Bowsette and Wendy stood at the entrance of the Star Temple, staring down the long hallway. The smooth panelled walls, floor and ceiling looked very alien. The Koopa Queen realised she knew nearly nothing about what she was heading in to.
The Star Temples were found in various parts of the connected Kingdoms. They were ancient and mysterious. And she knew they were the source of power-ups. This particular one was where her Super Crown had come from, as well as the one the Toad people used to create the legend of Princess Peach. She owed her renewed existence to it, but she had come to demand more. This place was going to transform her permanently, or so she hoped.
Bowsette took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Let's do this," she said as she crossed the doorway and entered the ancient structure. Her black leather boots clanked and echoed in the hall as Wendy hesitantly started moving forward behind her. The Koopaling entered through the doorway and then they could hear a faint whirring noise on the walls around them.
"Intruder," said a monotone voice above them.
"Look out!" called Bowsette as she saw several small metal cylinders sliding out from the wall and pointing at Wendy. She quickly dove back toward her as beams of bright light lanced out form the walls. Lasers struck her shell as she bowled into her friend and they tumbled back out of the doorway and into the gloomy tunnel outside.
Wendy groaned after hitting the ground hard. "Ugh...What the fuck?"
Bowsette looked back to see the tubes withdraw back into the wall. She looked down and examined her shell. There was a thin scorch mark running along it, and one of her spikes had been sliced off. It could have been worse. The lasers only activated when Wendy walked in, it appeared she wasn't welcome. "I think you should wait for me out here."
"Yeah, I will," Wendy quickly agreed.
Bowsette stood again and brushed off her black leather corset and pants. She walked back through the doorway, hoping that the Temple will not suddenly consider her unwelcome, too. Several meters in, there was a mechanical hiss behind her. Bowsette jumped, she was on edge after the laser attack. She saw that it was just the door closing behind her. She was on her own now. She continued moving forward through the hallway, it appeared to open up into a large room at the end.
Bowsette stepped out of the hallway and saw that the room was absolutely huge, many times larger than her own cavernous throne room. The ceiling was high above her and there were many smooth angular pillars rising up to it. The floor on her level was comprised of numerous large flat areas and paths, but there was also empty space around them which dropped down into a void below. She stepped over to the edge and looked down, it was a long drop. The four angular walls looked to be converging to a point well below her. She imagined the shape of the structure—an inverted pyramid underneath the ground.
How strange.
Movement along the ceiling suddenly drew her eye. Something was zipping along the angular lines running through the smooth dark metal. She raised her fists defensively as it approached her position. It stopped above her and then something dropped down. It was a squat metallic cylinder hanging from a line on the ceiling. The domed head turned around and she saw a black rectangular plate with a pair of circular reflective eyes staring at her. Bowsette chuckled, it looked like a stumpy little robot dick.
"Observation: You are not Princess Peach," it said in a flat mechanical voice.
"No shit. Who are you?"
"Reply: My designation is Mechabon. I am the administrator. Query: What is your designation?"
"I am Queen Bowsette of the Koopas."
"Exclamation: Koopa! Statement: This is an unauthorised use of the Super Crown."
"Oh yeah?" said Bowsette, crossing her arms. "And who's the authority, you?"
"Vague reply: Negative. Demand: You must relinquish the Super Crown power-up and leave the Star Temple immediately."
"Hmph, I'll let you have the crown if you help me to keep this form without it. Put the transformative power into my body. You can do that, can't you?"
The robot twisted its domed head slightly and quickly moved its eyes back to her. "Request denied."
Bowsette grit her teeth, "Listen here, you bucket of bolts, I'm not here to cause trouble. This is for the good of everyone. Just help me out and I'll leave this place...please."
"Request denied. Ultimatum: You will comply with my previous request or your life functions will be terminated."
Bowsette growled and balled her fists. "Oh, you do not want to threaten me."
"Statement: Commencing lethal action protocol."
Bowsette heard the faint whirling sound behind her as several of the small tubes slid out from the wall. She flipped into the air as the lasers lanced out toward her. She moved quickly, striking out with a long vertical slash which destroyed three of the small laser turrets. She cried out as she tucked herself into a ball and the lasers struck her shell from behind. Turning around, she expelled a stream of scorching flame along the other wall, melting the other laser turrets into slag.
She looked over and saw the squat robot zipping back along the ceiling at great speed. "Hey, you get back here!!" she yelled after him. Two large platforms then then rose up to their level, on separate sides of her. Sitting on each platform was a large tank-like robot with similar face plates and eyes to the administrator. At the front were round silver barrels with huge black wrecking balls, their diameter the length of Mario. They each swivelled around and aimed at her.
The tank on her left fired off its ball with a loud boom. Bowsette spread her arms and caught the ball as it slammed her body, making her groan and pushing her back several feet. She took a step forward as she grappled the heavy weapon. The ball was attached to a chain, and the tank-bot began to pull it back. Bowsette growled as she held it back, "Oh, you want it back, do you?"
She drew from her immense strength as she sent to back to him at great speed. The ball slammed into the tank-bot with a loud crash. Bowsette then quickly dodged the second heavy projectile as it shot toward her.
Mechabon reached the far end of the great room, loud clanging and smashing sounds could be heard behind him. The metal doors of the smaller control room slid open and he shot inside before they closed again. The Temple had a Koopa intruder, he could only hide away and wait for the structure's defence protocols to deal with her.
Soon the sounds of calamitous smashing stopped. Mechabon waited inside the control room, was it done? Had the intruder been neutralised. His answer came with the sound of heavy banging on the door. "Is that all you got?" called Bowsette.
"Concession: Keep the crown," said Mechabon. "Pleading request: Just leave this place."
Bowsette stopped pounding the door. "I'm not going anywhere, Tin-head. I tried asking nicely, but you chose to attack me. Now open this door, or I'll tear through this place until I find your star-core and rip it out."
She waited a few seconds, and then the door opened. She cautiously stepped into the room, scanning the walls and ready to act if more of the small laser turrets slid out. The walls inside were covered with panels with blinking lights. Consoles, tubes and mechanical equipment filled the small space, it was far different from the mostly empty, cavernous room outside. This looked like a place where things actually happened. Mechabon slowly glided up to her along the ceiling and turned his reflective eyes toward her. "Threat successful. Status: Intimidated. Query: What are your demands, intruder? "
"Hmph, I told you what I want."
The robot turned its head slightly before looking back at her, "Quote: Put the transformative power into my body. Statement: I do not empower Organic beings directly, that is done through wearing the power-up. There is a high degree of uncertainty that this is able to done without directly causing termination of life functions."
