[Suggested Music - Game & Wario - Ashley Boss Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxbadLRx0M ]

Channeling every inch of his manly physique, Wario swung a punch. It careened out towards the oncoming hand. He felt his knuckles sink into her bare palm's wrinkles, absorbing the full force.

"Ow!" She drew it backwards. Ashley groaned, her hair glimmering white. As her target dashed for the exit, he saw another shadow ascend from the sky. Within two footsteps, making the floors screech again, he was within her reach.

He pumped his arms, eyes bulging. "C'mon, COME ON..."

-WHOOSH-

Instantaneously, Ashley's iron grip closed around him. Skin, frosty to the touch, pressed his torso from front and behind. His chins barely stuck out above her index finger. The breath above ruffled his mustache, sending chills down his spine. She squeezed, turning his face the shade of a tomato.

"The Crescent Moon Shard." Her vocal chords' vibrations crept up her skin and onto his, eliciting goosebumps.

He grimaced, choking. "Wrk... Ack... No!" The pressure only made his hold on the gem tighter.

She sighed, and began chanting, voice with the tone of a chilled wind through a forest. "Enor ebmu n Sio ira wn I ed am... Nawa buna nu Zio ira un Io di em!"

And in a flash of light, he was free of the grip. Free of any floor, either. Wario was falling - right into the bubbling orange cauldron.

*SPLASH*

The mustached thief quickly swam up to the top of the mixture, holding his breath - and his hard-earned treasure. It was hard to grasp, from this new perspective, but this was the same room. That crimson carpet that he started at rested below; he couldn't believe how tiny the fibers looked from here, and how the decapitated dolls took up so little space. The same odd ingredients were in shelves a dizzying height above, the glow from dim lights reflecting off their jars and onto him.

Bubbles tickled his legs. Soon, they began burning, making his legs move faster than a motorboat's engine. He navigated to the edge, trying to find a rest point...

Only to end up right in Ashley's round nose. She crossed her ruby eyes to pierce him. "I don't think one extra ingredient will change much." She took out a stirring spoon, and began to mix the new brew.

Leaning on top of the bubbling pot, the magician's wide-stretching arm moved in circles, the massive elbow flying in and out. It dragged Wario in every which way, rendering a great waves of bubbling liquid. He felt it soak his 'stache, wash under his shirt, carry him in dizzying circles. The candles' illuminating glow above nearly hypnotized him, flying in strange shapes - little specks of illumination in the shadowy lair that held them both.

He doggy-paddled desperately against Ashley's quiet, steady stirring. The shard rested tightly between his teeth; he struggled to keep his neck above the currents, lest he lose the treasure in its gurgling depths. When he neared the edge of the pot, the witch's all-encompassing hand simply moved to block him. Only one little blow could send him off-course; one rock of the bowl could nearly drown him; one stir could carry him to the other side of the cauldron altogether. Soon, he didn't even remember where the exit was; Ashley's face loomed everywhere he looked, always ready to catch him...

"Wah! Gotta get out, swim for it..." He vocalized his thoughts from behind clenched teeth, the words coming out distorted. The mixture was starting to sear his pink pants, eating through them hungrily. He couldn't help but wonder: "What's this brew supposed to do, anyway?"

Ashley peered towards him, her spoon sending a new wave his way. "You want to know...? Drop the shard in."

This wasn't working! Sways of the mixture, threatening to swallow him, blocked off each edge of the bowl. And if he even got close to the narrow, metal shore, her reach knocked away his progress with no effort. Even if he did get out - it would be just a snap of her fingers to plop him in again. And if he dropped the shard, it might end up dissolving to her mighty stirs.

His eyebrows narrowed, as he continued to paddle. What options were left?

[Suggested music - Game & Wario - Ashley Boss Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxbadLRx0M ]

A bubble from the potion formed near Wario, tilting him from an edge. With a pop, it splashed searing drops of the noxious mixture on his nose. The bandit still guarded the Crescent Moon Shard, while swimming as best as possible against the whirlpools and shifting currents.

Ashley, her face still flat, sighed. "If you let go, it'll be much less painful for both of us."

