"Things have gone too far. This is the only way to put a stop to all the madness."
"Are you sure about this? There's no telling how this will change the kingdom we live in."
"It's a chance we have to take. Nobody can be trusted with the kind of power that is out there. Like I said, this is the only way."
"Brother! We have a letter from the princess!" Luigi scrambled inside the small wooden home he shared with his older brother, almost tripping over a rug as he slammed the door behind him shut.
"Mamma mia Luigi, calm down and open it before you hurt yourself." Mario looked up from his Toad Times newspaper to his breathless brother.
"Princess Peach says that Princess Daisy is coming to the Mushroom Kingdom to celebrate her birthday, and that we should come to the party as a surprise! It sounds like a great time brother!"
"She's throwing a party for Daisy? It sounds like it could be fun, sure." Mario said with a slight hint of sarcasm. It was hard for him to get excited over such a thing, because all of Peach's parties were either incredibly dull or ended in Koopa-related disaster.
"It also says here that the finest chefs in Toad Town will be providing catered meals." Luigi added. Mario's sudden improvement in posture showed that he had found a reason to be excited over this.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get to the castle!" Mario quickly stood up and straightened his red outfit before promptly marching out the door, followed by his slightly amused brother wearing his traditional green matching outfit.
Upon arriving at the serene town square where the party was being held, Mario wasted no time in finding the food stand serving spaghetti to the party guests and rushing right over to it with hunger in his eyes. Luigi just rolled his eyes at his gluttonous brother and started to look around for the guest of honor.
There were hundreds of guests at this party, most of them similarly dressed toads who lived in the town, although there were also some friendly goombas from neighboring towns. Luigi did not recognize any of them, but at such a large gathering it was hard for anyone to see a friendly face. After wandering for a few minutes he finally noticed two tall and feminine figures off in the distance near a fountain and began making his way toward them. One accidentally knocked down toad and two near falling over incidents later, he was face to face with the two princesses.
"Your majesties, it's so wonderful to see you," he stuttered while removing his green cap and bowing.
The brunette princess giggled slightly as she turned around. "Luigi, you don't have to bow to me, you are my friend, not a subject."
"I just wanted to be polite Princess Daisy," Luigi stammered, while turning slightly pink in the face. "Happy birthday as well, I'm happy to see you on such a fun occasion."
Daisy thanked him as Peach, the blonde princess, finally noticed and greeted him. After engaging in some small talk Mario finally approached with spaghetti stains already on his overalls. The two princesses giggled upon seeing him while Luigi just shook his head in embarrassment. The two obviously had different perspectives on the proper manners while in the presence of royalty.
As the four friends stood slightly away from the crowd catching up, a short toad dressed in the same blue vest as all the other toads waddled up to the group with a more feminine looking toad dressed in all pink.
"Hey!" the short toad said, waving at the group excitedly. "Mario, Luigi, Daisy! It's so good to see you all! It's been forever!"
"Toad!" Daisy exclaimed, picking up the little guy and wrapping her arms around him as she did so. She finally set him down and looked toward the toad with a pink outfit and pigtails, and then back at Toad. "Oh my, is this a friend of yours?"
Toad, after dusting off his vest and white shorts replied. "This is my fiancé Toadette!" He motioned toward her with a huge grin on his face.
"Pleased to meet you all!" Toadette said, bowing slightly.
"Fiancé?" Mario exclaimed, "You little devil you! You didn't tell me you were getting married!"
Toad's grin just grew larger. "Princess Peach, is there anything I can help you with today? As always, I am at your service!"
"No, you and your friend go have fun Toad. You two deserve to have a day of fun together, I often work you too hard." Peach smiled and waved the two off as they grabbed each other's hands and walked off into the crowd of their neighbors who looked almost identical to them.
The day wore on and more guests showed up to the party, completely filling up the large town square of Toad Town. The princesses and plumbers held steady conversation the whole time, catching up on current events, enjoying refreshments, and reliving old stories from days of old. All was going well, until some unfamiliar faces began filtering into the crowd.
