Chapter 1: Attack of the Shadows
A scream ripped through the air from within a house in Toad Town. That one scream threw the whole town into chaos. What had begun as a peaceful day had just gone awry. After that one scream, several more erupted from households all over town. They had a good reason. As panic swept over the people of Toad Town, so did strange shadowy creatures that had appeared from what seemed to be nowhere. Toads rushed around in fright, some of them captured by these shadowy creatures, and others running for dear life.
One young Toad was hiding behind a small house. This Toad had the normal palette, red dots and a blue vest. He shook violently in fear of these shadows that were attacking the town. One turned the corner. He screamed and tried to run. He ran into another. Yet another trapped him from the front. He was trapped against the wall of the building, three shadowy creatures with undefined black shape aside from outstretched black arms and glowing red eyes, coming right at him. He covered his face.
Then there was a blast of light. His eyes shot open. A ring of fire surrounded him, giving him three foot leeway. Through the flames, he could see a human-like figure shooing off the shadowy creatures with fireballs. Two had left the scene. One still resisted. Then, the ring of fire around the Toad was pulled off of the ground and into the hand of the figure. To the Toad was revealed a man in red overalls, a white shirt, and a white cap. The man flung the fireball at the feet of the shadowy creature. The creature fled.
He turned around, revealing a red 'M' on his cap, ran towards the Toad, and picked him up. Then he ran around the corner. He was met by another hoard of shadowy creatures. He summoned another fireball and sent it flying at the ground. When only a few of the creatures ran off, he pulled the fire from around the corner and fired it right at the creatures. The fled immediately. The man ran again. The Toad, despite being in the arms of this savior, was still terrified. He had watched them take his family away. It didn't make sense to him the way they did it. They just began to pick them up; his father, his mother, his sisters… they grabbed all of them and dragged them into…
The man fired another blast of fire at another hoard of the creatures. The creatures ran off just as the others had. He heard the man growl a little. That could only mean something was going wrong. The man ran across a crossroads. He stopped next to another man who wore green overalls, a white shirt, and a white cap. On this white cap was a green 'L'.
"I need you to take this kid to the castle," said the man who had been carrying him.
"But Mario, it's just as dangerous there…" said the other man.
"It's our only choice Luigi," said Mario, "We need to protect them." Luigi took the Toad from Mario.
"Alright," said Luigi. In the hands of a new hero, the Toad watched wide-eyed as Luigi jumped onto a roof nearby. He threw a weak fireball at a few shadowy creatures in his way. They continued at him right over the fire. The Toad could feel Luigi shaking.
"Please Mr. Luigi," he said softly, "Hurry." He buried his face in his hands. Luigi stopped shaking and jumped. The Toad felt heat build near his cap. The heat flew past him. He opened his eyes in time to see the fireball explode on the roof below. The shadowy creatures that had been on the roof glared at them from the ground far below. Luigi landed on the next roof on both feet. The bridge to the castle was about four roof jumps away. The Toad heard Luigi take a deep breath. Then he started running.
He hit the edge of the roof he was on and rocketed to the next one. He didn't slow down for the second jump. The third jump was the same. The last jump was interrupted by a shadowy creature and Luigi slid onto his back. The shadowy creature grabbed him by the leg. Another one tried to pry the Toad from his arms. Luigi jumped back into action. He blasted the shadowy creature trying to grab him with a fireball. It reeled backwards. He shot the other one in the "face" with a fireball. It let go of the Toad in his arms. He ran to the other end of the roof, sidestepping past the other shadowy creature and jumping off. From there he made a mad dash for the castle.
Luigi had to run through several groups of shadowy creatures on his way across the castle bridge. He jumped, ducked, sidestepped and rolled through every group he came past. The final group blockaded the entrance, however. Luigi thought quickly. A fireball appeared in his hand. The Toad watched as he set the ground in front of the shadowy creatures aflame. The shadowy creatures backed towards the castle and away from the fire. Luigi fired more fireballs to the sides. They began to back into each other. Luigi took a deep breath and charged. He pulled all of the fire back, plowed into the shadowy creatures, and shot the flames down the bridge. When the fire cleared, the shadowy creatures were moving back down the bridge frantically.
