Rebirth of a Star
Chapter One: Game Over. Continue?
4 Plit years later…
"Children, I suppose you're wondering why I have requested you to quadruple your roaming guard populous recently?" Bowser asked as his children all got themselves seated at their round meeting table.
"Yeah, KingDad; whyareyoumakin'usquadrupleourguards? It'sreallyhardtogetpeople tovolunteercuz'mylandisadesertandthere'shardlyanyonethereanywayscuz'ithasverypoor livingconditions! It'snotfair!" Morton babbled quickly without taking a breath.
"Uh…what?" Bowser looked at the 11-year-old, confusion evident on his face.
"I beliefe vut my talkatif bruzzer is trying to express is ze fact zat he finds it unfair zat you haff placed such a high standard upon his land, und he finds it difficult to cope because his land has a smaller population zan ours, due to poor lifing conditions." Ludwig clarified.
"Err…" Bowser stared blankly at his eldest son.
"What they're tryin' ta' say is that Morton thinks it's not fair that you made him increase the guards, cuz' his land has a low population as it is." Lemmy clarified.
"Oh… well, tough cookies Morton, I'm the king and what I say goes!"
"Why'd ya' call us all here for, anyways?" Larry whined, getting impatient.
"Thank-you for reminding me Larry, otherwise I would have forgotten! I called you all here to give you a warning. Do you remember the prophecy Kamek made 4 years ago at the victory celebration?" Bowser looked at his offspring, the expressions on their faces ranged from complete confusion to silent contemplation. "It seems some of you don't, so I'll tell you what I remember. Kamek predicted that the reincarnation of Mario would be a sixteen-year-old girl, and she would overthrow us easily."
"But King Dad, it's only been 4 years since Mario's death, his reincarnation would only be four at most," Larry said, confused.
"True… if ze child vuz born here, but I don't beliefe zat is true… ze child vuz likely born on Earze, correct?" Ludwig inquired, looking at his father. Bowser nodded.
"I still don't get it…" Larry growled in frustration.
"On Earth, time passes four times faster… so while only four years have passed here, sixteen have passed there," Bowser explained to the youngest Koopaling patiently.
"Oh…" Larry nodded, finally understanding.
"So, keep your eyes open for the girl, and if you see her contact me immediately, understood?" Bowser looked sternly at the Koopalings, one by one.
"Yes, King Dad." They said in unison.
---
What an amazing learning experience! The girl thought as she looked at the huge skyscraper next to her. She had finally achieved her dream of traveling to Japan, technological capital of the world! She was there with a few of her friends and right now they were touring downtown Tokyo when a building caught her eye. It looked old and abandoned.
"Excuse me, Sumikyo-san?" The girl asked their tour guide.
"Yes, Mary-chan?" The tour guide, named Sumikyo, responded.
"What building is that?" Mary asked, pointing to the giant abandoned building.
"That is the old Nintendo building, they were a gaming company until they closed down July 14th sixteen years ago, under the mysterious premise that there had been an accident," Sumikyo explained.
"July 14, sixteen years ago? That's my birthday!" Mary gasped, taking a step back.
"Ooh, creepy," her friend said sarcastically.
"Yes, what's even creepier is at night, supposedly, lights are seen at the forth floor windows." Sumikyo said, issuing to the windows in question. Mary crossed her arms and shuddered.
"Ghosts…"
"Another thing that's odd about this place is that despite the fact that it's abandoned the doors aren't actually locked, in fact we could go in and look around right now if you want."
"I don't know…" Apparently the thought of ghosts were still fresh in Mary's mind.
"Ghosts don't show up in the middle of day anyway. Come on Mary, live a little!" Mary's friend grinned, hanging off her shoulder. Mary looked at her friend, and sighed, giving in.
---
Inside the building everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. The small group looked around and Sumikyo walked towards the elevator and pressed the up button.
"I don't think it works…" Mary's friend said, after waiting for a few minutes.
"Oh well, I guess that means we can go then…" Mary said, heading for the door.
"Ah-ah-ah, Miss Scaredy-cat, we'll just take the stairs." Mary's friend grinned as he grabbed her shoulder, pointing to the staircase.
The adventurers walked up the stairs and looked at all the strange signs on the doors: The Programmer's Room, The Manager's Room. Most of the doors were unlocked and the stuff in the rooms was ordinary.
