"There comes a time in every man's life when he realizes, deep inside, that he can't ever go back to that place he once called home."

Mario turned and ran. He lowered his powerful legs and let loose. His momentum from his frantic dash and his incredible jump allowed him to soar over the small chasm that kept him from his goal. His arms outstretched, he landed smoothly on his heels, and stepped a few paces to slow down.

The Large green pipe was visible from here. It was here, in the middle of nowhere, where Bowser Junior had disappeared. Mario walked over to the pipe. His adventures had taken him all over the world, and he had gone through thousands of pipes much like this one. He had gained much knowledge over the inner workings and physics of work pipes, but by simply examing this one, Mario could see that it was far different then anything he had ever seen before.

The color was the same familiar shade of green, and the material the pipe was made of felt the same, and yet the Pipe itself was radiating a sort of aura, that Mario could not place. However, it was unusual and disturbing enough to make the hairs on his head stand up. What sort of bizaare power could this be?

There was only one way to find out. Mario had never been one to shy away from the Unknown, and this pipe was no different. Mario leapt onto the pipe and squared his feet together. He closed his eyes as the familiar feeling and sound soared throughout his body, and down he went.

As Mario zoomed through the pipe, he could not help but notice that although he seemed to be moving much faster then usual, the pipe itself had still not come to an end yet. Most pipes were nearly instantenous. Mario could not fathom why this particular pipe was so different. Great distances, he supposed, would naturally take a little bit longer to get to the end of. But Mario had taken several Pipes criss crossing the globe, and they had rarely taken more then a minute to travel several thousand miles. How far could he be traveling, then? And a more pressing question... WHERE could he be going? He supposed that the answer to that would come with time.

Mario felt his center of gravity re orient himself. The Pipe had changed directions. He was nearly there. As he saw a glimmer of sunlight, he steeled himself for whatever came next.

As he rose out of the pipe, Mario stared in wonder.

To his left, a great body of water streched out, glistening beautifully in the sunlight, off in the distance, a land mass could be seen.

But to his right, a great city of steel awaited him. Mario could scarcely believe it. Mario had been to many great cities in his time, but only one like this.

What seemed like millions of people, not toads, not Koopas, not Goombas, but actual, genuine, real humans were everywhere in sight. Some were staring out at the boats in the harbor, taking pictures with a camera. Others were tossing a Frisbee back and forth on a small patch of grass. Still others were strolling on the sidewalk, chatting on what seemed to be small, portable telephones. And the cars! Oh, so many cars.

Mario sat down in front of the pipe as he examined the city. He did not believe that there were many cities in the Mushroom city that contained so many people of one race. Usually, large cities, like Mushroom City, had a large diversity in the population. Many Toads, Goombas, Koopas, Bom-Ombs, and others lived together in densely packed Urban enviroments. However, this city may be even larger then Mushroom City, and it's populace seemed to be inhabited almost entirely by humans, who, according to population polls, who by far the most rare species in the Mushroom Kingdom, if not the entire world. (It is worth mentioning that Mario, Peach, and Luigi are the only residents of the Mushroom Kingdom to be considered 'human')

As his shock wore down, Mario stepped off the pipe and onto the grass below. Instantly, the pipe retreated into the ground. Mario glanced behind. There's no getting back that way, it seemed.

Mario was anxious. Not only was he in some sort of unknown city, he now had no way back. Briefly, he wondered whether Luigi would arrive to help him if he never came back. No, thoughts like that were not productive.

"I have a job to do."

Mario swallowed his fears and began to walk. As he got to the edge of the small grass patch, the frisbee the two guys were throwing flopped down in front of him.

"Come on, man! Make a better throw next time!" One of them complained.

"Yeah, yeah... Hey! You! Red 'stache! Help a brother out?"

Mario nodded as he bent over to pick up the frisbee. As he wound back to throw it, however, his eye caught something, large over the horizon. He turned his head to get a better look as he let the frisbee fly towards the two players, who made a mad dash to try and get the flying disc first. However, this did not mean much to Mario, however, has he had noticed that maybe this city wasn't so alien after all.

Out in the middle of the water was a small island. The Island itself was not important. What was standing on it was. A great statue, nearly as tall as most of the buildings in the general area Mario was standing in. It seemed to be made of some sort of green stone from this distance. It was a depiction of a Lady, wearing a robe, a tiara, and holding up a torch.

Laby Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty.

New York.

It seemed Mario had found his way back to the city of his childhood.

...

A/N: I apologize in advance: I have never been to New York, and I feel that my descriptions of the city will be completely inaccurate. I am pretty much basing my descriptions off of random things I noticed while I watched my brother play Spider Man 2 the other day, and I'm not even sure if that is completely accurate. Ah, well.

And now, to my surprise, I do not have a word count bar. If I do, I can't find it. I feel this chapter is overtly short, but as I write this, I have no means on which to check. I think this is where I wanted to leave off anyway, though, so I suppose that this is good enough for now.

Hope you had fun.