Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Welcome to the prologue of Search for the Crystal Stars! If you ever visited the old Mario fansite Lemmy's Land, you might be familiar with a story called Super Mario Bros: Search for the Crystal Stars. Well, I wrote that story back in 2008, but eventually stopped writing it. I tried to finish it in 2012, but only wrote one chapter before stopping again. Now, instead of continuing the 8-year old story, I've decided to rewrite it in accordance with the writing standards of 2016. I'll post new chapters every Friday; even though I've already written the first three chapters, I want to have a backlog to draw upon in case I get writer's block or circumstances prevent me from writing. Any and all criticism is welcomed. Enjoy!
The sun set on the city of Toad Town, the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom. Near a small house, a person wearing blue overalls, a green shirt, and a green cap with an L on it sat perched on a small fence watching the sunset.
"Wow…" Luigi said to himself. "The sunsets here in Toad Town never fail to amaze me, no matter how many times I see them…"
Just then, a sound came from the nearby warp pipe, and Mario came up it. "Mario!" Luigi called out. Luigi jumped down from the fence and went over to where Mario was ascending the stairs leading up to the house's door. "How was Mushroom Palace?"
"Oh, you know," Mario said. "Just a meeting with the princess's advisors. Nothing too special." Mario had been briefing Princess Peach's advisors on his recent adventure in Rogueport to collect the Crystal Stars and defeat the X-Nauts.
Luigi nodded as they went inside the house. Mario went to the back of the house and knelt down, then took out what looked like a piece of the wall, but was actually a covering which concealed a large combination safe. Mario entered the combination on the lock, then pulled it open to reveal ten small safes sitting inside the large safe. Each safe was numbered from zero to nine. Three safes held Bob-ombs in them that would immediately detonate if they were opened; the seven others each contained a Crystal Star. Mario took out each safe with a Crystal Star on it, opened it up, and checked to make sure the artifacts were still in there.
"You know, Mario, I don't think you should so obsessively check whether or not the Crystal Stars are still in your safe every night," Luigi said.
"It's too risky to not check," Mario said as he replaced the Emerald Star's safe and took out the Gold Star's safe. "These stars are extremely powerful. I saw their power firsthand. I wielded their power. We can't risk them falling into the wrong hands."
"Yeah, I know. I just think you're being a little-" A sudden crash outside the house interrupted Luigi.
Mario instantly sprung to his feet and said, "Secure the Crystal Stars! I'll check on that noise." Luigi nodded and rushed to the safe as Mario dashed outside.
As Luigi closed the safe that Mario had been inspecting and put it back in the larger safe, he suddenly noticed something. Just then, the window of the room smashed, and a bolt of shadowy energy smashed into the green-capped plumber, knocking him out cold!
Two shadowy figures then jumped into the room. "Heh," one chuckled. "Too easy." It knelt down by the safe, took out a device, and pointed it at the safes. X-rays came out of the device, identifying which safes had Crystal Stars in them and which ones were booby trapped with Bob-ombs. "Help me get these out of here," the shadowy figure said to the other.
They took out all the safes with Crystal Stars in them and lined them up on the floor. Then, one of them took out what looked to be a ray gun, and fired it at the row of safes. The heat from the beam melted the metal of the safes, leaving the Crystal Stars intact.
"Alright!" one of the shadowy figures said triumphantly as they began pocketing the Crystal Stars. As it picked up the Crystal Star, it said, "Hey, that's only six. Where's the last one?"
"Right here!" a voice came from the door. The shadowy figures turned to see Mario standing there with the Ruby Star!
"Gah! Mario!" one of the shadowy figures exclaimed. "We were hoping we wouldn't have to fight you…oh well. I guess we'll just have to take you out!" The shadowy figures leapt at Mario. Mario jumped to the side and took out his hammer. One of the shadowy figures fired a bolt of energy at Mario, but Mario deflected it with his hammer, sending it ricocheting into the roof, where it caused a small explosion. The shadowy figure then took out its own hammer, which was cloaked in shadows as well, and leapt at Mario. Mario's Ultra Hammer and the shadowy figure's shadowy hammer collided as Mario raised his hammer to parry the attack. The shadowy figure then did an underhanded hammer blow to Mario's legs, knocking the hero on his back a short distance away.