At first there were just a couple odd faces. They vaguely resembled koopas, but the cloaks they wore hid their faces enough to make it hard to tell. Besides, they weren't causing any trouble and that was uncharacteristic of their kind. More and more continued to filter in from the town gates and alleys near the town square, until it was hard to look in any direction without seeing an unfamiliar face slightly covered by a cloak. Mario and Luigi were starting to take notice of this and were really on alert when they noticed shadows appearing on the outskirts of the town, but by then it was too late.
With a boom that deafened the whole crowd and a flash that blinded it, the scene had changed for the worse. The cloaked figures in the crowd had revealed themselves to be koopas, including but not limited to Bowser's eight children and top henchmen. The shadows that had been surrounding the town also moved in, revealing themselves to be armored koopa troopers wielding long steel spears. To make matters even more disastrous a large fire had erupted very near where Mario and company had been conversing, already engulfing some of the innocent toads in flame. The citizens and guests wanted to escape, but the armored koopas were having none of that, as they had formed an impenetrable barrier around the perimeter of the town.
The two plumbers and princesses had been knocked to the ground by the explosion, and the plumbers slowly rose from the ground and then each extended a hand to the fallen princesses until they all were standing again. The princesses tried to dust off their dresses and the Mario brothers looked around for a sign of who was behind this sudden attack, but they both already knew who they were looking for.
From inside the ball of flame stepped a muscular, vicious dinosaur. Bowser, king of the koopas, had arrived on the scene. He was standing near the four VIPs in attendance and cackled with a deep roar as he shadowed them. They all just glared up at him, the two plumbers slowly moving to protect the princesses as he laughed.
"Mario! Luigi! So good to see you both!" Bowser bellowed, quieting down his laugh.
The whole town square full of guests had managed to form a circle around the center of the area, while still honoring the border formed by armored koopa. This left the plumbers, the princesses, and Bowser in the middle, their eyes all locked on their respective foes.
"What do you think you're doing ruining my party?" Daisy screamed at him, obviously the bolder of the two princesses. "You'll never get away with this! You never do!" She spat toward him with her last words.
Bowser looked down at the small bit of saliva then back up at Daisy, and let out a horrifying roar directly toward her face, causing her to cower behind Luigi.
"She's right," Mario said defiantly, stepping forward, "you won't get away with this. I don't know what you have planned this time, but no matter what it is I will make sure I put an end to whatever you're doing."
Bowser began to lightly chuckle and slowly moved back up toward roaring laughter. "Whatever you say Mario! Why don't you show me what you got?" The dinosaur crouched down slightly and extended his claws.
Mario and Luigi both looked at each other and nodded as they crouched down and extended their hands forward, gathering red and green flame around their respective hands. Taking a hint, the two princesses retreated to the edge of the circular crowd and intently watched the battle about to take place.
In an instant Bowser had lunged forward at the plumbers swinging his claws wildly, hoping to connect with one of them. In response, both plumbers jumped to opposite ways and simultaneously launched the gathered up fire energy from their hands to Bowser's sides in the form of flaming spheres. Both hit the dinosaur at once and caused him to fall to the ground almost instantly. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mario grabbed Bowser by his tail and threw him a few feet away, where Luigi launched another fireball right at the beast's face.
Bowser cried with pain as the flames subsided, and managed to pull himself to his feet as the plumbers readied their next attacks. For the quick beating he had just taken, he still came across as quite composed.
The crowd was already cheering at the turn of events when Mario said to the massive koopa, "Like I said, you aren't going to succeed."
Surprisingly, Bowser began to laugh again. After a few moments of that, he calmed down and stared down at Mario and Luigi again. "Well, I have a surprise for you my plumber nemeses." Bowser then reached into his shell and pulled out a shimmering red sphere that looked as though it were made of some sort of glass. Red swirls swam wildly around inside of it as Bowser held it above his head.
"What is that supposed to be?" Mario asked, addressing the question everyone was thinking.
"This, my plumber friend, is what has stopped me from completely putting an end to you all these years. And in a few seconds, it will no longer be an obstacle."
