AUTHOR'S NOTE: I originally wrote this as a Monkees fanfic in 1998/1999 (I was still in high school then). After re-reading it, I decided to turn it into a Mario Bros. fic instead. As with my previous two Mario Bros. fanfics, this canon is the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" version, because that's the canon I'm more used to. The Mario Bros., Princess Toadstool, Toad, and Toadette belong to Nintendo. Everyone else belongs to me. Though I should find it fair to warn you, the scenes involving the ball on the fountain were inspired by an EXTREMELY weird dream I had before I even wrote the story to begin with (as such, I couldn't tell you what happened in the dream, even if I tried).

It was the grand opening of the Toad Town Community Park. All the kids in town were thrilled. The park hadn't been open for years. Princess Toadstool and the Mario Bros. helped the city fix it up, since there wasn't any place for the younger toads to go and have fun.

"This is great," Toad said. "I haven't seen the old park look this good."

"Yeah," Toadette replied. "Thanks for helping us fix the place up, Princess Toadstool."

"You're welcome, Toadette," Princess Toadstool said. "But we couldn't have done it without Mario and Luigi!"

"Think nothing of it, Princess!" Mario said. "After all, every kid deserves a nice park to play in!"

"Though this is a lot nicer than the parks Mario and I used to play in when we were bambinos in Brooklyn," Luigi pointed out.

That happened to be true. The park featured a large playground with swings, slides, see-saws, monkey bars, and a jungle gym. There were also tennis courts, a soccer field, a baseball diamond, picnic areas, bicycle paths, and a garden area. There was even enough room in the park to house a small zoo. A miniature train ran through the park to get to one area to the next. It passed through every fifteen minutes. The buildings had been given new coats of paint, and the water fountains had been fixed. The only thing that was a mystery was a small fountain which resembled a bird bath with a red rubber ball balancing on a spout of water.

"That's a little weird," Luigi said, once he saw it. "Why'd you have the builders put that in, bro?"

"I didn't," Mario said. "I thought it had always been there."

"No it hadn't," Toadette said.

"Yeah, dude," Toad replied. "Toadette and I have been coming to this park since we were little spore-lets, and this is the first time I've ever seen that fountain!"

"Sure makes an interesting conversation piece, doesn't it?" Mario asked.

While our heroes were trying to figure out where the fountain had come from, and why a red rubber ball was balancing on it in the first pace, a group of Toad children came into the park. They ran around until they got to the soccer field.

"Let's play kickball!" one of them said.

"Where are we gonna get a ball?" another asked.

"There's one on the bird bath," the first said. He ran over to the fountain and grabbed the ball. Suddenly, it jerked from his hands and hit him on the head.

"MOMMY!" he screamed as he ran in another direction.

"What in the world?" Luigi asked.

"The ball's gone bananas," Toad said.

"We'd better put it back," Mario said.

Mario, Luigi, and Toad lunged for the ball, but the ball bounced away from them, and the three of them ended up running into each other and hitting their heads together.

"Oooh!" Luigi shouted.

"Ouch!" Mario yelled.

"Owwwwww!" Toad whined.

Once the boys got their wits back, they saw the ball, bouncing around like crazy. Mario jumped, and managed to catch it, but it began bouncing around in his hands, and wrenched itself loose.

"Aw nuts!" he shouted.

"Toad, grab it!" the Princess called. "It's coming right to you!"

Toad grabbed it, and tried to hold on as tightly as he could, but the ball turned out to be too heavy for him. It dragged him along with it, as it zoomed ahead.

"Whoa!" he shouted. He was forced to let go when the ball began to attempt to shake him off.

Toadette went for the ball next. She was standing in front of Luigi and the ball was coming directly to them, at an extremely fast pace. Scared, Toadette ducked, and the ball smacked Luigi right in the face.

"Ooh, my nose!" he shouted, pinching his nose with his fingers. "I hope it's not broken!"

"It's like that thing has a mind of it's own!" the Princess shouted. "Luigi, which way did it go?"

"Thatta way," Luigi replied, pointing. "If anybody needs me, I'll be applying armor to my body."

"Come on!" Mario shouted, grabbing his brother's arm, and dragged him in the direction the ball went. Pretty soon, the Bros. and Toad were surrounding it.

"You're not going anywhere, bucko!" Mario shouted.

The boys grabbed the ball. It started bouncing, while they were hanging onto it. Then it started to spin.

"Augh!" Mario shouted.

"Hey, where's the off switch?" Toad asked.

"Whooooaaaa!" Luigi cried.

The ball finally shook the boys off and bounced off. It stopped on top of the fence above the baseball field.

"Who's gonna get it?" Toadette asked.

"I'll get it," Toad said. "And once I do, I'll deflate it!"

Toad started to climb the fence. Before he could get to the ball, it bounced off. Toad groaned.

"Hey, Luigi!" he yelled. "Rubber ball at three o' clock!"

"Three o' clock?" Luigi asked, checking his watch. "It's not three o' clock. It's only five after . . . oof!"

The ball smacked Luigi on the side of the head when he wasn't looking. Then, the ball zoomed into Mario's stomach, and pushed him into the wall.

"Mario, are you okay?" the Princess asked.

"Never better," Mario said, in a strained voice.

The ball bounced around some more. Toad and the Bros. dove for it. Mario and Luigi ran directly into each other. Toad got close to it and tried to grab it, but it whirled around. He twisted his upper body and ended up falling. Mario managed to get his wits back, chased the ball, and ran into a nearby wall.

"Ouch," Luigi said, sympathetically.

"I got it!" Toadette shouted.

"I got it!" Toad called.

The two of them cried "I got it" a couple more times and ran into each other.

"Ow!" Toad shouted.

"Aaahhh!" Toadette yelled.

"So much for that attempt!" Mario said.

The ball bounced along. Our heroes went chasing it again. The Bros. cornered it, right next to the train tracks. Just as they were about to reach out and grab it, the ball moved It beaned Mario in the face, bounced off Luigi's head, and bounced down the tracks.

"Nuts!" Luigi shouted.

"Well, there's only one thing to do now," Mario said, as the train came into the station. "The ol' Mitch Miller routine."

"What's the ol' Mitch Miller routine?" the Princess asked, as she, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Toadette climbed into the train.

"Follow the bouncing ball," Mario said. "What else?"