It's back! ...and admittedly not much better than before. ^^;

This first chapter has chapters one, two, and I think part of three from the old version mixed together. As well as a new scene that wasn't written before. :)

It seemed like just another normal day in Toad Town. Toads were going about their day shopping, working, and talking to their friends. Children were in school, for their last class of the day. But the peaceful mood wouldn't last much longer.

Currently, one little Toad was sneaking out of his school to avoid his final class of the day. He couldn't stand counting the minutes until school was let out, and what the teacher was saying seemed more boring than usual. There was a breeze in the air, cooling off the unusually warm afternoon. It was nearly summer, and there were only two weeks left in the school year.

The Toad walked along home as if it were normal for him to out of school already. He stopped to say hello to a few adults and watch some younger children who didn't even go to school yet play before he walked up to his house and went inside.

"Mom? I'm home!" he called.

His mother was in the kitchen preparing supper.

"Hi, sweetie," she called over her shoulder, sounding surprised. "You're home early."

"Uh..." the little Toad fidgeted nervously.

"You naughty little scamp!" she cried. "You skipped your final class again, didn't you?"

"Yeah..." the Toad sighed.

"How will you grow up to be a fine Toad if you keep doing this?"

"Fiiine, I won't do it again."

They both knew this wasn't true, but his mother smiled anyway.

"That's a good boy. Dinner is just about ready now. Go get your dad, please."

"Okay." The boy ran down the hall to his parents' bedroom. "Daaad! Mom says dinner is ready."

There was no answer.

"Dad?" The Toad knocked on the door. There still wasn't any answer. Getting worried, he opened the door and peeked inside. "Hey, Dad? Dinner's read—"

Back in the kitchen, the boy's mother was putting soup into three bowls for her family to eat.

"What's taking that boy so long?" she wondered out loud to herself.

"Holy mother of mushrooms!"

She turned around as her son came running into the room, obviously in a panic for some reason.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"It...it's Dad," the Toad said, panting. "He's...OBESE!"

At that moment, the whole house shook. The wall that separated the west side of the house from the east side came crashing down and the father of the family rolled into the kitchen. He appeared to be obese indeed; his body had swelled up in size so much that he was ten-times his normal size. The boy and his mother hurried out of the way to avoid being crushed by him.

His wife was horrified. "NO! Honey!"

At first everyone thought it was an isolated—and rather odd— incident. The little Toad's father was put in the local hospital, and the doctors did everything they could to help him return to his normal size. But nothing they tried did any good. Then the same thing began happening to other Toads around town.

The whole town panicked, unsure of what to do. Nothing like this had ever happened before. The doctors declared it to be caused by some sort of illness. Somewhere along the way the illness was dubbed the "blorbs".

The sudden rampage of the illness didn't go unnoticed by the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, however. One day, when number of victims had risen to a disturbing amount, she decided to do something about it.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Princess Peach cried as she paced back and forth. "The number of Toads that come down with the 'blorbs' seems to raise everyday without showing signs of stopping. The doctors can't do anything to ease the swelling and all of Toad Town is in a panic!"

Toadsworth, her elderly adviser, watched the princess uneasily.

"Please, do calm down and try to think about this rationality, Princess," he said.

"I can't," she argued. "My kingdom needs me and I'm at a loss as to what to do. My subjects are suffering and I just don't know how to help them..."

Toadsworth stared at her sadly. "There must be something that can be done. Perhaps investigating the cause behind the matter would be a good start."

Peach tapped on her chin with a finger thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that would be a good place to start. Maybe we could ask Toadbert to help by interviewing some of the ill Toads. And once that's done we can have a meeting to discuss what we know..."

Satisfied that the princess had a plan forming, Toadsworth smiled slightly and poured some tea for both of them. There was a timid knock at the door.

"Come in," Peach called, sitting down at her desk to write a note for Toadbert.

A girl with long brown hair entered the room. She had a backpack slung on her shoulder and the morning's newspaper in her hand.

