It was a dreary day. Dark rain clouds loomed over the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi sat in their house staring out the window. Mario sighed and turned to Luigi. "Ah, it's too late for breakfast, but it's still too early for lunch." Luigi chuckled.
"How can you think of food now? The dirty dishes are still sitting in the sink from this morning! You ate enough to fill three of me!" Mario smiled.
"Luigi my brother, I could eat enough to fill ten of you."
"Don't I know it." Just then, there was a knock at the door. The Mario brothers looked at each other. "Who could that be?" Luigi asked.
"Who would be out on a day like this?" Mario added. He got up and opened the door. Toad rushed in and Mario shut the door behind him. "What's the hurry, Toad?" he asked. Toad sat, soggy, on the couch next to Luigi.
"Let, me catch, my breath," Toad gasped. Luigi rolled his eyes at Mario, over Toad's head. Mario stifled a laugh. When Toad had calmed down a bit, he addressed Mario. "Mario, the princess has been kidnapped!" This time Luigi tried to stifle a laugh as he rolled his eyes again. Mario ignored him.
"When, Toad?" Mario asked. "I bet it was Bowser." Toad shook his head so fast that Luigi thought that the little toadstool would fall over.
"No," Toad answered, "it wasn't Bowser!" Mario and Luigi looked at each other incredulously.
"Not Bowser?" Luigi questioned. "Who else would want to steal Peach?" he added sarcastically.
"I don't know," Toad said in all seriousness. "But they left a note!"
"A ransom note?" Mario asked. "Let me see it." Toad handed over a soggy note and Mario tried to decipher the spidery writing. He read it out loud. "It says, 'Ah ha! We, of Team Rocket, have your princess. If you want her back, meet us outside the main gate of your puny kingdom and we can discuss the ransom. Signed, Jesse. And James. And Meowth.'" Mario looked at the note again. "Well, I guess it wasn't Bowser." Luigi stood up and took the note from Mario. He read it himself.
"Well, we can't not save Peach," he said.
"You're right," Mario agreed. "Toad, you can stay here. Luigi and I can handle this." Luigi looked at him in mock surprise.
"What? You mean go out in this weather?" Mario glared at his brother and dragged him out the door. Luigi slammed it shut behind him and they both headed towards the main gate.
Princess Peach sat sullenly and very wet, under a tree outside the gate to her kingdom. She stared angrily at her captors. The woman was wearing thigh-high black boots, a short white skirt, and mid-drift shirt that had a red "R" on it. She had long red hair that was pulled back in a sort of semi-circle. The man wore black boots and white pants and a white shirt with the same "R" on it. He had straight, chin-length blue hair. Their pet, or what Peach assumed was their pet, stood next to the man. It was almost like a cat, but it stood on its hind legs and had a gold charm on its forehead. A huge purple cobra was coiled next to her, presumably making sure that she wouldn't run away. Peach almost would have preferred that Bowser had kidnapped her. At least he had a castle that was warm, and he had never felt the need to tie her up. The man spoke in a whiney voice to the woman.
"Jesse, why do you get the umbrella? Couldn't you share? There's enough room for all three of us." She kicked his shin and he hopped away in pain, nearly tripping over the cat. To Peach's surprise, the cat spoke, and none too nicely at that.
"Hey watch it, you dope!" He clawed the man's face and he hopped around some more.
"Cut it out, both of you," Jesse said. "We have to wait for whoever's going to come." She turned to the gate and saw that two figures were drawing closer. "That must be them, James, get ready." They both tried to hide behind the tree that Peach was under. Peach felt better, though, as she realized that it was Mario and Luigi coming to rescue her.
"Mario! Luigi! Over here!" she cried. Mario opened the gate but him and Luigi only got a couple of feet before two figures emerged from behind the tree.
"Prepare for trouble," a female voice said.
"And make it double," a male voice answered.
"To protect the world from devastation,"
"To unite all people within our nation,"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jesse!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blasts of at the speed of light,"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" The cat jumped out from behind the tree.
"Meowth! That's right!" The Mario brothers looked at each other, both of them very confused. Mario spoke up.
"What do you want?" The woman laughed.
"So, you want your princess back? Well, we want something back, too. I am Jesse, of Team Rocket, and this," she motioned to the man, "is my partner, James." The cat clawed her leg. "Ow! And this is Meowth." Luigi stepped forward.
"That's all very nice, but what do you want?"
"We want Pikachu," James said. Luigi looked at Mario but Mario just shrugged. "We'll give your princess back if you capture Pikachu for us."
"That would be nice," Luigi said, "if we knew what a pikachu was." Mario nodded in agreement. Jesse and James both returned this comment with blank stares, but Meowth knocked their heads together.
"You dopes! They don't know nothin' about pokemon! Just stay quiet while I explain everything!" Meowth cleared his throat, but Jesse booted him out of the way.
