Mushroom Kingdom Virus
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Mario characters in this fic. In one of the later chapters, I will introduce an original character, but otherwise, no other character is mine.
It was a quiet and peaceful day in the vast land known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Here, things were beautiful and dark. What do I mean? Well, the mushroom kingdom was composed of various different climates.
Some areas had trees, flowers and all sorts of stuff you can imagine while other areas were dark and dreary. There were also deserts, arctic planes, swamps and many other areas. The most dangerous of places that took up 75% of the Mushroom Kingdom were owned by the evil king Bowser, who might play a part in this story later.
Our story currently revolves around Princess Peach, the owner of the peaceful 25% that the king of evil did not rule over. She was as beautiful as they came with her long rich blond hair, her elegant pink dress, sparkling eyes and a shining tiara that she wore atop her head. She rules the mushroom people known as toads after toadstools. The reason behind this naming was because toads were little people that resembled mushrooms. Their skin was the typical color of a mushroom but they often wore clothing and mushroom caps on their heads.
One day, Peach had not woken up at her usual time. She had slept in that day and this caused her subjects to worry about her.
"So, what is it, Doc?" a toad asked as another wearing doctor's clothes held up his stethoscope and said, "This is not good at all."
At this very moment, the oldest toad in the castle with a bushy mustache and a yellow cap named Toadsworth rushed into the room shouting, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PRINCESS!!!?? PLEASE TELL ME SHE'S OKAY!!!!"
Toadsworth was Peach's guardian. He had raised her ever since she was a baby and was very overprotective of her. He always freaked out whenever something went wrong as his old man heart just couldn't take the kinds of things that happened to her.
"Toadsworth, I'm gonna be frank with you," the doctor said, "Princess Toadstool has caught a very rare virus, one so rare that even I, Dr. Dip Mudwell, have no idea what it is!" (I think you might be able to get the reference there)
"Oh, this is terrible," Toadsworth groaned, "She and Mario were supposed to have a picnic today."
Hold on! Those of you who have never played a Mario game before probably want to know just who Mario is. He was the hero of the mushroom kingdom and had earned his reputation by saving the princess from many situations. See, most conflicts in the mushroom kingdom started whenever someone kidnapped Princess Peach and whenever it would happen, Mario would save her.
Who is this brave knight who would stand up against all odds? He was a plumber.
I can hear you newbies laughing in the background, but this is no joke. Mario was a plumber and he had grown up in Brooklyn but one day stumbled upon the mushroom kingdom while trying to unclog a very strange pipe.
Why would the princess be in love with him? Well, he was already a pretty good specimen of manliness. (According to the RPGs) He had a rugged mustache and an average build. He had red eyes and smooth brown hair. Over all of this he wore a red plumber's outfit along with blue overalls and work shoes. For some odd reason, he always wore his plumber gear, even to bed. (I always found that strange)
Why was he such a hero, though? Due to the fact he was a plumber, he was very strong. For some reason, he could also run very fast and jump higher than Michael Jordan, the famous basketball player. He was also able to make good use of the mushroom kingdom's various powerups, such as mushrooms that could grow him to 3 times his size and flowers that could bestow upon him the powers of fire. There were many others and Mario had mastered them in a short time while other residents of the mushroom kingdom would have been lucky to even control them. Mind you, he had a slight belly due to his years of eating pasta and rich sauces. Mario had a bit of a stereotypical Italian side to him. Go figure.
He was the apple of Peach's eye, and they both loved each other very much.
As the doctor suggested that Peach should stay in bed and rest, Mario had entered the room and said, "I came here as the princess' invitation said, but no one was waiting for me, so I came to see what was up."
He notices Peach in his bed and said, "Hey, princess, I'm here!"
"She won't wake up," Dip explained, "I'm afraid she is suffering from a terrible virus and will be out like a light all day."
Mario had a look of concern as Toadsworth hung his head in shame and said, "I'm so sorry. I knew how much you were looking forward to that picnic today."
Mario actually had other intentions. After the years of those 2 being a couple, his younger brother Luigi had suggested that it was about time Mario proposed marriage. It was something he had questioned for some time, but he felt in his heart that the princess was who he wanted. It seemed things were just against him today.
Suddenly, Peach managed to start moving and opened her eyes to look at the man she admired so as the toads gasped.
"It's either a miracle or a downside, but it would seem the princess is moving," Mudwell said as Toadsworth breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mario, you came," she said with a smile, but it was hard for her to make out the words for she still felt weak from her current illness, "I'm sorry I couldn't be healthy enough for us to enjoy our picnic…"
"It's fine," Mario said as he sighed with relief, "I'm just glad you can move, but don't strain yourself. You need to rest so you can get better."
"He's right," Dip said, "The fact that you're moving at all could make it worse than it already is. And if you keep moving, you… will… DIE!"
Toadsworth passed out as Peach nodded in understanding. Mario held onto her hand and said, "Don't worry, princess. All you need it rest and we'll be able to spend time together tomorrow."
With that, Peach dozed off back to sleep and Mario headed off to his pad. The doctor confirmed that the only cure was to let it go away on its own and Toadsworth had another heart attack from hearing that just after recovering from his first one.
