Chapter 3 Doctor's inspection

“Hmmm, hmmm… Mmmmm.” Dr. Mario made the sounds trying to stay focused on his clipboard that had various test results. A task incredibly difficult with how the two in his office were looking, one more distracting than the other. Link, from the realm of Breath of the Wild stood in front of the exam room table wearing a peach of pink and white panties with a little bow in front and a bra that while empty still held their form as if their former owner was still wearing it. His body had changed a bit since last he saw, he had been strong, but not super fit with toned muscle. Now he was sleek and smooth, free of body hair, a bit of a feminine shape. That was not to mention how he had changed from five foot two inches to five foot nine. His blonde hair had been styled as if he was imitating Princess Peach and had done his makeup immaculately. Currently the bra wearing man held his hands around his body, a bright blush on his face.

Then there was the Princess, who stood in his office wearing only a pair of boxers, her breasts on display on her now more fit but compacted form. While Link had grown in height, she had shrunk and gained whatever muscle the boy seemed to have lost. She was free of makeup and had her golden hair in a low ponytail. Currently she seemed lost in some internal thought as she fleshed one of her arms and felt her biceps with the other. “Lets-a go!” He said to himself, giving up looking at the report.

“We have a problem.” He stated the obvious but each of them responded a bit differently. Princess Peach was wonderful, he cared for her deeply and something about this change had altered the woman he cared about to the point that she hadn’t cared about her modesty or at least at first blush didn’t think anything about removing their shirt and being topless.

Link with a worried expression shaking his head vigorously enough that his styled hair shifted a strand of it getting caught in his lipstick and gloss covered lips. While Peach looked over with a small smile, gently nodded to confirm that to be the truth.

“We ah-see.” Mario pulled a panel from the wall in front of Peach, much as he hated to do so, covering her torso. She made him cake from time to time, but standing in front of him topless, this was an interesting day. Hitting a button on the side the x-ray panel lit up, showing the ribcage of the woman. “In here I don’t see any red viruses for fever, nor any blue viruses for chill. I would expect to see at least some, if not a lot of yellow virus for weird. Princess Peach you have no virus, my pills will do you no good. That and umm, Princess you should put on a shirt.”

Nervous, Link spoke up. “But you can save us? Right Dr. Mario?” While the bra wearing man spoke up, Peach did her best to hide behind the x-ray screen even though it already covered her feminine assets. A bright blush coming to her cheeks as it hit her just how brazen she had been acting.

Putting his clipboard to the side Mario tapped his foot on the floor as he thought. “Okie dokie.” He shifted the head mirror, the circular device on his headband so that he could peer through it. Above Link he could see the Hylian’s name and title. It currently reading Princess Peach Toadstool. Looking to his side he confirmed Peach had his information. “It-a seems the two of you have swapped profiles and it has ah, affected you physically. Each of you have one another's abilities.” Mario was no fool, he had gone from a realm of normal life as a plumber into the Mushroom kingdom and from there into others, yet despite all that, and the fact the two weren’t exactly twins, it still took conscious effort to know the difference between the two. ‘The profiles must affect how others view them as well.’ he pondered.

Opening his mouth Link was about to say what abilities, how he didn’t have anything, but he remembered how capable Princess Peach was in the fight. She was tearing him apart, using one of her mushroom kingdom citizens as a shield, an umbrella to defy gravity, a hip check that literally sent him flying. He knew how to do those things, at least to a point, but he didn’t feel strong, he didn’t have his weapons.

Stepping out from behind the x-ray screen, Peach equipped the armored tunic along with its accessories. She wasn’t nearly as light on her feet as she had been, but it really only was in the land of Brawl that she felt so capable to defend herself. Slowly closing her left hand into a fist and opening it, she flexed her muscles. It wasn’t just her new strength, she could summon sphere and box bombs made of light from the Sheikah slate at her side. ‘If I had all of this before I would never have needed to be rescued by Mario. I could save myself or fight off the Koopa King. He doesn’t mess with Daisy…’

With hesitation Link willed his current choice of clothing back onto his body. It was chilly in the doctor's office, but willingly putting the dress, the stockings and heels all back on just didn’t sit well with him even if he could admit he looked cute. When the thought slid through his mind like an unwanted guest, he shook his head wanting to be free of it. “How did this even happen?”

