Bowser was feeling great today, he had captured the princess Peach like always but this time he had thrice the gloating because he had also captured Daisy and Rosalina.
He brought them to a room with three holes.
"Okay, put the cages there." ordered Bowser to a Sledge Bro carrying the caged princesses.
He did as his master ordered and placed the cages on the holes.
"You won't get away with this, Bowser!" yelled Peach "Mario will save us!"
"Yeah! You know that it's gonna fail, so let us go!" continued Daisy.
Bowser didn't listen to them and ordered the Sledge Bro to pull a switch that opened the cages' floor, causing the girls to fall inside their cell.
"I gotta go to do some business." said Bowser as he looked down "Be good captives and stay in there, will you?" and then he left.
The princesses were laying on the floor plotting an escape plan.
"How would we open the cage anyway?" asked Rosalina as she pointed at the bars of the cell.
"Easy." said Peach as she took off one of her earrings and used it to open the lock. Then, she opened the door and offered the path to her friends.
"C'mon! He's not even trying!" said Daisy "There's nobody guarding this even."
"Because he had the feeling that we would be stupid enough to stay in here..." answered Rosalina "Let's get outta here!"
As the princesses walked ahead, they saw a bunch of Goombas coming their way.
"Quick! To that room!" ordered Peach at her friends as they rushed inside what seemed to be a laboratory.
"Wow! I didn't know that Bowser knew ground-breaking science!" said Daisy amazed.
"Maybe we could use one of his experiments or something like that to make our escape flawless..." said Rosalina but Peach got her eyes on a steel container.
"Or we could take a gander at what's inside here..." said Peach as she opened the container.
Inside there were three rubber bodysuits. They were in the girls' personal colours: Pink, orange and turquoise. There were rubber helmets in these colours as well.
"Bodysuits?" asked Daisy.
"Hey, why not?" said Rosalina "We'd need something more comfortable to run than our dresses."
"Good point." said Daisy as she took the orange suit and helmet.
Peach and Rosalina took the pink and turquoise clothes respectively.
They put a screen in front of them to change their clothes and only their silhouettes could be seen.
Seconds later, they were wearing the bodysuits and looked at themselves on a conviniently placed mirror.
"Well, we don't look bad, do we?" said Peach.
"It's a bit tight." complained Daisy "Reminds me of our biker uniforms..."
The other two laughed at Daisy's statement.
They were about to leave when Rosalina noticed something on her suit.
"Hey, what's this grey thing on my left breast?" she asked while pointing what seemed to be a cord.
"It's a cord, Rosie." said Peach "Now I notice, Daisy and I have those cords too!"
"What will happen if I pull it?" asked Daisy to herself as she pulled the cord of her suit.
This caused her bodysuit to inflate like a balloon at Rosalina and Peach's astonished expressions. When it stopped inflating, the lower half of her body had inflated into a round ball and only the black boots of the suit could be seen poking out. The chest and the arms had also puffed up but not as much as the main body.
"I look fat!" yelled Daisy upset.
"So, let me get this straight." said Rosalina "We're wearing inflatable bodysuits?! Wonder what can we do with these?"
Daisy, out of boredom, started to flap her arms and noticed she was staring to float upwards.
"For example, we can fly..." said Daisy and then she broke her flight by shifting her weight downwards to smash the floor "...and perform a crush attack."
"Seems more than enough to break through Bowser's defenses and flee." said Peach optimistic.
"Now how do I deflate this thing? I can barely move, ya know?" asked Daisy.
Rosalina examinated the cord and noticed that it could be twisted.
"I guess that this acts as the suit's valve too." said Rosalina as she twisted the cord so the handle was now in vertical. Then, she pulled it and noticed how the air inside Daisy's suit came out and deflated to normal.
"Let's move on!" said Daisy as she set the cord back to "Inflate" position.
But they didn't notice that there was something written in the steel container's screen when they left:
"WARNING!
DO NOT EXPOSE THE BODYSUITS TO ANY SOURCE OF HEAT WHEN INFLATED!"
I have the feeling that this will be important in the story's future...
They soon were stopped by a Koopa Troopa squadron.
"Hey! The prisoners have left!!" yelled the Koopa that was taking the lead.
"We'll send them back then!" said another one as they hid on their shells and launched themselves towards the girls but they inflated their suits to bounce them back.
"Second useful fact: We can use them to reflect physical attacks." Peach pointed out and then they moved on as they attacked the incoming troops with crush attacks, belly slams and spinning like tornadoes.
Soon, they reached the outer wall of the castle.
They used their suits to fly across the road's gaps. Just then, a Snifit sniped on them and shot at Rosalina's suit.
"Rosie! Look out!!" yelled Daisy but the bulled bounced on Rosalina's suit without even puncturing it.
"Wow! These suits are pretty resistant!" said Rosalina amazed.
"That gives them more points about keeping them!" said Peach happily.
"So, how are we gonna get outta this dump?" asked Daisy.
"We need to get to the airship port, which is after that tower over there." answered Peach.
"It's the highest of them all!" said Rosalina "But I guess that as long as we have these suits we won't have any problem!"
Meanwhile, Bowser's top soldiers, Boom Boom and Pom Pom, were reporting damages on the troop caused by the balloon-clad princesses.
"What are we gonna do now, Pom?" asked Boom Boom "If Lord Bowser hears that we've let the gals escape, he'll scold us big time!"
"Calm down, Boom!" said Pom Pom "The attacked troopers said that they were wearing what seemed to be balloon suits. Which reminds me..." just then, she rushed into the laboratory that the princesses were in earlier and peeked at the container, empty.
