Ness and Luigi had travelled to the third floor of the Smash Mansion. At one of the ends of the hallway lined with doors, they found an all too familiar man there. He was not that tall in height. In fact, he was a heavy, shorter than Luigi, but the man was wearing a red hat with a big M on it and blue overalls on top of a red shirt, and he had a moustache on his face under his somewhat big nose. Ness knew the man as Mario, the older brother to Luigi, and the man who had saved Princess Peach a lot and was an all-around honourable guy. A lot of people in the Smash Mansion liked the plumber. Ness never associated much with him though. They didn't have much in common beyond fighting, and that was more talking with fists than words.
"Well what did the others say, Luigi?" Mario asked, wondering if his brother had heard any different news in regards to the missing princess. Luigi shook his head.
"I'm sorry, Mario, but I asked the people who knew her best, and even they haven't seen her lately," Luigi grimly spoke. His brother took off his red cap, looking frustrated, aware this meant they had to go to the Mushroom Kingdom now. They didn't mind that, but the worry that Princess Peach was missing again was the main thing eating away at them. After processing the information he fixed his hat back on his head.
"Why are you here, Ness?" Mario asked, wondering why the young psychic was here. Ness shook the plumber's gloved hand.
"I came to help save Peach from Bowser! I figured you'd prefer me over Wario," Ness claimed, trying to make light of the situation. Mario laughed slightly. He couldn't disagree with the young boy. He appreciated the help nonetheless, though he too was aware of Ness's relationship with Princess Peach, the Italian plumber doubting that Luigi had begged the psychic to help them.
"You guys ready?" Ness questioned the brothers while grabbing the key by the door and putting it in the lock.
"Y-yeah, sure…" Luigi nervously admitted, already terrified at the thought of assaulting Bowser's home castle again.
"Let's a go!" Mario insisted. Ness smirked, turning the key in the lock before opening the door, unveiling another portal inside. One at a time, all three of them entered, each vanishing into the portal. Once they all had entered, the door slammed shut behind them.
This time, it wasn't darkness that welcomed the young boy, though it was odd. This time, he found himself standing on an open meadow, bright green as if morning had barely risen. He could see various huge mountains over the horizon, the bright white clouds in the sky, and a few random blocks around with question marks on them.
"Whoa. Where are we?" Ness wondered aloud, seeing Mario and Luigi lying around him on the ground. They were starting to wake up themselves. Clearly they had experienced the minor black out episodes that are standard with the portal warping. The teenage psychic could safely assume that they were at least near the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Oh, wow. We're in the Mushroom Plains…" Luigi groaned, his neck hurting due to him waking up using a rock as a pillow practically. This was the first time the brothers had appeared here from the portal. That was for sure.
"Is that good?" the young boy asked.
"No, not really. We gotta find the quick warp pipes in the Dry Dry Desert," Mario claimed, insisting that it was going to be the fastest way to get to Bowser's Castle. Otherwise they would have a lot more to traverse than just a grassy plains. Bowser always liked having his castle far away from the Mushroom Kingdom, since both kingdoms rulers despised one another immensely. Or at least that was what the reason used to be. Now there doesn't seem to be any. Mario had destroyed the King Koopa's castle hundreds of times, either way. The group began heading for the north to get going to the desert.
"So, Mario… mind if I ask you something?" Ness started conversation, knowing it would take some time, though occasionally in the walk he had to jump over a pit with the brothers. One wrong fall and he'd end up who knows where, and he didn't really want to imagine where.
"Sure, what is it?" Mario didn't mind the inquiry.
"I wanted to know why you and Bowser get along. From what Luigi told me, half the time it sounds like you and that turtle want to beat each other to death, yet you still don't fight much in the mansion," the raven haired boy elaborated his confusion, not wanting to offend him in any sense. It was probably a great thing that Mario and Bowser didn't fight half as much as they should. The Italian plumbers understood his confusion.
"We have a peace treaty. When we first got the invitations to the Smash Mansion, Princess Peach refused to believe that King Koopa would not have some under handed trick to assault the Mushroom Kingdom while we're all away. Even if he wasn't here he'd find some way to," the red plumber started, but Ness couldn't help but notice a minor contradiction in the explanation thus far.
"Yet a piece of paper with his handwriting on it made you feel safe?" he chirped, doubting that a treaty alone did it.
"Bowser isn't all bad. He's helped us a lot, really, too," Luigi admitted. Bowser had joined in on a fair share of their adventures with or without him, knowing the King Koopa had aided in saving the Mushroom Kingdom time and time again himself, even if it was for his own selfish needs.
"Yeah! If it wasn't for the kidnappings, I'd probably be nicer to him. But basically, both kingdoms agreed to live in harmony when King Bowser and Princess Peach are gone," Mario added, finishing the explanation. The peace treaty sounded flimsy at best. Ness did find it odd that Bowser agreed to it, too, but he was more worried about what the end result was going to be now that he had broken it and kidnapped the pregnant princess. Ness did consider telling the Mario brothers why he was concerned for Peach so much, but he didn't want to put blind fears in their heads. It was easier to worry for one person than two. The group was stopped however by something odd. They could see the huge desert in the distance and could already feel the searing heat from this distance, but the heard a voice that caught their attention.
"Stop right there!"