Everyone in the crowd gave each other the same confused looks and mutters as Bowser drilled the sphere into the cement ground, causing it to shatter into a million pieces. And in that instant, a wave of intense dizziness spread across the crowd.
All of a sudden, everything was different.
It wasn't that anything looked different, because it didn't. But in that instant, everyone had a more heightened awareness of things. The fear in everyone's faces was visible for the first time. The heavy breathing and meek screams of horror were audible. Everyone from the toads to the koopas felt heavier but more fragile at the same time. The scent and taste of fire was in the air, and along with it the putrid smell of the koopas and burning toads hung in the air. Everyone could feel the difference, but none could say what exactly the difference was.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Bowser launched an immediate offensive on the Mario brothers. After taking in a deep breath, he launched a massive fireball from his throat straight to Mario's chest, knocking the plumber into the surrounding crowd and leaving black marks and little flames all across his torso. All heads turned to the now downed plumber, who lay motionless across the ground. He would be of no more assistance in this fight.
As everyone focused on the red plumber, Bowser tried to launch another surprise attack on his brother. Luckily, Luigi noticed and jumped out of the way just before Bowser's claws would have made direct contact with his stomach. He did not dodge the attack completely though, as the claws grazed his side and tore his shirt some. With that, however, came a spray of red liquid and a pain sensation Luigi had never felt before.
He looked down surprised at his new wound, wondering what had just happened. The red substance was completely unfamiliar and it kept coming out of him. Suddenly he began to feel a little weaker than normal and could not explain why. This sensation was far different than the bruising feeling he usually felt when attacked, and it almost certainly had something to do with that smashed orb.
Luigi didn't have time to ponder over it however; Bowser launched another offensive that had to be dodged. The plumber tried to gather up enough energy for a fireball attack again, but couldn't focus enough while trying to simultaneously dodge slashes and breaths of fire.
Just as Bowser's fatigue was starting to catch up with him a bit and Luigi's chance for a counter-attack was about to come up, the clumsy plumber tripped on his own legging and fell to the ground with a thud. Bowser wasted no time in grabbing the tall and lanky man by the throat and holding him up in the air. The crowd was breathless as they watched Bowser's claws sink into the plumber's neck and more of the red substance drip down.
"You have always been a nuisance, but never the main source of my worst troubles," the koopa king grumbled in a softer than normal voice. "For that reason, I will not torture you as I plan to torture your brother. Yes, I will let you off easily."
The crowd could be seen relaxing some as Bowser loosened his grip on Luigi's neck. But as quickly as he let go of the man's neck he had thrust his other arm forward, all the way through the plumber's torso, the now lifeless plumber hanging on the arm sticking through him.
There were several gasps and screams throughout the crowd. Both princesses began to cry hysterically. Peach fell to her knees but couldn't take her eyes off the horribly gruesome scene. Daisy, in the midst of her hysteria, ran toward Bowser with murder in her eyes but was backhanded by the beast and knocked out cold before she could do any damage.
Aside from some sobbing the crowd had fallen silent and was frozen by fear by what they had just seen. Bowser withdrew his claw from the fallen plumber and let the body collapse to the ground, Luigi's lifeless eyes staring up toward the sky. He paused for a moment, then looked up toward the sky himself and let out his loudest roar yet. With one motion of his arm he summoned an airship that had been concealed behind Peach's castle and grabbed a rope that was quickly extended down to him.
As he ascended by rope he shouted out some orders to his followers. "Morton, Roy! Grab the princesses and take them up to the airship! Larry, grab Mario and bring him up to his special little chamber on the ship! Junior, you and the troopers know what to do next! The rest of you,
come with me." And after a very quick blow to the head to Princess Peach, Bowser, three prisoners, and his underlings were up on his airship sailing away from the ravaged Toad Town.
All that remained there were several scared toads, many armored koopa troopers, Bowser Jr., and the lifeless body of a once renowned hero.
Bowser Jr. stepped forward and let out a cackle similar to his father's.
"Well now my little toad friends, it's time we had some fun."