Paper Mario

Legend of the Star Rod

Prologue: A Plea from the Stars


On a table in an unknown study, a mysterious book is seen. It was an odd little thing, a purple cover with a strange design in the center that looked like a Star at the end of a rainbow colored rod. The book just had this air of magic power that couldn't be denied, as a mysterious hand hovered near the book, one that was covered with a glove that looked almost akin to the night sky itself...

"Today… I'm going to tell the story of Star Spirits and Good Wishes." Chimed a mature female voice, as the hand turns the page revealing a beautiful starry night sky. Right in the center of it was what looked like a mysterious floating continent with a huge city sitting atop it. The buildings looked like they were made of night sky auras and clouds, with little figures that looked like stars floating around the town and twinkling in the night sky along with their cousins high up above in space. The town appeared to be held up by seven, giant, different colored stars. Strange in appearance but great in power, the stars twinkled peacefully with the other stars as they continued on with their duty.

"Far, far away, beyond the sky, way above the clouds, it's been said that there's a haven where the stars live." The chiming female voice continued and one could almost feel a motherly smile in her voice. The page turns again, this time revealing a path and a staircase leading into what looked like a shrine right on the outskirts of the town. The shrine had somewhat of a heavenly radiance to it, safe and protected like that of a mother's womb. "In the sanctuary of Star Haven, there rests a fabled treasure known as the 'Star Rod', which has the power to grant all wishes."

The page turns once again showing the inside of the shrine, in the center of the shrine, on a pedestal, sat an ancient looking item. The ancient item was the exact same item from the cover of the book, sitting upright on the shrine and shining with an ancient and ethereal power, unlike anything anyone ever knew. Watching this ancient treasure, and sitting on pillars that circled the pedestal were mid-sized stars each holding a different a trait that separated them. One of the notable ones was a yellow star with a big white mustache, whom had this serene look on his face as he continued watching the Star Rod with his brothers and sisters. "Using the powers of the wondrous Star Rod, the seven revered 'Star Spirits', watched over our peaceful world. Carefully… Very carefully."

The page turned again, showing a picture of the shrine zoomed out and away from the Star Rod so as to capture more of the room as well as a few more of the seven revered Star Spirits...

However, there was something else there. There was a figure that appeared to be taped onto the page. It appeared as an old and frail looking creature dressed in purple mage robes, with a very distinctly turtlish looking head, wearing blue and purple glasses, and a purple steeple hat topping her head, and bleached white hair underneath said hat that appeared old, frizzled and thin. The creature, seemingly a koopa, appeared to be riding a broom-stick almost like a witch. "And then… Oh dear… What the?" The hand wearing the starry-night glove reeled back in surprise, and the female voice appeared equally unsure about what was going on. "Who stuck this weird thing into the story?"

At that moment a weird energy surrounded the book and the female reading the book recieved a great big surprise as the characters in the book started moving around of their own volition.

The old koopa witch turned her head towards the outside of the page, gave an angry look, and yelled on the top of her lungs, shaking her fist. "I'M NOT WEIRD LOOKING!" The hand suddenly vanished as the female let out a loud grunt and hit the floor.

Just as soon as the hand was gone, a humongous shadow appeared on the outside of the page. It seemed to be riding on some kind of semi circle craft with helicopter blades on the bottom. "HA, HA, HA! Yeah! I did!" So deep and beast like was his voice, that it would be hard for anyone that hears it to forget it for the rest of their days. The comparison towards a dragon's voice wouldn't be too out of left field in this sense. "So I can, at long last, defeat my old archenemy Mario! I'll take this Star Rod!"

A huge clawed hand appeared and daintily turned the page, finding the next page to be a close up of the old koopa witch. "Do it Kammy Koopa!" Kammy raised her wand and energy started to charge. The energy had a sort of dark feel to it that almost felt old, tribal, almost eldritch in some odd fashion. There was a bright flash of light and powerful dark magic and in an instant a new character was floating in the air next to Kammy Koopa.