"Hello, Miss Dawn," Toadsworth said warmly. "All ready for school, I see."

Fourteen year-old Dawn Starlight smiled back, just as warmly. "Yes. I just wanted to bring the morning paper to the princess before I left."

"Would you like a cup of tea before you leave?" the old Toad offered.

The human shook her head. "No, thanks." She turned to Peach, with a nervous expression. "Princess Peach, you aren't going to like this, but..."

With a sign, she lay the paper down on the desk, showing the princess the headline:

The Blorbs Strike Again; Eight New Victims This Week Alone.

Peach groaned and put her head in her hands. It was Wednesday and already there were eight new victims that week. The problem was getting worse compared to last week when it started.

"Princess?" Dawn said softly. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." The princess raised her head. "Thank you for bringing me this. Now I have even more of a reason to get this emergency meeting planed."

"Oh? Are we having a meeting to figure out what to do about the blorbs?"

"Yes. We're going to get to the bottom of this!"

Dawn grinned, glad to see the princess in such high spirits. Then she realized she should get going to school.

"If you'll excuse me, I better go now."

"Of course. Oh, and if you could run this message to Toadbert on your way out that would be wonderful."

"Sure." Dawn took the slip of paper from Peach and, after saying good-bye, left the room.

Once she was out of hearing range of the room, Dawn sighed. She hadn't noticed until just then how tense she was. The girl had been worried about how the princess would take the news, but it went better than she expected.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she unfolded the note and read it. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help being curious.

Toadbert,

After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to stop the blorbs is to find the cause first. I plan to hold a meeting in several days. In that time, I would like for you to go around town and interview the Toads that have fallen ill. See what you can learn.

Princess Peach.

"I knew things were bad," Dawn muttered, "but I didn't realize the princess didn't even know what the cause of the blorbs is. I thought it was just some sickness from long ago and nobody remembers the cure or something..."

By that time Dawn had gotten to Toadbert's room. As close friend to Peach, not to mention a part-time assistant, he lived in the castle.

"Toadbert?" she said, knocking on his door.

The blue-hatted Toad opened the door.

"Well, it's Dawn, by boogity! How can I help you this morning?"

"Just came to give you this note from the princess." She handed him the now refolded note.

Toadbert read it then nodded.

"I see. Looks like I have a job to do!"

"What kind of a job?" Dawn asked innocently.

"Princess Peach wants me to interview the Toads who came down with the blorbs. I guess she wants to try and figure out what might have cause it to happen in the first place." Suddenly he laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "But you shouldn't worry about that sort of thing, by boogity. The blorbs only seems to affect Toads. As a human you probably won't catch it."

"If you say so. I better go to school now. Please be careful and don't go catching the blorbs."

"Don't worry about me, Dawn. Have a nice day at school! Bye!"

"Bye, Toadbert."

With another sigh, the girl hurried so she wouldn't be late.

The meeting took place a few days later. All of those invited woke up early that morning, including Dawn. She had permission to miss her first class of the morning at school and be a part of the meeting.

Already dressed and with her room straightened, Dawn went to make sure the princess was awake in time for the start of the meeting, as she had been asked to do. When she got to the princess' room, she was about to knock when she heard voices. One of them was Peach's, of course, but the other sounded like...

Mario? This early in the morning? I thought he and Luigi were coming to attend the meeting; why is Mario here already? And in the princess' bedroom...

Blushing, Dawn raised her hand again to knock, but before she could the door opened revealing Mario. He looked just as surprised to see her as she had been to hear his voice.

"Oh, uh...hi, Dawn."

"H-hello, Mario." She hoped he wouldn't notice her blushing.

Muttering something that sound like a good-bye, he hurried past her and down the hall.

Dawn stepped into the bedroom and found Princess Peach sitting her bed looking disappointed, likely because Mario had to leave. The girl cleared her throat, causing the princess to look up in surprise.

"Princess, forgive me if it's none of my business, but, um...what was Mario doing in here?"

