It was just another day in Mushroom Town, the capital city of the Mushroom Kingdom, and Toad had been invited to Mario and Luigi's house for a Mario Party. He had arrived on time as usual and knocked on the door. "Mario! Luigi!" He called for the two plumbers but there was no answer. "Mario? Luigi?" He called again, looking around the empty house. Silence. They weren't anywhere in the house. The Mario Party board laid out on the living room table, all the pieces and snacks ready, but no one was there. "Oh no! This isn't good… Wait, maybe they went to the castle to invite Princess Peach!" Toad calmed down and decided to go to the castle and see if his friends were there.
Upon arriving at the castle Toad discovered that Princess Daisy had come and she and Princess Peach had left to attend the Mario party a half hour before. "Oh no, this is not good at all. What am I gonna do?!" He asked himself. Another toad who worked in the castle had an idea. "Go talk to Wario, he may know something." Toad looked incredulously at the other toad. "Are you kidding me?! That guy would turn me into mushroom soup if I got near him! I'm not going to talk to him!" The other toad shrugged. "It was just a thought. It IS better than going to Bowser after all. In fact, Bowser is probably responsible for this." Toad nodded apprehensively. "I suppose you're right about that…" "And, crude as he is, Wario would take on Bowser; we'd probably have to pay the creep a small fortune though." Toad continued to nod. "That's true too… fine, I'll go find Wario and ask him." Toad decided that the other toad was right, even dealing with Wario was better than dealing with Bowser so he left the castle and made his way to Wario's house.
Wario's house was in the worst part of town, where all the riffraff lived. Despite being greedy and stingy Wario could never hold on to his money for long so he'd lost his castle and settled for his crummy little shack with a garage for his baby, his prized, one of a kind, Wario Car; a customized Koopa Khrysler and one of the last Koopa Khryslers in existence. (They never sold well, the Koopas never really cared for or needed cars and even Bowser hated it, so it was the only Koopa car ever made and they only made five.) Toad cautiously made his way to the door and knocked. "W-Wario? A-Are you home?" No answer. Toad knocked again. "W-Wario? There's s-some trouble, Mario, Luigi, and the Princesses are gone… Help." Toad listened for Wario's gruff, Italian accented, voice but heard nothing, not even footsteps. He knocked again and this time the door slowly creaked open. "W-Wario?" Toad called timidly as he poked his head in and looked around. Wario was gone too. "Oh no! This is really bad. Even Wario's gone missing! What am I gonna do?" Toad wailed. He paced back and forth for a while and finally came to a conclusion. "I guess I'll have to go find them myself. I'm gonna need a LOT of power-ups." He said to himself as he headed to the marketplace. Toad looked for power-ups but he didn't find many he could afford. "Well, I have a fire flower, a couple of 1up shrooms and a poison shroom… I'm doomed." Toad shook his head and started to cry. "I can't do this! I'm not a hero character, I'm just a helper character; I'm just a toad! There's no way I can save all of them!"
Waluigi had just finished with his shopping trip; he needed to restock his kitchen since Wario showed his gluttonous side the last time he had come over to ask him to do maintenance on the Wario car. Waluigi was walking down the cobblestone street carrying his large bag of groceries, mostly doughnuts, stuff for making hamburgers, chips, and all the ingredients for his would-be famous spaghetti and meatballs. (Which would be famous if Wario would quit eating it all and let at least ONE other person besides Waluigi have some.) He couldn't really see over the large bag so as he was walking he didn't see the small obstacle in his path, and as a result, he tripped over it and fell on his face in the middle of the street. "Ouch!" he said, rubbing his nose as he looked around at his spilled groceries. Amongst the bags of chips and hamburger buns sat Toad, looking around frantically and apologizing to whomever he'd tripped. "You need to watch where you're going!" Waluigi barked.
