The piranha plant was over eight feet tall, towering like a building over the toads. Most of its head consisted of a gigantic mouth rimmed with knife-sharp teeth, glinting sharply in the bright morning sunlight. His branch-like hands flapped up and down, intimidating the tied-and-gagged toads. The poor people were quaking in their boots before him, desperately trying to maneuver out of his way. A wall of what looked like tangled roots surrounded them, enclosing them inside with the merciless monster. 

"So!" the piranha plant cackled in a thick southern accent. "You're from the Mushroom Kingdom, eh? And you think you can just bust up on my Plains, yeah? Well you got another thought comin'!" He snapped his teeth menacingly, making the toad at the very front squeak and squirm, as if he were trying to wrench free from his bindings. "Nobody messes with Petey Plains!" 

The piranha plant had still not noticed Peach yet, and she estimated that they had about one to two minutes before one of the toads saw her and started panicking. "Perry!" she whispered. "That guy... Is that Petey?" 

"Yeah, he must have been that guy who deemed Ladida Plains 'Petey Plains'," Perry murmured. He looked at the huge piranha plant in worry. "He looks really tough...and country. He might be hard to defeat." 

Peach glanced back over to Petey in worry. He was still threatening the tied-up toads. Peach wondered if there was a way to sneak up on Petey and attack him from behind. While the toads held his attention, this was the best time to strike while they still had the element of surprise.  

Peach turned back to Perry. "Listen. I'm going to sneak up on him and see if I can attack him with the Rage Stone from behind. If my attack is successful and Petey is distracted, I want you to go to the toads and untie them all quickly. We won't have much time. We have to get down to the bottom of the cliff and deal with the Goombas if they're still there." 

Perry looked doubtful, but he nodded. "All right. But...are you sure, Princess? You've already used the stones a couple of times today. Are you sure you have enough energy left to save these folks?" 

Peach grimaced. "Even if I didn't, do I really have a choice? I'm not going to let this piranha guy terrorize my toads." 

Perry nodded. "All right. Good luck to the both of us." With that, he slipped from under her arm and around the edge of the cliff, just out of Petey's eyesight. Peach walked in the opposite direction, coming up on Petey's blind side. The piranha plant was still cowing the captive toads, flashing his scarily sharp teeth and offending them with incomprehensible, Deep South insults. Peach gripped her necklace and picked out the red one.  

"You blitherin' idiots!" Petey shouted in his country twang. "You're as annoyin' as Bowser's Goombas!" 

Peach snuck up a little closer, tiptoeing unnecessarily. One of the toads spotted her and began bucking in his bindings, struggling to shout through his gag. Panicking, Peach quickly put a finger to her lips, desperately hoping that the toad would calm down. He did, reluctantly, but his huge eyes traced Peach's every move. 

"You hear me? YOU! I'm 'specially sick'a you! Stop cryin' and squirmin' like an infant!" He raised a leaf-shaped hand to slap the toad that was watching Peach. 

Peach activated the Rage Stone. "Stop right there!" she shouted angrily. She could feel anger boiling in the center of her chest like hot lava, and the feeling spread throughout her whole body. Flames rose among her clothes out of nowhere, not harming her, but making the grass around them catch on fire.  

Petey whirled around, mouth agape at the sudden appearance of a girl on fire. "Who the heck are you?" he demanded as the toads behind him craned their necks for a look. When they saw Peach, they began to wiggle and squirm in their bindings and cheer through their gags. Now that Petey's back was turned, Peach saw Perry float over to the toads and start to pluck through their ropes using his handle. 

"How dare you try and hurt my innocent toads!" Peach shouted, taking a step closer - flames surrounded the whole clifftop now, and everything was getting caught up in the fire. Petey looked to the left, then to the right. He looked nervous as he turned back to Peach. "I don't know who ya are," he growled, attempting to rally his bravado, "but ya've interrupted ma mission. You're gonna pay for thinkin' ya can stand up ta Petey!" 

