Ah, yes. The hearth is flaming nicely with a stable orange hue, the furniture has been polished well, and even the bookcase isn't looking terrible! What a perfect situation to continue off with our story...mind the two-month absence, please. I was...skydiving. Now then, onto your feature (literary) presentation!

In the depths of Past Mushroom Kingdom plainland...

There was a strange little patch of beige dirt in between large stretches of green grass and brown-bark trees surrounded by fertile cherry bushes and angry-eyed flowers beset lakeside. To add to the bizarreness of this little plot of bare soil, there was a mound about three-and-a-half feet tall and three-Italians across, further graced at the surface with a spiral of yellows and purples that spun clockwise slowly but elegantly. The shrubbery and saplings simply stood watch towards the mass, awaiting its next action...

...WOOSH!

Without further spectating a man in a blue-green get-up cannoned out of the swirl's epicenter in a cascade of multicolored stars and made a snappy nosedive in his arc, falling straight into the ground below head-first, his hat miraculously still atop his head. He could only let out a few loud squawks before his impact, his eyes now closed shut, a gargantuan gust of wind left in the collision's wake, as his arms and feet shifted downward, defeated. Sadly for him, this wasn't the worst to come.

...Tut!

A figure fashioned in blue and red lofted out of the paradoxical whirlpool gently and agilely like an eagle through the wind, smoothly landing on the green man's posterior with triumph...and then facing downward to see that he was standing on his brother's butt. Flabbergasted by this observation, he leapt off nimbly and cocked his head down, examining Luigi's...scenario. And, after a few seconds of nothingness, jumping up continuously to wake his unfortunately-situated sibling up. Of course, he was interrupted in this, as an interesting-looking piece of two-legged business-apparel landed at the edge of the dune.

"...Blegh..."

Luigi did indeed have the right to blurt such a guttural grunt out on this occasion, as this being luckily thumped right down on his gluteus maximus miraculously in the same way Mario had seconds ago. "Keep a keen eye on your forceful nudging, Professor! Jostling me into time vortexes is an unnecessary operation!" it bantered, chittering its teeth somehow at the curling portal at hand. Mario simply took a close gander at whatever this thing was before returning to his usual frantic vaulting in place to get its attention. This master stratagem seemed to have worked, as the storage option slid its boots across Luigi's backside (that incurred more grunting) to face the Red one in full.

"Ah, you must be the sanguine plumber I was conveniently sent to search for." The sanguine plumber in question nodded swiftly, putting his conversational partner in a daze of turning back left and right. "In the information endowed to me by the Professor, there was supposed to be a certain...compadre dressed in light green accompanying you..." Mario again faced downward at his brother's rear-end, still perplexed by his unlucky position.

"...HRRNGH!"

And so the unluckily-positioned plumber sprung up in rage, clattering his marble teeth and clutching onto his hat, clearly riled at this point by all the motionings on his derriere. "Goodness gracious!" it pouted. "I'm, I...apologize for that." Mario scurried over face-to-face at his irate sibling and calmed him down with electric hand gesticulations and frenetic word-delivery, as he was accustomed to.

Luigi sprouted a "Hmm..." to signify his recollection on this sudden figure's sterling character, as Mario turned back to the 'person' in question, giving a short hop. "I'm exhilarated to come into contact with such a dynamic duo like yourselves. My appropriate dubbing is Stuffwell, quite the good choice on the Professor's part, don't you agree?" One half of this dynamic duo mustered a short cough.

"...Anyway, indeed Professor E. Gadd created me on one of his good-intentioned inventing-sprees. I am what is named (rather uncreatively) as a suitcase, businessman's best friend. He delegated me all the way here in order for myself to act as your personal guide and aide." Another cough was heard from the other half.

"Naturally, 'aide' is UNDOUBTEDLY precise...I'm more than just a chute able to contain all your equipment, even if a vital task at hand. I carry with me ADVANCED apparati for data graphing...and BATTLE-READY sensors...and, er, nice pens." The two before Stuffwell thought for a moment, expressions of absolute ambivalence well-visible on their appearances. "Well...all in all, by useful-object standards (of which are very high) I am state of the art! I'll be a HUGE addition to your journey ahead."

