Super Mario Odyssey (Fan Novelization)

Chapter 10: Battle Atop the Clouds

"We've got him in sight. Everythin' is going according to de plan," Topper remarked to his coworkers. "Next stop: Nimbus Arena!"

His words didn't seem to calm Harriet at all. "This plan is going to fail. You know better than this, Tops. We can't just-"

"Ay, calm yourself, Har," Rango groaned from the corner of their bunk. "What can we do about dis? It's not like we had a choice. Darn guy broke into our house with a contract and everythin'. At least we get paid."

"I just..." she sighed. "When I joined this band, I knew that my pyrotechnic skill would come in handy in some crazy scenario. Every wedding needs a little spicing up. But... but this is crazy. We can't accept this. We're not even wedding planners anymore." She thought for a moment, and her tone grew bitter. "No, we're not wedding planners to this guy. We're nothing more than troops."

The other two froze, turning to the blonde as she continued her spiel. "Not even high-ranking ones. We're the bottom layer, the ones he sends out to annoy the enemy. We're used as placeholders to keep the red guy busy while his other soldiers are down! And we have to blindly follow the boss's plan - we can't even suggest or compromise anything!"

"Harriet-"

"We're just MINIONS! You know how demeaning that is?!"

"Please, just calm down..." Her frenzy seemed to have spread to Rango, whose attempts to lower her anger seemed to work about as well as a Cheep Cheep's attempt at trying to survive on land. "Topper...?"

The shorter bunny paused for a moment. "No... she's right."

"You can't be serious!" Rango turned to their leader, exasperated. "She's-"

"I said she's right. We're following a bogus plan, and he's going to take it out on us when it fails - I've read enough about groom-zillas to know." He sighed. "And it's going to fail, of course. We can't do anything about it now. Unless..."

The other rabbits turned to Topper, whose expression slowly brightened. A devious smirk came onto his face.

"Unless we can create a little plan of our own..."

• • •

A tiny scarlet top-hat soared across the sky, racing after the ivory ship up ahead. The captain pressed up to the window of the Odyssey, glaring at the regal white ship not too far away. "So, what's the plan?"

His hat spoke up. "Part one: get on Bowser's wedding ship. Part two: trounce him and leave him unconscious on the deck. Part three: get your Princess, my sister, and run. Don't bother with the bunny things - the faster we are, the less likely we are to being locked up, tortured, or just flung off the ship. That leaves the question: how do we get on?"

"We could try jumping-"

"NO."

"Of course you would say that," sighed Mario. "Maybe we can land the Odyssey on the ship somehow? We could crash it into Bowser's head and knock him out as well. Two for one."

"And risk destroying both ships and ending up at the bottom of the ocean? No. Besides, his ship has cannons. We'll be shot out the air before we can even catch up."

"What if-"

Just then, a deafening roar shook the entire airship. Nearly knocked over, the young man grabbed on to a wall. "What was that?"

Cappy paused to take a breath. "Open the door. We gotta get outside."

Pushing the entrance to the Odyssey open, Mario peeked outside. They had already caught up to the royal ship, racing neck-and-neck. But before he could even think about enacting their plan, the young man spotted Bowser perched on the deck of the white airship. Per amor del cielo...