Other Fan Fiction ❯ Mario: It's all in the Hat ❯ The Bigger they are... ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2 - The Bigger They Are...

 

Entering the throne room, Mario's first thought is that(and it comes as no surprise, Bowser does this every time.) not only has the King of the Koopas redecorated, but if possible, (and so far it's always been possible it seems) he's given into an even more self absorbed style of décor than before. Glancing about he realizes that the theme of today's trap is obviously lava. The heat in this room is neigh unbearable, or it would be were he just about anyone else. But since Bowser seems to have a thing for lava, Mario had gotten used to being around it long ago. Evenly spaced around the top of the chamber's walls were Carvings of Bowser's face, all of them, of course, spewing lava into pools cut in the floor, and in the center of the room in a pool of molten rock carved out of the floor stood a thrice sized statue of King Koopa also spewing lava. Now Bowser's no small Koopa, so this was a rather large statue. And sitting on the other side of the room, in a throne recessed into a large representation of Bowser's face carved into the wall, was no other than the Koopa Mario was waiting to see.

 

“BWahahaha!” Bowser cackled, “You're no match for my “Room of Fiery Doom”, he finished as his throne pulled even further into the wall. The faces on the walls began to contort and move. Instead of facing forward, they began to look at Mario. Not being a fool, Mario began running. His first goal, the wall Bowser went through. After focusing in a new direction, the faces would stop briefly and then spit out a podobo, pipes began to sprout from the pools of lava around the walls, and unless he was loosing it, the central statue began moving as well. He circled the central pool while deftly dodging Podobos and keeping an eye out for anything the statue wanted to try, Mario finally reached the wall just as it finished closing up. Well that's great. Turning, he saw that no, he wasn't losing it. Not only was the statue moving but the pipes came equipped with their very own Piranha Plants, just itching to hauck their fire lugies his way. No wonder security was so light. Bowser wanted him to make it this far. It would take more than moving statues, and some piranha plants to daunt him though.

 

Looking around Mario noticed that this room was devoid of any power blocks, not surprised he prepared to take on the statue. Maybe if he could disable it... Charging the rock figure, his attack plan quickly changed as the thing belched a thick stream of molten flame. He was just able to dive out of the way before having to leap back towards the wall to avoid a well aimed podobo. This was getting him nowhere, and the statue began slowly advancing on his location. Now he was losing space. Stepping back to give him a better angle on the wall he barely missed being struck by a fireball, so they're playing too. With fireballs and podobos to dodge, Mario waited for the statue to get a little closer.

 

As soon as it was close enough, he jumped backwards onto the wall and propelled himself over the statue. Gripping the top of the moving monstrosity, Mario pushed off towards the ceiling. Kicking out as he reached the top of the room he broke off a layer of stone, it seems that King Koopa was still using cheap construction. The falling rock did no more than bounce off the thing's shell but several healthy sized stones had landed near where Mario came down from the roof just short of the central lava pit. Picking up a few of these he began aiming for the Piranha Plants while still watching out for the stray podobo. He was able to pick off the closest three before they began hiding in their pipes. Vicious and fire breathing they might be, but brave and tough they certainly weren't. Keeping his eyes open in case one of them peeked out, Mario now turned more of his attention to the statue again. It had just finished turning all the way around by that time. The thing wasn't fast, that was for sure. This was a good thing he decided.

 

Dropping his remaining stones Mario dashes between the statue's legs and runs for the wall. With the added speed, this time when he leaps to rebound off the wall he has enough momentum to carry him all the way up towards the ceiling. Turning in mid-air so that his feet connect with the ceiling, Mario pushes off with all the force his famous jump gives him and propels himself to the back of the statues head. With no room for mistake Mario pulls a tight somersault and brings the full brute of his triple jump to bear on the things head. Were he a normal man a jump like this would have been impossible at best, however, through a combination of perfect timing and an unknown source of personal power(The same which presumably allows him to use the artifacts of the Mushroom Kingdom.)he has the ability to leap with a force unmatched in all the Mushroom Kingdom, save for his own brother, Luigi.

 

Connecting with the back of the statue's head the force behind his jump brings the Goliath crashing forward into one of the lava pools lining the room. Landing not only in the lava, but also on the pipes that came from it, the statue as well as the pipes it lands on are more than adequately destroyed. Mario quickly jumps back to central walkway as the thing twitches a few times sinking further into the lava before finally coming to a stop. Which is just how an over sized statue should be. Still. Once it ceases movement, so too do the faces lining the room. Though they still pour lava, they no longer track Mario. The pipes also retract into the lava taking away all possible threats.

 

Waiting a moment Mario expects what comes next, as a large pipe emerges from the lava pool in the center of the room. Bowser knew he'd win. He always won. And now he was being summoned to face the Koopa King. Cocky as usual , Bowser intended on finishing what his trap couldn't. After having done this often enough one would think even a koopa would catch on, but not in his case. Bowser may have temporarily slowed him down with his little trap, and he was careless to have allowed it, but now it was closing time. Taking the pipe, Mario prepared to end this little excursion.