The plumbers' faces grew a bit more positive, and the sanguine one of course leapt in approval. "Now, why don't we get cracking, gentlemen? To begin, I'll give you an EXCLUSIVE tour of my innards for you to gawk and salivate over the storage-space right at your fingertips!" Stuffwell laid himself out, letting the brothers peep in to the...wonders of state-of-the-art suitcasery. "Hm, hm? Do you like the FREE stopwatch and INDIVIDUAL item sections, yes?" Mario reluctantly nodded while his bro doodled a bit in the dirt.

"By all means, this isn't even scratching my well-polished (and groomed) surface. There are FAR more pieces of excellently-prepared gadgetry to be utilized at your every command, brothers of complementary colors." He conformed into his original bipedal state and stared eagerly at the two. "Well then, we've not any more time left for further introductionals. BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!" The sentient packing device backflipped straight onto Mario's back, attaching to it, as Mario blinked thrice, oblivious to what had just occurred (if that was even possible at this point from a person with THAT much experience).

SHRRRRRRMMM...

The bros spun towards the Time Hole, which was auspiciously sinking straight back into the ground, causing veritable stupor into Luigi as he watched in terror as his one-way ticket out of here vanished without a trace. This didn't waver him though, as he valiantly dug through the same spot with rigor with his eyes bulging out, sending dust and soil every which way, including into Mario's face (that'll get him even for the previous 'event').

He expounded on this, scooting in an elliptical orbit around the original mark with even faster hand-movement. After about five seconds of this, he stood up and hopped a few times, hands on hips and head shaking down to the ground. His brother tiptoed over to him, again attempting to cheer his despairing sibling up. This indeed, was to no avail, and Luigi knelt down and sobbed sharply in a constant stream of tears...

Being a grown man, he was able to shrug off this five-minute-long crying and returned to an organized formation with his teammate-through-time, wiping off the moisture from his face quickly. Lakitu snapped a picture of the two on their way as they barged eastward towards unforeseen territory...or not. Much to their satisfaction, they came across a batch of flat 'steps' of rock each ascending in height leading to the expanse of skyscraping mushroom 'towers' not far off. As Luigi slid his hands together with a sly grin, Stuffwell latched off onto the ground.

"Ahem!"

The Green Bean stopped in his devious tracks, begrudgingly listening in. "I'm afraid I haven't told you a CRUCIAL bit of information yet. You see, the process of Time Travel is a bit laborious on one's muscles, and casually performing your everyday feat of athleticism is not the best idea." Luigi crossed his arms and kept his smug expression, hoisting himself up and slicing through the air...as several cracks could be heard and he drooped down at the first step's tip.

"Naturally, you'll have to put a bit more effort into your jumps than normal to curb this nuisance." Mario stooped groundward, preparing himself, before rocketing into the air and sticking the landing perfectly. Soon enough, Luigi joined in on the fun, even if the accuracy was a bit off. "Indubitably, you will get better at this as the quest persists. Now then, BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

Stuffwell settled nicely onto Mario's hind and the Brothers hopped up to a vast area of little rock stubs with question-mark-boxes about. They capitalized on these, of course, snatching up some coins before finding themselves at a row of taller steps with short but still-surmountable gaps betwixt them. "You haven't participated in jumping cooperatively in ages, have you? Well, here's your time to shine."

Mario turned back to the gaps, rowing his hand forward for Luigi, who did the same. Except, the outcome wasn't quite alike, as his jump went a bit short, forcing him to clutch at the rim of the rock. Fortunately, he was able to grab Mario's outretched hand, hoisting himself up to the surface and smiling back warmly. After further platforming across these...platforms, they made their way onto another stretch of flatness with different-colored and lettered blocks floating high, the stairway ahead blocked by a about ten feet of wall.