We now take you to the darkest and dankest of places in the mushroom kingdom. Here, there was lava where rivers should be. The trees had no leaves and nor did the bushes. All plants here were piranhas, mean killers that would devour anyone that posed a threat to them. In the middle of this area stood the castle of King Bowser Koopa. A koopa was a turtle, and just that. They walked on two legs, yes, but nevertheless, they were turtles. They all had their own unique looks, some having red shells, others with blues ones, and some even wore shades. The female koopas for the most part were the only ones with hair. The major exceptions were Bowser's children, but they won't really be playing a part in this.
Bowser himself, like his kids, was far different from any koopa you could ever see. He was a mix between a turtle and a dragon, some would say. He had blazing hair that was the color of fire and his shell had spikes coming out the back of it. He was also 5 times the size of a typical koopa. He wore spiked armbands and ankle braces and had the toughest scales in the whole kingdom. He was also the only koopa with sharp jaws that could devour flesh, but he rarely ever used them for that purpose. Even his face was more like that of a dragon than that of a koopa. I almost forgot, he also had bull horns.
This very day, he was bored. See, Bowser, much like Mario, was in love with Peach. But since he was evil, he didn't believe that she would just accept a marriage proposal, and she never did, so he would always resort to kidnapping her in order to force her into marriage. He also would have liked to own the remainder of land he didn't, but his sights were set on the beautiful maiden he had his sights set on.
"I've got it!" he shouted out of nowhere, "Subjects, come here!"
His royal subjects reported to him as he held his hands behind his back and said, "I know how I will make the princess mine tonight."
The subjects weren't really impressed and never really liked doing this, but they would always remain loyal and never showed their disinterest in the king's beliefs.
"I will sneak into the castle tonight after she has gone to sleep," he explained, "To avoid having her wake up, I will have my most trusted right-hand man, Kamek, cast a sleep spell all over the kingdom."
Kamek was what was known as a magikoopa. Magikoopas were koopas without shells. Rather than shells, they wore cloaks and shades and could cast powerful magic with their wands.
Kamek himself strutted up to the king and asked, "What if the Mario brothers try to stop us?"
"That's a good point," Bowser said, "Go by their house and cast the same spell beforehand. After you put Peach and the rest of the kingdom to a long sleep, I will go myself and take her from the kingdom. There, our top scientists will alter her brain so she will love me and only me."
The koopas had to admit, this wasn't the king's worst plan ever and he'd taken extra precautions. Who knows? It might actually have worked.
Later that night, something strange was happening. Dr. Dip volunteered to watch over the princess while she slept, but something odd had happened during her sleep. The doctor had dozed off but woke up when he noticed that the princess was actually standing on her two feet. His eyes widened as he barked, "Get back in bed, princess!"
To his shock, she ignored him and pushed him into a wall with the force of a grizzly bear. Where had this strength come from?
Toadsworth had gotten up to get a glass of water to calm his nerves when he noticed Peach up and awake. Now, he would have worried like the doctor had, but due to the fact that she was walking around rather easily, it seemed as if she was back to normal.
"Princess, it's such a relief to see your illness gone," he said as Peach walked over to him with emotionless eyes and held him up by his cap.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he passed out from the pressure of seeing Peach trying to harm him.
At this very moment, the guards rushed in holding their spears up shouting, "We heard a noise!"
They were shocked to see Peach standing and were even more shocked with what happened next. Peach slouched towards the ground as her pupil vanished. Then something really odd happened. Her legs tucked in under her dress and rather than coming back out, a group of tentacles emerged, slimy green tentacles. The guards had no way to respond as she whipped out all 10 slamming them into the wall knocking them out. After that, another 10 accompanied these ones and the princess tore a hole through the castle coming out into the courtyard.
Was this all a symptom of her virus? What kind of illness would cause this kind of transformation?
The toads all woke up when she started to knock down the walls. It seemed as though she had no idea what she was doing. The toads trembled upon seeing this, but dared not ask questions. Their best bet was to stop her rampage. Some brave souls tried and were knocked unconscious while many others were too afraid, not only of her appearance but also the thought of harming their ruler.
A young one, the only toad to actually go under the name Toad, ran from the castle quickly to the one place he knew he could find good help.
Mario and his brother Luigi were fast asleep at the time. Luigi was Mario's younger brother, but despite being younger, he was twice Mario's height. He also had a shorter mustache and wore green work clothes that were pretty much the same as Mario's only a different color. He also had green eyes and like Mario he had smooth brown hair.
Luigi grunted when he heard a knock on the door and slowly got out of bed yawning and rubbing his eyes. He opened the door, holding up a candle for light as he noticed Toad knelt down in front of the door and almost out of breath.
"What's wrong?" Luigi asked, suddenly more awake than he had been before.
Toad just breathed heavily and said, "Something odd happened to the princess! You guys need to help us!"
"Bowser must have kidnapped her again," Luigi said as Toad shook his head and explained, "For some reason, she's changed into some kind of monster and is destroying the castle. You need to help us."
This was very odd and led Luigi to start questioning whether Toad was right in the head or not. Nevertheless, Toad was persistent and Mario was woken up and the two brothers ran to the castle.
Shortly after they'd left, Kamek had flown to their house on a broom very much like what a witch does and cast the sleep spell on their house, not realizing that the Mario brothers weren't in it. Unaware of what was going on he felt proud of himself and thought that Bowser would be proud of him.
Upon arriving at the castle carrying Toad the whole way, Mario and Luigi's eyes widened when they saw a tentacle-bearing monster with the princess' body destroying the castle.
"Is that Peach?" Mario asked as Toad nodded and all that could come out of the brothers' mouths was "How did this happen?"