Mario rolled out of the way of a hammer smash and kicked the shadowy figure's legs, causing it to fall to his knees. Mario jumped to his feet and swung his hammer at the shadowy figure's head, but it moved its head to barely avoid the attack and held his hammer up in between Mario and the Ultra Hammer's hammerhead. It then forced the Ultra Hammer out of Mario's hands, jumped up, spun around, and smashed its fist into Mario's face, causing Mario to stumble back a bit.
"Say goodbye, Mario!" the other shadowy figure taunted. Mario looked and saw that the Crystal Star was about to unleash a Supernova attack on him! Mario took out the Ruby Star and held it in front of him. A massive beam of energy came out of the Crystal Star and smashed into the Ruby Star. The Ruby Star barely held the Supernova attack at bay. To counter it, Mario used the Ruby Star's Art Attack ability. A beam of energy shot out from the Ruby Star, pushing the Supernova attack back, and the two beams battled each other halfway between Mario and the shadowy figure. A few seconds later, a massive explosion occurred, knocking Mario, Luigi, and the shadowy figures back, and completely leveling Mario's house!
"Gah…" one of the shadowy figures groaned as it struggled to get up. Suddenly, it noticed that the Crystal Stars were gone! "What?! Where'd the Crystal Stars go?!"
"The energy of that explosion caused them to scatter!" the other shadowy figure said. "Oh, not good…the boss won't be pleased with this…"
"Heh…no matter," the other shadowy figure said. "We'll just find them before Mario can. Luckily, we'll only need to find six, since I managed to hold on to this!" The shadowy figure showed off the Crystal Star. "See you later, Mario!"
"No!" Mario shouted. He leapt at the shadowy figures, but they teleported away, causing Mario to smash into the wood floor.
"Agh…" Luigi murmured as he slowly got up. Suddenly, he noticed the effects the explosion had wrought on the area. "Uh…Mario…"
Mario got up and turned to Luigi. "Luigi! It's good to see you survived that explosion."
"Uh, yeah…I survived it, but…uh…where's our house?"
Mario suddenly realized what had happened to the house. "Ah…shoot. This'll probably be thousands of blue coins of repairs."
"Repairs?" Luigi repeated. "The house is leveled! We'd be better off building a new house!"
"Yeah, but that's beside the point. Those shadowy figures…they caused the Crystal Stars to scatter! The only one that didn't scatter was the Crystal Star, and they have it!"
"Really?" Luigi asked. "That's…not good. Now I feel bad for thinking you were being too paranoid about checking them every night."
"Come on," Mario said as he began to dash to the warp pipe connecting their house and the entrance of Toad Town. "We've got to get to the city. I think I know someone who can help."
The two shadowy figures who had assaulted Mario's house stood in a dark, lightless room cloaked with shadows. Though ordinary people would be completely blinded in such a room, these shadowy figures perceived the darkness as though it was light, their eyes seeing the room as though it was brightly illuminated.
Just then, over on a balcony up top, a door opened, and another shadowy figure stepped out. "So, Shadow Luigi, Shadow Peach, you failed?" he asked.
"Not exactly," Shadow Luigi said. "We failed in securing all seven of the Crystal Stars, but we did secure the Crystal Star and scatter the rest."
"Yes," Shadow Peach said. "Our forces should be sufficient to collect the remaining six Crystal Stars before Mario can."
"Do we know where the Crystal Stars have scattered to?" the shadowy figure asked.
"No," Shadow Luigi said. "However, since we have one of the Crystal Stars, I should be able to design a device which tracks the unique energy signature of the stars. Basically, it would be a Crystal Star radar."
"Good," the shadowy figure said. "Shadow Luigi, as soon as your radar is completed, I want you to go for the first Crystal Star it detects. Shadow Peach, I want you to continue the conversion and coordination of our armies."
"Yes sir," both of them said.
"Dismissed."