He huffed, half-horrified, half-enraged. What a brat! She didn't understand this treasure's value! All it meant to her was another ingredient in her mysterious brew. It chilled him to think about it, but that's all he was, too - one more component for a potion, whose nature she wouldn't even reveal.

He grinned.

Gears in Wario's tiny head turned, while another stir sent him floating away. Tons of components hung right on top of the cauldron.

Perfect. If Ashley could brew potions, who said he couldn't? It might ruin it for her. Sweet vengeance!

The girl noticed him floating still in the bowl's center. She leaned in, face blocking the candle's glimmer. "You're not moving. Did it just take some waves to break you?" She whispered her next word, with the vaguest hint of a disgusted curl in her cheeks. "...Weak."

With the titaness not stirring, and the candles no longer in his eyes, the bandit was able to aim his neck. He spat out the Crescent Moon Shard in the air. It flew into the jar of eyeballs, cracking it open. Along with the treasure, the spheres rolled out similarly to pachinko balls, hurdling towards him. They fell one after another into the goop below. A single impact of an orb against the fluid created reverberations that sent Wario into the air - where he could catch the shard. "Wahaha, direct hit!"

"No... Not part of the potion." The feminine shadow overtook the pot. Ashley hastily scooped the eyeballs in her spoon, tossing them out of the liquid. Her neckerchief hung atop the miniature man, chest nearly touching him. Though the gigantic, pale face remained still, he grinned when he saw the faintest hint of sweat crossing it.

With a kiss for luck, he threw the Crescent Moon Shard again. "Take this!" This time, he aimed for the jellybean mix. The jar shook from the impact, then collapsed, releasing its payload.

The torso above him retracted in a sudden gasp. The stirring utensil dropped to the distant carpet. The titanic witch was able to grab this jar, only a few beans spilling in - missing the shard as it fell, again, into those teensy, yellow-gloved hands. When she put the jar aside, her hair glowed a blinding white, floating up as if gravity went out to lunch.

Wario took aim again, grinning... But felt himself pulled from behind. A metal surface rose under his tiny, round tush. It lifted him into the sky, right towards his hostess' looming glare - boiling hotter than pools of fresh magma from Lavalava Island. Cool blood rushed through her face, which was partly-shaded from the shrunken man's angle, bringing out her soft lips. They opened, freezing him as she brought the spoon closer to her mouth, sipping in. The waves pushed him rearwards, rushing into the girl's throat. Stronger than her stirring, he couldn't swim against this current when one arm clutched the shard. His miniaturized mind rushed in eight direction at once: the tugging behind him; the old shelf he aimed at; the paralyzing breath from Ashley's nostrils above; the sloshing sounds in each direction; the burning in his taste buds; the bubbling at his legs; the ache in his rear; the glimmer off the treasure in his arm...

He braced himself, and as the gigantic lips touched him, tossed the Crescent Moon Shard. "Hah!"

It went off-course.

The crescent lodged itself into a crack in the old wood. Ashley slumped in relief, her sigh nearly blowing Wario's hat off.

But soon, creaking replaced the sloshing sound around him. The crack grew larger and larger. Beneath the tiny thief, he felt the gigantic hand tremble in anticipation. She whispered: "No, no, no..."

CREAAAK.

Ashley's gigantic legs sprung forward in terror, dropping her captive into the brew.

"Stop it...!"

At once, the shelf broke apart. Bottles, jars, vials, and splinters descended on the two. Fronks and mandrakes screamed in panic. Unable to hold everything, Ashley splashed into the brew, her torso plunging Wario to the base of the cauldron. Geysers and crashing waves of the mixture spilled from it, and didn't stop, as debris from the impact rained down.

Pushing aside the wet red fabrics, the mustached man swam up. A mandrake hit his helmet, plopping him into the waters anew. But he recovered quickly. Somewhere, among the floating debris, the Crescent Moon Shard was there...

Ashley seethed, creating more waves as she swept at the mixture. Waterfalls of the orange goo spilled from her hands. "No... It's here, it must be here..." She found the spider from before, happily backstroking - and tossed him out.

Neither could find where the glimmering treasure had landed.

But as they splashed the potion everywhere, allowing it to soak their vestments, something washed over them...