow said. "Don't be such a baby! You can do this! I've seen you tackle way scarier things before, and Mario here told me that you've taken down the super-scary and powerful King Boo a grand total of three times! That doesn't even include the time when I watched you two fight him back in Gloomy Woods. This should be a piece of cake!" Despite the Star Sprite's advocation, Luigi was still shivering.

"Were those your Power Moons those Boos took?" came the voice of Goombella, who walked up to them. "I saw a whole slew of Boos not too long ago taking them earlier after Christibo and I returned from dinner. I think they were all headed for Boo Woods. You're gonna need some serious guts to go into a place like that! I hear it's, like, reeeeeeealy spooky! Keep following them and maybe you'll see who's behind it."

"Thanks, Goombella," Starlow told her. "We're more than prepared to wander woods like these. I've gone through a scary forest before with the Brothers, so I know what to expect."

So they head into Boo Woods, forcing Luigi inside in the process. The air was dank, and even worse, the sun was setting, and there was very little light that could shine through the leaves on the trees to begin with. It wasn't yet pitch black, but it still made them feel uncomfortable. In an attempt to overcome this, Mario and Luigi both used their hand powers to give the party some light, Mario using his to light torches on their way. At one point, he happened to look up to see some sort of silhouette high in the sky, but Mario couldn't make out what it was, and simply continued with the rest of the group, though he kept the thought with him in case it became important. They encountered many ghosts along their way, some were peaceful while others were hostile like Boos. After wandering down a few pathways, they reached a rocky dead end.

"Hmm . . ." Peach murmured. Where do you suppose we go now? I don't ever remember seeing any other paths on our way here." She felt around the rocky wall and, pushing aside an adjoining bush, she saw a very small tunnel hardly a foot in diameter on the ground.

"I wonder if this leads anywhere," Peach speculated. "The problem is, it's much too small for any of us to fit through." She thought about it for a few moments. "Too small for any of us . . . except . . ." She then looked over at the smallest member of the group, who slowly inched backwards in response.

"Uh, nuh-uh! I am not going in there!" Starlow protested. "What if it's all wet and slimy with cobwebs and spiders all over the walls?"

"Starlow, what else are we going to do?" Toadette tried to explain.

"You can't make me!" Starlow announced, and she turned around so as to flee. Mario looked at Cappy and threw him at the Star Sprite, and in the next moment . . .

Luigi and Toadette both burst out in hysterical laughter. Even Peach giggled. Starlow now sported Mario's cap and moustache — the plumber had captured her!

"Ugh! What happened? Why can't I move?" the Star Sprite found herself saying. Though conscious, she was now no longer in control of her own body. She took notice of the Cha-Cha Chasers laughing their heads off and rolling on the ground. Mario turned her around so as to see.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Giggling, Peach pulled out a small mirror from within Stuffwell and showed her her reflection. Starlow squealed in horror.

"EEEEKK! MARIO! LET ME GO!" she screamed, but to no avail.

"This is awesome, Mario!" Cappy cried. "We captured Starlow! Ready to see what's in that tunnel?" Starlow started shrieking in terror, but Cappy quickly subdued her consciousness so that she wouldn't have to experience it personally.

"Okay . . . that suddenly seemed kind of scary," Peach commented.

"Second that!" Toadette added, having gotten over her laughing fit. "Good luck, Mario!"

As the tunnel was so small, Mario found that he had to get Starlow to walk it; not a problem for him as he had captured his fair share of Goombas. Fortunately, there were no enemies inside the claustrophobic tunnel complex, though he did encounter some in the small chambers. Mario eventually came across a series of switches on the ground. After pressing them in the proper order, he felt a tremor under his feet and knew that something had happened. He then returned to the rest of the group.

"Hey, Mario's back!" Toadette called out. "This cavern opened up while you were down there. Was that you?" Mario exited the Star Sprite and confirmed upon seeing the new passageway. He looked back to see that Starlow was now under the post-capture dizzy spell like many other creatures that Mario captured.

"D . . . don . . . don't ever do that again!" Starlow managed to say as she regained her senses. "How indignant!"

"The cave wasn't slimy at all, Starlow," Cappy told her. "I think you were just being paranoid." Starlow scowled at him.

"Please, let's not bicker," Peach said. "We have our way forward, so let's just keep moving." Starlow put it aside grudgingly and continued. And yet, after traversing more areas, they again encountered small tunnel openings on the rocky wall face.

"No! Not again! No! NOOO!" Starlow shrieked. But it was too late.

Finally, after all of the paths had been discovered and mapped, they reached a large clearing. There were a series of six stone pillars arranged in a hexagon in the center of it. It was now fully nighttime with the Moon in a waning gibbous phase visible in the east above the treetops; early morning hours. The solar eclipse was slowly approaching, and they wondered if they would be able to resolve this conflict with the Sapians and with Bowser in time for the big event. The party walked over to the arrangement of pillars, and Mario used his Firebrand to light the torches that adorned the top of each of them. The area was now lit warmly by their light. The air seemed strangely still, and the environment felt uncomfortably quiet.

"Eeheeheehee! You found me!" came a chilling voice from directly in front of them! Luigi shrieked in terror. From the nothingness came the shape of King Boo! "You are all a formidable bunch to be able to make it all the way here! Quite impressive!"

"Were you waiting for us?" Peach asked.

"You might say that," the ghost monarch answered her.

"So you have something to do with all those Boos taking our Power Moons, don't you?" the Princess continued. King Boo raised his ghostly arms, bringing forth dozens upon dozens of Boos from all sides of the clearing each holding a Power Moon or two.

"Ah, yes! Of course!" he said with zeal. "It was I who orchestrated it all! But I know what you're thinking: You want them back. But why should I hand them over? You see, there's something I want back, too. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Baby Luigi!" And Luigi began crying.

