Author's Note: So I'm sure some of you will notice that this is a story I posted part of already. Well, there are quite a few minor details that needed changing and the backstory needed some reworking, so I decided I might as well rework what I had so it can be better written. You probably won't see any major changes beyond some location names and a character or two, but I certainly aim to make the writing even better this time around. Enjoy!
Ahem, today
I'm here to tell you the tale of the Radiant Medals.
Perhaps these magical objects are unknown to you.
They exist to us only in flickering rumors,
claiming the artifacts are as old as the Stars themselves
and contain unparalleled power.
Perhaps it's better if these things stay among the legends
for today's tale shows the desperate times
that these artifacts arise in.
Mario heard a shrill cry echo down the pipe as he zoomed towards Toad Town. He gracefully shot out of the pipe, flipped, and landed right in front of his green-clad twin. "What's wrong, Weegee?"
Luigi made a shaky gesture towards the broad avenue stretching ahead of the brothers. "S-see for yourself!" he whimpered.
Mario scanned the town ahead. What was normally a bustling street filled to the brim with Toads of all size and color conducting every kind of business was now empty and still. "Mama-mia," breathed Mario.
Luigi's breaths grew quick and shallow. "Oh no, there's only one reason this would happen Mario!"
Mario put a stern hand on his brother's shoulder. "Let's not panic, okay bro?" He moved into the street, his footsteps echoing from building to building. "You have a point, Peach could have been kidnapped, but let's not panic."
"G-got it," said Luigi with a nod. He slowly followed behind Mario as the two carefully made their way down Toad Town's main street towards the castle. The bros made occasional glances into the dark alleyways hidden from the morning sun. Yet they saw no baddies and they didn't see a single Toad.
"Strange," muttered Mario, attempting to hide his budding nerves.
As they passed through the gate to the castle yard and away from the eerie, empty streets, Luigi began to sigh in relief, but the sigh quickly turned into a frightened gasp as he looked up. Peach's castle loomed creepily in front of them. Not a single light seemed to be coming from within the walls. The castle looked almost hollow.
Mario hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and running across the green castle lawn. "Come on, Weegee! We gotta get to the bottom of this!" he declared. Luigi quickly ran after him, terrified of being left behind.
The castle's front doors slowly creaked open, letting a small bit of light seep into the dark front hall. Mario and Luigi crept through the door and let it slide closed behind them. They inched down the hall, sticking close together. As they approached the shadowy foyer, Luigi hissed "I see something!"
Mario had also seen the mass of figures gathered in the room. He tensed, preparing for battle. "Alright Weegee, get ready," he ordered. "3... 2... 1..."
"Let'sa go!" the bros cried jumping into the center of the room and striking battle poses. The lights suddenly flipped on, revealing an unexpected crowd of people.
"Happy birthday Mario Bros!" shouted the denizens of Toad Town.
Luigi slowly removed his hands from his face. "Huh?"
Mario glanced around wildly, his hand still balled up into a fist. "Princess?" he called.
The Mushroom Kingdom's princess stepped out from the crowd, a wide grin spread across her face. "Oh I got you good didn't I, Mario?" she laughed, embracing the plumber tightly.
"I'll say," moaned Luigi. He was still shaking a bit.
"Lighten up, Lu!" chortled a voice from directly behind the lanky twin. Luigi unleashed a high pitched scream as he whirled around to face the voice. Princess Daisy laughed, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.
Everyone waited in an awkward silence as the brothers caught their breaths before a guttural voice called, "What's the hold up? I'ma ready to party!"
"Hehe yeah!" added a nasally voice near him.
Mario and Luigi cast the Wario Bros exasperated glances for a moment before Mario spoke up. "I don't really see why you invited those two, but for once I agree with them. Let'sa party!" he shouted. The entire crowd erupted into cheers and loud music began playing.
Peach immediately grabbed Mario by the hand and led him through the crowd, stopping every few feet to say "Hi!" to one of the many distinguished guests.
When they made it to the top of the foyer's grand staircase, Mario stopped and turned to Peach. "Princess, this is absolutely amazing!" he said, giving her a respectful bow.
