Chapter 2: The Airship Raid
As Mario slid down the pipe, he had a quick recollection of thoughts.
I'm Mario Segali, my brother is Luigi. We're plumbers that live in the Mushroom Kingdom, even though we were born in Brooklyn. My dad was a carpenter, Ma was a waitress. I'm about to rescue a princess from a giant, fire breathing dinosaur king…
That was the thought he was getting caught up on. He saw a sliver of light below, and knew his ride was coming to an end. At the bottom, he flopped out onto a hard, brick floor. Looking around, he saw walls of bluish-tinged brick. There were two paths, so Mario instantly realized this was a giant maze. The light source he saw was a small torch, one of many along the wall. He also noticed that Luigi and Toad were gone.
"Luigi! Toad! Where are you guys?" Mario called out, and he heard a reply that echoed along from the path on the right. He quickly jogged down and located his brother and the small boy. Toad was looking down at a crinkled piece of yellowed paper.
"I totally forgot about this!" he said, and showed Mario the paper, which was covered with lines and zigzag patterns. "It's a map that I grabbed during the raid. The princess had a plan set up where, if attacked, we could possibly sneak away to this labyrinth and get to another region of the kingdom. Of course, th-that nev-never happened, so…"
Mario saw that the small boy was about to cry, so he put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. Luigi, still having the ability of the Flammuri flower (Mario had lost his from a Koopa), formed a green fireball from his fingertips so they could have another light source aside from the dim torches. So, the group continued, with Mario in the back, Toad in the middle as navigator, and Luigi in the front as a guide through the dark. Along the way, they ran into a makeshift hut with the Koopa Armada insignia on it. A group of Koopas and Goombas walked out and immediately attacked the intruders. The Goombas were easily defeated, but the Koopas were a bit harder to get rid of. Luigi's fire ability took care of a few of them, but he was soon hit by a ricochet shell and lost it. This caused the three heroes to run down the maze from multiple Koopas, which were bouncing around the walls like bullets. Fortunately for them, it looked as if the maze was coming to and end, as the path was leading to an open space with multiple pipes in it. Quickly, Mario jumped to the side, where he saw an indentation on the wall that he could grip on to. He pointed it out to Luigi, who threw Toad up to his brother and jumped onto anpther one. Looking over the wall, they watched the remaining Koopas fly out of the maze and into a dark pit. They all sighed, and jumped back down. Walking to the pipes, they started laughing. However, as they got closer, Toad froze.
"Toad? What's wrong?" Luigi asked, but Toad just shook his head.
"Walk away from the pipes slowly."
"Why?" Mario questioned, and it was then when he heard it. A hissing, gurgling sound. He turned around to see a large venus flytrap-like plant snaking it's way out of the pipe, it's red-and-white polka dotted head lined with rows of razor sharp teeth. He jumped out of the way as the creature snapped at the spot he was just in.
"Piranha plants," Toad explained, "some of the fastest predators in the entire Mushroom Kingdom."
Making sure to watch what they were doing, the three sneaked their way around the pipes without alarming the plants, and came upon the pit that the Koopas had fallen into. Luckily for them, at the edge of the pit sat a small platform just big enough for them to fit on. Walking onto it, though, they realized that it was very unstable, so they went one at a time. Luigi was the unlucky one, as he was the last to go across, and had the unfortune of having the bridge crumble below his feet and was just barely able to jump from the platform to the other side before the entire mass of metal fell to the dark abyss below. Obviously very shaken up, Luigi walked with Mario holding him up. At last they made it to a green pipe that shot up into the ceiling. Making sure that there were no carnivorous plants waiting for them inside, Mario decided to go in first to see where they ended up. The pipe shot him up, where he came up to a sea of giant mushrooms dotting the horizon. He called down, and the other two came up. Toad smiled when he saw the sight.
"Mu Mu Heights! We're getting closer to the edge of the boundary between the main kingdom and the Great Fungut Sea. Look!"
He pointed to the end of the mushrooms, where they could see a large shadow against the sun. They all knew what it was, so they started hopping along the mushrooms, which were surprisingly springy and allowed them to jump very high. Suddenly, something hit Luigi, causing him to fall down and onto a hill that was poking up out of the mushroom caps. Mario looked to where he was hit, and saw the strangest thing: a Koopa with wings.
