aroramage presents:

The 5 Star Universe

Part I: Age of Darkness

Act 1: How it All Began

Chapter 1: The Beginning

In a far away land, where humans and various creatures roam about, there lived in a tall dark and perilous castle an evil king. His spiked green shell, his flaming red hair, his devilish horns, his black spikey bracelets - these symbols showed others his influence over the other bipedal turtles of the land. This monstrosity paced about his throne room, pondering how to perform his latest scheme of robbing the neighboring kingdom of its fair princess once more when one of his minions, a small brown mushroom with feet, came running in with news to his villainous overlord.

"King Bowser, Your Broodingness," announced the tiny creature, "a visitor has arrived."

"What? I didn't send for anybody! What does he look like?" King Bowser demanded.

"He appears to be clothed entirely in black, Your Demandingness," the young timid minion replied meekly.

"Really?" Bowser muttered. "Odd. I didn't ask for anyone..."

"Perhaps he is a spy attempt?" the tiny helper thought. "An infiltration tactic used by an enemy of His Mightiness?"

"I have only one enemy...Mario..."

Bowser shuddered from mentioning the name of the Mushroom Kingdom's savior. Mario was Bowser's eternal rival in power, and over the years the two had fought each other countless times; each time Bowser would kidnap the fair princess, Mario was always there to protect her, to defend her, to save her from his clutches. What made it worse was that he owed Mario for several occasions. Saving him from being possessed by a witch and an alien princess, not to mention assisting him in taking down other enemies of the kingdom. Owing a debt to Mario was something Bowser loathed even more than the portly plumber himself.

After a pause of reminiscence, Bowser turned to the minion. "Well, Goomba? What was his name? Who did he say he was?"

"He called himself..." the Goomba began but found he wasn't sure to complete the sentence.

"Well? What did he call himself?" Bowser growled, his patience draining quickly. "Answer me!"

"He said he was...The Dark Stranger."

Bowser's sinister grin appeared upon his gruesome face, and he threw back his head and laughed triumphantly. Not any longer than the day before, after yet another foiled kidnapping of the princess thanks to Mario, a letter came from someone called The Dark Stranger. According to his letter, he was some interdimensional villain who had caused chaos throughout the worlds by assisting other evil villains with their plans, whether it was simple world domination tactics to end of the world prophecies, from ancient chants that summoned legions of the undead to simple tricks of hypnosis. And what was most mysterious of all about the Stranger was his absence - he never seemed to be present at any time during the execution of these plans. Despite this, Bowser seemed to have faith and was keenly interested by The Dark Stranger's "credentials," and so accepted his invitation to help him with his plans on kidnapping the princess once again - and possibly keep Mario out for good!

"Well, let's not keep him waiting!" Bowser roared. "Bring him in!"

The Goomba, startled at his master's booming voice, immediately scurried out of the throne room and informed the other henchmen to let down the drawbridge. The clanking of the metal chains against the wheel echoed throughout the castle chambers and into the throne room until finally a dull thud indicating the drawbridge was lowered reverberated as well. The sound of footsteps could be heard even from within the throne room, until finally a light tapping came from the grand doors.

"Come in!" Bowser called out, and in response the doors pulled back wide, revealing an elegant man in black.

Everything about him was black - his shirt, his pants, a cape he wore behind him, the shined boots on his feet, a bandana shrouding his nose and mouth, goggles covering his eyes, even gloves covered his hands. A lone black fedora was perched upon his head, a black feather poking out at a curious angle. Hardly any of his skin was visible, and for what was visible, it appeared to be whiter than all of the rest of him. The henchmen near him seemed to be cowering, both in awe at this man's presence and in terror at what he could do.

"King Bowser of the Koopas, I presume?" the man asked, a gentleman's tone escaping his covered lips.

"Hehe, that would be me," Bowser answered, smiling smugly at his new arrival. He reached out to shake The Dark Stranger's hand.

"The pleasure's all mine," The Dark Stranger replied, grasping firmly on his newfound associate's reptilian hand and shaking it before releasing and respectably bowing before him. "I'm sure you've read through the invitation and are aware of my reason for joining in your company's grace, yes?"

"Of course," Bowser said, "although I kind of skimmed it too. Something about the ultimate plan, security of the princess, victory will be mine and such."

"Yes," The Dark Stranger said, "something very much like that. You see, Lord Bowser, I am in need of your services much more so than you are of mine."

"Is that so?" Bowser asked. "What, running out of ideas? Come to talk to a master planner?"

"Oh don't worry about the details," The Dark Stranger replied. "I've already got the plan set-up. All I need is something of yours."

"And then you'll tell me your plan for the capture of the princess?" Bowser asked.

The Dark Stranger chuckled. "Yes, something like that."

And with a swift motion of his hand, The Dark Stranger sent an invisible force that knocked Bowser back into the nearest wall, but instead of running through it, Bowser somehow became fused to the wall, his hands and feet bound by stone shackles, his waist wrapped about by a stone snake. Bowser attempted to escape from these binds but to no avail: he was trapped with no means of escape.

"Hey!" he cried as The Dark Stranger approached him. "What're you trying to pull?"

"Nothing more than what I've told you," The Dark Stranger said. "You're going to be apart of the ultimate plan. Sure, I stretched the truth to include your needs, but once again I address the notion that I'm in more need of what I want from you than you are of what you need from me."

"What are you saying?" Bowser asked. "And why are you doing this?"

"Oh, there's no need to get all tangled up in that mess, believe me," The Dark Stranger continued as his advance drew him closer to the wall. "After all, once I'm done with you, I won't need to worry about you much."

"Why?" Bowser demanded, struggling futilely against the binds. "What do you want from me?"

And though it was perhaps impossible for him to tell from physical movement, Bowser got the feeling that The Dark Stranger was smiling. "Simple, my dear Bowser: I want your soul!"

A swift hand motion, a cry of, "Dark Soul Snatcher!", and suddenly from The Dark Stranger's hand emerged a transparent shade of his hand, a grisly black energy that lunged at Bowser and tore at his chest violently and yet left no physical mark on him. It had attacked without a purpose, and yet when it came through it was clenched around something. Opening itself up, the hand revealed a shining purple-black orb of some kind. The Dark Stranger beckoned the hand forth into a jar he had pulled out from beneath his cape and sealed it within. Then he dispersed of his binding magic, causing the King of the Koopas to crash onto the floor.

"Now that that's out of the way," The Dark Stranger said, pulling on one of his gloves, "it's time to get this place ready. I'll need to do some refurbishing it seems, as well as gather the minions and investigate what it is I have to work with..."

Looking out a window, The Dark Stranger saw a large pink castle rather similar to the one he walked in now. But he knew what it was. And he knew what to do. And right now, there was only one thing he needed to do.

"...and so it begins..."