That was a golden question and Mario wasn’t very sure. The yellow weird virus would make at least some sense to him, or some sort of power up that glitched and stayed on. This was none of that, but according to the file from their match they had both been swallowed by Kirby at the same time. Something that shouldn’t be able to happen and it seemed or at least he guessed that ending the match in the swapped forms had locked the profiles in place. “It-a seems that there was a glitch with Kirby. No one really knows how the Dream Land creature functions, how he copies and borrows abilities from others, but I would say we need him to undo this.” Once more Dr. Mario tapped his foot on the ground, impatient even with himself as he felt he should be able to do something to help. “I see two options, the first I think is the best.”

“Yeah!?” Link asked hopefully, hands in front of him with gloved fingers entwining almost in a praying like motion. While Peach looked on with interest, she didn’t feel like herself, some things felt foggy in her mind, like she could no longer recall the current population of the Mushroom Kingdom and the location of some of the hidden green mushrooms around her castle were becoming harder to recall.

Shrugging one shoulder Dr. Mario picked up his clipboard once more, looking down at what was written on it. “We wait, specifically you wait for Kirby to come back to Brawl. You talk to him and then fight him again in a match to try and recreate what happened. Or maybe he just knows how to fix it.” he shrugged once more before continuing. “Perhaps going back to our own lands can fix this. If you go back through the portal together, maybe everything goes back to the way it was before.”

There was a silence in the room after the options were given, the Princess contemplating them for a moment before speaking up. “Could we end up going home, but keep each other's profiles?”

Flipping the pages on his clipboard, Mario had no notes to answer such a question. Moving between lands was an odd thing. Much of the knowledge one gained in Brawl faded in memory once you went back home, only to all come back again once you were here. “Maybe, I can’t say. Moving between realms is not as stable as it is in the Mushroom Kingdom. This isn’t like going up to the Rainbow road.”

Feeling confident in his decision, though not confident in who he even was at the moment Link made his thoughts known. “Then it would be best if we.” Speaking with his chest out, head held high and motioning to himself by bending his wrist so that his fingers lightly rested just below his collar bone, Link continued to speak in the lilting, sweet as honey voice. “Should stay here till Kirby comes back.”

A frown formed on Peach’s face before she gave two shakes of her head. “We can’t just stay here, I have a kingdom to lead and you have…” she thought for a second, her quest log showing exactly what Link had to do. On it she saw her quest to see Dr. Mario grayed out now that it was complete. “Have to rescue Princess Zelda and you have to defeat the guardian beasts.”

All the things Link had been doing back home, cooking different meals, getting the supplies together to upgrade armor and just exploring came to mind. ‘I do need to save her… I need to save the realm.’ Guilt started to set in, sure coming here didn’t change the time back home, but even there he hadn’t been doing his main quests.

When the pointed ear boy didn’t respond, Peach moved closer. Her normal tactics would have been to put a gentle hand on him to persuade him to her line of thinking. Diplomacy was the best route to change minds and hearts, but she felt like she needed to go, to do. Sitting here just wasn’t her… or it wasn’t anymore. “Just because you are wearing my crown doesn’t mean you need to sit around to be saved. Aren’t you a knight? Champion of Hyrule?”

It was another gut punch that made Link question himself. ‘Why am I acting so passive? Shouldn’t I want to go back home and fix this? If I go through and get back to my old self I can actually go and make a difference. I’m not a coward, I'm a Princess!’ While hyping himself up he stood up straighter as he smoothed out the skirt of his dress, his body not bothering to check in with his mind. Eyes darting about worried that either of the people in the room could read his mind, Link swallowed the saliva. “I’m a hero, option two.” he dipped his chin in a single nod motion to the girl wearing his trousers.

Looking between the Dr. Mario saw the determination on both of their faces. “Okie dokie, but remember a lot of things could go wrong with this method.”