It was the same creature from outside the book and had been responsible for pushing aside the reader; The creature was revealed to be a koopa similar to Kammy Koopa in basic design, however he was much bigger and a lot meaner looking. The Koopa was huge and powerful looking standing at 8 feet easily, a giant compared to regular people, with a dark green turtle shell lined with white spikes that were both sharp and scary looking. Topping a dragon like head, dark green scales around the forehead area and tannish yellow around the muzzle, was an almost literal mane of fiery red hair that appeared both spikey yet still somehow well-kept, with yellowish horns on the side of his head like a bull. The rest of his body was made up of yellowish scales, his toes fingers lined with short but sharp claws, and his arms lined with black dog collar like latches with white spikes sticking out of them, another to be found on his neck. Almost contrasting with the intimidating image was the vehicle the beast was riding in. It almost looked like a pod in the rough shape of a semi-sircle, a clown face decorating the front with narrowed eyes and a creepy smile. The bottom of the semi-circle had a single set of helicoptor blades, that easily kept the beast aloft. The Star Spirits reeled back in surprise and fear, more then recognizing their attacker.

As soon as King Bowser Koopa made his entrance, the Star Spirits were suddenly attacked by strange bolts of dark energy from Kammy's wand, stopping them dead in their tracks and keeping them from making a move to stop them. As that happened, Bowser breathed a powerful jet of flames at the Star Rod, ridding it of the barrier that prevented anyone from touching the grand treasure. The starry gloved narrator returned and went to try and remove Bowser and Kammy... However they were now fully integrated into the book. "No! You mustn't do that!" The narrator cried out desperately but Bowser refused to listen, reaching out and grabbing the Star Rod with that huge evil smile of glee on his face.

"Yeah! Now let's try using it!" Bowser said with a chortle as he held the Star Rod above his head. The Star Rod suddenly let out a powerful flash of energy as it recognized Bowser's unknown wish, and the energy released outward like a shockwave. The Shockwave blasted across the room until it hit all seven of the Star Spirits and seeming to enforce some sort of odd change on them. The Star Spirits struggled and struggled with all of their mights to resist this new change but were eventually overtaken; The heavenly beings were forcibly zoomed in and were imprisoned into their own individual card like seal that suddenly appeared around Kammy.

"Stop it! Cut it out, Bowser! You're changing the story!" The narrator called trying again to remove Bowser and Kammy from the story, but it was impossible to stop Bowser from where she was. Soon all the Star Spirits were imprisoned, and the narrator could only watch on helplessly. This was now no longer a storybook... It was now a vision, an omen of bad things to come to the world...

"TE, HEH, HEH, HAH, HAH! We did it!" Kammy said; screeching with laughter at their victory.

"That was a piece o' cake!" Bowser said then laughed evilly. Having said that, his vehicle took off out of the shrine and disappeared to parts unknown, Kammy and the card prisons close behind him...

... The Narrator only watched a moment more before turning the page... She was aware that her audience looked just as scared as she was...

"Now... Star Kids may rise to grant people's wishes, but those wishes will never come true… Whatever will they do?" She finished reading... The rest of the pages after appeared to be unwritten...

Waiting... Waiting for something to happen that may change the fate of the stars and that of the precious kingdom...


...

...

...

...

...

Really, for Zane T. things were not going all that well at all... He was having a wonderful little nights sleep, deciding to sleep in a little bit after some fights he got into with some resident Bzzaps, and managed to suffer quite a few stings before taking the bunch out. As such, after the doctor looked him over and removed some stingers, he confined the 16 year old Toad to his bed, and ordered him to rest off the injuries. Now that he was waking up however, he was capable of feeling a good amount of his body being incredibly sore once more. Letting out a mild explicitive that I dare not repeat in this written format, he slowly sat up, letting out a sigh. "Owowowowow... Dammit..."

Groaning, he slowly stood up out of his bed and walked about taking in the room. Looking down on himself, he found his white martial arts gii, black pants and blue shoes, which was in raggedy shape since his earlier standoff. It was in reasonable shape, but he'd likely need to ask sensei for a new one... He took slow but surprisingly steady steps as he approached the nearby sink and turned on the water. He let out a shiver as he splashed some water against his face waking him up better, and somewhat easing a sting on his cheek. However it had the effect of wetting some of his blonde bangs and making it stick to his forehead. Momentarily he hoped the water didn't get his mushroom cap which was white with black spots, wet as well, that would've been miserable... "Blegh... Okay... Avoid giant bees... Giant Bees bad... Right..."

Some minutes into his solitude, there came a sudden knocking on the door, catching the young toad's attention. With a sigh, he lowered his head. Really he didn't want anyone seeing him the way he was now, but... "Go ahead and come in..." He said solemnly, already knowing who it likely was. And just as he figured, the door opened and revealed an adult toad with that typical look; however, what seperated him from the others was the doctor's scrub he was wearing, on top of his white pants and brown shoes.