"Paratroopas!" Toad yelled, and he quickly lowered himself to avoid getting hit. Mario did the same and grabbed Luigi. They all made sure not to jump high enough to get hit by the Koopas, and any ones they fell onto when jumping lost their wings and fell to the ground. Soon, the brothers made it to the end of the hills, where the airship was quickly approaching. Toad looked around and saw something left over that he remembered from when his father sent troops to battle a surge of Koopa usurpers. It was a large black cannon with a blue lid. He beckoned the brothers over, and Mario loaded himself into it first. He had Toad launch him, and he flew up to the airship like a rocket. Landing onto the deck of the floating warship, he looked back down and saw small specks where he just was. Behind them was a wave of black coming towards them: Paratroopas. Mario couldn't help them, not now. He could only hope that they'd be able to stop them, and so he continued along the deck. This however wasn't a smart move, as an alarm soon rang through the ship, and the cannons that were placed all over for some reason aimed towards him. Luckily, the ammunition (Bullet Bills and cannonballs) were somewhat slothful, so Mario was able to easily dodge them. What wasn't easy to dodge were the multiple wrenches getting thrown at him by small gophers, who Mario guessed were the ship's mechanics. He jumped on them, and they fell back into the ship. After about ten minutes of getting barraged by bullet fire, he finally made it to the back of the ship, which had just one green pipe for some strange reason. He jumped down into it, and fell into a large room with nothing in it, similar to an arena. Suddenly, he was hit with a searing pain, and he flew back into the wall. Mario stood up to see a Koopa with wild blue hair sticking up in a Mohawk. In his hands was a three foot-long scepter topped with a pink gem. The Koopa let out a laugh, which was annoying and scratchy.
"Huh. I thought my troops were being attacked by warriors, not a fat grandpa! Hehehehe-SNORT!"
"So, you're Bowser?" Mario asked, and the Koopa laughed even more.
"Y-you think I'm Uncle B?!HAHAHAHAHA! Naw, I'm Larry, one of the Magnificent Koopalings."
He bowed, and pointed the scepter at Mario.
"And you…are…DEAD! HAHAHAH-SNORT."
Larry flung a large blast of energy at Mario, who dodged it and jumped towards the kid, making sure to kick his head. He rubbed his skull, and flung another blast. Mario dodged it again, and repeated the process, figuring the kid wasn't very bright. The process repeated itself again, and again, and again, until the kid finally went down unconscious. Mario wiped some sweat from his forehead and used his hat as a fan. The door for the room swung open, and Toad and Luigi walked in.
"Mario!" Luigi cried and hugged his brother.
"I'm fine, just had to deal with this pipsqueak."
Toad walked over and grabbed the scepter.
"This is the princess's! Every ruler has a scepter that has magical properties."
The brothers and Toad sent the airship crashing into the ground, but kept Larry with tem and tied him up next to the crash site. With this, they ended the first bit of their war against Koopa. They got to the edge of the ocean, where they boarded the S.S. Capper. Their next stop: The Aquatic Kingdom of Lord Zoora.
Meanwhile, in Koopa's Fortress…
You could feel the vibrations coming off of the walls of the castle as Bowser roared at Kamek.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN LARRY'S BEEN DEFEATED?!"
The wizened creature whimpered under the goliath that was his king.
"W-well, your greatness. My sources tell me that his airship was crashed and that he was arrested by the MPS."
"How was he defeated? He had a Sorcery Scepter with him!" Bowser's gaping maw was billowing smoke and embers as his anger grew.
"Umm…let me see…" Kamek flipped through the scroll he was reading from and finally found what he was looking for.
"Here we go! He was, uh, stopped by a short fat man in red and blue clothes? That doesn't sound right…"
"Oh, yes it does!" a voice yelled, and Bowser slammed on the door of her room.
"What're you talking about?!" the large lizard roared, and he saw Peach's face come near the door's window.
"You know. The plumber. One of two. The Star Child…"
Bowser suddenly remembered. The boy with the Yoshi from when he was a baby. He had tried to kill him and his brother. What was his name?
"Mario…MARIO!" he bellowed, and shot a rain of flames from his mouth.
"That…plumber…shall die."
Again, so sorry for the wait, everyone who reads this story! I really need to update more often. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and next will be me switching up the levels since I want to save the desert area for World 7. On other news, a live action Legend of Zelda series was just announced for Netflix, so yay :D
Thanks for reading, and as usual, constructive criticism is welcomed!