"Well, he...uh...we were..." Peach was clearly embarrassed.

"Am I going crazy, or are you and Mario...'seeing each other'?" Dawn was rather close with the princess, so she felt comfortable joking around with her and sometimes teasing her.

Peach blushed even more than Dawn had a few minutes ago.

"I-I suppose you could call it that. Sometimes he...stays the night with me. But you can't tell anyone about this, Dawn! We're trying to keep it a secret for now."

Dawn nodded quickly. "I understand, Princess." Then she remembered why she was there. "That's right! I came to wake you up to get ready for the meeting."

"And it starts in an hour, doesn't it? I'd better get dressed."

Dawn left Princess Peach to ready herself.

"I interviewed as many ill Toads as I could," Toadbert said. "One thing they seem to have in common is eating a 'Blorb Mushroom' before suddenly bloating up and rolling around helplessly."

The meeting had started, and Toadbert was sharing what he had learned during the past few days. The people who had shown up and didn't already live in the castle included a few Toads who weren't ill and Doctor Toadley's intern, because he couldn't show up himself.

"Why would they be stupid enough to eat a mushroom with the word 'blorb' in it?" Dawn asked, looking slightly confused.

Everyone turned to stared at her.

"It's not like the blorbs was an illness before now," one Toad said sharply.

"Come to think of it," said another, "I'll bet it got its name from someone who ate one of those Blorb Mushrooms."

Dawn looked embarrassed. "Of course, I'm sorry. Please, go on."

"Oh dear," Peach sighed. "You mean to tell me that a mushroom caused all of this trouble?"

"It seems that way, Princess Peach."

"And do you know where the evil little motherfu—" She stopped and looked at Dawn for a moment before rethinking what she said. "Ahem. I mean, do you know where the Blorb Mushrooms came from?"

"Let's see..." Toadbert check his clipboard. According to my research, all of the Toads we interviewed said they bought them from a guy wearing a gray cape. Apparently, he's not from this kingdom."

"I see. Toadsworth, have we heard from the Star Sprites yet?"

"I'm afraid not, Princess," the elderly Toad answered. Then he explained to the others in the room. "We sent a request for help to the Star Sprites, but unfortunately they haven't sent us any word..."

"Excuse me," a new voice said. Is this where the meeting about the blorbs is taking place?"

Everyone turned to the door and watched in amazement as a strange creature floated to the head of the room and stopped in front of Princess Peach. It looked like a yellow Bob-omb with brown shoes and a small yellow star floating just above its body.

"Who might you be?" Peach asked.

"My name is Starlow, and I was sent to represent the Star Sprites." Starlow turned to face the others. "Hello yello!"

"My, how peppy!" Toadsworth commented, delighted by the Star Sprite's cheerfulness. "And you can use your powers to cure the blorbs, correct?"

"Oh...well..." Starlow looked uneasy as she took a seat next to Dawn at the left end of U-shaped table by floating above it. "I'm afraid not. The best I can do is help to solve the mystery of how to cure it."

"Blast it! The doctors are at a loss as to what to do, and the Star Sprites can't help, either."

"I'm sorry, but there are some things even the Star Sprites can't do."

"It looks like this meeting is at a standstill," one Toad said glumly.

"There must something we can do about this," another cried. "My son... He also has the blorbs..." The Toad broke down crying at the thought of his unfortunate son.

"Everybody, please remain calm," Peach pleaded. "We still have one more hope."

"By boogity, she's right!" Toadbert exclaimed. He looked around the room. "But they aren't here yet, I guess. The Bros..."

"Hurry up, Luigi," Mario said impatiently. "We don't want to keep the other waiting."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Luigi said with a yawn as he tried to button his overalls. "You should have woken me up earlier so I would have time to get dressed."

Mario ignored his younger brother's complaint as he opened the doors to Peach's Castle. He knew the meeting had started already, and Luigi was right; he should have woken him up earlier, but they lived quite a ways away from Toad Town, and by the time he had gotten to their house it was the time that they should have been up and ready to go at.