"So sorry to disturb you Zane, but I thought I might come in here and check up on you." He said simply and to the point. Whatever was worrying him, Zane could tell upon looking at him that it was no joke.

Still... Joke he did. Not really because he disrespected the doc, but because jokes was just how he responded to things at times. "Not much to check up on Doc. I still feel like crap after getting nearly every inch of me stung by those... Guuugh... Bzzaps..." Groaning, he finally seperated from the sink and turned to the doctor, leaning against the wall laxly. The smug grin on his face betrayed any sort of pretense of pain agonizing or otherwise.

"I'm surprised you can still stand up and walk after that honestly, you've only had one night's worth of rest you know..." The Doc appeared apprehensive given Zane was up and about.

The toad just waved him off. "Meh, I'm a trooper, I can take it..." The doctor let out a sigh and facepalmed. "Anyways, anything new doc?"

The Doctor looked to Zane seeming a little surprised. "Didn't you feel it? There was this sudden Earthquake not too long ago. Caused a bit of damage around town in fact." He looked Zane and the room over and found only a few of the things in the room had been disturbed. When Zane noticed this, he couldn't help but chuckle at the whole thing.

Crossing his arms with a smile, Zane smiled smugly, looking a bit full of himself. "Well I didn't feel anything... Musta slept through it." He said simply all the while crossing his arms. "That makes sense right?"

There was a moment of consideration before the doctor nodded to him, "Yes indeed it does. If someone is unconscious, they can miss any number of things. Though that all depends on how deep in their unconsciousness they are... I'm still quite surprised you missed feeling an Earthquake. I wouldn't have been surprised if the people in Toad Town felt that quake..." There was a moment of silence before he massaged his temples. "And now your up and about even though you are covered with Bzzap stings... You continue to befuddle me every day..."

Zane laughed a bit as started stretching, cricking a few bones back into place and irritating a few of his Bzzap stings. He winced quite a bit but kept at it. "Yeah, yeah, I try." He said through clenched teeth. It was like his sensei always said, learn from losses and grow stronger and smarter. The Bee-stings weren't ideal, but they were a good way to make him more pain tolerant. "Anyways, if you don't mind? I'd like a few minutes to get ready to go out and get the stuff sensei sent me out to get for him." He further emphasized this with a waving hand motion, shooing him away.

"I still think you should sit around and wait for the bzzap-stings to go away before you move around... But I shall go in anycases..." He turned to the door and opened it up. "Just remember... Don't push yourself out there. You're still hurt."

"Doc it's me! I can handle a little discomfort." The doc rolled his eyes and just walked out, closing the door behind him.


The Doctor left to find a group of goomba's awaiting him. However, rather then attack him, the goomba's appeared to ask him what was currently going on inside the building. As the doc starts talking to a Middle-aged goomba with a black mustache, the camera zooms out from said building and it takes in the town around the clinic. It was a rather small burg barely made up of three buildings. Two appeared to be residential houses, two stories tall for each one, while the Toad House took up the spot as the third building noticeable by the sign with the yellow mushroom and red cap decorating it along with the words 'Toad House' just underneath that.

Ah Goomba Village... Such a small little town to be sure. But to be fair, only one family lived here in the town, and it was still greatly overtaken by forests all around.

"So the boy was unharmed?"

As we zoom back into the Toad Doctor and the Middle-aged goomba, it is easy to tell they are in the middle of a heated discussion. The Toad Doctor sighed looking to be in disbelief. "Some of the items inside had fallen off of the shelves, but Zane appeared to be relatively unaffected." He couldn't help but smile and roll his eyes in disbelief. "Give him this, you can CERTAINLY tell that he's the Master's son." The middle-aged goomba was surprised at this, his thick black eyebrows raised in emphasis, but couldn't help but chuckle. He also knew about the 'Master', the famous martial arts expert that had opened up a dojo in Toad Town, and had taken in all kinds of students over the years...

However there was one incident not that long ago that made Zane... Different from the rest of them...

There was the sound of the door opening a few minutes later and out of the Toad House walked Zane, there was obvious difficulty in his steps, but he continued on proudly. The two had to give the kid this, he was not one to stay down that easy; Very much like his master indeed. The boy briefly looked to the conversing Toad House owner and the Goomba, whom he and the little goomba kids knew as Goompapa, and gave them a friendly wave. The two only stare sternly at him a moment before they sighed and went back to their conversation. Zane merely rolled his eyes at the look and kept on walking; not his fault that he wasn't going to let some Bzzap stings keep him bed-ridden. Sure a great percentage of his body was aching and in pain, but he could take it. Heck, he was glad to. No pain no gain as they say.