"Ah, yes, perplexing puzzles are perched at our doorstep! How wonderful!" The Brothers glanced at the blocks, confused. "Simply put, each of you jump up against the flying brown-edifice of which's color corresponds to that of your overalls and the persnickety problem will be solved!" The two blinked twice and shrugged. "Alright, by that I meant hit red fist against red block and green fist against green block. Got it?" They nodded immediately, as Stuffwell sighed. Thirty seconds of block-bashing ensued, and the wall descended, allowing the Time-mates through.

BRRRM, BRRM...

The two glared every which way on a lengthy patch of grass sporadically, having already known that these types of unnerving sounds didn't necessarily mean good times were ahead.

...Blummm!

"MARIO!"

A Toad indiscriminately doinked down hard on Mario's' temple, deflecting off and falling onto the ground. The now-delirious plumber dawdled around and spun, leaving Luigi to shriek in terror.

"The...the village..oh dear.."

The barely-breathing creature struggled to let out, his voice in a clear daze of despair.

BRRZTTT, BRZTTT...

A very familiar and subtle sound could be faintly heeded by the dynamic duo in the midst of their bewilderment, as many same-shaped discs of blackness hurdled over them in quick succession, continuing the blood-curdling sound as they flew. And guess what those silhouettes actually were?

SHROOB UFOS!

As Mario and Luigi realized what happened their panic grew exponentially, examining this armada of rampaging warships glide over them at speeds they could barely even fathom. They were sent into an even greater stupor, unable to move or run, simply watching, thinking. Soon enough, the hopeless sound turned into another, as the Bros heard mass-explosions and laser attacks a mile or so off. Snapping out of his idle breakdown of his finicky circumstance while Luigi perilously held his cap over his closed eyes, Mario waltzed over to the incapacitated Toad, forgetting about the excursion on his head earlier, and kneeling down to him.

"The village..

dark purple..

dry mushrooms.."

The Toad's voice could barely eek out anything audible at this point, his mouth as dry as what he was describing. Mario shot up, looking back up at the sky and visualizing the previous stampede of what seemed to the Toad's depleted depiction. He rushed to Luigi, and jumped a bit, determinedly uttering 'Let's go!' to his petrified companion, running off without him. Hearing this a few moments later, Luigi peeked out of his cap to find the Toad laid lifelessly on the grass. Launching up somehow even more aghast than before, he followed Mario to a tee. This was immediately confirmed to be the correct course of action when the poor guy was promptly gobbled up by one of the circling UFO's, and sent off with it.

The two had a sigh of relief as they made it to the Mushroom Towers with long stems and large flat surfaces that they saw far off before, concluding they'd at least made some progress towards finding the Princess. Keyword: some. They moseyed on along lackadaisically-arranged stairways in comparison to the sturdy rock ones from day's past until coming across a peculiar little thing in the middle of their route. "Sanguine one!" Stuffwell shouted. Mario painfully stretched back to catch a glimpse of the suitcase. "I apologize for interrupting your much-needed imperativeness, but who has knowledge of the likely life-and-death challenges ahead of you?" Inquisitive 'Hm?'s could be heard from them. "It would behoove you both to be prepared for battle before going on your merry ways!" Another peculiar little thing (that was similar in appearance to a 'dry purple mushroom) crossed into the Bros' line of sight. Stuffwell slid up Mario's back to above his hat and looked to the meandering critters.

"Why, take a peep at this! Oodles of practice right at our mitts!" He cocked his head down. "Mario, do your work against those things, if you would." The Red Plumber smirked, awaiting for it to come close to him as he beautifully executed a squat-jump from his knees and landed down expertly on the monster's noggin. Unsatisfied with just one hit, he flowed along the air to hit the second one, backflipping down to the ground by to Luigi and causing an annoyed stir in his two foes. "Capital work, Mario!" Stuffwell cheered. "Engaging your enemies first will always yield you the upper hand in combat! Outstanding!"

