Mario aggressively pushed open the main entrance doors of the Castle and rushed outside into the smoldering carnage with Luigi, standing tall, at his side. With his blue eyes filled with determination Mario stared resolutely at the billowing smoke emanating from Black Mountain Peak, knowing full well that the crater created by the impact of the comet was waiting to become it's destined battleground.
Luigi followed Mario's intense gaze and shuddered at the eerie glow of the fallen comet embedded in the peak. The panicked screams of the Toads who scurried through Toad Town gave a foreboding ambience that tightened around his weighted heart like a vice.
"C'mon Luigi," Mario insisted fearlessly. "we need to get to the mountain, fast!"
Luigi rubbed the back of his neck with righteous anxiety before replying quietly. "Are you sure you want to go there? Who knows what could be going on!"
"That's why we have to check it out." Mario took a step forward. "I'm not going to stand by and do nothing while the world tears itself apart."
Nodding silently Luigi took a step of his own to again stand evenly with Mario. "Okay then. Let's go."
Together the heroic brothers moved through the damaged town, stepping over large cracks in the ground and chunks of debris from dismantled buildings. The Toads were frantic and unable to focus on anything but the earthquake that nearly leveled the town, providing no assistance to the venturing heroes as they passed by. Society was crumbling as easily at the town itself.
Reaching the exit of Toad Town Mario and Luigi found themselves surrounded by downed trees, snapped limbs, opened fissures, small fires and blankets of fog. The trail to the mountain range was littered with obstacles that were only made more cumbersome to navigate thanks to the dark night and even darker smoke.
"Watch your footing." Mario wisely cautioned as he set his boot down on massive log that was stretched across the path. Opening his palm Mario ignited an orange fireball, a gift provided by his Fire Brand ability.
"And keep your head low." Luigi pulled drooping branches down from the battered tree limbs as he followed the glow of the fireball up the trail. "If we're going to reach the mountain peak before anyone else does we better move it!"
"Yeah, let's take the more direct route." Mario suggested, pausing on the trail and sizing up the side of the mountain.
"'Direct'?" Luigi stood next to Mario and looked up the side of the mountain as well. "You mean 'up'?"
"You got it." Mario put his free hand on a rocky ledge and began climbing up the seldom tread route. "Come on."
Luigi nervously wrung his hands together. "O-okay... Just keep the path lit! I don't want to fall back down." Luigi took his own grip on the mountain side and began following Mario at a steady pace. "We can't afford to slip up."
Small orange embers and black flakes of dried soot fluttered from the mountain to the trail below, like a grisly snowfall from the depths of Hell itself.
The brothers began a rapid and unorthodox ascent up the Dark Mountain, leaving the Castle and Toad Town far below to pick up the pieces after the impact of the comet shook the world violently. The side of the mountain had been split open due to the impact. The higher the duo climbed the more severe and abundant the damage, making the climb increasingly difficult. The wafting black smoke enveloped the heroes, blocking the glow of the fireball from curious eyes that watched in the distance.
Sheltered in the secret chamber beneath the Castle Princess Peach and Toadsworth studied the ancient prophecy in an attempt to seek a peaceful resolution to the chaotic event. The faded but still grim images and the long muted words had been studied by the wisest of Toad Chroniclers for thousands of years, each Chronicler passing their knowledge to the next. It seemed the prophecy was indeed an unstoppable reality.
Toadsworth hovered over the scroll, pipe in mouth and eyes fixated on the weathered document. The fiery glow of the torches that lined the chamber gave an almost peaceful atmosphere in spite of the destruction that surrounded the Castle.
Peach had grown weary of reading and re-reading that damnable scroll and took to pacing about the chamber instead. She was drawn to the many intricately woven tapestries that adorned the walls of the chamber. No two tapestries were the same. Each one depicting a single important event from history, or an event that had yet to pass.
The tapestries told of the Mushroom Kingdom's given past and warned of its inevitable future...
"How peculiar." Peach stood before a large blue tapestry that seemed somehow out of place amongst the others. "Toadsworth, come look at this."
The Ward, who was intrigued by the tone of Peach's voice, rose from his seat at the table and walked over to where she was standing. "What is it, my dear?"
She pointed to the image on the tapestry. "Look. Isn't that-?"
"My goodness!" Toadsworth's eyes widened with wonder at the image before him. "It's Master Mario!"
There, on the blue tapestry, was a hero dressed in red standing atop of a broken mountain with a white aura surrounding him. In one hand he held an orange fireball and in the other one half of a single, broken star.
"What does this mean?" Peach asked excitedly. "Why is Mario on the tapestry?"
"I... I don't know!" Toadsworth was just as perplexed as the Princess. "Perhaps... Perhaps Master Mario is right! Perhaps the prophecy can be changed!"