Still as he walked across town, his gaze on the woods just to the west of town, his mind wandered back to that... Odd dream he had the night before... 'Star Haven, Star Spirits... The Star Rod? ... And then there was Bowser... Jeeeeeze... Those Bzzap stings musta got to me harder then I thought...' He thought to himself...

Deciding to shake it out of his head, Zane continued down the road. Because after all, a city for the stars? An Omnipowerful artifact? It just sounded like pure fantasy to him... He may have believed in the stars, but what he saw in his dream wasn't just overwhelming, it was very much beyond him... ... He jumped out of his thoughts when he brushed up against a branch from a near by tree, aggravating the Bzzap sting on his arm. He barely held in a few curses before he finally felt the feeling pass.

Even as he said that though, his mind traveled back to seeing Bowser in that dream... What was the significance of it? He had never met Bowser before and he had made no plans to meet him either. Leave that kind of stuff to Mario. He wasn't even sure, but he could feel a sense of dread building in his form... He quickly shoved it back down with a gulp (aggravating a Bzzap sting around the bottom of his chin). "Zane, you HAVE to get a grip on yourself. What you saw wasn't REAL. Bowser may be a bad guy, but what happened couldn't have happened." He took a breath. "This... Star Stick thing isn't real... So just... Stop worrying..."

After a moment, the feeling of dread passed by and he could finally smile when he felt comfortable once more (Or as comfortable as one could be when covered with Bzzap stings). "Hahahah, but still, Bowser getting his hands on that thing? Ooooooh, scary thought... Maybe I should forward that idea to an author or something. It'd make a hell of a good Mario story." He chuckled to himself as he took a step off of the street and into the woods-

No sooner did he take that first step then he was tackled clean into the ground, the pain from both the tackle and landing on the ground nearly knocking him clean out. Despite this, he quickly regained his senses and took in the thing, or person rather that had been responsible. Said person appeared to be a goomba, though this goomba was notably shorter then the other members of the Goomba family living in the village. This one was also notably female, which he could see from her slightly pink skin and the big pink bow on top of her head. It took Zane a moment to rack his brain back up, but after a moment, he remembered that this little one was none other then Goombaria, the youngest member of the family.

Goombaria was back on her feet in seconds, though it took Zane only slightly longer to follow her example. When he did, he carefully dusted off his jacket in an attempt not to aggravate any swelling. When done, he looked down to the little goomba, expression lifted in curiosity. "Jeeze squirt. What's the rush? You'd think there was a fire or something-"

Zane found a pair of invisible hands grab the tail of his jacket and yank up and down, shaking the young man with a great amount of vigor. All the while, Goombaria just looked FRANTIC as she continued shaking him. "NO FIRE! GET DAD, GOOMPA AND GOOMBARIO AND COME QUICK! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT IT FOUND OUT IN THE WOODS!" Her words were fearful... Heck, she was almost to the point of panicked tears.

Now in most cases, the young man would be inclined to believe that this was some sort of joke put together by Goombario and his sister... But he could more then tell that something was wrong. There was no way Goombaria could fake tried and true terror. Nodding quickly, the man stumbled back into town, yelling for the family members Goombaria had mentioned.


Gathering the family members took barely a few seconds when Zane came stumbling back into town with a huge sense of urgency, Goombaria right behind him and letting out her frantic screams as well. When they were all rallied up, the bunch quickly ran into the woods following Goombaria whom lead the way. Upon arriving in a small clearing not that deep in, Zane found Goombaria had been speaking the truth... To be perfectly and bluntly honest, he COULDN'T believe what he was looking at. The sight wasn't really anything foreign or even anything all that out there, but it's presence was not only odd, but just plain panic enducing.

Laying on the ground, face down in the dirt was what appeared to be a middle-aged man with a well pronounced black mustache on his face. This feature was seemingly even more pronounced by the tattered pair of blue overalls, which covered a red shirt, and ended with brown working boots down at the feet... Perhaps the most discernable trait about this gentleman was that atop a head of brown hair was a red work cap with a small white circle on the front which had a pronounced red 'M' in the center of it...

Zane had to rub his eyes and then pinch himself just to make sure he wasn't seeing things. However there was no way his imagination could come up with an illusion quite like this one. This was in fact, without a shadow of a doubt... was MARIO. The Famous, one and only, Mushroom Kingdom Hero Mario...