"No way, Meowth. It was my idea and you're not taking credit for it." James laughed at Meowth, but Jesse ignored him and actually started to explain things. "Anyway, we're from the Pokeworld…" Meowth butted in.
"We was diggin' a hole, and we found this green pipe…"
"Shut up Meowth!" Jesse said as she kicked him. "Anyway, we were digging a hole, and we found a green pipe…" This time James chimed in.
"And so we went through it to see where it led…" Mario held up his hand to interrupt.
"Wait a minute," he said, "why were you digging a hole?" James stared at him blankly for a moment.
"That's for us to know and you not to find out," he retorted. Mario shrugged his shoulders as Jesse continued.
"We followed the green pipe and it led here, uh, well, over there," she said and pointed behind her. "And since we're bad guys, we figured we'd let you do our dirty work." Meowth snickered. "There were no guards at the castle so we just walked in." James interrupted here.
"As a matter of fact, kidnapping your princess was the first successful theft we've pulled off…" Jesse slapped him in the face. "Ow! Jesse!"
"Don't pay any attention to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about." The Mario brothers looked quizzically at each other and decided not to question her. "So, if you go through the pipe and capture Pikachu for us, we'll give back your princess. Do we have a deal?" She looked at the Mario brothers smugly and held out her hand. Mario looked at Luigi as if saying, 'we don't really have much of a choice.' Mario shook it and Jesse laughed. "Ha! This will be so easy! Meowth, show them the way to the pipe."
"Why do I gotta be the one to lead them there?"
"Stop complaining and get going!" Meowth grumbled, but waved for the Mario brothers to follow him. They walked further and further from the kingdom and soon entered the Haunted Woods.
"Where are you taking us? Are you sure you're going the right way?" Luigi ventured to ask.
"Shut up and keep up. We're almost there," Meowth answered. He turned out to be right as the Mario brothers watched the strange cat move some brush away and reveal a warp pipe. "Here it is: the pipe to Pokeworld." Luigi and Mario just looked at each other. They stepped forward and, Luigi following Mario, jumped in the pipe.
It was a bright, sunny day, but Ash, Misty, and Brock didn't notice, as they were trying to make their way through the Viridian Forest. The thick foliage obscured most of the sky. "Yeah, we're not lost again," Misty groaned sarcastically. They were making slow progress as Bulbasaur vine whipped the shrubs that obstructed their path.
"Just be patient," Ash said. "Bulbasaur is working as fast as he can." Misty sighed and sat on an old stump. Bulbasaur cut through another bush, but he retracted his vine in pain. "Oh, what is it, Bulbasaur?" Ash asked, concerned. He looked to where Bulbasaur had pulled his vine back from and saw a large, green pipe sticking out of the ground. "What is that?" he asked.
"Looks like a pipe, or something," Brock said, stating the obvious as usual.
"What's it for?" Ash continued. Before Brock could retort with an equally stupid answer, two figures emerged from the pipe. Misty screamed and stepped back behind Brock, who tripped as he backed up into her. Ash just stared, amazed. The two figures jumped from the pipe to stand in front of them. The first one was shorter and a bit plump. He wore red overalls and a red cap with an 'M' on it. The other was taller and skinny with green overalls and a green cap with an 'L' on it. They both had mustaches. "Who are you?" Ash asked, still in shock. The fat one answered.
"I'm Mario, and this is my brother, Luigi." He paused. "Uhm, are we in Pokeworld?" Ash laughed.
"You sure are! Are you pokemon trainers?" Luigi and Mario both looked confused. Misty and Brock started to relax as they realized that the Mario brothers didn't mean them any harm. Mario answered again.
"Uh, actually, we're not sure what pokemon are, really. We're from the Mushroom Kingdom." Luigi nodded in agreement.
"You don't know what pokemon are?" Ash asked incredulously. Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder. "Ahha, here, this is Pikachu." Mario and Luigi perked up.
"Did you say pikachu?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"You think this is the one they meant?" Mario whispered to Luigi. Luigi just shrugged his shoulders. "You think we can take that pikachu?" Mario asked Ash. Ash took a step back and held Pikachu close to him.
"No way! Pikachu is mine!" Brock placed a hand on Ash's shoulder to calm him down.
"Maybe if we asked why they want Pikachu…" Brock said loud enough so one of the Mario brothers would answer his query. Mario nodded and they all sat down.
"We were sitting in our house when we received a note saying that our princess had been kidnapped. When we got to the kidnappers' meeting place, they told us to go through the pipe to pokeworld and get them a pikachu, then they would release the princess." Brock nodded ponderously.
"Hmm. Were they wearing big 'R's on their clothes by any chance?" Brock asked them. They both nodded.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, they were," Luigi said. "Why? Do you know them?" Ash finally caught on about whom they were alluding to.
"Yeah, we sure do," he said. "They're Team Rocket, and they're always trying to capture my pikachu." Mario and Luigi still looked confused.