Peach didn't know what in the world Petey was talking about, but at the moment, her mind didn't have much room to try and figure out what it was-her thoughts were clouded with anger, and it left her little room to think. She took another step towards Petey. 

"Look, I don't have time to deal with you," Petey growled again. "I've got Mushroom Kingdom-ers to eliminate!" He turned around to face the toads and, when he saw that Perry was busy untying them, he roared, "Hey! What's goin' on?" 

Peach thrust a hand forward, and a wall of flame burned towards Petey, crashing into him and barreling him over. "Yakkk!" he cried as he caught on fire - being a plant, he burned very easily. "I'm on fire!" 

Peach canceled the Rage Stone and rushed over to Perry. He'd ripped most of the toads out of their bonds, and the freed ones were hurrying over to their weapons and loading them onto their backs.  

"Quickly!" Peach said. "We've got to get out of here. I've got Petey distracted, but I don't know how long it'll last." She untied the knots of the last two toads and pulled out their gags. The one that had noticed her first gasped in relief and stared up at her in great joy. 

"Princess Peach!!" he cried. "I'm so glad that you're alive! We thought that you were dead!" 

"Yes, I'm all right," Peach panted as she freed the last toad. "Quickly. We've got to get down from this cliff." 

"Leave it to me, ma'am! Toadonelly, at your service!" 

Petey was still running wildly around the circle of the clifftop, desperately trying to put out the flames that were singeing his body. He wouldn't be chasing after anybody anytime soon. Peach turned back to the group of toads. Many of them were rejoicing that she was alive, and others were looking around at the burning clifftop nervously. Peach bit her lip, regretting setting the whole area on fire. How could they escape? 

"Ma'am!" another toad cried, saluting smartly. "Toadlee at your service! I think I have an idea of how to get down!" 

"How?" Peach asked.  

Toadlee shrugged off his backpack and pulled a grapping hook and a long rope out of it. "We'll use this, ma'am! Attach it to the top of the cliff and then shimmy on down!" 

"Let's do it," Perry said hurriedly, glancing nervously at the flames behind them. Petey was still running around, but that was the least of their problems. If they didn't all act fast, they were barbeque! "Let's go!" 

Peach, Perry, and the rescued toads hurtled through the licking flames. As Peach dashed under the tree, a lit branch snapped off and crashed to the ground, creating a fiery barrier that trapped three toads on the other side. Toadonelly was one of them. 

"Your Highness!" he squeaked, scared. 

"Perry!" Peach cried. "Get with the other toads up front and secure that grappling hook! I'll be up there in a minute!" 

"Okay, but be careful." Perry rushed off.  

Peach contemplated the burning branch. Foot-tall flames curled into the air above it, and the wood was already charred black. There was no way that she could touch it. How was she going to move it? Peach considered using one of her stones, but she didn't want to use Gloom - it she got all teary-eyed now, she'd never be able to stop crying. She just managed last time. What other stone could she use? Rage? No, that'd just cause more fiery trouble. Calm? No, all that did was heal and strengthen. Joy, maybe...? Yes! She could use Joy. She pulled the stone from her necklace and gripped it tightly in her hands. When she'd successfully activated the stone, she felt her personal cyclone whip around her and, without much effort, she expanded it outward, making the wind toss the burning branch aside. Toadonelly and the other two had to dive out of the way as the burning branch was thrown over their heads. 

"Come on!" Peach didn't deactivate the stone. She flew over to the edge of the cliff, Toadonelly and the other two toads following her. 

"Princess, you're amazing!" Toadonelly cried. 

Perry was floating over by the edge of the cliff. The grappling hook had been dug into the ground, and the rope fell over the edge to the very bottom, flush with the cliff wall. "Princess! Everybody else is down! They're fighting with those Goombas! Apparently, they camped out down there, waiting for the 'witch'. And they're not very happy!" 