Upon entering the castle, the two brothers were greeted by a Toad who had been about to go out and look for them.

"Mario! You're here!"

"Sorry we're late," Mario said quickly. "if you don't mind, we'll just head over to the meeting room right away."

"Of course. I'll take you there."

By this time Luigi had hopped into the castle, still trying to fasten the button of his overalls all while not tripping over his untied shoe lace. This didn't work out so well for him, though; he ended up falling on his face. Mario and the Toad just stared at him while he got back up and finally got the button fastened. Then he tied his shoe and was ready.

"Nice to see you, Luigi..." the Toad said in an unenthusiastic tone. "Anyway, just follow me."

He led the two brothers to the meeting room. After giving their thanks, they went in. Everyone inside was talking about what they thought should be done except for Doctor Toadley's intern, who had by this time left to help him treat the ill Toads.

"Hello, Mario, Luigi," Princess Peach greeting warmly. "We were just wondering about you two."

"Sorry for keeping you all waiting," Mario apologized, blushing slightly when Peach shot him a knowing smile. She knew very well why he was late.

"It's quite alright. Why don't you two take a seat and let Toadbert fill you in on what we know?"

Mario took a seat between Toadbert and a Toad while Luigi sat between Dawn and a different Toad. While Toadbert was informing the brothers of what they had missed, Dawn turned to Luigi, who didn't seem to be listening very much anyway. He had become a very good friend of hers, and she hadn't had a chance to talk with him in a few days.

"Hey," she whispered, "this is crazy, huh? Who would have thought that the blorbs would become such a big problem that the princess would have to call a meeting to figure out what to do about it?"

"I know," Luigi whispered back worriedly. "I hope we can find a way to help those poor Toads. Being in the dark like they are must be terrible."

"Yeah..." Noticing the tired look on his face, Dawn said, "You look sleepy. Did you not get enough rest?"

"No, I slept pretty well. I'm just not used to getting up so early to go to big meeting like this."

"Oh, I understand."

"The number of Toads who come down with the blorbs grows everyday," Toadbert was saying, causing the two friends to pay attention. "If we don't do something soon, it's possible all of Toad Town will have the blorbs by the middle of summer, by boogity!"

"This is getting serious," Mario said gravely. "It seems to me that the first thing to do is question the person selling the Blorb Mushrooms. In the mean time, make sure the town knows not to buy anymore of them."

"Quite right, Master Mario," Toadsworth said. "I knew that you would have a sensible idea for how to stop this madness!"

"Thanks, Toadsworth." The red-clad hero turned to Toadbert. "Do you know where we can find the seller of those mushrooms?"

The bespectacled Toad checked his clipboard.

"According to one person I interviewed, he was wandering around town to sell his blorb mushrooms. But nobody knows where he lives or where to find him now."

"That doesn't give us much to go on..."

Luigi yawned. He knew it was important to pay attention to what was being said, but was he still tired. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to catch a few more Z's, he put his arms on the table, rested his head on them, and fell asleep. The meeting seemed to have come to another standstill, anyway. Nobody knew how to find the mysterious merchant to question him about his goods.

"There's got to be some way," Dawn said. "People don't just disappear into thin air. There must be at least one person who has seen where he goes after he sells his stuff."

"Dawn's right," Peach said. "Surely someone could tell you where he is. Why don't you ask around some more?"

"And once you find the mischief-maker," Toadsworth added, "have at him as if he were Bowser!"

Mario nodded and stood up, only to be stopped by a voice coming from the doorway.

"Did someone just page the King of Awesome?"

Everyone in the room turned to see who was there. Once they did, all chaos broke loose.

Princess Peach and Dawn screamed, Toadsworth fainted, all of the random Toads ran around the room in a panic, Starlow floated like the useless thing she was, Mario prepared to fight, and Luigi...slept.

Standing in the doorway was Bowser, king of the Koopas, himself.

I honestly think this is the best chapter out of all the other ones I've done for this rewrite.

~Dawn