For the following chapter, I suggest that you should look over the Super Mario Land enemy list to familiarize yourself with the several enemies that will be making an appearance in here. Use Google or the Mario Wiki or whatever you may have on you. The chapter might be harder to imagine in your mind-brain without knowing what's what. Just a quick heads-up.

~2~

Escape

The coming of dawn brought nothing more than a headache and a craving for darkness. The sunlight beamed down through the small window. It landed directly on the princess' face, causing her to tightly close her eyes and roll to the other side. The old sandstone ground started to make a crunching noise as she turned. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach, but Daisy's thoughts were elsewhere. She was free right now – somewhere far away with her dearest friends. There was no evil where she was, there was only good in this world.

It did not take long for her dream world to crumble down. The sound of a Pinopi's footsteps neared the cell, and although they were as quiet as a mouse in reality, they sounded like giant's steps nearing in Daisy's mind.

"You wake now," it hissed in a kindly voice. "Tatanga see you now."

If I keep sleeping, it'll leave. It'll have to.

And Daisy did just that.

"You wake now." The voice was harsher – less kind.

Daisy did not move. She dare not move.

The cell door was pulled open. It blared the sound of hundreds of old metals and gears were grinding together to open up the heavy doors of a cell originally intended to lock away those who had done wrong. Daisy swallowed her spit, hoping that the Pinopi would leave.

It stood. Then a shadow crawled up beside the huddled body of the princess. The cold body of a zombie-like creature bent down beside her. "Wake now."

Princess Daisy opened her eyes slowly. The Pinopi composed itself, hiding its bony hands in its long, purple sleeves. She watched the monster walk out of the cell, and stand in front, waiting for her to follow behind. Daisy stood and dusted off her yellow and orange dress. As she looked down, she saw a strange formation in the sandstone. There was what seemed like a man-made hole that had been sloppily covered up. Daisy's eyes widened in shock when she remembered that Toadette and her had made plans to escape. The princess looked around the cell frantically. Toadette was nowhere to be found.

"Follow now."

Daisy looked to the Pinopi who started leading the way out of the dungeon. She knew it would stop to see if she followed after, so she walked out of the cell. Toadette had to be around here somewhere. The mushroom girl wouldn't go off like that, would she?

The spiral staircase that led out of the dungeon creaked as the two climbed up. A broken wooden door was poorly hinged to the cobblestone walls. The Pinopi pushed the door open, showing its blue, bony hand. Princess Daisy lowered her eyes to look away. The halls of the Sarasin castle were bleak and bare. The princess's heavy footsteps echoed through the dark corridor, while the Pinopi's footsteps were light and inaudible. The stain glass windows that once told the history of the castle were shattered and broken beyond repair. The Sarasin Castle was nearly thousands of years old, just as those windows were. Tatanga's forces didn't seem to care when they ravaged the place. Daisy turned her head away from the colored broken glass on the ground. She followed the Pinopi until they reached the grand doors of the Throne Room.

The Throne Room had a wide window that looked over all of Chai Town. Daisy remembered having her back turned to the window when the Pagosu had crashed in. All the guards around her had gone into red alert and pushed her out of the room. Then she had heard through the weak wood of the doors that dreaded sound. It was that high-pitched ring that had hypnotized all her subjects before. It was that sound that caused everyone to turn.

The pointed end of a BunBun's spear poked Daisy's side. She drew back, forcing her consciousness back to reality. The meek purple alien sat proudly on the red throne. Her red throne. From the triumphant look on his face, she could tell that it was his throne now.

"I've been expecting you, my princess."

Daisy said nothing. Tatanga waved his hand and the Pinopi next to her grabbed her wrist tightly, pushing into the flesh beneath the heel of her palm. "Response," it hissed. She clenched her teeth, but she did not say a word. Its claw started to scrape her dry skin, and she felt the pinching pain of blood begging to escape.

Daisy looked up with her teeth grinding. She was holding back a scream as she spoke. "I'm sure you have."

With another wave of Tatanga's hand, the Pinopi released her. It returned to its blank state – waiting on stand-by.

"Please, come closer."

The pointed edge of the BunBun's spear poked her side once again. She walked forward, staggering as she did. Tatanga was a small alien, but one should not judge by appearances. Behind his every step, Tatanga had a fleet of his alien brethren, guarding all four regions of Sarasaland and armed by the finest extraterrestrial technology Tatanga's planet could muster. He was indeed weak, but he wasn't stupid.

"My princess," he said suavely, "my offer still stands."

Daisy looked him in the eye. "I don't want your petty offer. Let my kingdom go."

"But I will make you my queen and we can rule together, as one!"

"I wouldn't want to rule beside you if my life depended on it."

Tatanga smiled. "Let's pretend it does." He snapped his fingers and two Nyololin slithered out of the dark corners of the room. They hissed and darted towards the princess. She screamed as they tied themselves around her chest and neck with a force strong enough to make Princess Daisy nearly suffocate. Their heads rose to hers. Orange flames started to dance in their open mouths. "Now, as I was saying, my offer still stands."

Daisy tried to speak, but no words came out. She instead shook her head.

Tatanga growled. His hand hovered over a red button that would trigger the hypnotic ringing sound. Before his palm slammed down on the glowing button, the Throne Room doors were blown open and sent halfway across the room. Green electricity surged through the broken wood. Tatanga looked to the doorway, staring at the man dressed in green.

The Nyololin loosened their grip on the princess and they slithered down her body to the floor to investigate. Daisy fell to the floor and inhaled deeply. The fresh air burned her throat. Her face flushed.