"We have to hurry then!" Peach flew off the edge of the cliff and into the air. She turned back to Perry, Toadonelly, and the other two toads. "Quickly! Jump, and I'll fly us down there!" Perry leapt into the air at once and Peach caught him by the handle. The other three toads, however, didn't look as willing.  

"What's wrong?" Peach asked impatiently. A quick glance downward showed her a deadly battle taking place between toad and Goomba. The toads were whacking aside Goombas with their fists and dealing heavy blows to the head, but one of the rescued toads had been injured in the calf by a Goomba with a pitchfork. Two toads dragged him off to the side and another took his place, bonking the Goomba on the head with his heavy backpack.  

Peach looked back up at the three toads. "Hurry up!" she snapped. "We have to get down there! Your friends are in danger!" 

Toadonelly looked afraid. "But Princess..." He glanced nervously at Peach's whirling cyclone as if he didn't trust it.  

"I'm not going to let you fall!" she assured them. "If I knew I wasn't capable of carrying you down there, I wouldn't. Please trust me!" 

Toadonelly and his two friends exchanged glances before nodding. 

"Quickly!" Peach cried. "Jump!" 

They jumped. Peach concentrated on all three of them as they leapt into open air over the cliff. Obediently, wind whipped underneath them like an elastic band and caught them as they began to fall. They squeaked as they half-bounced in the air, but went speechless in amazement when they found that they were floating, not falling.  

With the toads safe within her airy net, Peach began to slowly descend down towards the foot of the cliff, focusing hard on keeping Toadonelly away from the cliff walls. The Goombas below began to stop and stare as Peach descended, and the toads took advantage of their awe and began to deliver blows left and right, knocking out Goomba after Goomba. 

Peach touched the ground and closed her eyes. Blow back all the Goombas, she thought. But leave the toads unharmed. She put her hands together and then thrust them both out, palms up. A gale of wind plowed through the crowd of Goombas and toads, knocking over the Goombas and whipping their weapons out of their hands, but smoothly flowing past the toads like water and leaving them unharmed. When the wind ceased, every Goomba was on its back, but some began to recover quickly, looking slightly dizzy. 

"Hurry!" Peach said, pushing Toadonelly and Perry forward. They had to escape while they had the chance.  

"Hold it right there!" A shadow appeared over Peach's head and her alarms went off.  

"Princess! Watch out!" Toadonelly dashed forward and barreled into her, knocking her off to the side. They tumbled to the ground as something huge slammed into the ground behind them, throwing up dust into the air. 

Peach looked over her shoulder to see Petey looming behind them, looking angry and menacing. He'd managed to put out most of the fire, but some parts of his body were still swathed flames, like his arms. In the fiery silhouette, his body seemed to glow a terrifying red, making him look like furious. Which, incidentally, was exactly how he looked. 

"You small fry ain't gettin' away from me!" he roared, throwing up his arms. The ground rumbled and shook, and roots erupted out of the singed earth, curling into the sky and writhing like worms. Peach gasped. That didn't look like anything good. 

"Princess!" Toadlee said from where he and the fifteen other toads had gathered behind her. "The Goombas are getting up!!" 

Great, Peach thought to herself. What did they do? They were surrounded by enemies on both sides. She desperately wanted to keep her toads safe, but she couldn't go against all of these enemies alone. She needed help! 

"All right!" Perry shouted from where he stood by Peach's shoulder. "Listen up! We're stuck until we deal with these guys! I want ten of you to head back down to where the Goombas are and try to hold them off! Me, Peach, and the six others of us will stay up here and deal with this pesky guy! Move it!!" As he spoke, the group of toads split up into two groups. Ten of them headed back down the hill, rolling up their sleeves and picking up any available sticks that littered the ground. The six toads that were left turned and faced Petey, surrounding him in a circle and sizing him up. Petey, however, seemed to be solely concentrated on Peach - he was glaring steadily at her. 

Peach was glad that Perry had divvied up the toads for her - now, she could deal with Petey. 

