Part 1, Chapter 1, The Beginning: Mario

Mario sat down on the steps of Princess Peach's castle. He yawned loudly and smacked his lips. Being a hero sure was tough. First your girlfriend invites you for cake and you have to dress up all nice and stuff. Next, your arch nemesis kidnaps her and locks her up in her own castle, spreading the keys all over the place in the castle. Not to mention there are mini dimensions inside her castle! Oh man now you wish you kept being a plumber.

"Hey! Mario look!" a familiar raspy voice called out. Mario sighed, burrowing his tired face into his hands. "What-a do you want-a now, Toad? She's in another-a castle?"

"It's a letter! Something chosen something tournament, other worlds or something."
"Its'a junk mail. Throw it away."

"There's attractive prizes! Like 'I will grant you one wish'!"

"Pffff, that's-a impossible, a scam."

"Whatever I'll leave it here for you" the mushroom kingdom citizen set it down on the steps and skipped away, ever so joyfully. Probably deals with kidnappings every day. Mario grumbled and picked up the card, quickly scanning through it.

HEY YOU, YES YOU!

Come for our epic otherworldly tournament!

Winner gets a wish of theirs granted (not a scam)

From: Master Hand :)

Wow it was really bad. Shit looks like it took 5 mins in MS Paint, with some guy trying to mouse draw with two fingers. Good lord it was terrible. Mario crunched it up and flung it over the railing, aiming for the bin in the corner of the main hall.

The paper never hit the ground. It dropped through a painting and disappeared. Mario peered at it curiously, where did that dratted thing come from? The painting depicted a castle, much greyer and definitely larger than Peach's. He cautiously approached it, leaning forward and peering deep into it. It wasn't like the other paintings, it seemed to warp violently when he moved his glove near it. "What-a in the actual shit," mumbled Mario as he examined the curious object.

Suddenly, there was a ripping sound behind him. He spun around quickly, seeing a giant tear in the air. A whitish gloved hand burst through the tear, confronting Mario. Behind it, a dark soulless void speckled with purple hues lay out in an endless sea. The glove pointed at Mario and boomed, "TRY MAKING YOUR OWN INVITATION CARD NEXT TIME!", before flipping him the bird and pushing him into the painting.