-BLOCK 2: Toad Town Troubles-

When they emerged from the pipe, the trio knew something was very wrong. The townspeople were fleeing as helpless sheep before the onslaught of monsters, both known and unknown.

"What the...?" Mario said.

"Toad Town's being overrun by monsters! We have to put an end to this quickly!" Toad exclaimed.

"The castle can wait. I think we need to bring this situation under control first," Luigi suggested.

The team agreed, and sought to clear the town of all monsters. A few ? Blocks nearby gave the group a heart refill and a never-before-seen boomerang cross, which Mario took. But no upgrade would prepare them for their first fight on the surface.

As they marched toward the castle, immediately what appeared to be... oh dear... Toad Zombies impeded their progress. Their rotting corpses shambled towards the trio. Their appearances ranged from recently deceased to horribly rotten, with skinless faces dripping disease-ridden blood.

"ZOMBIIIIEEEEESSS!" Luigi shrieked.

"And they're coming for us!" Toad said.

"Wait! Stop! This is Mario you're trying to get brains from!" Mario pleaded.

"They're mindless zombies! They won't listen to what you say!" Toad said. "We have only one choice: put them out of their misery."

Mario took out many of them with a well-used cross. Toad, quickly noticing the zombies behind them, turned and slaughtered some with vegetables. Luigi cowered for a few seconds, but promptly snapped out of it just before one of them was to snack on his head, countering by stomping on the animated corpse.

Though a bit grieved, Mario saw the potential power of the cross sub-weapon and decided to keep it for a while. A few more ? blocks revealed a bottle of holy water, which Luigi took, and a Stopwatch (which was the only thing everyone could find a use for), which Toad took. It appeared to consume five hearts upon use, but stopped most enemies for a short period of time.

Shortly after, more zombies came out of the ground.

"Um... how are we supposed to cleanse the city when the zombies just keep coming?" Luigi asked.

"You know, maybe we should just RUUUNNN!" Toad exclaimed, using the stopwatch. The trio decided that getting to the heart of the matter was better than constantly fighting zombies, so the cleanup plan was dumped in favor of storming the castle.

As they were going, they noticed that a few of the houses were on fire. Unfortunately, Toad's was one of them, along with the local blood bank. The fire department was unavailable, presumably overrun by zombies.

"MY HOUSE! WHO SET IT ON FIRE?" Toad screamed.

"Wow, tough luck. What happened to the fire department?" Luigi said.

"They're probably being harassed by zombies, too..." Mario remarked. "There's not much we can do at this point; it looks like it's already taken severe damage from the fire. We'll help you guys get a place to stay... but we have to put a stop to this first."

A few human skeletons were spread out along the path which were quite annoying due to the bones they threw. But then, dealing with them wasn't too much of a problem because Hammer Bros. fight similarly. More zombies popped up, but the team evaded them.

They then finally reached the castle, now standing right before the castle's moat. As they attempted to walk past the bridge, however...

BOSS 2: ONE EYED MONSTER: CYCLOPS

A cyclops blocked their path. This cyclops had a large mallet grasped with both of its hands, which it promptly used to hammer Mario a few feet into the ground. The stopwatch did not appear to affect this beast, much to Toad's dismay; Thus Luigi was given the task of distracting it while Toad put Mario back together.

"Mario! Get up out of the ground!" Toad said as he pulled Mario's head.

"Oh... stars... so beautiful... wheeeeee!" Mario responded.

"Snap out of it, Mario!" Toad said as he shook the plumber.

"Oohhh... my head..."

"We have trouble!"

"Mama mia! Luigi!"

Thus Luigi was fighting the Cyclops solo. Luigi found evading the monster quite difficult until he remembered he had holy water. He threw vials of it at the beast, stunning it for brief periods. He laughed maniacally as he spammed the liquid until his hearts were gone.

Except the Cyclops wasn't quite dead yet.

Now enraged, the Cyclops grabbed Luigi and tried to strangle him, but failed as Mario threw a cross at the beast. Toad then stomped on the beast's head, dealing the final blow to the creature.

At last, the Cyclops was defeated, and burst into flames, turning to ash.

"Now that thing was tough," Toad said.

The group then took time to actually look at the castle. A dark cloud seemed to have taken residence right above the castle, generating lightning. A few ghosts came out of the front door, one of which flew right at Luigi's face.

Luigi was then consumed with fear. What horrors could be in the castle if zombie citizens were laying waste to the town?

"Um... guys... I... think... I'll... be..." Luigi stuttered.

"Now don't tell me you're ditching on us already," Mario responded.

But Mario did not have full time to act before Luigi went AWOL.

"LUIGI!"

"What a coward," Toad remarked.

"Not the bravest sort at all... and he wonders why people make fun of him."

"Well... I guess it's just you and me."

"Yep."

"I... I think something is really, really wrong in here."

"I feel it too. I hope the princess is fine."

"We'd better find out fast."

And thus, the two remaining party members entered the castle, unaware of the dangers ahead.