Mario smirked and leapt in place in recognition of this before seeing how his combatants were still squirming from his previous hit. He knelt down, jumping forward with even more strength from the increased preparation time and hammering down a POWERFUL strike to the forehead against the left Shroob that left the thing's eyes protruding outwards and Mario being left with a smile. Stuffwell etched his eyes back towards the Green Bean. "Luigi! You'll do the same as Mario, got it?" The Red One jumped in position to him as he jumped back, a new face of confidence wrapped around him. The Green Plumber leapt up in a far higher arc than Mario and slammed down on the right foe's front half, springing his whole body weight southward before backflipping away to Mario's side and pulling his right thumb up.

"Carefully analyze the enemy's posture! It might give you a keen eye on who they're going to attack!" The one on the left, who amazingly shrugged off the first two hits, ran forward and made an immediate gesture with its right leg, shifting to the right towards Mario. The plumber in question, reading the attack, pounced on the situation and plunged down on his attacker from a short hop, exploding it in a torrent of stars. Before the remaining marauder could react, Luigi had stood back on the ground, witnessing a similar lightshow from his opponent.

Before long Mario was pumping his fist in the air and Luigi was wiping sweat off his cap numerous times as the time-mates had pummeled their way through the alien opposition en masse and en route to-

...Some inaudible dialogue was heard by the two as they made their way onto another mushroom platform. Luigi looked up.

BLAM!

Without second notice, the lovable 'Bean had been struck in the cranium by a stray Shrooboid, how terrible (and inconvenient, at that)! Mario again was forced to fling his arms around as Luigi's hands could do nothing to keep his head from bobbling left and right in utter chaos. Stuffwell peered to the right of Mario's face. "Luigi, are you in practicable condition? Do you need a physical exam-I mean repair protocols? It's clear to me you've been dinged up quite a bit." He kept bandying back and forth. "I'll take that as a yes! What favorable timing! Allow me to explain proper health replenishment procedure!" He (I think he's earned the right to be called a proper pronoun by now) laid back on the surprisingly soft floor of the mushroom platform and all two of the non-disordered denizens of that platform stared with befuddlement at the disoriented ex-carpenter.

"Luigi, I know this is about the third time today you've been horrifically brutalized, but could you just try to get your attention back this one time?" He opened up without further intuition. "Now then, if you would, take out a mushroom from the 'item' compartment, yes?" Mario indiscriminately took his time taking it out of its cubby-hole and tossing it into Luigi's gaping mouth. "Wonderful! That's certain to put the marinara on his mozzarella sticks!" The mozzarella stick himself looked back in absolute awkwardness towards Stuffwell. "Anyway, BACK TO (the) ADVENTURE...AT HAND!"

After that little interruption, the Bros continued to slice and dice through bunch after bunch of un-fortuitous foe, eventually getting to the (quite unfortunately named) Holli Jolli Village, that was...well, wasn't enduring the most jolly of holidays.

TRAVESTY.

What laid throughout the village was a cavalcade of severed trees, fallen yellow star ornaments, bits and pieces of rocky debris and entire halves of once-beautiful buildings scattered throughout the scarred streets. The entire area had garnered an air of devastation and destruction, where most everything couldn't escape being unscathed by the UFOs' unrelenting shelling. As soon as they came here, they could take a gander at the latter half of the Shroob attack still in-progress, more Toads being captured and houses eviscerated. For once, the duo was prompted with genuine and incessant anguish, gazing in trepidation at what their new enemies could accomplish in such a short amount of time. But, they couldn't take anymore morsels of time simply surveying the damage, and took off into the beast's belly with the intentions of nothing more than stopping the menace that did this.

Thankfully, not all of the houses were damaged beyond hospitability, as the Bros were able to snag up a few coins and mushrooms in several unaffected coin blocks that laid deep in the now-desolate living spaces. Yes, the fireplaces still soldiered on. Indeed, the presents' quality of wrappage was still in tip-top shape. But without anyone to open them nor sit back and feel the comfy warmth of the fire they lost all humanity and purely became graveyards of a once-great town. Something to remind but not to cheer up. Depressing, that's all it was.

