Maria sat on the edge of the couch, in the center of her apartment, waiting for the police officer to arrive. She had called the police as soon as she found out Luigi and Mario were missing. Many different thoughts wandered through her head as she waited; but mostly she just kept replaying the horrible moment of how she came to find out that her children were missing.
Maria struggled to release herself from the grip of her attacker. A surge of adrenalin sent her free hand flying, and it connected with something soft that felt like a nose.
"OW! Mrs. Mario calm down...it's me!" The attacker shouted Maria recognized the voice. And faced her assailant for the first time.
"Rudy!" She gasped "What are you doing here?" She asked the teenaged boy. He was one of Luigi's friends from school.
"What?" He answered loudly; Maria grabbed a pair of headphones that were playing some very loud music, off of Rudy's head.
"I said what are you doing here?" "Oh...at school today Luigi asked me to bring some used mayonnaise jars over. He said he needed them for some kind of science project." The boy told her, looking a little embarrassed about Maria having to take his headphones away.
" And he told me to just leave them in his room. He gave me his house key at lunch today. He said to just leave it on the kitchen counter when I was done." Rudy continued.
"I've just been through this whole apartment and I didn't see you anywhere."
"I was in the pantry."
"The pantry, why were you in my pantry?" Maria asked a little annoyed.
"Well...at first when Luigi asked me to do this I said no, so he said that there was a box of fruit rollups, in the pantry, with my name on them if I did." Maria raised an eyebrow.
~He scares the life out of me for a box of fruit rollups?!~
Maria sighed then said "I'm sorry I hit you. Are you all right?" "Yes..." He started
"I...I'm sorry if I scared you Mrs. Mario." He said looking ashamed, probably because Maria looked upset with him right now. But Rudy really was a very nice boy and she knew he was telling the truth.
Maria sighed "Rudy some times you make me feel like I have three children instead of just two." She teased. He smiled a little.
"Aw man, Lu's goanna be really cheesed off at me, I broke all the jars." He said more to himself than to Maria.
"Rudy..." The boy looked at Maria "Have you heard from Luigi since school today?"
Rudy shook his head. "No I haven't. I'm surprised he's not here, I figured he'd be asleep by now. That guy can't stay awake past ten." He said with a chuckle.
"Oh...uh don't worry about the mess, Mrs. Mario I'll get that cleaned up." He said shifting his attention to the mess of shattered glass in the hallway.
"Don't worry about it Rudy. You should be getting home now, it's getting late."
"Really, are you sure?" Maria nodded yes
"Um...Mrs. Mario...can I still have the fruit rollups?" Rudy asked sheepishly.
"Yes Rudy." Rudy got the snack
"Thank you for not being mad about all this Mrs. Mario."
"You're welcome I know you didn't mean to cause trouble."
"I got to get going now my mom's probably worried sick." Maria winced Rudy was a nice kid but could be rather dense at times.
"I 'm sure she is wondering were your at right now" Maria said good by to Rudy and he went home with fruit rollups in hand.
For the next few hours Maria tried to get a hold of Mario at his apartment on the phone but there was no answer. She called the plumbing shop but there wasn't an answer there either. She called all of Luigi and Mario's friends that she could remember the numbers to. When nobody had seen them she called 911.
Maria couldn't believe this was happening. Things like this happen on TV, in movies, not to people, not to her. What could have kept Luigi from coming home and where was Mario. She sat waiting for the officer. Waiting, waiting and hopping, praying, that Mario and Luigi would come in. Some excuse, any excuse it didn't matter anymore, as to why they were so late and hadn't bothered to call. Maria never could have imagined that just waiting could be the hardest thing she would ever have to do in her life. But there was nothing else she could do...
Maria put her face in her hands and began to cry.
Luigi yawned and stretched. His, brown semi curly, hair was an absolute mess. When the princess came up missing he really hadn't had time to perform any kind of personal hygiene, other that using the bathroom witch was totally necessary.
It had only been ten minutes since she had gone missing; but every one in the castle knew already. And everyone was on a princess hunt.
