SUPER MARIO BROTHERsS
The origins
Writer's note:
The first time I saw "Mario Bros, the movie" I was a little 8 years old kiddo (it was about 1995). That time I liked it, and so two days ago I decided to watch it again. You knwo what? I almost cried. I asked myself: "Did the director play Super Mario's games over and over again as I (and a million fans) did before doing such a movie?". Well, obviousely he didn't. Luigi in love with Princess (Daisy?) Peach... AND with no mustache? (Personally I really disliked such a choice) Bowser as a human (better, an evoluted dinosaur)? Daniela, Mario's girlfriend? What about the Goombas? And WHERE are the fireballs?
How could he totally ignore Mario's story?
Then I thought... Actually Mario has no story! I mean, there has never been ANY reference in any game about Mario's story and origin as a "character", not even in Mario's rpg games.
Who's Mario? Why is he "super"? How can he blow fire from his hands, and jump as high as he can? And what material is his head composed by? Lead? Iron? Or maybe in the mushroom kingdom they build "everything" with papier-mache? Maybe his hat is the key to this mistery.
Moreover, why in a place like mushroom kingdom, where every inhabitant look like a mushroom, the princess is a usual, human girl? And why Bowser keeps on kidnapping her over and over? Hobby?
Of course, I'm not pretending to consider Mario as a real man... He's a fictional character, ok, but still he's one of the most famous videogame character of all times. I read a poll which stated that he's even more popular than Solid Snake, and we don't know anything about him and his world!
The only thing we can guess, is that he likes eating, especially mushrooms (and maybe Pizza or spaghetti, who knows) otherwise he wouldn't be... let'say... that "corpulent".
So, after all that I've said here, what I mean is that this fiction wants to tell Mario's unknown origins. Or at least, my version of them. I swear I'll try to tell them better than that movie did. And, of course, my first goal is to amuse everyone who will read this story of mine.
It will be the unofficial story of Super Mario and his brother Luigi, Princess Peach and Bowser, the story of their war and its conclusion, as I would like it to be.
I hope you'll like it too.
Francesco.
Prologue
Toadberry, known also as "the ancient", was 450 years old. He lived alone in a little hut on a hill, far from the city. How could he have lived for such a long time was the biggest mistery of all Mushroom kingdom. Somebody said that he was a mage. Somebody else said that he ate the Allmighty Life Mushroom when he was young, and it granted him immortality. Everyone knew where he lived, and everybody remembered he had always been there, on that hill, and never moved from there. Everyone knew him, and a lot of them had talked to him when they were little, because he never rejected visitors, and he loved especially children. He loved telling stories, and peolpe said he was a great story teller indeed.
Tommy lived in a little village near Toadberry's hill. He could see his silouhette every night from the window of his bedroom, before going to sleep. A lonely shadow sitting on his chair, under the moonlight. Singing an haunting melody with his calm, deep voice...
"This is the tale
of two brothers
from a far far land..."
Once, Tommy asked his dad:
"Daddy, why the old man on the hill keeps on singing the same song night after night?"
"Who knows, Tommy... why don't you go and ask him?"
His dad smiled. He always told Tommy not to talk with strangers... But it seemed that he was encouraging him to talk with that man. Why?
But he wouldn't go. The old man on the hill was scary. And Tommy was a very sissy boy. He didn't care about misteries, he didn't like the adventures, he was - like every inhabitant of the Mushroom kingdom - totally happy with his life.
One day, on his way back from the school, two little kids approached him, and one of them was very very big.
"Hi, louse" the bigger one said.
"Yep, Hi, you louse!" echoed the smaller boy.
Tommy shily replaid "Hi", and tried to pass over them. But they stood on his way.
"What do you have in that bag?"
"Humm... Books"
"Anything to eat?"
"No... Only books"
"Let me check"
The bigger kid took Tommy's bag and opened it, making its contents fall on the ground, while the smaller one was laughing like a hyena of the Red Mushroom Desert. Between the books there was a little mushroom, which was obviousely Tommy's afternoon snack.
"Ah, so you DID have something to eat in the bag... You wanted it all for you, ain't you?"
"It's..." tommy tried to say, falterig, "It's just a small mushroom... It's enough for only one kid"
"And wouldn't you give it to your ol' pal Eanie?"
"I..."
"Pfui, what kind of friend are you, Tommy?"
"A bad friend!" answered the little "hyena" fellow.
"But I..."
"I'm very disappointed by you, Tommy" said Eanie right before eating the mushroom. "I've nothing else to tell you. Come, Buck, let's leave him alone".
Eanie left, and Buck right after him.
Tommy remained alone in the street, staring his books on the ground. He didn't say a thing but then began sobbing.
A voice suddenly bringed him back to earth.
"Why do you let them treat you like that?"
When tommy turned his head, he saw an old man with a long beard and a lot of wrinkles on his face. And his fungoid head was veeeeery large.
Tommy didn't doubt for a moment that man was Toadberry in person. But, even if shocked, he managed to speak.
"But... But he was huge!"
Toadberry shook his head.
"Who's your father?"
"Hemm... Tobia the carpenter"
"Hmm, so you must be little Tommy. How old are you, 8? 9?"
"E-eight"
"Perfect. Do you wanna hear a tale, Tommy?"
The boy looked perplexed, then he slowly nodded.
"Then, come to my house on the hill, later in the afternoon... But ask the permission to your dad first, eh..."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Toadberry's house was an old - but still safe - wooden hunk, furnished with a lot of strange objects... Turtle shells, hammers, strange flowers, curved sword, many kind of mushrooms, carillons and a lot of books.
Tommy looked at all those things with wonder, his immagination running toward fabulous lands he had never heard about before.
"Please, Tommy, sit here next to me" Toadberry said, pointing a wooden chair right in front of his one. Tommy diligently obeied, and the old man began his tale.
"I'm going to tell you the story of the two biggest heroes that ever lived in this kingdom, son.
"Who were they? Pirates? Princes? Generals?"
"Not at all" Toadberry smiled, "they were plumbers"