Except, apparently that's not all it was completely, as the time-mates came across a sign bearing the words 'Mayor's House,' the establishment itself looking much larger and grand than the ones before. Making haste, they waltzed in.

"Mrrrf...

Mmmph.."

These faint gasps of despondency greeted the duo unexpectedly as they squinted their eyes far ahead chimneyside.

What the fireplace?

The Brothers looked up to see...a hefty man in blood-red attire wagging his feet down at the floor, dangling up in the air while stuck in the chimney itself. "Are...is...there anyone around? Salutations?" The time-mates gazed in astonishment. "What was the fate of those awful purple things? Did they leave?" Mario explained as much as he could to the unfortunate man (to add to the counter, of course). "Oh, lil' old me? I'm the long-serving mayor of this...not completely broken village. Nice to not see ya!" The two smiled, having some humor to lighten up this gloomy situation at hand.

"I was trying to stay away from those darned things when I got, er...stranded up here. Escape has to be possible, though, at least in a way that doesn't involve major weight loss.." The Toad sighed, legs still active. Shrugging, the Red One ambled into the chimney and gave a good jump against the old man's...south side, sending him zooming out and onto the ground safely (surprisingly). "Ho ho! Finally out of harm's way!" This was succeeded by a band of Shroobs and their in-air compatriots moving harm's way back to him.

"HEEEEEEEEELP!"

An ear-piercing screech was unfathomably created outside as Mario and Luigi were forced on their feet, turning around in a heartbeat, and rushing out even quicker.

"WAAAH!"

They both screamed a similarly-unsettling squeal before the UFOs hastily took the Toad away as fast as they'd met him, indicating their cue to take position at this opposing trio of Shroobs.

This fierce stance by our two heroes was met with bouts of questioning in their foreign tongue by the purple blobs themselves, as if questioning how long it would take to beat these pushovers. The southmost one took arms, however, uniting his comrades against the men in Red and Green with a warcry as they all took out their menacing laser pistols in sync.

"Let'sa go!"

"Okie dokie!"

On the other hand, in its right hand, the leftmost Shroob pulled out a two-screened doohickey with an extruding antenna on top, signaling for yet another UFO to arrive, this time bearing a spiked timer with the number '3' roosted apathetically on its screen. The Bros only had enough time to make a short glance at it, not thinking much of it and retracing their attention to the combatants at the ready. Mario took hold first while they were calibrating their weapons, striking hard at the device-bearing of the bunch with a hard smack to the face via his well-polished but deadly boots. Coming back to the crater-filled ground, he had a look of determination on him that hadn't emerged in a long, long while. The timer hit '2.'

In response, each Shroob took devious satisfaction in slowly sending plasma blast after blast at our protagonists with such speed that they could barely avoid them, Luigi specifically getting his shoes smoked slightly. This didn't deter him decidedly, as he made a great leap for the northeast one, sending it almost on its feet while his feet tap-danced in celebration. It hit '1.'

Another volley of laser blasts were discharged against the teammates-through-time, on this barrage actually hitting each of them once, near knocking the wind out of them. The 'near' part was crucial, though, as they swallowed their pain and held on valiantly. They even worked in such harmony on this attack that they squat-jumped at nigh the same time, dispatching mighty stompings on two of the cutthroat invaders. They high-fived each other, grinning graciously.

All three of them still stood there, unperturbed, unphased. The timer hit '0.' An imposing energy cannon strutted out of the UFO's bottom, formulating and firing a HUGE ball of pure dread gifted in a sphere of plasma, hurdling against the dynamic duo as they could do nothing but howl and wail before being completely and assuredly KO'd in a millisecond.

Defeat.

The Mario Brothers laid lifeless on the embattled floor of Holli Jolli Village, acting as a sign of massive satisfaction for the triumphant trios of Shroobs as they laughed and chatted about their hearts out for minutes on end. They had taken down this oncoming threat with ease, and now they could progress onwards undisturbed...for now.

As to what the destinies of our two conked-out compadres would be? You'll have to wait and see.