The struggle to reach the fractured peak of the mountain had exhausted both Mario and Luigi. The brilliant glow of Mario's fireball had dwindled as his strength waned with each step higher. The thickened air from the smoke made it difficult to breathe, which slowed the journey upward. The stench of ozone mixed with freshly exposed sulfur combined into a single, acrid, putrid odor that strung their nostrils and burned their eyes.
"Mario, are you holding up okay?" Luigi asked as he stifled a dry cough that he struggled to ignore.
"Yeah, I'm okay!" Mario lied, his fireball nearly extinguished. "We're almost at the top, don't stop now."
"Right..." Luigi swallowed once in an attempt to rid his throat of the irritation. "I'm not going to stop for anything!"
Blinded by smoke and darkness Mario could only navigate by touch. As soon as the palm of his hand touched down on the flatter surface of the peak he let out a sigh of relief. They made it! Placing both hands on the edge of the top he pulled himself up, using his upper body strength in attempt to salvage what little strength his legs still carried.
Sitting down on the top of the ledge he reached his hand down into the darkness. "Here, Weege. Take my hand."
"Got it!" Luigi just barely caught a glimpse of the white fabric of Mario's glove in the black smoke. Taking a hold of Mario's hand Luigi felt himself being pulled up the mountain and over the edge next to his brother. "Thanks!"
"No problem." Mario took a moment to catch his breath and scan the area. "I think the comet landed over that rise." He pointed to the source of the black smoke, which was pouring over a rise of disturbed earth, in thick sheets.
"Yeah." Luigi agreed. Still wary of the dire situation used the sleeve of his arm to wipe the sweat and clinging soot from his face and eyes. "Think the fires are out by now?"
"Should be." Mario stood up and dusted the dirt from his hands. "The smoke was too thick, we could barely breathe. I think the fires were smothered long before we reached the top."
"Good!" Luigi ran his hand through the thick ash on the rocky surface and crumbled a few particles between his fingertips. "Hate to get burned."
The tired but focused brothers regained their composure before bravely stepping forward to investigate the crater. It was quiet and the air was still. With the smoke now collecting at their feet the stars above were once again visible, and seemed impossibly bright in contrast to the rich darkness surrounding them.
"Beautiful." Luigi remarked, his eyes instinctively drawn upward toward the cosmos.
"Huh?" Mario's mind was preoccupied elsewhere.
"The stars. So bright and pure against a deep darkness."
"Don't look at the stars!" Mario nearly scolded his younger sibling. "We need to be on the look out for anyone who might be trying to fulfill the prophecy."
Luigi's heart skipped a beat. The very idea of someone so sinister possibly sharing the same mountaintop was enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Oh, right... Yeah." Luigi did his best disguise his vocal nervousness. "Can't forget why we're here."
"Sh!" Mario got lower to the ground, creeping up to the rise in an attempt to peek over the edge without being spotted. "Follow me."
Luigi nodded and mirrored his brother's movements, creeping low and silently to the ground at Mario's side.
Reaching the top of the rise the duo carefully looked over the edge and into the smoldering crater below. Inside a large spherical stone had been partially buried by the mountain after impact. The stone itself was pulsing with a faint gold glow with veins of silver marring its otherwise flawless surface.
"Do you see anyone?" Luigi whispered as he stared at the fallen comet within.
"No," Mario shook his head. "not yet. But keep your eyes peeled."
Luigi didn't say anything. He was too fixated on the comet. It's enigmatic beauty was almost hypnotic, almost as it were somehow beckoning to him. Without a word or even really thinking Luigi leapt over the edge and slid down into the crater toward the comet.
"Luigi!" Mario clumsily reached for Luigi's hand in an attempt to stop him. "Come back!"
Luigi's boots met the comet and the silver glow intensified beneath his presence.
"Luigi!" Mario followed Luigi down into the crater and grabbed a hold of his brother's arm, unaware of the intensified gold glow of the comet. "What're you doing?"
Before either could speak a strong tremor from within the comet shook them horribly. "What the-?" Luigi asked as he and Mario hastily scrambled up the side of the crater and back to the mountain peak. "Another earthquake?"
"I don't know!" Mario admitted as he and Luigi slid down the rise of the crater together, back to the mountain peak. "What were you thinking going in there?! You could've been hurt!"
"I-" Luigi couldn't respond and defend his actions as the earth trembled violently once more.
A burst of gold and silver light from the downed comet silenced the brothers as a silhouetted slowly form upward rose from the crater. The sound of crumbling rocks, splitting ground, snapping trees filled the air with a thunderous clash. The smell of ozone was sickening as a dusty cloud from the core of the comet was unleashed atop the mountain.
Shielding their eyes with their hands, watching the enigmatic even unfolding through squinted eyes, the duo were bathed in an intense wave of light, warmth and energy as the rising, shapeless form came to a graceful stop almost a hundred feet above the crater.
The light, shining like a beacon over the expansive mountain range, faded into a dull glow. The air was calm and all was silent for but a moment as an unknown, powerful, booming voice called out to the brothers standing in silent awe below. "You've arrived at last: Heroes..."
...to be continued...