Luigi set down the Toad inside the castle courtyard.
"Stay here kiddo," he said. The Toad nodded and Luigi rushed back out the doors. The Toad watched him go. Then he stopped. The Toad couldn't tell why. Then he realized that Mario had met Luigi on the bridge. They both ran off into the town again. A few minutes later they returned with several Toads. All of the Toads ran into the castle gates frantically, bypassing the young Toad standing there as though he wasn't there. Mario and Luigi walked into the gate after them. They were discussing something.
"… weird isn't it?" Mario was saying.
"I know," said Luigi, "Why… I mean, how could they all just disappear like that?"
"Some of them were jumping off of the bridge," said Mario, "Do you think they were exterminating themselves?" They arrived at the castle gate and powered down. Their clothing turned to red hat and shirt with blue overalls and green hat and shirt with blue overalls respectively. They walked up to the Toad.
"You alright kid?" he asked, bending down to the Toad.
"I… I…" the Toad's small voice trailed off. He had seen too much to explain. Mario patted him on the head.
"Don't worry," he said, "Everything will be fine." He stood up.
"Come on Luigi," said Mario, "They're holding an emergency meeting. We need to put in our two coins." Luigi nodded. They both walked into the doors of the castle. The Toad stayed where he was for a few moments, not knowing what to do. Then he saw a single shadow moving along the wall of the castle courtyard above him. It appeared to be headed for the exit. The Toad ran for the castle doors as quickly as possible.
"This is a most trying matter indeed," said Princess Peach, "We have shadows appearing out of nowhere suddenly attacking our people. What are they and what does this all mean? We're here to answer these questions. So first we need to figure out what they are."
"That's an obvious answer," said a generic Toad from one side of the table, "They're shadowy creatures that are attacking us and they must be stopped."
"Yes, I'm sure we're all well aware of that generic Toad," said Peach, "Can we have a more… detailed description of them?"
"Shadowy blobs with arms?" someone else put in, "I don't know." There were small mumbles among those at the table, which included Princess Peach herself, a congregation of Toads, Toadsworth, Peach's guardian, Toadbert, a knowledgeable young Toad who knew a lot about the world, and the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi.
"Anyways," said the princess, "We should move on. Our next matter; where are they coming from?" No one spoke up on this question. Dead silence hovered over the room as those at the table looked between each other, shaking heads and shrugging shoulders.
"So no one saw where they came from?" Peach asked with a note of surprise in her voice.
"I did," said a small voice from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to the door. A small Toad with frightened eyes stood in the doorway.
"Hey, it's that kid you saved," Luigi whispered, nudging Mario's arm. The Toad walked into the room shyly.
"Don't be afraid child," said Peach gently, "Please join us." The Toad quickened his pace. He walked to Mario, who helped him up onto the meeting table.
"Now tell us," said Peach, "Where did they come from?" The Toad looked down at his feet. He shook a little. Then he raised his head the word came out.
"Mirrors." The word echoed through the room, as everyone repeated it silently. Then there was silence for a few moments. The whole congregation stared at him. The Toad backed away timidly. Tears began to drop from his eyes.
"They came so fast," he cried, "Out of the windows, the standing mirrors… anything that showed a reflection. Then they… they took everybody. My mama… my daddy… my little sisters… My daddy yelled at me to run and take my sisters with me, but the shadows got to them first. I ran. I escaped through an open window. Then… they started… started to…" He began to sob and fell face first onto the table, unable to continue. Mario picked him up and held him close.
"He's not lying," said Mario, "This can't be a façade." Princess Peach nodded her head.
"It is a most serious matter indeed," she said, "Is there anything else we need to know about the matter?"
"They seem to dislike being near fire," Luigi spoke up. No one paid him any mind as ideas were discussed around the table. He slumped back into his chair.
"Mirrors…" Toadbert repeated again, adjusting his glasses and silencing everyone, "Mirrors… why does that word sound so familiar?"
"It's a word in our language," someone spoke up.
"Yes, but… there is something significant about that word," said Toadbert, "I've heard it in connection to shadowy creatures before this." Everyone looked at him intently.
