Part Two: The Seven Worlds

Chapter 1: Dream Connection


Subcon

"Toad, we did it." Peach turned to her top retainer as he was waving to the crowds of fairies and other creatures below the stone platform they stood on. Several of the strange world's citizen's including the former minions of Wart who no longer had to carry out his evil deeds were cheering for them.

"It feels kind of odd," Toad was using all of his strength to keep from blushing. "To be heroes." He turned towards where the girls from another world stood. "You two should be more used to it."

"Actually we are not," Maria Segali held her cap against her chest. "Just because we did this before, doesn't mean we are used to it."

"Maria and I are just city girls," Pauline added before she blew a kiss to the cheering public. "I'm used to crowds standing and giving applause. It still gives me a giddy sensation in my stomach though."

"She's a performer," Maria chuckled. "And I'm just a business school bound girl who works at a coffee shop to pay the bills. The ones who are used to fighting are these guys." She pointed at the two Koopa brothers.

"This isn't usual method of fighting," Mario shrugged. "Luigi and are more used to just breathing fire on em, and scaring them with our roars."

"Don't forget throwing hammers," Luigi added. Like Maria he was holding his hat against his chest.

"That too," Mario nodded. "We don't throw turnips at enemies."

"We used to when we were younger," Luigi chuckled. "Remember how we used to hate turnips?"

"Turnips taste nasty," Maria stuck her tongue out.

"We used to hate em, but then our mother tried something new." Mario explained. "She had the kitchen staff mash em up and mix in some cinnamon and sugar."

"Brown sugar," Luigi held up a claw.

"I never tried it like that," Maria pursed her lips together.

"I'll ask my kitchen staff to prepare turnips like that," Peach said. Something felt like it was missing, like she was supposed to do something.

"I'm really glad we met again, princess." Mario said. "Even though it was on these terms."

"I want to see you again." Peach grabbed hand. Growing up she had always thought it their hands would be dry, cold and scaly. There hands felt like the hands of any toad or human and just as warm.

"We should kiss," Pauline said. "The guys kiss the girls. The audience would love that."

"Okay," Maria placed her hat back on. "But who should kiss who?"

"I want to kiss Mario," Peach said. She kissed him once and it felt nice. After fighting together on the same side it would feel even nicer.

"Okay," Maria chewed the bottom of her lip. "I'll kiss Toad, no offense Luigi but the fact that you two are twins and you both have the same names as…" She closed her eyes. She couldn't finish.

Peach felt sorry for her. Poor Maria had found out the truth the onetime she and Pauline came to the Mushroom Kingdom that there her infant brothers were buried in the royal cemetery and that her father was once the Kingdom's great hero before he and his wife left. They were too heart broken after what had happened.

"I understand," Luigi nodded. "You do kind of feel like a little sister to us." He held out his hand to Pauline. "I guess it is you and me."

Pauline grabbed his hand and pulled him until his chest met against hers. He didn't get a chance to catch his breath before she locked her lips with his.

"I wish I had platform shoes," Toad smiled sheepishly.

"I don't mind kneeling," Maria bent down and the two shared a short and friendly kiss.

"Our turn," Peach stared into Mario's bright blue eyes until their lips met. She closed her own eyes and felt her head spin as she savored the feeling of his lips on hers and the only sound she could hear was the beat of her own heart, coupled with the sound of birds singing loudly. Where did those birds come from, and why did she feel the edges of grass blades tickling against her skin?

"They are waking up," Toadette whispered.

The world of Subcon melted away and Peach was met with an odd orange covering over her eyes. It only took a few seconds for her to realize she had her eyes closed and she was outside. She could smell the scent of the roses from her garden and she could feel the blanket they used for a picnic under her legs.

"Not too loud dear," Peach's grandmother said. "We don't want to wake them up too fast. They look like they both had some interesting dreams."

"Grandma?" Peach yawned and sat up. "How did we get back here?"

"You didn't go anywhere," Toadette said. "Except maybe in your dreams."

"It was just a dream?" Toad mumbled and sat up. "It felt so real."

"What did you dream about?" Grandmother asked.

"Was it about a handsome prince from far away?" Toadette asked.

"No," Peach shook her head.

"I was asking Toad," the pink-haired girl giggled.

"Very funny," Toad stared at her. "The Princess and I were joined by the two Koopa generals and Maria and Pauline in this strange world."

"That was what I dreamed," Peach blinked. "We couldn't have the same dream."

