THE MARIO BROTHERS
Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopas, a tribe of turtles with access to powerful sorcery. They used their magic to transform the mushroom citizens, the Toads, into mere inanimate objects such as stones, bricks and horsetail ferns.
The only one capable of reversing the curse on the Toads and returning them to life is the Mushroom Kingdom's ruler, Princess Toadstool. Regrettably, she was taken by the King of the Koopas, Bowser.
Mario and Luigi, the heroes of this story (maybe) had decided to step up and take on the Koopas, save the princess and restore the Mushroom Kingdom to its former state of peace and glory.
This is their story. It was their responsibility to bring it to the right conclusion.
Within the busy city of Brooklyn, there is a run-down building with the words Mario Bros. Plumbing painted in block letters beside the door, the slogan You clog 'em, we clear 'em! written next to a plump, moustachioed cartoon man in a red cap and overalls. Inside this old building lived two twenty-six-year-old Italian-American twins, living off the modest earnings of their plumbing business, instant cup noodles, and video games.
The first twin resembled the cartoon man from the logo: a short, round man with a thick, bushy moustache, brown hat hair, denim overalls and a bright red shirt.
The younger twin was very similar in appearance, but he was a little taller, a little skinnier, a little more well-groomed, and he wore a green shirt to contrast his brother's.
The two brothers sat on a tattered old sofa, a cup of unfinished instant noodles lying discarded beside each of them, forgotten in favour of Pong running on the Magnavox Odyssey. Each of them had their hands glued to the knobs of the controller between them, and their eyes never left the white square that bounced between the borders of the flickering black-and-white television screen.
The neighbours stirred in their beds from the loud competitive shouts of the twins, unable to fall asleep.
Then, the telephone rang.
'Get it, Luigi,' said Mario. He spoke in a high-pitched voice with a thick Italian accent.
'No,' returned Luigi stubbornly, his voice deeper than his brothers but his accent the same. 'You do it.'
The two brothers were both frowning angrily at the screen. If they were willing to take their eyes off it, they would have been glaring at each other.
'The phone is ringing, Mario,' teased Luigi. 'Who's-a the one they expect to answer the phone when they ring a place called Mario Brothers Plumbing?'
Mario growled under his breath, still waiting until the very last possible second before he stood up and rushed over to pick up the ringing phone. The white square on the screen disappeared behind the edge on Mario's side, and Luigi jumped up with a cry of victory, pumping his fists in the air and giving his brother a teasing look.
'This is Mario Brothers Plumbing,' answered Mario, glaring at his brother, 'you clog 'em, we clear 'em! What can I do for you?'
Luigi turned around to watch his brother converse with the caller for a few moments before Mario put down the phone, looking him in the eye. 'Let's-a go!'
Mario and Luigi stood side-by-side at the front door of their client. Luigi had just rung the doorbell, and they waited patiently a response from inside the large, ornate mansion.
An old man answered the door for them, hunched over his walking stick, greeting them with a squint and a pleasant smile.
'What may I do for you?' he asked.
'It's-a me, Mario,' said Mario, 'and this's Luigi. We come from-a Mario Bros. Plumbing.'
'Oh!' laughed the old man. 'We've been anxiously awaiting your arrival! Come in, come in!'
Mario and Luigi stepped inside the house, surveying their surroundings. The large manor was decorated with perfectly placed furniture, old-looking pictures on the walls and a general fancy design. The old man led them to the bathroom, passing an old lady sitting in a large armchair on the way who looked up from her book to smile at them as they went past, which the two assumed must have been the old man's wife.
In the bathroom, bath itself was nearly overflowing with water. The old man had quite obviously moved all the expensive furniture out of the room to prevent them from getting wet save a single painting of a young lady on the wall with a golden frame.
'Please,' begged the man, 'if the bathtub overflows then the floor will be ruined!'
'Okey-dokey,' said Luigi, 'just leave it to us!'
And so the two brothers got to work, the old man watching from the doorway. Mario handed a plunger to Luigi, and held the bathtub still as Luigi vigorously tried to clean out the drain with it. Luigi's arms strained and the drain was unyielding for many minutes, until Luigi eventually managed to somehow pull out the a piece of the blockage, allowing the water to seep through the new leak sluggishly.
'Whoa,' said Luigi, using his sleeve to wipe a drop of sweat off his brow. 'We'll-a have to leave it to drain for a while before we unclog the rest.'
Mario nodded in agreement, then the two brothers examined the material now attached to the plunger.
'Looks like a kind of fungal growth,' Mario told the old man, knitting his brows together.
'Fungal growth?' he repeated, dumbfounded.
Luigi showed the plunger to the old man, and sure enough, there were darkly coloured mushrooms on it, oozing with toxic, bubbling purple liquid.
Mario used two gloved fingers to pluck one of the mushrooms off the plunger to show it to the old man, who leaned forwards to get a better look.
As the old man was inspecting the fungus, Luigi idly twirled the plunger around without thinking, and the rest of the fungi dropped off it and into the bathwater. Just realising what he had done, he leapt forward and tried to grab the mushroom with a cry, and slipped, landing with a splash onto his stomach.
'Luigi!' cried Mario, and rushed to his brother's aid, but he tripped over and accidentally squashed the fungus into Luigi's back.
'Oh my!' exclaimed the old man. 'Let me help!'
It was then that the strange properties of the fluids within the fungi started to take effect on the brothers, having seeped through their clothes and into their skin. They began changing shape in various ways, gradually shrinking until they were no larger than a bottle. Unable to swim at their new sizes, the plumbers felt themselves being pulled towards the drain and sucked into it.
As they fell through the drainpipe, they could feel the gravity shifting as they inconsistently continued changing shape and size. They fell at faster and slower speeds at such an irregular pace that it made them nauseous, and grew and shrank so often that their vision was warped so that they could barely make out was the colour of the other, and a blinding light nearing them from below.
DISCLAIMER: 'Super Mario' and all related content are copyright to Nintendo. This is a non-profit fan-written fiction, and I own no rights
(A/N: This is a new story based on the original 'Super Mario Bros.' but takes place in an alternate timeline. If you like the story so far, please tell me what you think; in fact, even if you don't like it, tell me your thoughts anyway. By the way, you may have noticed that this story has been edited a great number of times, and I'm just going to tell you it will continue to do so until it is done, maybe even after that.)
