Mario had just finished taking a shower and had already put on his signature overalls, gloves, and cap. Luigi had just returned from taking a walk with Daisy and was settling down to relax. Mario gave a smile towards Luigi, who just smiled back and put his hands behind his back. Mario sat down next to him on their couch and sighed with content. Months had passed and Bowser hadn't even tried to kidnap the princess. Sure, it was a little suspicious but Mario couldn't help but be thankful that they could finally rest.
"So, what do you-a want to do today-a?" Luigi asked, looking at Mario.
"I don't-a know...Perhaps we should-a visit Peach's castle." Mario said, looking out a window that viewed the princess's magnificent castle in the distance.
"Sure-a thing, just-a let me get-a ready and we can-a go," Luigi got up and went upstairs to straighten up.
Mario sighed once more with content. Life could never be better for the two plumbers ever since Bowser sudden halt on princess kidnapping. They've never got this long of a break before which is what made Mario slightly wonder if the Koopa King was planning something in that evil castle of his. He shook his head, why would he think that...but then again, Bowser had been getting a lot clever lately, especially with that whole space ordeal!
Luigi came down and walked towards the door waiting for Mario who had just gotten up. They both walked outside and walked along the path that led directly towards the princess's castle. As they were walking Mario felt as if they were being followed, he was about to turn around but when he looked to his side he saw the Koopa King's castle and a path leading to it.
Strange...Bowser's castle isn't usually this close to the Mushroom Kingdom... Mario thought with confusion.
"Hold-a up brother, let's take-a look at Bowser's-a castle first." Mario said beginning to walk down the over grown path.
"B-b-but why?" Luigi asked, already quivering in fear.
"Because, we need-a to make-a sure he isnt-a planning something, if-a he is then we'll-a have the element of surprise-a on our side!" Mario said with confidence, "Now come on!" He began to run towards the castle, followed by Luigi who was trying to convince Mario that this was a bad idea.
As they neared the castle, Mario noticed cobwebs had formed over it, small spiders could be seen crawling over it and the castle's gaping hole where the gate should have been seemed to be eerily howling at them. The two brothers entered the completely empty castle, and the inside was just as worse as the outside. Cobwebs were seen everywhere but most of the walls had been eroded away with sand that had somehow entered the castle. The only light came from the open hole where the gate stood. The entire castle looked as if it was being eaten away by something. Even Bowser wouldn't let his palace go into this bad of a phase of deterioration.
Luigi had surprisingly stopped shaking and was looking at the entire castle in complete shock. Mario instantly knew something was wrong, Bowser wasn't planning something at all. He had either been kidnapped (Irony?), or killed. That last one was something Mario hoped hadn't happened. Even through the two were mortal enemies, he didn't like the thought of someone dying, especially when that someone had actually helped him many times in the past.
They continued to the throne room and saw many motionless bodies of red and green Koopas and a few Goombas. Mario shook his head at the poor creatures and continued onwards while Luigi looked horrified.
"W-what if-a s-something got-a him?" Luigi asked through his quivering voice.
"I...don't-a know," Mario said, standing next to the empty, broken throne. A small fragment of light had graced its way through the broken, deteriorated castle and landed on the throne, giving it a sort of majestic look.
They heard a rustle of movement behind them. Luigi yelped loudly and quickly ran behind Mario, who had turned around watching for the intruder. One of the Koopa's body slowly got up and walked towards them like a zombie. As it got closer it was covered in a dark gooey substance. Luigi screamed in fright at the sight of it.
Mario ran towards the strange Koopa, jumped, landed, and bounced back as he knocked the Koopa from its shell. As the strange Koopa slowly recovered it began to walk straight towards Mario.
"Doesn't it-a usually go back to it's-a shell?" Luigi asked, now hiding behind the throne.
"This might-a not be the same-a creature we fought-a before." Mario said. He jumped on the Koopa again and this time it fell over, knocked unconscious. The gooey substance left and inched its way towards a Goomba. The same thing happened to it and it began to walk towards Mario.
Mario jumped on the Goomba, knocking it out and watched the same gooey substance leave it. This time however, it split into two's, then four's, and eventually into eight's, going into the rest of the bodies of the Koopas and Goombas.
"We are-a definitly not-a prepared for this!" Luigi said, watching all the creatures shamble towards them.
"This will-a be easy. We can-a do it!" Mario jumped towards the nearest Koopa, knocking it out of its shell, and he grabbed its shell and threw it at the approaching enemies. It managed to knock out all but one Goomba, who had just been stomped by Luigi.
"We need-a to get out of here!" Luigi said, already running towards the exit, but was stopped by a giant wall of the dark goo that had occupied the exit.
Mario shook his head in disbelief, this thing just wouldn't go away! The gooey substance growled at them and the knocked out enemies had slowly began getting back up.
"We're-a gonna be stuck-a here forever! Forced to-a fight the same-a enemies over and over again!" Luigi yelled, discouraged.
"Don't tell me you're going to give up already Mario Bros.?" A deep voice said at the same time a blue fireball came hurling towards the wave of enemies, knocking some of them out, and managing to hit the wall of goo. The wall screamed in pain and slowly shirnked a bit. Mario and Luigi both turned to see Bowser, holding his arm which appeared to be damaged, and looked rather beaten up. Some of the spikes on his shell, a horn on the left side of his head head been apparently cut off and three of the four spike collars he wore on his arms had gone missing.
"Bowser! Are you-a ok?!" Mario asked, shocked at his damaged form.
"I'll explain later! Let's get out of here first!" Bowser said, launching another fireball from his maw towards a group of enemies. Mario and Luigi continued fighting the strange Koopas and Goombas along with Bowser until all that remained was the shrinking wall of goo. Bowser let loose another fireball and the wall hissed in pain, turning back into a small circular form, inching away with incredible speed, eventually squeezing through the bricks of the castle.
"Let's-a go!" Mario ordered and the trio ran out of the castle. They kept running, not stopping to look back, and they kept going towards Princess Peach's castle. When the Mushroom Guards (Toads) saw the Mario Bros. and Bowser running towards them they though Bowser was chasing Mario and Luigi. They immediately pointed their lances at Bowser and waited for the Mario Bros to pass before striking.
"Don't-a hurt Bowser!" Luigi yelled. The toads looked at each other in confusion before slowly pulling up their lances. Bowser had been doing his best to keep up with the brothers but his injured leg was making him limp and he began losing speed but toughed through the pain, continuing to run even if it was slow.
The brothers had reached the castle doors before Bowser but he wasn't to far behind either. Bowser slowly walked up the steps, still holding his arm while the gates to the castle opened. The trio entered and saw Peach walking towards them, giving a shocked look when she noticed Bowser.
"What's he doing here Mario?" She asked, looking at Bowser from a distance.
Mario explained to her what had happened on their way over to her castle. She looked shocked at the description of Bowser's castle and especially the gooey substance that managed to reanimate the dead.
"How horrible..." Peach said.
"So what-a exactly happened Bowser?" Luigi asked.
Bowser sighed and laid back against a pillar. He removed his arm to reveal his arm was bleeding. The trio gasped and Peach immediately ordered a toad to get her medical supplies.
"Let's just say...it was something I never thought would even exist..."
"Well? What-a was it?" Mario asked, intrigued.
Bowser gave a slight shrug, "I dont know...apparently it was some mythical being that was the very embodiment of evil. Kamek called it, the Darkness"