So here's part 2 of the Prologue. This one's longer than the last, and we get to meet the villainous team that's going to be causing trouble, although not the main villain himself. Last I checked, I still didn't own any of the Mario series characters.
The Mario brothers, along with Peach and Toadsworth, stepped out of the boat into a quiet little town with streets paved with stone and houses built with grey stone bricks. It looked like it had stepped out of a medieval storybook.
"Oh, Mario!" Peach said from beside him. "It's such a charming little town!" She was looking around at all the sights, and Mario had to admit that it was a pretty cool town. He stood there for a second, enjoying the cool spring air, when a Toadette with a purple mushroom and blonde pigtails ran up to him. As she got closer, Mario could see that she was holding a microphone and a camera.
Training the camera at him, she said, "Here we are on Channel 9 news with Dot T., interviewing the famous Super Mario, who has come to our Praetum Town invited to the grand opening of the museum! Mario, do you have anything to say? What made you want to come to this city?"
Not much of a city, Mario thought. Out loud, he responded, "Well, this morning we got an invitation in the mail. We decided to go, since we didn't have a whole lot else to do." He shrugged.
"What an enthralling tale!" the Toadette, who Mario supposed was Dot T., said without a hint of sarcasm. "And here's his famous brother, uh…"
"Luigi." Luigi grumbled.
"Right, right! So, Louie, how do you like this town so far?"
"Well, it's… small, I guess. It's a pretty interesting place. It looks like it's jumped out of a storybook."
"That's right!" Dot said, smiling. "This town has kept its traditional appearance even as technology has expanded. Now, Princess Peach, what do you think of this neighboring kingdom so far?"
"Well, it's a nice place." Peach murmured. "A bit quiet, but there's nothing wrong with that."
"Great, great! Our interview's over, folks!" Dot said. "Join us tomorrow for-"
A loud crash sounded from a few blocks away, and then Mario heard a scream.
"What was that?" He asked Dot T. "Nothing serious, I hope."
But Dot gasped. "Th..That was the museum! Hurry! You're a hero, right?"
Mario considered it. "Well, I guess I am." He decided. "Let's go see what's going on!" He ran in the direction of the scream, with Dot, Peach, and Luigi following in his wake.
"Princess! This is decidedly unsafe!" Toadsworth shouted from the docks. "You need to stay here with me, where it's safe! Princess!" Toadsworth's voice faded away as Mario dashed towards the museum. He stopped at a dime at the entryway to an imposing building labeled Praetum Town Museum. The door had a huge hole in it, almost as if it had been smashed by something large.
Luigi, catching up to him, said, "I don't know about this, bro… What's going on?"
Mario poked his head into the door, but saw nothing. In fact, the corridors he could see were all empty.
"Well, somebody screamed." Peach pouted. "We'd better go in and check." She slipped through the broken door and ran into the museum before anyone could stop her.
"Hey, wait!" Mario shouted. "Princess!" He climbed through the door, avoiding shards of broken glass, and dashed inside. He darted through the museum, following the sound of Peach's footsteps, until he started hearing another sound… No. That was a voice.
"All right, all of you!" the voice said. It was a harsh, gruff voice that could have been a gym teacher's. "We've got the Rune. Let's move out!"
Turning a corner, Mario could see Peach peering into the next room as Mario ran up to her.
"Peach, what's going on?" Mario whispered. "It sounds like they're stealing something!" Instead of responding, Peach pointed into the next room, an atrium with an open ceiling, which was filled with several Koopas and Goombas all wearing dark, evil-looking sunglasses, standing next to a small jet that they presumably landed in. An imposing figure stood over them barking orders. It was a gigantic Sledge Bro. with a purple shell and helmet, and wearing purple dark glasses. But his most defining feature was the huge axe he was carrying, still dripping with blood. Mario shivered with fear. Who was this Koopa with a bloody axe and barking orders to soldiers, and stealing… was that a book? Mario's train of thought was interrupted by Dot and another Toad running up to him and the Princess.
"I found the cura-" Dot T. started, but Mario clamped a hand over her mouth and put a finger to his lips. Following his gaze, Dot stared over at the axe-wielding Sledge Bro. and recognition crossed her face. She pulled out a notepad and began writing something down on it. Mario noted that she seemed to be staring at the Sledge Bro. intently, almost as if studying its mannerisms. His attention turned to the other Toad. This Toad was a bit taller than Dot, with a grey "mushroom" with white spots and a grey handlebar mustache. He was wearing a fancy suit.
"You can't let them go through with stealing that… book." Peach whispered to Mario. Mario knew that she was right, but he was a bit scared of that gigantic gleaming axe. He was glad that Luigi had waited outside, since he'd likely be screaming by now.
"You're right." Mario mumbled back, then grinned. "Let's-a do this." He suddenly dashed out of his hiding spot and landed a jump squarely on one Koopa Troopa, line-jumping across them and finally ground-pounding on the head of the gigantic Sledge Bro.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Asked the Sledge Bro. "It's Mario, the great hero of the Mushroom Kingdom!" Mario only glared at him. "Well, I can introduce myself. You can call me Axis. I'm the second in command at the Toxis Syndicate." He sneered at Mario, almost daring him to attack, but Mario just glared and clenched his fists. "Aww, what's the matter?" Axis sneered. "Is the widdle pwummer scared?" In response, Mario used a Jump attack on the hulking beast.
"I'm not afraid of you." Mario said as he landed. "I'm cautious." he continued as Axis swung his axe at Mario, only to be greeted with a Superguard.
Axis only laughed. "I see you know your way around a battle." he jeered. "But it won't matter." Before Mario could ask what that meant, he swung his axe again, and Mario only guarded - superguarding was too risky with its narrow chance of success. He could feel the axe penetrating his hand, but didn't think about the pain, since he was pulling out his hammer and swinging it against Axis's shell. When Mario got a closer look, he saw that Axis wore a black insignia on his chest in the same shape as the sunglasses that he and all the minions were wearing. Mario was taken aback when he realized that all of the minions wore this insignia too.
"Well, it's been fun playing with you, but I'm afraid you have to be leaving." Mario felt hands hoisting him up, and when he looked down he could see several Koopa Troopas trying to carry him. One, holding a rope, started tying Mario up, only to be greeted with a faceful of hammer. Mario swung his hammer around, getting rid of all of the Koopas holding him, and then noticed that several Goombas were carrying Princess Peach, who had already been tied up. Axis wasn't trying to kill me, Mario noted miserably, he was just distracting me so he could get at my friends and me. He ran towards the Goombas, but it was too late, as they had already loaded Peach onto the jet.
"Princess!" he shouted. Axis started walking towards the jet plane, with the intent of getting on, but Mario dashed over to him and grabbed the stolen book, though all he could grab was its pages.
"You foolish plumber." Axis said, pulling the book back, but not out of Mario's grasp. "You have no idea about the scope of our plans." Mario focused all of his energy into pulling, stopping them from stealing the book, and suddenly he was knocked back, letting go. He'd gotten the book, all right. But the pages had all flown out and up. Up, out of the room through the open ceiling, and up, where they spread out and started falling, all in different directions. All Mario could think was, Here we go again.
Wow, that was pretty long. And there's still one part of the Prologue left to go before we get into the meat of the "game." Please review, I could really use your criticism or suggestions!
