Bad mushrooms By Kraken, kraken58@yahoo.com Peach finds out what Super Mushrooms are used for There's never a dull moment in the mushroom Kingdom. One minute the Mario Brothers and the Princess are sitting for a picnic by the lake when the water began to bubble. As the trio watched, a massive ship rose out of the water. Propellers stuck-up from the deck, along with an insane number of menacing-looking cannons. As the turrets rotated around to face the plumbers, an all too familiar figure appeared on the deck. Bowser stood there in all his evil glory. His cold reptilian eyes regarded the trio. Without a word, he raised his clawed hand and dropped it. As one, a dozen shots rang out and a dozen cannonballs cut through the air. The Princess quickly ran for cover as Mario and Luigi jumped into action. They dodged the projectiles and began to slowly pick their way toward the ship. But then Bowser repeated his signal. A hatch on the ship's belly opened and out poured a legion of parakoopas. The winged turtle swarmed toward the brothers. Their counterattack halted, the plucky plumbers pulled wrenches out of their tool belts and prepared for the onslaught. As the combatants engaged each other, the Princess watched from her hiding spot. She saw the massive koopa force descended on the brothers. Unknown to her, this was only a diversion. While her protectors were busy, the Princess was vulnerable. Silently sliding through the trees was a group of Boos. These ghosts had been given a special mission: capture the princess. And each passing second brought them closer to their target. At last, the ghosts came within striking distance. As one, half a dozen Boos descended on Princess Peach. She shrieked as the ghostly force overpowered her and began to rise into the air. She shrieked even louder as they began to fly toward the airship. Toward the King of Koopas. As soon as Peach's feet hit the deck, Bowser's ship lifted into the air. The cold-blooded reptile immediately had her shackled and locked away for safe passage to a dungeon. None of this was lost on Mario and Luigi, who watched helplessly as the ship sped off to Bowser's newest castle. They finally knocked out the last troopa and immediately gave chase. __________________________________________________________ "We've prepared this cell especially for you, Princess," Bowser growled. "It's nicer than the previous ones and more escape-proof. Thos blasted plumbers won't be coming to the rescue this time!" Peach watched and listened as he ranted on, worrying more about the brothers than her. They'd be facing hell to get to her this time, even more so than usual. The sheer number of troops described to her slowly wore down her hope. These were the thoughts crossing her mind when the alarm went off. Bowser looked shocked for a minute. He then scowled and gestured to the guards. They all turned and slammed the door shut, leaving Peach alone in the cell. Minutes went by . . .an hour . . .two hours . . .Several hours later, the Princess began to get hungry. No one had come to check on her. Every koopa in the castle must have been on alert. Wearily, Peach sat on the cold stone floor, lost in her thoughts and her fears. She wasn't going anywhere. Her eyes began to roam around the cell again. Twilight was approaching, and the sun cast a few dying rays into the room. As she scanned the walls again, she caught a glimpse of something in the corner. She looked again, harder this time. There in the light, standing proudly against the darkness, were mushrooms. Shakily, Peach crawled over to the patch of fungus. As she got nearer to them, she noticed that these didn't look like completely normal mushrooms. The stem was white and the cap was mostly red, just like normal. But the spots were green, not white like a typical 'shroom. At this point, she didn't really care. People born in the Mushroom Kingdom could eat any fungus without harm. Hunger overcame her, forcing her to eat first one, then two, three . . .six of the mushrooms in all. Feeling full by this point, Peach sat back against the cell wall. The mushrooms had a strange, bitter aftertaste but weren't too bad given the circumstances. They were enough to keep her going until she was rescued. She sat and stared absently out the window, her head swimming with thoughts of Mario and Luigi. The more she thought about them, the more excited she became. Suddenly, the stars outside became blurry and she felt lightheaded. The brothers immediately became the last thing on her mind. Peach rose unsteadily to her feet. This seemed to disorient her even more, so she steadied herself against the wall. A strange, warm sensation welled up in her stomach. It wasn't sickness or pain, just soothing warmth. She could feel that sensation slowly spread throughout her entire body. As the heat reached her head, the dizziness abated and the princess could feel her senses returning. She soon became aware of the fact that the warm sensation in her body hadn't dissipated. On the contrary, it seemed to be increasing. A powerful radiant current surged through her regal form, causing her to gasp with pleasure. The current then seemed to halt momentarily. Peach then felt the heat