The roots that Petey had summoned from the earth were still writhing in the air. One of them zipped like a spear down towards Peach. She leapt out of the way before she could be sliced in half. Two toads pounced on the root and with their army knives began slicing it up into little pieces. Petey barely noticed. Roaring, he sent another root in Peach's direction, and she dodged again, this time by diving onto the charred ground. She jumped out of the way of two more roots before finally giving in and activating her Joyful Stone again.  

Wind blew around her and carried her up into the air at her command. Soon enough, she was above the ravaged battlefield, looking down at Petey as he glared up at her. While she had the time, she tried to come up with a plan. She was tempted to use the Rage Stone for an easy victory, but she was afraid that the fire it induced would endanger the toads. But there was no alternative - she was pretty sure that none of the other stones would eliminate Petey as effectively. Not even the Joyful Stone. 

Suddenly, something rocketed right past her ear, splitting open a cut in her lobe. Surprised by the fast attack, Peach toppled to the side. She looked back down to the field and saw that Petey was glaring up at her. The toads and Perry were continually attacking Petey, but, out of agitation, he'd raised a wall of earth around him, sealing him off from the toads' feeble attacks and giving him a better focus on Peach as she circled overhead. He raised another arm and a root burst forth out of the ground and shot up to meet her. Peach dropped two feet and let the root blow over her head like an arrow. Petey launched another root, and she just managed to maneuver out of the way of that one too.  

Now, Petey shot up two roots. Peach darted out of the way of the first one, but the second one whipped directly towards her brooch, where the Joyful Stone was hovering.  

At almost the last moment, Peach summoned her cyclone of air again and commanded for it to whip extra fiercely. The cyclone evolved into a tornado of air that encircled her. As the second root reached her, it ricocheted off of the wall of air like light on a mirror, zooming back towards Petey! Fast as a bullet, the root plunged into Petey's side. He let out a yowl of pain and fell over onto his back, clutching his side.  

Peach didn't want to completely destroy him, but she wanted to finish him off in a way that he wouldn't be able to get up for a while. Peach made a banking circle and zoomed down towards him like a falling star, so fast that she could feel the lobes of her ears burning.  

"Princess?!" Perry cried as she blasted into earshot. She was getting closer and closer to Petey, who was panting hard. One more second... 

Peach deactivated the Joyful Stone. 

At the same time, she activated the Rage Stone. 

The wind abruptly ceased and the flames arose on her person as Peach crashed through the wall of earth that Petey had summoned. She collided into Petey, and they both plowed through the back of the wall. They skidded against the burnt dirt and finally came to a halt about five yards away from where the toads were. 

At Peach's touch, Petey had caught on fire and now, besides being brutally injured in the side, he was now about to burn to a crisp. Peach quickly jumped off of him, deactivated the Rage Stone, and dashed back towards the toads, leaving poor Petey to burn. 

"That was amazing, Princess!" Toadlee squeaked.  

"Yes, you really took care of him!" Toadonelly exclaimed. 

Peach turned to see toads and Goombas dashing over the crest of the burned hill. The toads hurried towards Peach, while the Goombas seemed oddly ignorant of their presence. In fact, the captain cried, "Wah! Petey! Look, he's a'burnin'! Somebody! Go get some water!" 

Sixty Goombas headed off in search of water, while the others gathered up some dirt to try and put out Petey's fire. 

Peach did a quick headcount of all of her crew: sixteen toads plus Perry. They were all set. "We have to escape while they're distracted," she whispered to Perry. 

He nodded vigorously. "Quickly, let's go this way! I saw a forest in this direction!" He motioned his handle to the northeast. 

Peach and her sixteen toads hurriedly followed in step behind them, dodging past any Goombas and heading around the edge of the cliffs towards two crests of hills. No one seemed to notice them as they headed towards the mysterious forest. Behind them, they left Petey Piranha and a very burnt Ladida Plains.