Chapter 10: No One Can Beat Him Now

Jessie, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach were now sliding through a pipe. There were several twists and turns and several forks. Finally they were spit out and landed on the floor of Bowser's dungeon. But something was wrong. About a hundred feet away, across the lava pool from Jessie was Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach in a cage with no way out!

"You are the key to solving all my problems," Bowser said to Ian across the room from Jessie and them, unaware that they had already arrived, and Jessie and them unaware of the conversation on the other side of the room.

"I'm not helping you!" Ian said.

"Oh, but you have no choice, Prince Ian," Bowser said, getting more annoyed with Ian's cheek.

"Uh-oh," Ian stuttered, "I'm starting to wonder if this will end well."

Bowser started, "Oh, it will definitely end we-"

"I meant for me and my friends!" Ian shouted then shut his mouth quickly realizing his mistake as Bowser roared and yelled, "I have had enough of you!" This caught Jessie's attention and she started leaping across platforms to where Bowser and Ian were. Bowser was rearing his head to draw in air so he could blow fire. Ian closed his eyes as Bowser finished inhaling. At that same instant Jessie hit Bowser hard from behind and made him choke on his own fire.

Ian opened his eyes, "Jessie!"

"I don't know who you are, but no one is going to hurt any of my friends," she yelled at him.

"I don't know who you think you are, but I am going to destroy you if you don't give yourself up!" Bowser answered.

"No one's going to get rid of me, especially not before I find this Bowser guy who's been messing with all of my friends," Jessie retorted.

"Jessie, this is Bowser," Ian told her.

"Really? I hope he's got more to him than size, because that's not going to help much," Jessie said.

"I think you'll find out in a second," Bowser said as the floor lifted beneath her and sloped, sending her sliding into a larger platform in the middle of the room.

As soon as she had stood up again she heard Ian call, "Look out!" She looked up and saw Bowser falling down toward the platform. She backed away from where she saw him about to land and jumped into the air as he landed and shook the whole platform.

"So, are you ready to find out what else I've got?" Bowser said.

"Bring it on," Jessie muttered under her breath, getting into a fighting position. Bowser roared and tensed up as the sharp spikes that normally protruded from his back poked out even farther to double their length. His claws also extended and gleamed in the red glow of the lava. Luigi whistled a long, low whistle.

"I didn't know he could change their length at will," Mario said.

"I thought you'd like that one," Bowser called to their cage, "It's a new skill I've been working o-!" Bowser was cut short by Jessie's foot smashing down on his head. While he was gloating to the others, Jessie had leapt into the air and come smashing down on him like she had so many other foes. She leapt back away from him again and waited for a response. Bowser was holding his head with tears in his eyes whining, having turned his head to hide them, "That's not fair! I wasn't ready yet!"

"And here I didn't think there were any fair rules around here," Jessie responded.

Bowser rubbed his head again, and gritted his teeth saying, "Well, you won't get to do that again!" He turned around, but she was nowhere in sight. He looked around and finally found her as he grabbed at his head again. She had gotten him again! "You're not very nice!" he cried, making the stupid decision to turn away again.

"Not to you, maybe!" Jessie retorted.

"That's not very nice!" he cried again.

"Neither are you, and that's why I'm going to beat you and make you sorry for all that you've done," she said back.

Bowser said, "Well, you're absolutely not going to do that again!" And again, when he turned around she was nowhere to be found. She came slamming down on his head again. "Ow!" Bowser yelled.

"Gosh, you Mushroom Kingdom monsters have sensitive heads," she teased.

"Don't do that again!" he shouted.

"Will someone tell him how to avoid getting hit on the head again?" Jessie called to everyone else in the room.

"Ooh! Ooh! Me!" Ian called, "Maybe, don't turn your back on the enemy!" Everyone laughed at Bowser, but their laughs turned to gasps as they realized he had grabbed Jessie and was holding her tightly between his two hands.

"Ha! Now who's laughing?" he laughed. Jessie squirmed back and forth a little bit, but she couldn't get him off of her that way, so she just stopped trying and started trying to think.

"Come on, Jessie. You can get out of this one!" Luigi encouraged her. Bowser made his way over to the edge of the platform and held her over like he was going to drop her.

"Ha, ha!" he laughed, "I'd like to see how you get out of this one!" Jessie answered this by kicking her feet upwards really hard so that she not only completely got out of Bowser's grip, but also managed to kick him in the nose. The momentum threw her up in the air several feet. And on her way back down, she kicked him in the head.

"Stop that!" Bowser cried.

"Fine," Jessie yelled as she ran at him and knocked him in the stomach. He tried to lash at her with his claws, but she back flipped out of the way. He kept going at her, but she kept jumping out of the way while everyone else was cheering her on. It got to the point where she was leading and he was following wherever she jumped. When she finally realized this she started moving back toward the edge.