"They took Bowser's experimental bodysuits!" said Pom Pom as she angrily closed the container.
"Hey, Pom! Did ya see this?" said Boom Boom as he pointed at the warning sign on the container.
"I have an idea!" said Pom Pom after reading the sign "They must be near the airship port, right?"
"I guess so." said Boom Boom "But they must pass through the tallest tower first!"
"Exactly..." replied Pom Pom as she giggled evily...
Back at our escapees, they were already inside the tower.
"Alright, our way out of this heckhole is right ahead!" said Daisy
Just then, Boom Boom and Pom Pom stood on their way.
"Where do ya think yer goin', princesses?!" said Boom Boom.
"Oh no!" said Peach.
"If you want to leave, you'll do it over our fainted bodies!!" said Pom Pom as she pulled out one of her boomerangs.
"This will be a piece of cake." thought the princesses as they inflated their bodysuits for the battle.
The battle was tough, but the girls had an advantage thanks to the inflated suits being able to block Boom Boom and Pom Pom's attacks. Soon, the two Koopas took three hits and fell facefirst on the floor.
"Victory!" yelled Daisy in overflowing happiness.
But Pom Pom smirked as she pulled out a small switch and pushed the button. This caused the lava from below the room to boil up and heat the room.
The suits started to inflate further due to the heat.
"Is it me or are our suits getting bigger?" said Peach confused but then she noticed that it was true! Their suits were overinflating!
"What's the matter, princess Peach?" said Pom Pom "Can't you take thermal expansion?" then she burst out in laughter.
"Ummm, Pom..." said Boom Boom shocked as he pointed at the princesses, whose suits were already trying to outgrow the room.
"Oops!" said Pom Pom.
The princesses' heads touched the ceiling and, soon enough, Boom Boom and Pom Pom would turn into pancakes if they didn't act fast and tore the wall apart to escape.
Bricks of the tower fell off due to the pressure and the holes were quickly covered by small, rubbery, pink, orange and/or turquoise bulges until...
BOOM!!! The tower exploded in a million bricks and the suits stopped inflating but now the princesses looked really awkward: They were now gynormous spheres or rubber with a bit of their heads peeking out from the top and their arms and legs were simple bulges on the suits' main bodies.
"Good thing that we didn't explode..." said Rosalina as she sighed of relief.
Daisy and Peach imitated Rosalina's action by sighing too.
Just then, a red-shelled Lakitu was flying on his cloud when he saw the princesses.
"Ah! There they are!" said the Lakitu happily as he drove the cloud in front of Peach "Princess Peach!"
"Huh? Oh, it's you Lakitu!" said Peach "What are you doing here?"
"I'm helping the Mario brothers rescue you." answered Lakitu "But it seems that you managed to make your own escape route..."
"About that..." said Daisy "It's a long story..."
"Where are Mario and Luigi, Lakitu?" asked Rosalina.
"Oh! I didn't notice you, miss Rosalina." said Lakitu "They're in that forest down this hill. I'll bring you there!" continued as he pulled out a giant claw connected to his fishing rod.
He grabbed the princesses suits and drove them to the forest, where the Marios were waiting.
"Mario!!" said Peach happily.
"Ah, princess! It's-a good to see you're safe!" said Mario.
"But why do you look like gigantic beachballs?" asked Luigi.
"We'll tell you later, guys." said Daisy "Now, can you help us deflate these suits? We can't reach the cord as you can see..." continued as she waddled her right hand in a hope to reach the suit's cord but with no avail.
"Here. Let me help you..." said Lakitu as he flew to the princesses suits to set the cords in "Deflate" mode and pull them.
Luckily, the cords were still functional and the girls returned to normal in a few seconds.
"Hm. Even with all the stretching they had, they're like normal!" said Peach.
"Yeah, I thought that they were going to be all baggy from now on." said Daisy.
"Alrighty! We can go back home!" said Luigi happily.
Meanwhile, Bowser had arrived and saw all the ruckus that happened on his castle during his absence.
"THEY'VE DONE WHAT?!" yelled Bowser angrily, steam was coming off his nose as well.
"A...as you hear, your evilness..." said both Boom Boom and Pom Pom scared.
"I CAN'T EVEN LEAVE FOR A FEW HOURS!! I'M GONNA BE UNMERCIFUL WITH YOU TWO!! YOU'RE GOING TO BE SCRUBBING THE BASEMENT'S FLOOR UNTIL WALUIGI GETS HIS OWN GAME!!!" yelled Bowser.
"No!! Not that!!!" yelled both Boom Boom and Pom Pom.
As they walked back home, the princesses stood a bit far from the Mario Brothers and Lakitu.
"You know, I've been wondering..." said Peach.
"So?" asked Daisy.
"How about we give a name to these suits?" suggested Peach "These suits have given us a great experience and I've decided that we could keep them and use them from time to time, if you know what I mean."
"Neat idea." said Rosalina "Well, these suits can inflate and make us fly like if we were riding a hot air balloon."
"Hot... Air..." said Peach to herself "That's it!! From now on, these suits will be named Hot Air suits!"
Daisy and Rosalina nodded in agreement.
"Hey! What are you talking about?" said Lakitu, who got near the princesses to hear the conversation.
"Oh, nothin'. Girls' stuff." answered Daisy.
Lakitu shrugged and went back to the Mario Brothers' side as the sun rose in the Mushroom Kingdom.
THE END