Mario, Luigi, and toad were searching out side the castle's courtyard garden.
"I can't believe this has happened. Where could my beloved princess be?" Toad sighed.
"Relax...We'll find her, maybe she went to the kitchen for a little midnight snacking." Luigi said sleepily
"No she wouldn't do that she never snacks between meals. And if she did, she wouldn't go to the kitchen herself I would get it for her." Toad said
"Maybe she's out here somewhere getting some fresh air." Mario replied Toad shook his head.
"Mm-mm, I would get that for her too." The Mario's just looked at him. "I am after all her retainer."
"You know you keep saying that; but what makes you different from the rest of the servants?" Luigi asked
"I stay with the princess always; I get her what ever she needs, whenever she needs it." Toad said proudly.
Luigi stifled a snicker; Toad wanted to know what was so funny.
"What?" The mushroom asked
"Princesses on Earth always have..." Mario cut Luigi off knowing exactly what Luigi was thinking "That's enough Luigi." He scolded
"What? What do the have?" Toad insisted
"Well they always have Female retainers except they're called ladies in waiting. Sometimes they have more than one but they are never ever Male." Luigi bent down to Toad's eye level
"You are a Male right?" He wasn't making fun he really wasn't sure, all the Mushrooms looked the same to him.
"Luigi!" Mario snapped
Toad turned red "of course I'm a male!" He shouted right in Luigi's face.
"And I'm a retainer not a lady in waiting!"
Luigi stood up and said "Some retainer, couldn't even retain a sleeping princess" just a little louder than he intended to; and Toad heard him. Toad opened his mouth to say something undoubtedly very nasty; but all that came out was a loud sob.
"Didn't I tell you to zip it?" Mario reprimanded
"No you said, Luigi that's enough...and I didn't mean for him to hear that even though it's true." Toad ran off crying even louder.
Mario glared at Luigi, then ran after Toad.
"Mama-mia...open mouth insert foot." Luigi fallowed in the direction that Mario and Toad had taken. Luigi, however did not see exactly were they had gotten off to; and ended up getting lost in the huge castle's courtyard. He wandered about in search of his brother and new friend, though that term could be used loosely after the events of, just a few, moments ago.
He heard voices from behind one of the topiaries, of a mushroom with red flowers spots in the, garden. They didn't sound like Mario and Toad; but he was only half-awake anyway and decided to take a look.
He peeked his head around the bush and nearly had a heart attack when he saw the princess bound and gagged, being held captive by the biggest turtle he'd ever seen. He assumed that it was a Koopa; but this one looked far more dangerous than the ones he'd tangled with earlier that afternoon.
Tuffs of fluffy red hair, or maybe fur, lined the top of the beast's head, nestled in between a set of razor sharp horns. Its shell had three rows of spikes that were complimented by the outfit it was wearing. A studded collar; and spiked bracelets running from his wrist to his shoulder. And skin that was a color green; that Luigi thought was quite cool.
Another smaller Koopa stood next to the princess, who was still in her nightgown, wearing glasses and a robe. A scepter or a wand of some kind in it's left, three-fingered hand.
"We have to get out of here quickly, by now the guards are sure to know that Princess Peach is missing; and if we get caught now all my plans are down the tubes." The larger Koopa growled.
~Plans, what plans? I haven't the time to worry about it now. I gotta go get help.~ Luigi thought
He started to walk away very quietly, he really didn't want to go up against that type of Koopa without some kind of weapon or help. He took two steps when he felt a familiar sensation in his nose that could only mean one thing...
~Oh no~ "Ah..." ~Not now~ "Ahhh..." ~Of all the times to have allergies~ "Ahhhhhh-chooooo!" Luigi sniffled and wiped his nose.
"You should have stayed inside, you'll catch you death out here." A voice said from behind. Luigi turned around. The large Koopa standing only about three feet away from him.
"I'm not having a good day" Luigi mumbled. "Look give the princess back and I won't have to go Bruce Lee on your sorry self..." He boasted and took a ridiculous fighting stance. The Koopa just snickered and grabbed Luigi by the neck and threw him clear across the courtyard in to a brick wall. One that Mario and Toad were sitting against actually. They scrambled out of the way just before Luigi made impact. He'd hit the wall with such force that it crumbled on top of him.