turn inwards on itself, flowing inward like water into a sponge. Her every tissue seemed to drink in this power and hold onto it. Once all the heat had been absorbed, a new sensation then took its place. Another surge rocked the princess' slender frame. Her entire body tightened. Her right hand balled into a fist. From her left hand came a loud crunching sound. Shocked at the sound, Peach looked at her hand, expecting to find it broken. Her shock only deepened when she saw her fingers had crushed through the wall. Stones had been reduced to powder in her grasp. She slowly withdrew her hand and surveyed the effect. Peach eyed her hand in amazement. She slowly opened her fingers. Powdered rock clung to her glove. But not for long. As Peach regarded her hand, a split appeared along the palm of the glove. More amazingly, the split was traveling up her left arm. The glove was slowly ripping apart! The princess then checked her right arm. That glove was splitting too! One by one, her fingers popped through the gloves. She saw veins begin to stand out along her forearms. This was just the beginning. The process worked its way upward. The princess' smooth, slender arms began to swell. Her biceps bulged outward, expanding with unbelievable might. Peach was gaping at the sight of muscle that was taking shape. She never even knew these muscles existed. Her arms continued to enlarge, veins popping up all along their length. Soon the muscles were the size of softballs, and they showed no sign of slowing down. Another sound then caught her attention. Peach managed to tear her gaze away from her arms just in time to see her feet explode out of her shoes. More veins were standing out beneath her skin, traveling up her legs, hinting at more extraordinary changes. Peach felt her legs gaining weight and mass. She couldn't see them because of her long dress, but she could feel them expanding. She then noticed another strange fact: her dress didn't seem to be quite as long as before. As she watched, the bottom seemed to rise up away from the ground a few inches. Peach realized she must have grown taller. This hypothesis was confirmed when she heard another ripping sound. She looked and saw that her dress had ripped apart at the waist. The lower half was turned into a shrinking skirt. The top half had become a midriff. Separating the two was a rock-solid six-pack of abdominal muscles, each one growing and becoming more defined by the second. Her back began to swell, her lats spreading outward like wings. Finally, Peach's chest began to inflate. Her moderate breasts grew pert with muscle backing them up. What was left of her top finally gave way and fluttered to the ground. Unimpeded, her chest continued to grow. Her natural cleavage was enhanced and overshadowed by her enlarging pecs. At last, all feeling suddenly stopped momentarily. When it finally came back, the Princess got her first look at her new body. A perfect line of symmetry seemed to divide her figure. A deep cleft ran down her mounded chest and split her massive abs before meeting the top of the dress. Her once lean, barely noticeable hourglass figure was now massively pronounced. Peach guessed that she's grown at least two feet taller, maybe even three. The dress bottom was now definitely a skirt clinging precariously around her waist. That, her panties and her crown were the only survivors of her wardrobe. Peach had never known power like this. She vaguely knew about female bodybuilders back on Earth. What little knowledge she had told her that she was beyond normal. Experimentally, she clenched her right hand and flexed her arm. The bicep instantly swelled to at least 24" around. She stared at it, pumping it a few times and watching the veins bulge and the muscle swell. Growing more excited she hit a massive double-bicep pose and smiled with joy at the results. While marveling at her enlarged arms, peach finally took notice of her massive chest. The enormous pecs gave her quite an eyeful. She's always been exceedingly modest about her body. She wasn't used to being totally exposed. Making due with available materials, the princess tied one of the sheets from the cell bed around her chest. It was bare minimum on covering her boobs, but it would have to do. Regaining her composure, Peach walked toward the cell door, intent on making her own rescue this time. Stalking up to the door, the powerhouse princess sized up the task. She slowly pushed her fingers in between he frame and the door. Once she got a solid grip on each side, she began to pull. Muscles bunched up all over Peach's body as she strained against the well-built door. Slowly, her effort was rewarded by a creaking sound, metal pulling out of place. The door was giving way. With a last resisting groan, the door lost the battle and ripped free of its hinges. With nothing barring her escape, Peach dropped the defeated door and peered down the hallway. No one was around. However, echoing down the corridor were the sounds of a fight. That must be where Mario and Luigi are, she thought. Not wanting to waste any more time, the princess began to run down the hall toward the noise. _________________________________________________________ Things were not going well for Mario and Luigi. They had been battling Bowser's troops for hours now and were so close to the princess that they could smell her perfume. But now they were stuck in the fortress throne room. Here,' the koopa troops were making a frenzied last stand. The brothers couldn't win past them. Worse yet, Bowser himself was getting in some licks on them. The Koopa King looked down on them from the throne. His troops were performing remarkably well. More were on the way. Soon the Mario Brothers would be defeated and he would be free to dispose of them at his leisure. Then the only threat ever to his power would be eliminated and the princess would finally be his. He laughed out loud at his inevitable triumph. Then the unexpected happened. A thunderous boom sounded from the large, wooden main door to the throne room. Every being in the room stopped dead in their tracks. No one made a sound, not even Bowser. A second boom shook the floor. No one breathed. One more boom and the door bowed inward. Another one and the door developed a large crack. This continued and by the eighth hit, the door was ready to give up the fight. Finally, on the tenth hit, the wood splintered and a massive fist was visible to them. This unusual sight was followed by a positively shocking one. A massive figure, out of proportion but still discernibly female, stalked into the room. Every single mouth dropped open in absolute shock as the fighters recognized who the hulking figure really was. Peach strode confidently into the midst of the brawlers. She saw them staring long and hard at her body. Secretly thrilled at the new attention, she decided to demonstrate what she was capable of. The princess walked right up to the nearest troopa and grasped the surprised soldier with one hand. Then, in one fluid motion, the mighty monarch launched the turtle straight out a skylight window like a football. Everyone knew that the poor fellow wouldn't his the ground for some time. This sudden and, to them, disturbing move snapped the troopas out of their stupor. Pure rage took over as they stormed the princess en masse. They wouldn't let her get away with harming one of their comrades. She would have to be made an example of. Little did the turtles know that their departed comrade would be the example for them. One by one the enraged troopas engaged the princess, and one by one they were swept aside like bugs. Peach scattered them left and right with well-placed kicks and punches. She left a whole squad of turtles in her wake, most knocked completely unconscious. Those still awake fled to the far corners of the room as the super-strong woman made a beeline toward the throne. Bowser had watched the spectacle in utter silence. As the seemingly unstoppable princess got closer and closer, his anger grew with each step. How dare she defy him like this! Muscles or no muscles, she should be bowing at his feet! Unable to endure the tension any longer, the Koopa King leaped from the throne platform, soaring above Mario and Luigi's heads and landing with a thunderous crash in front of Peach. The two massive combatants glared at each other. A mutual hatred flared between them. There would be neither preamble nor any fancy fighting techniques nor interference. For the first time ever, someone was daring to match Bowser power for power. Neither one was going to back down now nor give up in the middle of the fight. This was going to be a straight out brawl that would only end when one combatant was incapacitated or worse. In typical koopa style, Bowser made an old-fashioned charge at Peach. The normally docile princess met him head-on and the two locked hands in a show of pure strength. Neither one budged an inch from where they stood. Neither could push the other back nor be pushed back. Once this became apparent to Bowser, a look crossed his face that had never been seen before in the Mushroom Kingdom. The terrible King of the Koopas was worried. Nowhere in history had Bowser ever been overly concerned about losing. He had stood unopposed throughout his early years. The Mario Brothers had offered him his first real challenge. But they were only a minor annoyance. And though he would never admit it, Bowser enjoyed meeting that challenge head-on. But the brothers had never stood directly in his way. They had never directly physically opposed him. Yet here and now, there stood someone doing just that. That enraged Bowser as nothing else ever had before. On top of that, he felt unbelievably humiliated. It wasn't another male seeking to stop him. It was a woman. Beyond that, it was the formerly weak woman that he had abducted so many times in the past. What an indignity! Cold reptilian eyes met feminine yet steel-hard eyes. Both grapplers were beginning to wear down. Bowser was growing somewhat desperate. Peach was putting up too much resistance. If she beat him, he would lose the support of his troops. He would become an outcast, an exile in his own land. Very well, he thought. If I can't win by force, I'll win by cunning. "You're doing well," Bowser growled. "No one has ever lasted this long against me. (Did she just smile at that?) But you can't win. No matter