And to boot, the man looked like had had seen better days...

"H-HOLY SH-!"

"Quick! Let's get him to the Toad House!" This order had come from Goompapa which was met with his other family members nodding in agreement. They quickly walked up to the man and, working together, managed to pick him up, making great use of their invisible hands. The only one not helping was the Goomba known as Goombario, Goombaria's older brother and distinguishable by his blue baseball cap, but that was mainly because he just stood there staring at Mario's unconscious carcass. The concern on his face was undeniable, and everyone knew he had every reason to. It didn't help that Goombario was a big die-hard Mario fan.

Knowing they would have to act fast, Zane approached Goombario, trying his best to contain his panic. "Hey, it'll be okay." The toad said, placing a hand on Goombario's head to catch his attention. "We just need to get him to the Toad House and we can get him looked at. We can't afford to panic here." He walked over to Mario and quickly helped the Goombas in lifting him. "Now Goombario, mind coming over here to help us?"

That seemed to wake the young Goomba up and he quickly nodded, determination showing in his eyes. "Yeah! Let's help Mario!"

And thus began a slow trip back into Goomba Village...


Many concerns were apparent in the eyes of Mario's rescuers, but they saved their breath for the job at hand. It took some work, but the group finally found their way back to the Goomba Village and managed to get Mario into the Toad House. The owner of the establishment had been prompt in getting Mario inside so he could rest on a bed, and he could get to work on examining his injuries. As this happened, the Goomba family and Zane took to doing their own thing outside. Goompapa and an elderly goomba that appeared similar to him save his whitened hair chatted between each other, looking very nervous. Meanwhile Goombario and Goombaria were actually getting acquainted with Zane... Odd how that worked since the young man had arrived in their village with a splash and yet they were not introduced.

They appeared to be trading interests and the like for a bit (Zane doing it to help them take their mind off of the current situation), before the Toad House owner left the house again an hour or so later. When they heard the door the kids turned to the Doc, their eyes wide with worry, Goombario especially. "W-Well Doc? Is he going to be okay?"

Doc took off his face mask and looked among the numbers there expecting news from him. At first he held a frown on his face and all was quiet. "Well, he has a few claw marks, is suffering from several third degree burns, and he seems to be experiencing quite a bit of trauma..." The Goomba kids looked down to the ground likely expecting the worst... However Doc smiled, "But... AMAZINGLY, I believe he's going to be alright."

Goombario and Goombaria gave the doc a HUGE smile of relief, looking like huge lead weights had been taken off of their shoulders... Or whatever they had that counted as shoulders. Zane let out a breath of relief as well. "See? I told ya he'd be okay." The toad said with a look of assurance. Sure he was worried, hell he was very worried, but he took comfort in knowing that no-one was dead.

As it turned out, the work it took to get Mario to the Toad House had worked away quite a few of the hours so when that news was shared, the sun was already going down and was growing closer and closer to it's sunset position. Life wasn't entierly the same after those past few hours, and after everything had been said and done, Zane sat himself down at the foot of the tree and let out a sigh... AGH PAIN. At least until the adrenaline rush vanished ant the pain from his Bzzap stings had come back in full force. "Yep... Giant bees HURT... OW..."

"Zane! Oh Zane there you are."

When the toad looked up, he found Doc looking down at him taking in his ailing form with great fascination. "Oh... Heya Doc... What's up?"

"Don't you what's up ME young man. Smug bouts of confidence do not do a good job in hiding pain, and you obviously have plenty to spare." He sighs as he bends down and looks over the stings. "Jeeze look at them. I'm surprised you helped the goomba family get Mario into the village with how badly off you must be..." He chuckles and shakes his head. "It makes me feel even worse given the news I have to share."

"News?" Zane wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.

"Yes, it has come to my attention that Mario is so far taking up the only free bed in the Toad House. We don't really have any more room."

... FRICK. "Oh... Oh now that's just AWESOME." The sarcasm was VERY apparent.

Of course, Doc easily caught the sarcasm and sighed. "I apologize. But you more then understand, Goomba Village is very small, there's not a lot of need for a lot of extra space and such. Normally I make house calls and the Toad House is for extreme emergencies only. I apologize deeply and sincerely for this, but we need to find you another room to spend the night in since Mario will be taking your old bed." He looked to the toad as he said this. "But I'm not really sure if the Goomba Family has any more free beds-"

"Nah, nah, don't even worry about it Doc." Zane slowly got up and looked at the crossing his arms. "You bring me my backpack? I've got a hammock in there that I can set up. I can sleep in a hammock until Mario heals up."