"Hmm… this door is locked." Sumikyo sighed as she struggled with the knob.
"The Inspiration Room? What a weird name for a room, huh guys?" Mary grinned as she read the sign and tried the door handle herself. Much to her surprise the knob turned and the door opened. "Hey! I guess the handle was just stuck, guys!" No response. "Guys!" She panicked as she looked around to discover she was alone.
She stood there for a while, simply waiting for them to come back, but eventually she got bored of just waiting. She poked her nose into the "Inspiration Room", expecting to see old newspaper clippings or art or anything but what she actually found, which was the opening of a big green pipe sitting in the middle of the room.
"How the heck do you get 'inspiration' from a pipe?" Mary groaned. She hated when she didn't understand something. "Maybe you… no, that doesn't make sense. Maybe you jump in the pipe and it helps you to concentrate, 'cause it blocks out noise and stuff…"
She looked down the pipe, it seemed dark and fathomless, not to mention creepy. She leaned over a little further and lost her balance!
But at the last second she spread-eagled herself over the opening of the pipe. "Whew… that was close…" she smiled in relief. Although now she had a bit of a problem, she was stuck there until someone came along to give her a hand.
"MARY!" Someone's voice yelled out loudly. Mary screamed and leapt up and landed straight in the pipe.
---
Triangles, circles and squares… that's all she would see for the rest of her life… Circles, squares and triangles…
---
She woke up lying on a grassy hilltop, far from Japan, far from everything and everyone she'd ever known.
"Am I dead? Is this heaven?" Mary groaned as she sat up. She looked left and right, unsure of what to do or where to go from here, when suddenly she spotted something extremely unusual. A pair of bipedal turtles wearing helmets and carrying hammers was walking along a dirt path.
Suddenly the two reptiles noticed her, and after they got over their initial shock of seeing the human girl they approached her.
"You! State your name and business!" The first one growled as he approached her.
"I'm Mary and-"
"Your full name please," the second one elaborated, sounding much kinder than the first.
"I am Mary Ophelia, but please call me Mary or even Mary O. and I'm a little lost… ya' see I fell down a pipe and the next thing I know I'm here! Wherever here is…"
"This is Grass Land in the Mushroom Kingdom…" The second one said helpfully.
"Cool… not very original, but cool. And what are you guys called?"
"I'm Sam and that's Gus, we're Hammer Brothers! Proud members of the Koopa Klan!" The second one said as he straightened himself up.
"Neat! Now could you direct me to the nearest pipe to Earth? I'd really appreciate it," Mary smiled as she looked at Sam.
"You're from Earth, huh?" Gus growled.
"No, I'm from Mars… Of course I'm from Earth, where else would I be from!" Mary remarked snidely.
"And how old are you, precisely?"
"I'm sixteen, but I don't see what that has to do with anything…"
"Hang on a sec, Sam and I have to go have a private chat," Gus smiled falsely as he dragged Sam along by his shell.
---
"What is it?" Sam whispered, looking confused.
"What is it? What is it! Remember Master Larry's warning about the sixteen-year-old girl?"
"Vaguely…"
"Well, did the thought ever occur to you that this was the sixteen-year-old girl he was warning us about?"
"But she's not hurtin' anyone…"
"Doesn't matter. Remember Master Larry's orders? 'If ya' see a sixteen-year-old girl… get rid of her.'"
"But-"
"No ifs, ands, or buts. Come on, let's go do our duty."
---
Mary watched as the pair returned, Gus held his weapons at the ready, while Sam looked depressed and was slowly drawing out his hammers. Suddenly Gus flung his hammer at the girl, who screamed and dove out of the way in the nick of time. Suddenly another hammer, flung by Sam, just about collided with her head. She attempted to scramble to her feet as the two approached, but Sam leapt on top of her and pinned her down. Gus approached menacingly, hammer swinging lazily in his right hand.
"Any last words?"
Mary was about to plead for her life when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was a turtle shell, coming at high speed towards them… but she would not get to see what happened next because that was when Gus brought his hammer down on her head…
(A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed my prologue, it's nice to know other people's opinions on your writing so you know what to improve. Tell me which parts you liked, or didn't like, because I appreciate your opinion. And please review! )