When she was all the way to the edge she paused, waiting for Bowser to lunge at her. Finally he got to her. He also paused and dashed at her. She waited until the very last second and jumped into the air. Unfortunately, he just barely missed running all the way off the edge. He barely stopped and stood precariously trying to get his balance. He caught his balance and looked around for Jessie. "Oh, no," he groaned, not seeing her. He looked up and his hands flew to his head. She had got him in the head. ...Again.

"OOOW!" he roared, and didn't bother to hold the tears out of his eyes. He was holding onto his head and backing away from Jessie. "Please, leave me alone. You win! Your friends can go," he whimpered, "Just, please, don't jump on my head again!" Everyone else cheered from where they were. Jessie ran over to where Ian was as the straps that held him to the wall let go.

"You did it!" he cheered. But suddenly the straps reached back out of the wall and they were both strapped to the wall.

"Mwah hah hah!" Bowser laughed, "Now I've got everyone again!" Jessie squirmed some in the strap, but realized it was like Bowser's grip. She couldn't get out of it that easily. "Do you all see now?" Bowser shouted to everyone in the room, "No one can beat me now!" He stood there gloating for a few minutes, occasionally sending fire from his mouth into the air, to show off.

"It really looked like you had beat him. The way we got strapped to the wall again was really cheap," Ian replied.

"I did get him good a couple of times," she said.

"Yeah," Ian consoled her.

"It's not fair. I should be the one with the victory face on right now," Jessie complained.

"Well, you got one victory anyways," Ian said.

"Really now? And what's that?" she said skeptically, feeling like a fool.

"Well, you got everyone back together again," Ian said.

"That's cheesy, but I guess you're right," she answered, kind of suspicious, as though she thought there was more to what Ian was saying.

"Yeah," he said.

"Though you're thinking more on the lines of I got us back together?" Jessie said.

"I guess," Ian said kind of embarrassed. They looked at their feet for a moment. Then Jessie looked up at Ian, smiling.

"You know, I was kind of thinking the same thing," she said. They smiled at each other for a minute, until they realized they should be trying to get out.

"Well, it's obvious he's proud of himself," Ian commented. "Speaking of the obvious, is there a totally obvious way of getting out of here that I am just not seeing?" Jessie asked.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Ian exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Hello? May I remind you that you have telekinesis?" Ian said. Jessie's face reflected fully that she felt really stupid for forgetting again.

"Oops," she squeaked. Then the straps that were holding her let go and she tiptoed behind Bowser.

"I'll just be waiting here," Ian called, more to himself. Jessie quietly tapped Bowser on the shoulder and quickly jumped into the air. When Bowser turned around he saw no one. But then he noticed that there was no one strapped next to Ian.

"Oh, no!" he yelled but was cut short when Jessie came landing on his head, again! "How-!" he yelled.

"It's called telekinesis!" she answered from behind. When he turned around she ran forward again and sent him flying off toward the edge. He was about to fall off when he felt himself pulled away from the edge a few feet.

"But, no one can beat me now!" Bowser complained.

"Let me tell you something, in the world I was last in, my parents did not know that I existed. My name was practically no one. Same thing in the El Nido Archipelago, many of the villagers referred to me as no one," Jessie told him.

"Huh?" Bowser responded confused.

"No one can beat you now. Weren't you just listening?" Jessie said.

"I don't get it," Bowser said.

"Hi, I'm Jessie, otherwise known as no one, who can beat you now," she replied.

"Oh!" Bowser said.

"Now, since I've beaten you, I demand that you let me and my friends go," she told him, then added quickly, "For real."

"Fine. But don't think this is the last time you'll be hearing from me," Bowser said as the cage opened up and the straps were released from Ian. The lava pit also was covered again. With Bowser now defeated, the friends walked out of Bowser's castle and all the way back to the Pipe House.

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(A/N: Apparently when I posted this two and a half years ago, I didn't post the final chapter: I accidentally reposted the 10th chapter. That chapter is now lost forever in the dead harddrive of my old laptop. So the following is a very brief ad lib of what that chapter contained.)

When they got back to the pipe house, everyone rested up from their ordeal until Jessie finally asked why her brothers had wanted them to return home at the beginning of this whole adventure. They proceeded to show everyone the picture of Jessie and Ian when they were babies, and everyone recognized the brown-haired boy as Ian and Peach confirmed that he was her brother, prince of the Mushroom Kingdom. To quote Jessie, "So- what does that ma- I mean- Is Ian a- uh... Is he the-...prince?" To which Ian replies, "Hey! You sound just like me!" Then they pack up his things, and they all say goodbye as Peach and Ian go back to their castle.

Later Jessie is looking at the picture, and she realizes that there are, indeed, two other children (who are in plain sight, it just never strikes anyone. Duh-hurr!). "Wait? Who are they?" Le gaspzors!

Happy End