"ASSIGNMENT RECEIVED," said the scary robo-toads of fear. "TERMINATE,"
"Mario," said Peach tentatively. "Are those toads?"
"I'm not really sure," said Mario as the aforementioned toads advanced, swords drawn.
"AYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYY EYEEYEYAYEYYAYYYADAHALJSLFJA SDFJALS;DJL;ASHLAHLALA!" shrieked Luigi as he charged with his hammer drawn. Mario and Peach stared as Luigi bashed them all with his hammer, which was now crackling with lightning.
After the toads were down, Luigi looked over to see Mario and Peach still staring at him. Mario's eye twitched a bit.
"What?" asked Luigi innocently.
"Y-you just….just…what?" stuttered Peach.
"Guh?" added Mario articulately and cleverly.
"Ahem." This came from Merlon, who was no longer trapped against a wall. "Greetings, heroes, I see you have come to us in our hour of need!"
"Guh?" added Mario again, cunningly gaining the upper hand.
"What's going on here?" asked Peach, still quite confused.
"Guh?" said Mario for a third time, clearly agreeing with Peach's inquiry.
"You don't know?" asked Merlon, perplexed.
"Not really…" said Luigi.
"Well, some fellow named Lord Smergenflov seems to have taken over the entire Mushroom Kingdom," started Merlon. "He's currently absorbed the Waffle Kingdom and is working on the Beanbean Kingdom, from what I can tell."
"WHAT?" asked Peach.
"Furthermore, he claimed that he had destroyed all three of you, which has proven false," added Merlon.
"Merlon," this came from Mario, who had finally recovered. "How long ago was this?"
"Roughly six months," said Merlon. "His lackeys have been attacking Flipside for weeks. I thought that they had just won when you showed up,"
"But we used a return pipe to come here right when Smergenflov struck," argued Peach. "How could it be six months later?"
"The pipe uses a very delicate kind of dimensional magic to teleport here," Merlon said. "Any kind of disturbance may have caused you to appear here later than you should have,"
"Well, that clears that up," stated Mario. "We need to go rescue the Mushroom Kingdom!"
"Yeah!" said Luigi and Peach simultaneously.
"Are you sure?" asked Merlon doubtfully.
"Absolutely," said Mario confidently. "We've taken him down twice, we can do it again!"
"As you wish," said Merlon. "Prepare to be teleported!"
ZAP.
Immediately, Mario and his friends were in a desert. A few stray houses that looked like they could fall apart any second were around them. A broken fountain weakly trickled droplets of water in front of them.
"This is Toad Town," whispered Peach. As she said it, Mario knew she was right. He looked down and saw nothing but sand.
"What happened to your palace, then?" asked Mario, looking at where her palace would have been. In its place he saw a colossal citadel made entirely of black stone. A tower jutted into the heavens, halfway obscured by dark clouds which swirled slowly around its top. Mario felt a tap behind him. He turned around to find himself staring into the eyes of one of Smergenflov's corrupted toads.