Heavens Above.
Summery: Peach has been kidnapped again but this time she is in mortal danger. In order to save her from Bowser's clutches Mario has to enlist help from a few friends. MarioxPeach, DaisyxLuigi plus various other pairings implied.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Nintendo characters; I only own the plot.
Chapter One.
Peach was seated down at a large wooden table. Toadsworth had called a minor meeting; he had gathered the Princess and a few of the Kingdoms Chancellors. Peach found these meetings to be very boring, every time Toadsworth would drone on about something. This meeting was to be no exception. The more Toadsworth droned on about the most trivial of topics the more Peach felt her concentration waver. Eventually she lost all concentration and found a nice pattern on the wooden table. Her head rested in one of her hands and she had to constantly blow her fringe from out of her eyes.
"Don't you agree Princess?" Came an irritated voice. The voice startled Peach and her head slipped off her hand. Quickly she tried to compose her self, with a little cough she nodded.
"Princess you weren't listening was you? My dear you must pay attention! This is your Kingdom we are referring too!" Toadsworth said sternly.
"But I really don't care if the flowers that people see upon entering my Kingdom are yellow carnations or pink roses," Peach sighed.
"We moved on from that an hour ago! I think we should call this meeting to an end! Clearly the Princess has other things on her mind," Toadsworth told the chancellors. They all mumbled things in reply and left the room immediately. Peach stood up to leave but Toadsworth rounded on her.
"I'm not finished with you Princess. You have a duty to this Kingdom, you have your fathers reputation to uphold!" Toadsworth scolded. Peach sighed again; this was all she needed.
"But Grandfather, I do care about this Kingdom. But do we have to go over every little detail in meetings?" Peach asked. Toadsworth looked flustered.
"You must get your priorities right! Perhaps you should do less fraternising with certain people and concentrate more on your Kingdom!" Toadsworth suggested sternly. Peach looked at him in mild surprise.
"Meaning?" She queried.
"Meaning Princess that you should spend less time with Mario and more time in this very castle. It's not healthy to harbour feelings for him, he is not a suitable match for you," Toadsworth told her, Peach glared at him.
For Toadsworth to criticise the time she spent with Mario was one step too far. She didn't want to yell at her grandfather so she flipped her hair back violently and sped off out of the room. Toadsworth watched her go with annoyance. One day Peach would grow up.
She stormed down the corridors in a rage. It was all right for Toadsworth to stand there and berate her about her spending time with Mario. It was fine to suggest she should find a Prince, but when was the last time a Prince came to her rescue? Never! That's when.
She came to a large mahogany door and flung it open. Pillows and clothes were all over the floor. Peach walked over kicking each and every one in frustration. After calming down a little, Peach walked over to her nice comfy bed and flopped down in it.
Outside she could here the rain lashing at her window. It was sort of therapeutic listening to the rain. She turned over and lay on her side. She wished Mario were here; he would cheer her up. She lay on her bed in silence for so long, contemplating Toadsworth's words.
How long she had been lying there she could not say. Her mind was blank, she had thought about the old toads words over a thousand times but still could not agree with him. He was wrong.
A flash of lightening startled the Princess and she sat up, her heart pounding fast. A storm had begun; Peach hated storms. The lights around her flickered uncontrollably. Peach grabbed her pillow tight. As the lights finally went out Peach shrieked out loud.
As she curled up with her pillow she tried to convince herself that she would be safe. She watched the window outside with intent. Her eyes never left it. She wanted to see signs of the storm stopping. As she watched the window, she could have sworn that she heard her door open and shut. Snapping her head around to face the door she saw nothing. No shadows of anyone. It was dark and there were no lights but she could make out the odd shadows.
Turning back to the window, she was sure she could hear heavy breathing. She started to worry but then common sense prevailed.
"Grandfather?" She called out through the darkness. No reply came.
She called out a few more times and began to worry. Someone or something was definitely in her room. Feeling brave Peach removed her self from the bed and took a few steps forward. She put her arms out in front of her and tried to feel around.
A pair of strong arms came from behind and took her by surprise. Peach tried to scream out for help but a hand was placed over her mouth. She struggled and tried desperately to free herself from her attackers grasp, but it was no good. She felt herself being carried off out of her bedroom; still she tried to scream. Her attack ran down a corridor and towards the big window at the end. Peach could see outside and feared about what he would do next.
To her surprise he stopped. He loosened his grip on Peach and she felt the floor beneath her feet once more. The one hand over her mouth was strong enough to keep her by his side. She felt other arm shift behind her neck. She started to panic. But he reached out for a necklace of some sort from round his neck. The next moments were a blur to Peach; she suddenly felt sick and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she realised she wasn't in the castle no longer and she also knew her kidnapper very well.
The next morning and the storm had cleared leaving a beautiful clear blue sky. In the opposite end of the Mushroom Kingdom to Peach's castle, stood a small and humble house. This house belonged to the world famous Mario Brothers. As it was still early in the morning, it came as no surprise that Mario; older of the two brothers was still in bed.
His younger, less lazy brother, Luigi was up early. He was out in the garden, fixing the damage that the storm had caused. He was relieved that the storm had ended. He hated storms, especially when the power is cut in the middle of it. Luckily for him he had his brother there with him, so it made it more bearable. He was standing a bit of his fence upright when the Royal coach turned up. Luigi left his fence, which promptly fell over after he left. He saw Toadsworth getting out of the coach and looking flustered.
"Morning Toadsworth, want us to repair damage from the storm?" Asked Luigi. Toadsworth frowned at him.
"Master Luigi, you and Mario must come at once. The Princess has disappeared! She's not here is she? …" Toadsworth said panicky.
"No, no she isn't," Luigi, said starting to worry a little. Toadsworth looked like he was about to pass out.
"Then it's as I feared, you must come immediately!" Toadsworth said rushed.
After being pushed into the house by Toadsworth, Luigi went straight upstairs to wake Mario up. Mario wasn't pleased to be woken up but as soon as Luigi explained the problem, Mario was straight there.
Toadsworth was downstairs waiting for them. He was starting to get impatient and hurried them both into the Royal coach.
"Master Mario, I would like you to go in search of the Princess. This is most unlike her. Besides I fear that something has become of her," Toadsworth said gravely. Luigi and Mario exchanged looks.
"You didn't have another argument did you?" Mario asked. He was well too aware of Toadsworth's feelings about him and Peach's friendship. Toadsworth shifted uncomfortably.
"Well… erm yes we did. But there's something you should know Master Mario," Toadsworth said. Mario urged him to go on.
"Well last night, the castle guards caught someone breaking into the castle, armed with a bow and arrow. She was ranting about bad things happening to the Princes. So naturally we arrested her," Toadsworth said.
"Okay. But how can she have the Princess if you arrested her?" Luigi said. Mario nodded in agreement. Toadsworth sighed.
"This morning she said that she knows what happened to the Princess and that she wants to talk to you two. She wont say anything else," Toadsworth said.
"We'll find Pea…erm the Princess. Don't you worry!" Mario said, hoping Toadsworth didn't hear his error. Toadsworth never have any indication whether he heard or not.
"Thank you Master Mario, Luigi,"