how strong or muscular you are, you're still just that helpless woman that I've kidnapped so many times in the past. You're weak, depending on those plumbers to save you. Well, they won't save you this time. And once they're dead and you're defeated, I'll finally take you for my own personal uses. How does that sound, Princess?" A look of shock appeared on Peach's face. Bowser smirked. That should rattle her, he thought, and while she's distracted, I'll overpower her. How sweet this victory will be! He summoned his remaining strength and moved in for the kill. But nothing happened. Peach still wasn't budging. Now utter disbelief showed on Bowser's face. And on the princess' face was a scowl of pure rage. No one had ever seen her get angry before. Yet she looked like a volcano ready to erupt. As the rest of the room look on, Peach showed just how hot her rage could burn. The pumped-up princess used her rage as fuel for her body. New life awoke within her tiring muscles. More veined began to appear beneath her skin as every muscle bunched and tightened. New strength flooded through her. That warm sensation returned and, as she struggled, her muscles seemed to swell again. Finally, Peach decided to go for broke. She put everything she had into one final push. Her grip tightened and the pressure on Bowser's hand increased. She forced even more pressure on them, bearing down harder and harder. Then, with one massive squeeze, she crushed Bowser's hands, breaking all the bones and causing the evil monarch to cry out in pain for the first time in his life. He sank to the floor, gritting his teeth to stifle his cries. He had finally been defeated. Slowly and gently, Peach released her crushing grip. She had done something extraordinary: she had confronted and defeated the King of the Koopas on his own terms and won. Now she regarded the reptile as he kneeled in pain and humiliation. A wave of sympathy washed over her. She had done the damage and that was enough. She took Bowser's chin in one powerful hand and looked him dead in the eyes. "You've been defeated, broken and humbled at my hands," she began, "I think you realize what that means. You'll no longer be able to command your army. You're lost their respect and their fear. That humiliation should be enough to keep you from ever wanting to return to the Mushroom Kingdom. "Still, in light of your felonious past, I, Princess Peach, hereby banish you from kingdom. Should you ever try to return, you'll face harsh judgment under our law. And," she whispered, "you'll face my personal wrath." Just to prove her point, she clenched her hand slightly on his jaw. Nothing serious, just a gesture to show that she meant what she said. The final blow had been struck. The once mighty Koopa King had been stripped of his royalty and his dignity. He solemnly rose to his feet and, head hanging in shame, marched toward the door. His once loyal troops averted their eyes from his now pitiful form. Peach watched him all the way out. Once the last speck of his scaled hide had disappeared, she turned her attention to the remaining terrapin warriors in the room. "Hear me koopa troopas! I, Princess Peach, have defeated Bowser in singles combat. As the victor, I claim his property to be part of the Mushroom Kingdom. All of his subjects are now under my rule. All who wish may live in my kingdom as citizens, provided that you obey my laws. Those who don't wish to accept this offer ma follow Bowser's path to exile. I leave the decision to you. Go now and spread this message to the rest of the koopa troops." Slowly, the turtles all filed out the door to relay Peach's message. She watched them with a deep sense of satisfaction. In one day, she had gone from a damsel in distress to a conquering heroine. Bowser was beaten, physically and mentally, and would hopefully never menace the Mushroom Kingdom again. And it was all done with her own two hands. Them, and her stunningly muscular body. Peach finally turned her attention to Mario and Luigi. The brothers had watched the entire spectacle in absolute silence. Neither one could comprehend what had happened. They had come to save the princess only to have her save them. They just couldn't take their eyes off her incredible body. Peach quickly realized that fact. She swaggered over to where the brothers were rooted to the floor. She smiled half-coyly, half-lustily at them. The two men still couldn't move. Peach continued to grin as she swept the brothers literally off their feet and held an arm around each of their waists. She then gave each one a quick kiss on the cheek, looking with satisfaction as their faces turned bright red. "I want to thank you both for coming to my rescue again," Peach began. "You're both still my heroes. But why don't we head back to my palace now. I've seen enough of this castle. Hopefully, it's been for the last time." She set them down on shaky legs and began walking toward the exit. Mario and Luigi glanced at each other with quizzical yet understanding expressions. While neither brother knew exactly what had taken place, they did know something for sure: things around the Mushroom Kingdom were definitely going to be a lot more interesting.