Mario & Luigi RPG One-Shot Collection

Threatened Peace

A/N: Here's another fic I needed to cross-post over from Mario Amino! This time, it's the entry I did for the third week of the Theatrical Team Event: "Sci-Fi."

==========

The Shroobs. A vile, vicious, vindictive race that employed superiority over all else. Several holographic displays congregated in one room, with live video recordings of everywhere else on the grandiose Mothership. They tracked their every action, their every move, so that they could be disciplined for acting out of accordance with the Shroob army. A noble humanoid Shroob woman - rare of her kind - programmed an announcement into a floating tablet. Translated from Shroob language, it read; “We are approaching the Mushroom Kingdom and their neighbouring lands. Prepare for invasion!”

The aliens had cheered at the outstanding news. There were signs of life on this strange planet, but they could snuff out anything as long as they hadn't acquired the technology to manoeuvre flying saucers. Based on the lack of sentience in the orbital ring around the planet, they couldn't pose a threat, shrugging them off like flies. Locking into their targets, the Shroob woman - who was the younger sister of the two princesses - commanded her squadron to attack Peach's Castle first, which would let them claim a brand new base of operations for their mission.

Soon enough, their opposition came out of hiding to fight. The older sister, colloquially known as Elder Princess Shroob, would handle these affairs at her helm. Strong and brutal - which was enough to overpower the Mushroom Kingdom’s dainty lady - were the two qualities she possessed in excess. That is, until said dainty lady had whipped out an artefact that had trapped Elder Princess Shroob inside of it. How pitiful. With the younger sister in charge of the plot from now onwards, she proceeded to divert Commander Shroob to international battles, whilst she would focus on the Mushroom Kingdom (and reviving her sister from the curse bestowed upon her).

The whistle’s harsh blow and Commander Shroob's directional demands sent hordes of Shroob saucers zooming towards the Beanbean Kingdom. They were neighbours to the Mushroom Kingdom; their closest diplomatic ally through thick and thin. Now, the land, and its inhabitants, would be absorbed by these eccentric creatures. If it wasn't bleak already, the fate of the world rested within the elite, who were in charge of global governments.

…

“Everybody, evacuate! Your lives are in grave danger!” Queen Bean’s emergency announcement wasn't scoffed at. “Alien invaders have breached Mushroom Kingdom territory! We will do our best to aid in this ongoing conflict, so stay calm!” They were assured that further details would be sent over private communications, which had a not-certain chance that they could be hijacked by the Shroobs. They may know more about mind control and freaky Yoshi mutants, but the Beanbean Kingdom had to throw a shot in the dark to grasp onto any advantages benefiting them.

Despite her advice easing the citizens of her country, she was distant to the concept of calm in pressurising scenarios. Her pounding heart screamed through her chest as she gathered her subjects into a conference room. “Ladies! Alien invasion!”

“What?” One Lady was bewildered. “Aliens? They're not real!” replied another.

“If I may - Your Majesty - I'd like to send an army to take them down immediately. The Mushroom Kingdom's not going to win this war.”

“Lady Cackletta… I appreciate the enthusiasm, however, you're a new High Lady and it'd be a rash choice to fight the aliens yourself.” Queen Bean admitted that Cackletta was a capable woman with magical studies in her portfolio from years in the past, but these foreign entities could have counters against those types of attacks.

“Well then… Please excuse me from the meeting, Your Majesty,” Cackletta said, looking down. The monarch complied with her wish because she thought that she would be working on the evacuation procedures. That was a half truth. To be honest, she liked the idea of sending bolts of lightning at the intruders. It would be a satisfying way to win what should be impossible odds! Regardless of what she thought, Cackletta dashed through the castle's hallways, thrusting the doors and gates wide open before booking it westwards, closer to the border between the two kingdoms.

Anxious and being impulsive in the moment, she had taken nothing with her for the battle. Not an army like she promised, nor did she equip herself with magic tomes to recite the spells she hadn't practised since childhood. Yet, Cackletta was determined she could ward them off. The Shroobs could use brute force, but they were only advantaged through their futuristic lifestyle.

She couldn't get out of breath now. The flying saucers weren't visible, no matter how many miles she ran to catch up at the border. The Mushroom Kingdom was in jeopardy. She promised to protect baby Princess Peach. She'd be Shroob-ified. Those monsters would mutilate the poor infant, destroying the only lineage the Mushroom King had. And it will be over. All because of her. Such raging, intrusive thoughts pummelling her brain, beating her to a pulp without alien intervention. It was a stupid idea, perhaps.

Just before she considered giving up and turning away from her original goal to evacuate residents instead, she spotted a UFO gliding through the sky. It was a Shroob! Using her left hand, she blasted a fireball upwards at the rogue spaceship. Its flight path had veered off course, so she sent another one its way, crashing the lone Shroob to the ground and destroying the miniscule Vim reserves it had - and the life of the pilot. An outstanding victory, which was shocking to think about. These ‘Shroobs’ were a threat to the peace of the world, true. However, Lady Cackletta posed a fair matchup against these beasts. This war could be won!

On the other hand… One Shroob down alerted the squadron that they had been threatened by the enemy. It took a few minutes from her initial victory to the sight of more Shroob vehicles. Not one, not two - it was a swarm of many. She gasped - and instantly recognized she was outnumbered. With an ace up her sleeve, she was desperately scraping old memories and knowledge to challenge the group. Running in circles, she remembered an old spell from when she was a child. The spell to clone herself in a pinch.

Lo and behold, identical copies of her spawned out of thin air beside her, deviating from her patterns to confuse the Shroobs. Them separating from each other was what she needed to target the Shroobs one by one, picking them out like weeds. Occasionally, the Shroob ships would be at the brink of abducting Cackletta, though she had struck the perpetrator with lightning to disarm their laser-based systems.

The Shroobs might have seen Cackletta as a puny weakling at first for travelling solo, yet the Commander Shroob wasn't so convinced this would be an easy takeover now. They consulted with the piloting console board in their ship, sending a vocal message to Princess Shroob herself. Oh… She wouldn't be very proud of their remarkable failure. They were forced to do the most shameful thing a Shroob army could do - retreat. They retreated beyond the reaches of the Beanbean border, safe and sound without too much hassle from the locals.

As for Lady Cackletta, she learned from her past mistakes. Victory here would be short-lived and useless to celebrate. The Beanbean Kingdom may be safer with her valiance, but once news spread that Peach's Castle was lost, she was terrified to venture too far astray from Queen Bean. Stricken with worry at her side, Cackletta couldn't fathom leaving Queen Bean alone if those pesky jerks came to crash the party.

This was unlike anything they'd ever handled before.
This was only the beginning.