Angelo

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Height: 5' 7"

Eyes: Chocolatey Brown

Hair: Messy Black

Skin: Caramel

Angelo grunted as the Fire Bro slammed him against the wall, shoving one arm against his chest to keep him there while summoning a fireball in his other hand.

"I'll ask once," the Fire Bro warned him. "Who are you and how did you end up on Lord Bowser's ship?"

The Fire Bro was a little shorter than he was. Angelo could've easily fought him off, but he usually tried to avoid getting into brawls with creatures who could summon fire at will.

Angelo raised his hands. "Hey, I didn't end up here on purpose! I just stepped into this dimension and ended up here! I promise you, I was not aiming for your ship!"

The Fire Bro scoffed. "Yeah, right. You came here from another dimension? You're just a kid. How am I supposed to believe you can travel interdimensionally?"

Angelo sighed. "I have these orbs that let me do that. If you let off of me, I can show you–"

"Oh, you mean these?" A Koopatrol stepped to the two of them holding a bag. It was filled with the orbs Angelo used to travel between dimensions.

"I don't think there's any need for that," the Koopatrol said. "Lord Bowser will appreciate these new gifts."

The Fire Bro didn't take his eyes off of Angelo. The fireball continued burning in his hand. "What about him? We can't just let him roam around the ship."

"Do you have Rock Mushrooms for brains or something!?" said a voice from behind them. All three pairs of eyes looked to see Bowser himself standing in the hallway.

"Throw him in a cell!" the Koopa King commanded. "I'm not gonna have some little punk walking around on my ship!"

The Fire Bro nodded. "As you wish, my Lord."

He quickly grabbed Angelo's right arm with his non-flaming hand and yanked him off the wall. "Come on."

Angelo didn't even argue.

As the Fire Bro led him to what he assumed was his cell, Angelo tried not to look back at the large fire-breathing reptile following them. It never occurred to him just how scary Bowser could be. It probably had something to do with the guy's size. He was at least as tall as two Angelos stacked on top of each other.

At last, they got to the dungeon area of the ship. It was filled with those old-fashioned cells with metal bars extending from the floor to the ceiling. Why an airship had a dungeon area, Angelo didn't have the faintest idea. Nevertheless, the Fire Bro threw him an open cell and quickly closed the door.

Before Angelo could say anything, Bowser said, "Leave us. I want a moment alone with our little intruder."

The Koopatrol and the Fire Bro both looked at each other nervously, but they obeyed the Koopa King and walked out of the room.

Angelo's heart started racing as Bowser approached his cell. He'd really done it now. He was imprisoned without his orbs, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to escape.

Bowser crossed his arms and grinned at Angelo, baring his sharp teeth. "So! Mind explaining to me what the heck you were doing on my ship?"

Angelo sighed, striving to maintain a calm and cool demeanor. "Look, man, I didn't want to be on your ship. I was in the Pokémon dimension, and I decided to come here, the Mushroom Kingdom dimension. I wasn't aiming for your ship, but I still ended up here. Satisfied?"

"First of all, I didn't understand a word you just said," Bowser said gruffly. "Second of all, HA! You really expect me to believe that? Other dimensions? Does this have anything to do with that Dimentio guy? 'Dimension' kinda sounds like 'Dimentio.'"

"Okay, I'm a little surprised you managed to make a connection like that on your own. You deserve a cookie. Unfortunately, I work alone. I like to dimension-hop, for lack of a better term. I'm what you'd call an 'adventurous soul,' so I'm always traveling places. So, if you let me go now, I promise you I'll be out of your very stylish crimson hair."

Bowser raised a hand to his chin. "Hm, let me think…Okay. NO!"

Angelo and his heart jumped at the Koopa King's sudden outburst.

"'Preciate the comment on my hair, but I can't just let you go, punk! You trespassed on my ship. I was in the middle of something very important–"

"Let me guess," Angelo cut him off, "Flying to Peach's Castle so you could snatch her for, what, the 80th time?"

Bowser looked to the ceiling and laughed. "Oh, no, this is something different. I was going to end a very certain pair of plumbers this time. I had a plan in place, a plan that would–"

"Fail?" said a voice behind him.

Both Bowser and Angelo jumped (Angelo was getting really tired of jumping).

Mario and Luigi had arrived.

The former held a fireball in his hand. Behind him, a Hammer Bro that had been guarding the door was unconscious on the floor.

"We'll-a give you one chance to leave-a, Bowser," he said. "And to let the boy-a go."

Luigi's hand started sparking with lightning. "What's it gonna be-a, Bowser?"

Before Bowser could say anything to that, a blob of darkness suddenly snaked its way into the room.

All four of them went silent and gazed at the darkness as it seemed to slither around the room, seeming like it didn't really have a destination in mind. When it came close to Luigi, the plumber backed up nervously.

"What the heck–"

The blob of darkness instantly turned towards the sound of Bowser's voice. It lunged at him like a Chain Chomp on the hunt and disappeared into his chest.

"GAH!" he cried out and stumbled, clutching his sternum. Mario, Luigi, and Angelo backed up from the Koopa King as he started thrashing around. He fell to one knee as he began to change.

Angelo watched as his entire form became black. His skin, his shell, his hair, every part of him became pitch-black in color. The only thing that wasn't black was his eyes.

They glowed a murderous shade of red.

Bowser roared, the sound ringing with dark energy, and shot a black fireball at Mario and Luigi. The plumbers yelped and jumped to either side as the fireball exploded against the wall, causing it to be set ablaze. Seeing as how the entire ship was made out of wood, the black blaze would soon consume the entire ship, and Angelo was pretty sure he wanted to be off of it when that happened.

"Hey!" he called to him. "Over here, you ink monster-looking idiot!"

Bowser turned to face Angelo and snarled.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you! Looking like you just lost a fight with a squid, which is kinda embarrassing for you!"

The darkified Koopa King roared even louder and shot another black fireball, this time at Angelo. He jumped to the side as the molten projectile seared right through the metal bars of his cell and exploded against the back wall. Angelo shielded his face against the heat, then jumped through the hole in the bars. He was free now.

The only problem was that he was now facing a giant fire-breathing reptile.

"Well, that was fun!" he said, slowly inching his way around Bowser. "But, sadly, I gotta go now. Maybe we could do this another time? Maybe, I don't, a couple years in the future, when I learn how to actually defend myself? How does that sound?"

Bowser replied by roaring again. Then he lunged at Angelo, claws primed to slice him into a thousand pieces.

An instant before he reached him, Bowser caught a lightning bolt to the side of the face.

The sudden strike caused him to veer off-course and crash into the wall behind Angelo. He was pretty sure he knew who did that.

"Thanks!" he said, running to Luigi's side. "I usually prefer to be un-diced."

Luigi nodded, though he kept his eyes on Bowser, who was quickly standing back up. "How do we-a take him down!?" he said.

Mario shook his head. "I don't-a know, but we better make it quick! He's-a coming!"

Before he even finished speaking, Bowser shot another dark fireball so quickly, the plumbers could only gasp. They wouldn't be able to move in time.

Seeing them in that position, Angelo felt something ignite in his soul. He wasn't friends with Mario and Luigi. He barely knew them. And yet, he felt a sudden and overwhelming desire to protect them and, by extension, the other citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"NO!" he shouted. He ran up and dove in front of the plumbers, directly in the path of the incoming fireball.

An instant before it reached him and turned him into an extra-crispy sir, everything went red.

Then he blacked out.

PSA: Don't go throwing yourselves in front of fireballs, kids. They kinda hurt.