Toad jumped and looked at him fearfully as he got up, dusted himself off and began to pick up his groceries. "W-Waluigi, you're still here?" He asked. "Yes. Unfortunately." Waluigi sneered as he put the doughnuts back in the bag and resumed walking to his house. Toad thought the current situation over, much as he didn't like Waluigi he was a little less scary than Wario, at least when he wasn't losing a tennis match anyway. Maybe he would help? "Uh, Waluigi there's some trouble." Toad said uncertainly as he started to follow Waluigi. "Go and tell Mario and Luigi. They're the heroes after all." Waluigi said dismissively. "That's just it; they're missing!" Toad explained as they started down a creepy-looking alleyway. "W-Where are we going?" He asked, noticing their surroundings. "I don't know about you, but I'm going home. This is my short cut." Toad followed Waluigi to the end of the alleyway that ended at Grimace Lane, one of the creepiest streets in town. Toad followed Waluigi for lack anything else to do since he didn't know how to get back to the better side of town.
Waluigi walked up to a shabby looking house with Toad close behind him. There were a couple of shutters hanging off the windows, a few shingles missing from the roof and the yard was more or less non-existent with only dried and dead weeds and a few shriveled mushroom plants around. Waluigi walked up the creaky porch steps with Toad cautiously following him, jumping nervously each time the old wood creaked under his little feet. "W-Waluigi you have to help… Even Wario is missing!" Toad pleaded with the tall and intimidating mechanic. Waluigi laughed as he opened the front door and walked inside. "Wario is gone too? Today just keeps getting better! Good riddance!" Waluigi laughed again as he walked into the kitchen and started to put his groceries away. Toad looked around, he had never been in Waluigi's house before and he was surprised. Despite the run-down condition of the house it was much cleaner than Wario's, (Toad had been there once for a Mario party and vowed he would never again set foot in Wario's personal dump when he saw a pretty weird looking shroom, growing out of a pizza box with a two-year old expiration date on it, wink at him.) Waluigi seemed to make an effort to have some cleanliness and organization in his house and his handiwork was displayed throughout the house as well. There was a chair in one corner of the room, the seat and back were made of wood and the legs were gone, replaced with new ones made of metal scraps from old Mario Karts from the look of it, including cushions from the seat of a Mario kart. There was also an old table in the center of the room that had been repaired with various Mario Kart parts too…
Toad was amazed, the repaired furniture was somewhat crude but upon inspection very sturdy. "Did you fix this furniture yourself Waluigi?" Toad asked, sitting on the chair and realizing just how comfy it was. "Yeah, it's nothing fancy and I can't afford the fancy stuff. But this stuff suits me." Waluigi said, pulling himself out a bottle of grape juice from his fridge. "It's really impressive work; I'm surprised a plumber can do this." Toad said. "I'm not a plumber you little fungus!" Waluigi barked. Toad leaped up fearfully from the chair, being reminded of just who he was talking to. "I-I'm sorry, I just thought-" "Well you thought wrong dummy." Waluigi said, taking a swig of his grape juice. "I-If you're not a plumber, then what do you do?" Toad asked. "I'm a mechanic if it's any of your business." "Really?" "Who do you think everyone comes whining to when they tear up their Mario Karts in a race; Bowser?" Waluigi asked sarcastically. "Right… makes sense I guess… Wait; there are more important matters at hand right now!" Toad remembered why he was at Waluigi's house in the first place. "You have to do something Waluigi, even your own brother's gone missing." Toad pleaded. Waluigi shot Toad a frightening look. "That fat head's no brother of mine! Just because we're the Stuper Mario Brothers' rivals doesn't mean we're brothers too!" He snapped. "B-But, you're always team mates for Mario events and-" Toad stammered until Waluigi cut him off. "Yeah? That's just cuz tub o' lard can't get anyone else to team up with him, even his own cousins." Toad swallowed hard. "R-Really? B-But I thought for sure-" "No! I'm not related to those three shroom-heads! I'm just the guy they call to even out the number of players in a Tardio party; I'm just a filler character for shroom's sake! An underrated, underappreciated, overlooked, left out, FILLER CHARACTER!" Waluigi barked, slumping down in another chair. Toad stood there, in silence, just watching as Waluigi took a deep breath, and hung his head. 'Wow, this guy is even more insecure than I am.' Toad thought to himself, feeling a little pity for Waluigi.
