Chapter 4: As I Mentioned Before, the Fact That Worlds 3 and 4 Don't Have a Single Water or Jungle Level is Quite Odd.
"Hey, guys! You complete the next World without me!"
Mario and Yoshi turned around to face Toad, stunned by his bold claim. "Why do you want us to leave you behind?" Mario questioned. "You even said in the last chapter that this is a team effort."
Toad closed his eyes, smiling, and shook his head. "No, it's not like that. It's just that the kingdom still needs to be rebuilt. I realize now though that I can't force you to join me in that endeavor." Toad cleared his throat and pointed a finger at the other two heroes. "Listen up! I'm going back for a while to rally up Toads, and don't you dare think about rescuing Peach without me!"
Mario and Yoshi just gave confused looks, their turning towards each other, and then back to Toad. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that!" Toad panicked. "I just mean, you know… Ugh, just don't defeat Bowser without me! ...Ugh, You know know I mean!" Toad thn cruised off in the opposite direction, leaving the other two heroes alone.
Yoshi despondently sighed. "Toad's kind of a jerk, don't you think?"
Mario let out a somewhat brittle laugh. "Well, he's certainly enthusiastic. I will admit, he's a bit rowdy, not to mention his temper, but I can tell he means well. If he just works on bettering himself, I'm sure he could be an amazing hero."
Yoshi's eyes sparkled a bit, amazed by how forgiving Mario truly was. Granted, Yoshi, himself, was a bit like that, but that's kinda besides the point, to be honest. He snapped back to his senses when Mario put one hand on the back of his neck, pointing in the direction of their destination with the other.
"You ready to go?" Mario asked, smiling his usual smile.
Yoshi looked down with uncertainty for a moment before turning back to face Mario, giving him a determined nod. "Yeah, I'm ready."
Mario's grin got wider as he clench both his hands into fists. "Ok, then! Let's-a go, Yosh!" With that, Mario sprinted towards the next of Bowser's castles, Yoshi following close behind.
The two soon made it to the first level, which just to happened to be a desert level. Wow, now they give us the desert level. Well, I didn't choose for it to be this way, and since when did Mario games ever have a real continuity? I mean, this is a fanfiction, but you know what I mean. And people wonder they movies based off of video games usually suck, and vice versa.
Yoshi puffed his chest out in confidence and gave it a small pound with his fist. "Leave this to me, Mario! I'll help get us to the next level in no time!" Yoshi took Mario by the hand, throwing
him up whenever Spinies crossed their path, Yoshi jumping on them with no trouble. It was like Yoshi had spike-proof boots, or something, or at least, didn't have anything to fear when it came to spikes. ...Wait…
The two continued to traverse the level, doing their best to dodge the bombarde of Spinies, Lakitus throwing more down to make matters worse. Eventually, Yoshi made it to the flagpole first, Mario reaching it soon after, albeit pelted by Spiny Eggs.
Yoshi quickly ran over to his friend, shaking him a bit. "M-Mario!" he panicked. "Mario, are you ok?"
Somewhat dazed, Mario got up to his knees, pulling out a spike lodged in his nose, winching in pain a bit. "Yeah, I think so," Mario sighed. "I'm just a bit off my game, I guess." Yoshi let out a sigh of his own as he proceeded to help Mario pull out the rest of the spikes. Soon enough, the handful of spikes were removed, prompting Mario to thank Yoshi as the duo went forward to the next level.
The next level was relatively the same, just with Bullet Bills and their cousin, the Bulls-eye Bill, which for some reason, weren't homing in on Mario and Yoshi. Of course, this was a good thing, considering everything else trying to kill them. Granted, the Bulls-eye Bills were still trying to "give them a game over", but it just amounted to them moving slightly faster. Talk about a fall from grace. I actually feel a bit bad for them. Needless to say though, it was a relatively uneventful runthrough, and pretty much as quickly as they made it to the level, they had completed it, keeping pace as they headed on to the next one.
The third level was, get this, pretty underwhelming, being a grassy plain. Yoshi prepared to discuss a game plan, but Mario was already eagerly running off. All Yoshi could do was begin to catch up as he let out an ambivalent sigh. "That's Mario for you," he thought. "He's always raring to go, even if it kills him."