"I'll have to go back through my library," he said, "I remember something about those two being put in the same idea in a book I read." Everyone relaxed.
"Well then, are there any more ideas to put forth here?" Peach asked. She got nothing.
"Well then, this meeting is…" She was cut off by a cannon shell ripping through the roof of the castle. It slammed on one side of the meeting table. Two more slammed into the room, one blocking the entrance and the other slamming right into the center of the meeting table. All of the Toads were thrown into a panic. The one in Mario's arms kept sobbing into his overalls. Mario and Luigi looked up to the open sky, which was quickly being blotted out by the dark form of an airship.
"Hold the kid," said Mario, handing the young Toad off to Luigi, "I'll take care of this."
"Do you have a Fire Flower?" Luigi asked before he ran off. Mario stopped and turned around. Luigi pulled one out of his pocket and threw it over to his brother. Mario squeezed the stem and returned to his white cap, white shirt and red overalls form. He nodded at his brother and ran to the wall. He jumped at the last second and kicked off of it. He slammed his feet into an incoming shell from the airship and jumped off of it. He repeated the process with three more before he finally had enough air to reach the ship. He grabbed onto the edge and swung himself up, readying a fireball in case the enemy was waiting for him.
He looked around the airship. There was no one in sight. No minions, no commanders… not even Bowser himself, as Mario would have expected. He put up a second fireball just in case.
"Come out!" he yelled, "I know you're here somewhere!" A mess of paint suddenly flew at him from behind one of the masts. He was thrown to the deck, his fire extinguished, his body frozen in ice. A high voice laughed from behind the mast.
"Looking for me?" the voice cackled. A small, spiky shelled Koopa revealed himself from behind the mast. He wore a bib with a childishly drawn set of teeth on it and held a paintbrush in his right hand. Mario blasted through the ice that held him with fire and got more fire ready in his hands.
"Bowser Jr.," he said, "Why are you here? To kidnap the princess on orders of your father?"
"I may as well!" Bowser Jr. yelled at him, "To honor his sacrifice!" Mario let down his fire in surprise.
"Did you just say sacrifice?" Mario asked, a bit astonished. Bowser Jr. started to cry.
"Yes I did!" he cried, "You sent them to kidnap all of us at Koopa Castle! But I escaped, 'cause my father gave me keys to an airship before they took him away! I'm here to take revenge on you do-gooders for what you've done!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up," said Mario, "Who are 'them'?" Bowser Jr. twirled his paintbrush and threw red paint at him. Mario ducked out of the way. The deck of the airship caught fire when the paint made impact. Mario observed the damage before turning back to block more blue paint with fire. The paint vaporized in midair.
"Please Junior, just answer the question!" Mario pleaded as he ducked out of the way of another blob of red paint, "Who are 'them'?" A few more messy blobs of paint flew at him before Bowser Jr.'s crying overtook his ability to throw them. His paintbrush dropped from his hand and he fell bottom-first onto the deck which was now kindling with flame. Mario walked up to him and powered down.
"Please Junior," Mario said, putting a hand on Junior's shoulder, "Tell me. I'm listening. What happened?" Junior pushed Mario away. He started to sob.
"Shadowy creatures… came… and… took…" he couldn't finish through his sobs. Mario put a hand on Junior's shoulder again.
"I need you to land this thing somewhere," said Mario, "We need to talk more. I need you to explain exactly what happened." Junior looked up at him. His eyes were full of confusion.
"Junior," said Mario, taking a deep breath, "I think we share a common enemy."
A/N: I have been holding this one off for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. This is a story I came up with before I actually joined this site. It was originally a sequel to Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, but it has become something else entirely: a prequel setting up the version of the Mario universe that I wish to write about in fanfiction, one that is linked to all of the games and yet still has its own plotline. This timeline includes The Mage of Thunder, one of my previous projects, as well. Anyways, thanks for reading this first chapter. Please leave a review to tell me what you think. I do enjoy getting feedback on my work. :)
And now for your cliché disclaimer that really shouldn't be necessary because this is . I do not own Mario or any of its characters, ideas, and places. Everything except for what I obviously make up belongs to Nintendo.