"What a big baby!" King Boo laughed. "And yet . . . how could such a crybaby as he be able to defeat such an awesome power as I three separate times? It doesn't make any sense!"

He continued: "I'm willing to offer a ransom to you guys. Knowing how successful and resourceful you guys have always been, I am ghostly certain, heh-heh, that you can pull it off! Luigi, you know what I'm talking about: my wonderful Bejeweled Crown! This piece of tin that I've have to use doesn't even begin to show my real personality. I hate having to look like a plain old Big Boo! That Crown has always made me feel truly like the King of Boos! If you guys can find it, I might give you back your silly old Power Moons. Now step on it! I've got bystanders to scare and subjects to attend to!" With the ghost's terms in their minds, they huddled together to discuss their options.

"Well? What's the holdup?" King Boo barked after a minute or two. "Do you guys want your Power Moons or not?" In response, Mario took out the Crown and held it up for the phantasma to see. And in an interesting reversal of roles, the King of Boos himself was scared stiff.

"NO WAY! You already have it?!" he said in a state of shock. Pulling himself together, he continued. "It appears I have seriously understated how resourceful you guys were. Quickly!" Suddenly, the Crown was snatched out of Mario's hands by a concealed Boo who brought it to his master. King Boo laughed out loud at their misfortune.

"You all are so gullible!" he sneered, staring at them with antipathy, absurdly pleased. "And blind, too! Heh! Not like you can do anything about that! Yeah, I'll bet you knew that was coming, too! Such a classic betrayal, I know; but that's the way it has to be for us villains! With this Crown back in my possession, I can assemble an army of Ghosts and Boos and send you guys into submission and become my servants! Farewell!"

But at that very moment, right before King Boo could put the Crown on, there was a sudden flash of blindingly bright light from above them. The surrounding Boos all dropped their Moons and scattered in fear of the light. King Boo, however, had not been so fortunate, having been knocked out by it, and the party looked up to see Bowser and Bowser Jr descending in their Clown Cars, cackling menacingly at the spectacle. There was a large, powerful searchlight connected to Bowser's Clown Car focused down into the clearing. They took King Boo's Crown from the ground and ascended again.

"We got it, Papa!" Bowser Jr shouted gleefully.

"Good work, Junior!" Bowser shouted back. "I can't believe how easy that was! Thanks for giving us the heads-up, missy! Why don't you go slow 'em down for us!" And as father and son left in their vehicles, the quartet looked up to see the menacing silhouette of Wingo descending down into their midst — the bright jewel on her feather-topped turban glowing in the dim light of the stone pillar torches.

"Seriously! Wingo?!" Toadette cried in anger. "Were you following us this whole time?" The great bird gave her a chuckle in response. Wingo's beady eyes focused on Toadette menacingly as though she were considering snatching her right then and carrying her away in her talons.

"Dear me, she's bigger than I thought," Peach said.

"Wait, Toadette. You know this Roc?" Starlow asked.

"Like, yeah!" Toadette answered ferociously. "She's carried Captain Toad and me off quite a number of times. She likes shiny things. She must have seen us with King Boo's Crown and decided to inform Bowser of it. Why would she? Does she know what Bowser is up to?" And at that moment, Mario recalled the black shape that he had seen in the sky earlier, and now was quite aware of who it was. He explained it to Toadette, whose eyes seemed to burn all the more.

"Well that settles it!" she said, aflame with determination. "Let's show this giant chicken what we're made of! Show me some drumstick, Wingo!" And they all charged at her.

Wingo was a magic-type foe, and they found that she was significantly weak against thunder. They found that the Magicroc's sheer size made it impossible to jump on her head. They decided to go for the stomach, and after some time, they managed to get her to fall over onto her stomach using a lateral attack at her legs, giving them the opportunity to wail on her head, which also happened to be a critical spot that was also weak against fire. They soon subdued the giant bird, who gave them a screech such as though she were telling them, "You'll never succeed, you fools!" and flew off. Toadette looked quite satisfied.

"Well . . . that felt awesome!" Toadette said triumphantly. "I had never really gotten a good opportunity to give that mega pigeon a piece of my mind. With that pack I had carried with me on my adventures with Captain Toad, I wasn't able to jump, and could never give her a head stomping like I was able to do now! Serves her right!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Peach commented. "Unfortunately, Bowser got away with King Boo's Crown. What do you suppose he wanted with it anyway?" As this question lingered in their minds, a Warp Pipe opened up at the other side of the clearing.

"That Pipe looks like it may be our way out of this place," the Princess said to them, walking toward it. "I think Luigi would really appreciate getting out of this spooky forest. Let's go back and fix the Odyssey." She entered the Pipe with the rest following close behind. The Pipe came out at another end of Trembleton, not too far from where they entered the forest.

"Does anybody have any idea on where Bowser plans to head next?" Peach asked as they approached their crash site. "He certainly appears to be up to something . . ." Mario again remembered what Bowser had said to them before they were shot down, then told it to the Princess.

"I see. So Bowser was listening in to our conversation," she said, "and it sounds like he thought we were heading over to get the Star Rod and wanted us out of his way. I guess that's where we'll need to go next. Any objections?" Everyone remained silent in response.

"Where is the Star Rod usually kept, Princess?" Dreambert asked her.

"Up on Star Hill," she answered. "Perhaps the Star Spirits can tell us what's going on. Is everyone ready?"

The Odyssey was soon repaired with the new Harnessphere in place, and with all the Power Moons back inside it. Everyone clambered inside and made themselves comfortable. In the next few minutes, the Odyssey was once again airborne and headed for Star Hill.