Soon enough, Yoshi had caught up to Mario, who was about to pass through a section full of Munchers. Speeding up, he caught up to Mario, Grabbing him by the hand to lift him up to the cliffs above, causing him to lose his balance for a moment before regaining his footing. Yoshi looked up at the small cliffs, focusing on Mario who gave him a smile. Yoshi smiled back as the two went on to complete yet another level.
Finally, the two reached the next of Bowser's castles, littered with Fire Bars. No, really, they were everywhere. You would probably think Bowser had a hard-on for them. ...I'm going to stop talking now, I'm sorry. That was really out-of-hand.
Anyways, Mario let out a joking scoff. "Wow, old Bowz really went all out when constructing the castle." Yoshi couldn't help but giggle at Mario's deadpan claim as the two prepared to get through the forretress.
Getting through the castle was a bit easier said than done. Well, at least for Yoshi. To his knowledge, he had never been in one of Bowser's castles, so this was all new to him. Well, I mean, there was Yoshi's Island, but whether or not that's the same Yoshi is up to debate, and to further confuse things, there was Yoshi's Island DS with the Star Children thing and- Wait, what do you mean we don't talk about that game? ...Why are you pointing guns at me? Ok, I'll stop! Just please don't stop me!
U-Um, where were we? Ah, yes. While Mario was able to get through the castle with relative ease, there were numerous close calls, one even resulting with a small flicker of fire got on his hat. Yoshi, on the other hand, had ended up with a couple burn marks on his sides, leaving him desperate to find some water or shade, what with Yoshis being cold-blooded and all. I mean, they are cold-blooded, right? They're like some dinosaur, dragon thing. Mario reassured Yoshi that he would help to patch Yoshi up after the battle with the False Bowser, knowing a thing or two about medidence himself. That being said, whether Mario really had a medical degree was rather questionable. Seriously, he just throws those pill into that jar so nonchalantly. Wait, is it really a jar or is it the patient? Oh Dio mio…
Soon after the battle, Mario followed up on hs offer, following all of the steps to treating a burn, finishing up by applying the bandages and gauze. "Are you sure you can still go on this adventure?" Mario asked. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I already know your answer. You're really determined to her, huh? Well, you're just like me then. Anyway, if you really want to continued onwards, I want to to be very careful. The last thing we want is for you to get a contracture."
Yoshi nodded. "Thank you, Mario. I know I'll probably worry you because of it, but I really do want to help you rescue the Princess. I'll do my best to follow your advice, though, I promise."
Mario gave a wide smile. "I understand, and thank you, Yoshi. To be honest, one of the last things I want to see is my friends getting hurt."
Yoshi couldn't help but tear up at Mario's response. Soon enough, more tears began to dribble down his face, prompting Mario to help wipe them, stroking his reptilian friend's back with his other hand. "Hey, it's ok. Don't cry."
Yoshi sniffled, doing his best to smile. "Y-Yeah. I'm sorry, Mario. I-I'm just so happy to know someone like you." Mario couldn't help but gie a half smile as he continued to console the green dinosaur. The two were so caught up in their little heartfelt moment, they also didn't hear a familiar voice call out to them. Mario perked up a bit as turned in the direction of the voice, knowing too well who it belonged to. As he suspected, there Luigi was eagerly running up on them, Toad riding on his shoulders. Mario helped Yoshi up and the two ran up to the other two.
The two brothers were soon enough in arms length of each other, proceeding to do quick high-five, followed up by a brief side hug before the two began to have a quick chat, catching up on what the other brother had missed while they were on their own.
"Mario, you won't believe it!" Toad interrupted. "I was able to do a bunch of Toad Rallies, and I was able to get Luigi to help us. Still doesn't make sense that he wasn't available to help us from the start, though. Anyway, if you have anyone you should be thanking, it should be me."
Mario and Luigi quicked turned their attention to the mushroom retainer. "Thank you," they both chimed in unison, proceeding to chat with each other again, causing Toad to facefault onto the ground. He was about to angrly tell them off, but his anger began to die down as Yoshi helped him out, allowing him to sit on his back.
Soon enough, the newly formed quartet was ready to go, and with another high-five shared between the two bros, they set off the next World, Bowser's Castle in sight beyond the horizon.