Princess Peach called Mario and Luigi early one morning.

Mario picked up the phone. "Mario Bros., Mario Mario speaking."

"Oh, Mario!" Peach said cheerily, "Hi!"

"Hi Peach!" Mario said. "What is it?"

"I got three tickets to the Glitz Pit!"

"Oooooooooh," Mario said, "I've never been there. What's the Glitz Pit?"

"I don't have time to explain right now," Peach said, "but hurry, get Luigi and meet me at the Mushroom Kingdom Airport!"

"When should we meet you there?" Mario asked.

"Right now!" Peach said, enthusiastically. "You have to hurry, Mario! Get Luigi, come on! I'm already here! Come on!"

"Okeydokey," Mario said.

There was a lot of traffic on the Mushroom Bridge, so it took Mario and Luigi much longer to get to the airport than they had planned.

"We're here!" Mario hollered happily to Peach as he and Luigi met her out by the airplanes. It was a nice day. The sun was shining down strongly.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the fights at the Glitz Pit!" Peach said. "They're supposed to be very exciting!"

Mario glanced down at his watch. "Mamma-mia! Look at the time! It's almost 11:30! We're going to miss the flight!"

"Oh no!" Luigi cried.

Peach looked around. "Oh, look! There's our blimp!" She pointed across the airport to the blimp with the giant Cheep Cheep-shaped balloon on top. "Let's go!"

The three ran over to the blimp, gave the ticketer their tickets, and entered the blimp. The seats inside looked cushy, and they all sat down.

Peach pulled out the flyer for the Glitz Pit. "Intense battles held in the glamorous Glitz Pit, held miles high on the floating city Glitzville! Affordable hotel accommodations, and free balloons!"

Luigi smiled at the thought of free balloons as the blimp lifted into the air.

"So it's like boxing matches?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, kinda. Oooh, listen! World-famous Rawk Hawk has brutally defeated all competitors," Peach continued aloud. "Oh, guess what!"

"What?" Mario and Luigi asked.

"The Rawk has fought for over fifteen years, undefeated!" Peach turned around the flyer to show a picture of Rawk Hawk to Mario and Luigi.

"Whoa, look at the size of those muscles!" Mario blurted.

Luigi smiled over at Mario. "I bet you couldn't last five seconds in the ring with Rawk Hawk!"

Mario was offended. "Yes I could. I could last double that!"

"Oh," Peach turned to Mario, "that would be so cool if you fought Rawk Hawk!"

Mario bit his lip. He was immediately regretting what he had just said. "It sounds scary. Nobody's lost to him in fifteen years!"

"And he has fought every day!" Peach read off of the flyer.

"That's like five thousand, four hundred seventy-eight victories!" Luigi counted on his fingers.

"Yeah," Peach said, "but he fights more than one time a day,"

"Oh," Luigi said, "so that means he could have won well over ten thousand matcheswithout losing any!"

"Oh, Mario!" Peach giggled, "You could be the first to beat Rawk Hawk!"

Mario stared at the picture of the yellow bird on the flyer. The talons in particular looked really scary. "Oh, I dunno..."

Suddenly, they all felt the blimp touch down on the ground.

"Oh, we must be here!" Luigi said happily. He smiled to Mario. Mario smiled nervously.