"Were there odd looking birds that wore masks in your dreams?" Toad asked. "And giant crabs and nasty rats that wore sunglasses and threw bombs at you?"

"And we fought back by throwing bombs at them," Peach smoothed her hair. "And at the end we all kissed."

"You two kissed?" Toadette wiggled her fingers as she pointed at them.

"Mo," Toad shook his head. "Maria kissed me."

"Do you have a crush on her?" Toadette narrowed her eyes.

"No," he was blushing. "None that I am aware of."

"I kissed Mario," Peach smiled. "Again."

"Don't they have bad breaths?" Toadette asked.

"None more than you and I," Toad said. At the start of their dream adventure he was apprehensive in working with the two Koopas, but had grown to respect them.

"Grandma how often do two people have the exact same dream."

"Not very often," grandmother stood up. "Lets go back inside. You have wrinkled your dress."


Brooklyn New York

It wasn't the just the various beeps from several car horns that woke Maria up from her dream. She had slept through car horns all her life. One had to when they lived in New York. What woke her up was the combination of the car horns plus the screech of tires and the crunch of fenders greeting each other.

"Damn moronic drivers," Maria mumbled and stretched out her legs. "That's why we have public transportation. To keep you idiots of the road." Her feet banged against the porch. That was right. It was such a nice day that she and Pauline both decided to have lunch outside on their porch and not after they both finished they fell asleep in their chairs. "Pauline are you awake?"

"Yeah," Pauline yawned. "That is the last time I have the combination of pepperoni, sausage and jalapenos."

"What's wrong?" Maria sat up. "Is it not sitting well with you?"

"Not that," Pauline stretched. "It just gave me an odd dream. We were in this strange world, one even weirder than that mushroom land and Princess Peach was there, and that one Retainer. What was his name?"

"Toad?" Maria felt her voice creek. "And we were also with the Koopa Brothers and we fought against a bunch of odd guys with masks-"

"By throwing vegetables at them." Pauline pointed at her. "No way. Was there a large frog king at the end?"

"Yes," Maria nodded. She had vivid dreams before, ones where she could also smell things and hear things, but never where she was able to feel things, nor even taste things."

"No way," Pauline shook her head. "That happens only in the movies."

"So does two regular girls ending up being transported to some magical world," Maria pointed out. "I have one question."

"You have one? That is funny cause I have several. Okay, what is your question?"

"What is it like kissing a Koopa?"

"Like kissing any other guy." Pauline chuckled. "His moustache tickled my upper lip."

"I thought you liked guys with moustaches," Maria got back to her feet. "You kept complimenting them as we fought."

"Yeah, but I thought Mario was cuter, but he was falling for the Princess and she likes him just the same."

"I wonder if his going to try and woo her."

"Do they have a flower delivery service there?" Pauline popped the rest of her tired joints. "Not too mention that it was just a dream."

"I have no idea," Maria picked up the pizza box that was on the small table between their chairs. "You know what hurts? It's the fact we were working together. We looked out for each other. Before when we fought against that three headed snake, Luigi pushed me to the ground so I wouldn't get hit by the blast and when Mario nearly fell down a hole and I grabbed his hand."

"The way they provided fire to keep us warm and too cook food, not to mention ignite a fuse of those bombs even before those little guys got ticked off."

"The fact they hate turnips as much as I do." Maria couldn't move. "They said I felt like a little sister. You don't know how often I fantasized about what if they were still alive. I have had friends and classmates who grew up with older brothers and I envied them, even when they complained about when their brothers were being jerks. I wanted my brothers. I wanted them to be jerks, to hog the video game systems. To make fun of the guys I was dating, and to threaten to beat them up if they broke my heart or treated me wrong. I wanted them alive to play baseball and tennis with. For me to tease about their girlfriends, complain about their stinky socks and get grossed out when they made sounds with their armpits." She stared at the small water stain from where a tear had landed. She had no idea she had been crying.

"Maria, I'm sorry." Pauline placed a hand on her arm.

"Lets clean this up." She could remember the last time talking about a dream could have made her depressed.

"When you want to talk about it I'll be here," Pauline picked up the two empty glasses from the table.

"I know." She took a deep breath. "When do you have to be at the theater?"

Pauline checked her watch. "I got a few more hours. I better take a few TUMs before I leave as a preventive measure."

"Can't have you throw your performance when you are double over in pain," Maria nodded.