Peach giggled quietly. "Oh Mario, you know you've earned this!" she said. "Buuuut," her tone grew a bit uncomfortable. "I see Luigi with a few of our friends down there," she said, pointing to a landing down to their right. "Why don't you go say hello?"
Mario looked at her confusedly, but nodded. "Alrighty Princess!" Peach gave him a quick smile and dashed into the door behind them. Mario raised an eyebrow, but didn't follow. He approached the railing and looked down to the landing below. He spotted Luigi, Toad, Yoshi, and Rosalina. Without hesitation he vaulted over the railing, landing right next to Luigi.
"Eek! Hey bro!" said Luigi, jumping slightly.
"Happy biwthday!" cried Yoshi before anyone else got the chance.
"Yeah, happy birthday, dude!" chirped Toad. Rosalina simply gave him a polite nod and friendly grin, not moving from her seated position floating a few feet off the ground.
"Rosalina was just telling us about what she saw in the Koopa Kingdom this morning," explained Luigi, looking back expectantly.
Rosalina quietly cleared her throat before continuing. "I was taking a look down at their capital as we passed by in orbit and I saw quite a few police sirens flashing around the city. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were cracking down on some citizens who decided to throw parties for your birthday."
Mario chuckled loudly at this. "You're kidding!"
"I guess somebody appweciates what you two do to save the wowld!" said Yoshi.
Mario continued laughing. "Oh I'm gonna love rubbing that in Bowser's face next time I see him!" He slapped his knees after that, imagining the Koopa King's reaction.
The party continued for hours. There was dancing, snacks, and party games, all going on to the beat of Rosalina's best Luma DJ, yet there was very little to organization to the event. It was simply a large group of people having a good time in celebration of their heroes and the Mario Bros loved it. The brothers had mostly stayed on the same landing for duration of the party, chatting with their friends. After a while, Daisy came up and grabbed a reluctant Luigi to go dance. Meanwhile, Mario seemed to be growing anxious as time went on.
Finally, Toad caught on to Mario's stress. "Dude, you seem uneasy. What's up?"
"Have you seen Peach around?" asked the plumber. "I haven't seen her since we showed up." He grabbed his hat and wrung it in his hands.
"She's probably back in the halls or whatever," replied the captain casually. "I'm sure she's just making sure everything's going smoothly."
"Thanks Toad!" Mario said quickly, dashing off the landing and back up the main set of stairs.
Toad made a mocking heart shape with his hands as the plumber dashed into the second floor door. "Ah young love," he snickered.
Yoshi cocked his head in confusion. "What awe you talking about?"
"Just the local gossip," said Toad with a shrug. "He sure seems head-over-heels anyways."
Mario plodded through the red-carpeted web of hallways in the back of Peach's castle for a few minutes- which felt much longer to him- until he came to a small wooden door guarded by a young Toad girl with pink pigtails.
"Hey Toadette," Mario said with a pleasant wave. "Do you know where Peach is?"
"Hey Mario, happy birthday!" she said, appearing slightly on edge. Mario eyed her suspiciously. There was no way that she had simply been too distracted by wishing him happy birthday to mention Peach; this was the fifth time that day she had wished him happy birthday.
"Thanks again, Toadette. Do you know where Peach is?" he asked again.
"I don't know!" Toadette immediately cried. "Certainly not behind this door! No sir, no how!" she defended, spreading her arms to block the door.
"Toadette," began Mario angrily.
"Nope!" she squealed, grabbing Mario by the arm and dragging him down the hall. "I'm sorry Mario, you'll have to wait a bit!" she said sternly, crushing his gloved hand in a vice-like grip. Once she got to the door to the foyer she promptly threw him on the ground.
"Ow," groaned the birthday boy.
"Just a moment, please," she said pleasantly. She gave a small curtsey and quickly scurried back into the hall.
Toad, Yoshi, and Luigi had regrouped at the top of the stairs and each gave Mario an alarmed look as he was tossed to the ground. Toad began to laugh after a moment. "Wow, you let Toadette throw you? Jeez, you are getting old!"
Mario glared at him as he stood up. "Shut up, I'm not old!" he snapped, his back cracking.
"Yet Toadette was able to throw you to the ground," argued Luigi, grinning.