That seemed to get quite a bit on unassuredness out of the Doc as he gave Zane a dark blue backpack. "A Hammock? I'm not sure how comfortable that might be for you given your current condition..." Zane didn't answer back to the man as he pulled out said hammock and quickly unfolded it, wincing all the while. " I mean, I'm sure we can think of something better if you will give us time-"

Zane waved the Doc off and proceeded to fix up the Hammock between two trees not that far off from the tiny town's square. "Don't even worry about it, okay? Like I said, I'm a trooper. I'll manage."

... Finally letting out that exasperated sigh, the Doc finally decided to leave it at that. "Okay... Thank you Zane... I'm sure Mario will appreciate this later, if that's any consolation." Zane didn't answer back, as he just crawled into his hammock. Really, he wasn't trying to be rude. He was just too tired, too irritable, and too littered with pain to do or say anything productive.

When the Doc walked away, Zane just lay there looking up at the skies above as the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon... As he did, his mind traveled back to the dream he had the night before... Inwardly? He was freaked. He wasn't sure how, but he somehow knew that dream was connected to why they found Mario laid out in that forest clearing... He wanted to dismiss the thought as absolutely RIDICULOUS, but for some reason he just couldn't... The timing was just too perfect...

When at last exhaustion caught up with him, he passed out on the hammock, soundlessly falling asleep...


The image was almost unbearable… It showed a grand hallway, probably one from the Mushroom Kingdom castle. The hallway was tattered, the rug was disheveled, the walls had scorch marks, and in the center of the hall, where one of the biggest windows was, well more like used to be, four figures stood. One figure, unmistakably Mario, was lying on the floor, out cold. The second figure was a beautiful woman wearing a radiant pink dress, had long flowing blonde hair, a crown on her head, and diamond slippers stood next to where Mario was out on the floor, her hands were to the sides of her face in panic. This was the unmistakable figure of the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess 'Peach' Toadstool. She screamed in panic. "Oh no! Mario! Please get up!"

The other figures there were more recognizable. They were none other then Bowser and Kammy Koopa. Bowser seemed to be celebrating something, and Kammy was sitting on her floating broom, looking with pride at Bowser. "Yahoo! I did it! I finally beat my old rival Mario! YEEEEEESSSSS!"

Kammy chuckled and started to congratulate the Koopa King. "Congratulations on your victory, your Viciousness! That's why you're the king!" Having said that Kammy's screeching laughter came after it.

Bowser turned to look at Kammy and pulled out the one item that helped him win this battle… The Star Rod. "So long as I have this Star Rod, any wish I make, comes true! I'm now invincible!" After that gloat, he turned to the beaten hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. "Well I might as well get rid of Mario… He's no good to anyone now that's for sure." Bowser suddenly lifted up the Star Rod; it flashed with almighty power, and from a lightning bolt flashed down and slammed Mario. The force knocked the poor plumber out the big broken window.

As he flew outside, there was a sight of the Mushroom Kingdom Castle's current plight. It was sitting on a big stone castle that resembled Bowser, riding his clown hover cart, and both were hovering above the clouds! Mario continued falling to earth below, as Peach went to the broken window and gave her final plead to Mario. "Oh no! MARIOOOOOO!" As she continued screaming Kammy turned to a patrol of armor wearing koopa's called the Koopatrols.

"You there, take Princess Peach to her room immediately!" The Koopatrols nodded and obeyed their order without question. Meanwhile outside Mario had continued his descent to the ground below… He kept on falling…

And falling…

And falling…

And falling…

Until he finally disappeared into the clouds, to continue his plummet to the ground…


Zane awoke with a start... And immediately regretted it. His hammock swung a bit and sent him reeling to the ground. "GGGOOOOOOOW...!" He slowly pulled himself back onto the hammock and lay back down on it lightly, just taking the moment to curse whoever was listening for his lousy luck. When he felt better, he took to immediately thinking about the dream he had... It was now well into the night from what he could see and a blanket was draped around him to keep him warm, likely a gift from the Doc or anyone from the Goomba Family; either way it was greatly appreciated...

He continued looking up to the sky, taking in the stars as they twinkled beautifully in the night... Alost as if to try and comfort him...

"It... It was just a dream... It was just... It was just a dream..."

But for some reason, that little nagging doubt persisted, never once leaving him alone...