"Might as well get back in character," Pauline took on a southern accent. "I do have to worry about my poor sister, Blanche."

"Work your magic girl."


Dark Land

The kiss did not last as long as Mario had hoped. When their lips had met he had imagined the adventure since it started with him and Luigi arriving in such an odd world. Then they met up with the Princess and the mushroom retainer named Toad, and then the two girls who fought against their forces.

"General Mario," feathers brushed against Mario's stomach. "Wake up sir."

"What?" Mario tried to smack away the feathers, only to end up raking his claws through air.

"General Mario sir. I'm sorry to have to wake up, but our highness, King Bowser wishes to meet with you and General Luigi." It was a Paragoomba.

"Where am I?" Mario yawned. He had asked the same question when he and Luigi had encountered the others and because of the Princess's desire to not fight he held back.

"You are in your bed sir," The Paragoomba gave him a funny look. "After lunch you and General Luigi felt sleepy and decided to take a nap."

"That's right," Mario sat up. "How long have we been a sleep?"

"For about an hour," the Paragoomba explained.

"It felt longer than that," Luigi was sitting up in his bed and rubbing his eyes. "It felt like days."

"You felt like you were asleep for days?" Mario asked.

"I felt like I was fighting several of our forces for a few days," Luigi explained. "The Shyguys, the Snifits, Bomb-ombs, Pokeys, Pidgets, Birdos and Ninji's. There were other strange creatures."

"Like giant ladybugs that climbed up vines and snakes in vases that spat out strange bullet like projectiles?" Mario added. There was no way his brother and him could have had the same dream.

"And a living large flame with what looked like glasses," Luigi shuddered. "How did you know?"

"Cause I had the same dream." Mario rubbed his head. "Did you also dream about the little faeries calling to you and giving you a special song?"

"No," Luigi shook his head. "It was just you, you even said you had this message."

Mario had explained the song in his dream. He told the others about a large and awful king who enslaved a group of fairies and he hated vegetables. "I mentioned that we needed potions to go to a secret level and that we needed keys."

"Yeah, the cherries thing was a bit of a fluke," Luigi tapped the side of his head. "It was that toad, Toad who found the first star man."

"It was kind of odd how we could use them."

"I enjoyed riding on those carpets," Luigi stood on his bed and posed like he was riding a skateboard. "At least until they disappeared."

"I thought getting kissed was your favorite part," Mario clasped his claws together and he pursed his lips, making smacking sounds.

"Lay off," Luigi stuck his tongue out.

"Well how was it? Or don't you remember?"

"I remember. It was kind of nice. I thought it would be odd to receive a kiss from a human."

"They kiss just as well as Koopas," Mario sighed. He had nearly forgotten about that kiss he received from Peach those many months ago when he helped her escape, and he was very thankful that she hadn't mentioned Mario's part in the escape to Luigi.

The Paragoomba coughed, letting Mario and Luigi know that he was still in their room. "I'm sorry if I am intruding on your memories, but King Bowser wishes to see the information you have gathered on the seven kingdoms we are taking over."

"Sorry," Mario felt himself blush. He had forgotten about the Paragoomba. "All my notes and findings are in my office."

"Mine are in the main war room," Luigi said. "They are in a green on the middle of the table."

"Mine are in a red folder," Mario frowned as he tried to remember where they were. "In the third drawer of the right side of my desk."

The soldier nodded before he left.

"I wonder how this take over is going to be," Luigi said.

"Better than what we did with the mushroom kingdom, and for several reasons. The first one is that there are several kingdoms instead of one," Mario counted down on his talons. "Number two is mother found out there is no mention of any princess that can undo any magic used on the various people of said lands. Number three is that we have sent our best soldiers to spy and gather information, number four is that we have these new ships that prince Ludwig and prince Iggy have designed."

"You don't think those girls are going to try and stop us?" Luigi asked.

"I hope not," Mario frowned. "I liked working with them."

"But it was just a dream."

"I know. It was what Maria said, about her brothers who were murdered before she was born. We have the same names as them."

"I know, but that might be a creation of our subconscious."

"I know," Mario sighed. "Ready to meet with Bowser? The sooner we have completed the takeovers then the sooner we get to party."

"I was born ready," Luigi struck his open palm with his fist.


A/N: I want to focus on the games that involved Bowser and the Koopa Troop. This was how I want to do with the second one, include it, but not have it be the focus.

The play Pauline referenced is "A Streetcar named Desire"