"What do they want it for?" Mario asked.
"You still don't understand what pokemon are, do you?" Brock asked. The Mario brothers shook their heads. Ash and Misty looked shocked.
"How do you not know what pokemon are?" Misty asked. Brock turned to her.
"They're from a different world. I'm sure they know things that we have no clue about." Misty accepted his explanation and he continued. "Pokemon are the animals here, and people keep them as pets, or they collect them, so to speak, and train them to fight other trainers' pokemon. Team Rocket is an evil organization that specializes in stealing rare and valuable pokemon. They've been after us trying to get Ash's pikachu for a long while now." Mario nodded.
"Hmm. I think I see. They couldn't steal Pikachu on their own, so they kidnapped our princess so we would get it for them."
"How did they manage to kidnap your princess?" Ash asked them. "Shouldn't there be guards and soldiers and stuff? I mean, she lived in a castle, right?" Luigi laughed. "What's so funny?"
"Sorry," Luigi said, wiping a tear from his eye. "We live in the Mushroom Kingdom. Last time I checked, mushrooms don't fight. They won't even pick up a knife, except to eat. *(They're strict carnivores. They would never eat a fellow vegetable!). Besides, the only person who's ever kidnapped Princess Peach before is Bowser. I think he gives her back just so he can kidnap her again. It's sort of a game…" Luigi paused and thought for a second, then shrugged his shoulders. Brock thought for a minute.
"Hey! I've got an idea! We'll give you Pikachu…" Ash interrupted.
"No! That's not a good idea!"
"Wait, Ash, there's more. We'll follow you through the pipe and take care of Team Rocket like we always do. We'll take them back through the pipe and you'll get your princess back." Ash laughed.
"Ha, that's a good idea, Brock. Let's go!" Ash jumped up and ran to the pipe. Mario went over and waved to the others to follow them. He helped Ash climb up to sit on the edge of the warp pipe with his legs dangling inside it. "Are ya ready, Pikachu?" Ash pushed off the edge and fell through the pipe. Misty ran over and looked in.
"Ash!!" Mario chuckled.
"He can't hear you. He's probably in the Mushroom Kingdom by now. We all better go, too." Mario held his hands as a step for Misty to climb onto the pipe.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Misty asked him.
"Me and Luigi have been going through these pipes for years. Nothing will happen. Trust me." Misty shrugged and jumped in. "You're next, um, Brock?" Brock walked over and jumped up to the edge of the pipe.
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Brock jumped in. Mario nodded to Luigi.
"After you, my brother." Luigi smirked.
"You're too kind," he said sarcastically. Luigi jumped in and Mario followed close behind.
* * * * *
The rain had stopped, but they were still all soaking wet. Peach continued to try and wriggle her hands from the rope tied around them. Arbok looked at her sinisterly, and she stopped. "What do you want from me?" she asked Team Rocket.
"We don't want you," Jesse said, "we want Pikachu. After we get him, then you can go." Peach frowned, but perked up as she saw Mario and Luigi walk out of the forest.
"Mario! Luigi! You made it back!" Mario sauntered towards an ecstatic Jesse with a large sack in his hands.
"Well, that didn't take long," she said gleefully.
"Yeah," James said to her, "this was easier than trying to get Pikachu ourselves."
"Hand it over," Jesse commanded. Mario shook his head.
"Untie Peach, first, then we'll give you your pikachu." Jesse thought for a moment, then nodded to Arbok. The snake pokemon bit through the rope constraining the princess's hands and she stood quickly and backed away from Team Rocket, towards the Mario brothers.
"All right," James said impatiently, "now give us Pikachu." Mario smiled and tossed them the sack. Jesse caught it and promptly opened it.
"What? Is this a joke? It's just sticks and leaves. You tricked us!" Luigi laughed.
"No, not quite. We did bring back Pikachu." Just then, Ash, Misty, and Brock emerged from the woods.
"It's the twerps!" James said. "Wheezing, go! Smog attack!" Ash laughed.
"All right, Pikachu! Take care of them!" Pikachu ran towards them and when he was two feet away, let loose a couple of lightning bolts.
"Pika....CHU!!!!!"
Jesse, James, Meowth, and their pokemon flew into the air, all of them simultaneously shouting, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!..." They were soon out of sight. The Mario brothers and Peach gaped at the tremendous power the little mouse wielded.
"That was amazing," Luigi said.
"Thanks!" Ash said. Peach stepped forward to thank the newcomers.
"On behalf of the Mushroom Kingdom, I, Princess Peach, cordially invite all of you to a feast at my castle tonight." Brock stepped towards her, a dumb expression on his face.
"Sure, we'll go. Anything you say..." Misty pushed him out of the way.
"Leave it to Brock..." she said under her breath. They all laughed and made their way to the castle.
THE END!!!