Waluigi continued his rant after a moment. "If I was that fat head Wario's brother then maybe I wouldn't be a filler character and I could've at least gotten a cameo in something…" "Uh… There, there Waluigi, you're still a popular filler character." Toad said, unable to believe he was comforting Waluigi of all people. "Bah! I don't want your sympathy or your pity you little fungus!" Waluigi snapped, swatting Toad's hand away. Toad stepped back. "Okay… back to the matter at hand… even Princess Peach and Princess Daisy are missing! You're really the last person anyone would ask for help, but you're the last person to ask for help right now so please-" Waluigi cut Toad off again. "How many times do I have to tell you, I ain't gonna- Wait… did you say Princess Daisy is missing too?" Waluigi now seemed interested in what Toad had to say. "Yes, she is. Along with everyone else. Will you please help?" Waluigi thought about it for a moment, twisting one side of his sharply pointed mustache around his finger. "Princess Daisy is in trouble and that stupid goody-two shoes Luigi can't save her this time…This could be my big change to impress her and show her I'm not just some lame-o filler character and that I'm 10,000 times better than the sniveling little hero wanna-be!" "So does that mean you'll help?" Toad asked, not sure asking Waluigi was such a good idea. "Yes, I'll do it for Daisy!" Waluigi exclaimed with a fist pump.
"Great, I'll go along and be your side kick and help you out where I can, I've only got one fire flower, two 1-up shrooms, and a poison shroom, but I know I can help!" Waluigi just looked at Toad blankly for a second then laughed. "I don't need a side kick but if you want to help I do have a very important job and I guess you could handle it." Toad nodded enthusiastically, if he could do something to help Waluigi save his friends and show his gratitude he would do anything. "I'll do it! You can count on me! Since you've agreed to help everyone I'll help you however I can in return!" Waluigi led Toad down the hall to the back door, through the back yard and toward a greenhouse. When Toad saw the greenhouse he couldn't help but be surprised. 'He's a mechanic and a gardener? Will wonders ever cease? I guess Waluigi does have a not-so scary side to him after all, he grows flowers and he agreed to go save everyone…I guess he isn't so bad! I wonder what kind of flowers he grows? Maybe daisies or petunias?' Then Waluigi opened the door and Toad immediately realized how wrong he was.
The whole greenhouse was full of piranha plants! "You can water and feed my piranha plants while I'm gone." Waluigi said, petting a piranha plant. "You've got to be kidding me!" Toad cried as the plants seemed to eye him hungrily. Waluigi just laughed. "Don't worry; they're tame… as long as they're fed! Wah-Hahahahaha!" A piranha plant hissed at Toad, causing him to jump and Waluigi to laugh even harder. Toad crossed his arms and looked as cross as he dared at Waluigi. 'I take it back. Waluigi wouldn't even know what a not-so scary side is if it slapped him with a cheep-cheep! He's as bad as Wario, the only thing about him that's better is his smell!' "What? You don't like my pets? Well if you can't take care of my babies while I'm gone then I guess I can't go save your lousy friends." Waluigi said, crossing his arms and giving Toad the ultimatum. Toad thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that it was selfish to refuse to do this one thing for Waluigi since he did agree to save everybody. "Oh okay, I'll take care of your piranha plants." He said, swallowing hard as a piranha plant loomed over him, almost grinning as if to say 'I'm gonna have so much fun with you…'
Mario, Luigi, Wario, Daisy, and Peach sat in cages that were suspended by large chains connected to the ceiling of the large dungeon-like room they were being held in. The cages were far enough apart that they couldn't reach each other and far too far away from the door, the single window and the walls and the key hung, on the wall beside the door, just to taunt them. The cages were also high enough off the floor that they couldn't try to swing them to knock out the guard when he entered the room or their captor when he entered to taunt them. "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do Mario?" Luigi said in dismay. "Aw, shut up ya whiny baby!" Wario snapped. "How about you shut up; you big fat dummy!" Daisy barked at Wario. "Hey, how about we all calm down and try to figure this out together? I know we'll get out of this mess somehow; we always do." Mario said, trying to be optimistic. "Mario's right, we need to work together." Peach added. "Ha! Good luck twits." Their mysterious captor's charismatic but cold voice came from the doorway. "It won't be long now, with all of you under lock and key there's no one left to stop me, the mushroom kingdom will bow before me and not even the Koopa King can stand in my way!" He said with a laugh as he walked away. "You know bro, I still get the weird feeling I've seen him somewhere before. I wonder who the heck he is?" Luigi pondered, feeling like they might be in serious trouble.