Tatanga looked to Daisy, then to the man, then to his minions. He pointed at the man. "Seize him!" He bounced in his throne. "SEIZE HIM!"

The guards started to circle around Luigi. Pinopis bared their fangs and outstretched their bony arms; BunBuns buzzed and positioned their spears to attack; Nyololin started to slither to his side; Suus climbed down from the ceiling, flailing their thin legs to land carefully on him. The electricity in Luigi's hand started to die down and fear started to swallow him.

Daisy looked over to him. She tried to encourage him, but no words came out. She breathed in once again and crawled over to the throne.

Tatanga stared at her and started to laugh. The princess was pretty when she was failing oh so miserably. He brought his hand down on the red button on the throne and the high-pitched ringing sound echoed through the room. Daisy brought her hands to her ears, hoping that she wouldn't turn.

Luigi felt his head throb and he fell to the ground. He shut his eyes tightly. A black mist started to outline his body.

Toadette looked at the castle with awe. "What a bunch of baloney."

Mario held a Kumo by its furry legs. It continued to try and bite him. Purple venom leaked out of its blue mouth and Mario felt sick to his stomach. He threw it to the ground. It stood on its hind legs and hissed. Mario brought his foot down on it. Purple goop started to spread on the sand around it.

"I hope that Miz Daisy is fine up there. Her and your brother, too."

Mario scraped the bottom of his shoe. "We have to find a way to bring the castle down. It's the only way to stop him from down here." Mario mumbled, "I told Luigi not to go up there by himself."

"I'm sure that he's got things under control. He's a Mario, after all."

A high-pitched ringing noise sounded from the top of the castle. Toadette and Mario covered their ears. The buzzing sound of an incoming plane overpowered the sound of the ringing. Mario looked up. Black cannons were fired from the nose of a Roketon's plane. They were headed straight for Toadette, her back turned and unsuspecting. Mario dove forward and pulled her out of the way. The cannons landed in the sand. A second later, they exploded, forcing millions of little grains of sand to spew out like lava.

Toadette looked at the ground nervously. "You saved me . . ." she said softly, and she felt her cheeks redden.

Mario paid no attention and looked to the skies. A familiar Paratroopa lunged itself down towards him.

Mario shot up, positioning himself for battle. Parakarry landed on the ground, his pupils constricted to nothing but fine black lines behind his goggles.

"Stand down by the orders of the great lord Tatanga," he said robotically.

"I don't want to fight you." Mario held his position, though. He would fight if he had to fight, whether he liked it or not.

The letters written by Sarasins filled the Koopa's satchel. He tossed it to the ground and flapped his wings. "I said to stand down, Human!"

Mario summoned orange flames. A fireball materialized itself in his palm. He faltered.

Parakarry did not, and he pulled his fist back. He flew straight towards Mario with the only objective of striking the red Human down.

A fire blast hit the Paratroopa, sending him back. The Koopa landed in the sand and popped out of the shell, tossing his wings over him. The lone blue shell remained.

The sound of plane wings cutting through the thick air was heard again. Another Roketon was making its way to Mario and Toadette. "Incoming!" she shouted.

Mario grabbed the shell and held it. He tossed it towards the plane, jamming it right into its open nose. The Roketon ejected himself and jumped off the side, landing hard in the sand. The plane came spiraling down into the sand without its pilot. Its cannons started to crash into each other. Toadette looked at it curiously. "I don't think it's supposed to smoke like that."

"It's not." Mario walked over to it and looked inside. All the controls were labeled in a foreign language; instead of letters, there were characters, and they looked different from any other language that Mario had ever seen. But, figuring out the controls couldn't be that difficult, could it?

"What do you think you're doing, mister?"

Mario glanced over the blinking buttons once more. The plane was secure and planted into the ground. It wasn't going to be flying any time soon. With this in mind, Mario started to consider what to do. His mind went blank and now he only had two options: succeed or fail in killing Tatanga. There were no thoughts on any other person or thing, there was only win or lose.

Destroy the castle, said the small voice in his head.

The plane made a harsh clunking sound as another cannon bumped into the shell. His train of thought was broken. With the cannons backing up like that, there was no way the thing would last. Mario put his hands on the side of the plane and started to push it in a different direction.

The smoking plane now faced the castle.

A white film covered Luigi's eyes. Daisy had never seen anything like it before. Tatanga could care less.

"SEIZE HIM, YOU IDIOTS!"

Luigi stood shakily. Green electricity sparked in his hand and it wrapped around his arm. A Pinopi advanced towards him, threatening to bite. Luigi grabbed the Pinopi by his neck and let a bolt of electricity run through its feeble body. Luigi released it and it fell to the floor. It sporadically twitched from one side to the other, foaming at the mouth. Luigi looked up from his handiwork. Daisy stared at him. Who was this man?

All the hypnotized minions stepped back, fearful. Tatanga growled. "KILL HIM ALREADY!" He looked at his minions. They all stood with blank glances. "YOU FOOLS! KILL HIM!" No one moved.

Luigi clapped his hands together and smiled. "Well, with that done," – he took his stance – "have at you."

Tatanga yelled out in frustration and hopped down from the throne. As he did, the castle shook. It started to lean to one side. Daisy grabbed a hold of the throne's armrest.

The castle was falling.

I find it funny that the pick-it fence was able to sum all this up in a single chapter, while I'm taking my sweet lil' old time and using three chapters.
"You writers and your pacing," she says.

I had to make some major final edits to this chapter due to painfully obvious symbolism that I was afraid of being harshly accused of for putting in a fan fiction. I apologize if this chapter felt a little choppy, especially towards the middle.

Criticism or not, all reviews are welcome!

- Great Mistake