"You do realize you're just as old as me, right?" snapped Mario.
Luigi's grin fell. "Right."
"I wondew why she wouldn't let you see the pwincess," said Yoshi, motioning everyone to follow him to the dance floor. Clearly he didn't feel the need to find out at that exact moment.
"Awesome surprises, I hope!" cheered Toad, running down to catch up with the dinosaur.
About ten minutes later, the grand doors at the top of the stairs parted and Princess Peach slowly walked out and signaled the Luma DJ to stop the music. With a grand record scratch, the party came to a halt and all eyes were on Princess Peach. "I'm sure everyone here is as grateful as I am for our heroic Mario Brothers!" The crowd erupted in wild affirming cheers for a moment and Peach calmly waited for the noise to die down. "A tradition has developed here that every time these two save the day, they earn a cake. But I think that perhaps they deserve a freebie today." She stepped out of the way of the doors and dramatically cried "behold!"
An absolutely massive cake was wheeled out of the hallway and gently taken down the stairs. The sweet-toothed bros could only look on in awe as a white pastry twice their height was wheeled down towards them. As it came down they saw candy statues of themselves standing atop the cake, holding the number 29.
"It's beautiful," breathed Luigi, his eyes shimmering in the glory of the birthday present.
But before anyone could make a move and serve the culinary wonder, the entire building began to shake and a hole was smashed in the roof. A massive beast resembling a cross between a dragon, turtle, and an ox dove in through the hole, landing right on the cake.
"Noooooooooo!" screamed Luigi, falling to his knees. "The cake! Why the cake?"
"Bwahaha! Happy birthday Stupid Mario Bros!" cackled Bowser, spitting a fireball into the air for good measure.
Mario stomped his foot on the ground angrily. "What are you doing here Bowser?" he growled.
"I'm here to give you a birthday present!" replied the Koopa King, putting on a mocking sweet tone. "You wanna know what it is?" Mario simply glared at him, clenching his fists. "I'm gonna kidnap Princess Peach!" he roared, cackling wildly.
"How did you know it was our birthday?" asked Mario, feigning ignorance. "Is it because of all your citizens throwing parties?"
Bowser's eyes widened in shock. "How did you-?" he gasped. He shook his head angrily, spitting fire around him. "Ooh you're gonna pay for bringing that up!" he snarled, trying to hide his embarassment. "I guess I'll have to give you another birthday present: a clobberin'!"
"You couldn't beat us!" shouted Mario, raising a fist.
"And you definitely won't take the princess!" added Luigi, hiding his panic.
Toad and Toadette stepped forward. "We'll protect the princess too!" called Toadette.
"And you'll be feeling the pain!" added Toad.
"Bowsew, you choose the wwong day to attack!" said Yoshi, punching the air enthusiastically.
Bowser began to notice the growing opposition and stepped back slightly. "What do you punks think you're doing?" he snapped.
"Stopping a brute," replied Rosalina sternly. She waved her wand, summoning her Luma entourage to her side.
"You'll pay for ruining our party!" barked Daisy, rolling up her sleeves and cracking her knuckles.
"Grah! It's seven to one now!" groaned Bowser. "Fight me one-v-one!" he commanded.
"Eh, might as well make it nine to one," said Wario with a shrug. "I'm in the mood for a good fight, plus you wrecked a perfectly good cake!"
"Yeah," cackled Waluigi. "Get ready Bowser, it's Waluigi Time!"
Everyone in the brawl tensed up, ready to strike when Peach suddenly cried out in terror. Everyone turned towards her in confusion.
"Yo, I haven't done anything yet. Why are you freaked?" Bowser asked, scratching his head. Peach shakily pointed up at the hole in the ceiling. Everyone looked through the rather large hole left by the (rather large) Koopa King. A noticeable chunk of the sky above seemed to be rippling oddly.
"What in the-," began Mario, but before he could finish, an unearthly ripping sound blared across the land and the rippling portion of sky tore open, sending a wave of mysterious energy flying towards the castle. The wave quickly made impact with Toad Town, tearing the ground to shreds with an explosive force that blew up the castle, sending many party-goers flying at alarming rates.
Before Mario could even comprehend what was going on, he blacked out, flying to parts unknown.