"Luigi!!" The two shrieked.
A bloody hand was all that could be seen from under the debris. Mario and Toad immediately began digging Luigi out.
"Hang on Weege your goanna be ok..." Mario said as e threw chunks of brick aside.
"We'll get you out of there Luigi don't worry." Toad added. He was mad at Luigi but he didn't want this.
Neither one of them noticed the yellow light that resembled a star bouncing around. And they still didn't notice when it bounced right into the palm of Luigi's one free hand and disappeared.
"Please be alive, please be alive, please be alive..." Mario whispered to himself while he dug through the rubble.
Luigi got up out of the pile of rock, much to Mario's delight and surprise, bruised, bloody, and hopping mad.
"That...that..." Luigi began then started hopping up and down yelling in Italian. Whenever Luigi got really mad, which wasn't very often, he forgot his English it seemed.
Toad looked at Mario "Do you understand what he's saying?"
"That lousy, rotten, miserable, retched..." Mario translated. The next word Mario translated shocked both him and Toad.
"Koopa!" Mario blurted out.
"Yes I do fit all of those descriptions don't I"
Everyone looked for where the voice was coming from. They looked up to see a giant clown face staring down at them.
Mario let out a startled yelp, he never did like clowns. Actually it was a sort of a helicopter only the blade was on the bottom and there was no top to just a car to sit in and nothing more. It looked more like a cup than a copter. A clown face was painted on it. The two Koopas and the princess looked down at the trio from over the side of the clown-copter
"Princess!" Toad cried. "King Bowser Koopa!" He glared at the Koopa
"That's King Bowser?" Mario asked Toad nodded not taking his eye off the king for a second
"Yes I am king of all Koopas, soon to be king of every land."
"You're soon to be King of the ghosts when I get done with you!" Luigi shook his fist at the Bowser.
"Are you going to go Bruce Lee on my sorry self again? " Bowser scoffed
"No...I'm going to do this..." Luigi jumped on top of a part of the wall that was not busted, then jumped for the clown copter. Just as He was within range Bowser swiped him with a claw and Luigi was sent flying in to the wall again. Braking the whole thing down. Luigi got up as if Bowser hadn't touched him at all.
~What the....that should have killed him, or at least stopped him~ Bowser thought.
"Luigi are you ok?" Mario ran to his brother
"Yeah I'm fine, Mario we can take this jerk, he hits like a girl!" Mario couldn't figure out how Luigi was even alive let alone ready to fight.
"But how...we can't reach him...." Luigi thought out loud.
"Like this" Mario picked up a small chunk of the demolished wall and threw it at Bowser; but he missed and hit the side of the clown-copter. The piece of the wall shattered on impact with the car and a glowing yellow star popped out and fell on Mario's head and disappeared.
Mario felt a sudden rush of energy like he'd never felt before. He felt strong......almost invincible.
Bowser looked at the side of his dented clown- copter and was now thoroughly pissed.
"You're goanna pay for that." Bowser opened his mouth and before Mario could react he was engulfed in flames.
"Mario, no!" Luigi cried, he and Toad watched in horror as Mario got the char broiled treatment. Mario couldn't believe it, he was being roasted but he didn't feel any pain at all. Bowser stopped figuring that Mario was nothing but a pile of ashes now. But he figured wrong.
"Are you going to give us back the princess, or do we have to kick your Koopa butt all over the Mushroom Kingdom?" Mario said triumphantly, after surviving Bowser's flame attack.
"What are you...things?" Bowser choked out disbelieving that any normal beings could have come out of a fight with King Koopa, without so much as a scratch.
"We're the Mario Bros.!" Mario gave Luigi a look and he knew exactly what to do. Luigi cupped his hands, Mario ran and used Luigi as leverage and did a flip that turned into a kick aimed strait for Bowser's head. Not less than an instant before he would hit, the other Koopa waved his scepter and Mario disappeared with out a trace.
"What have you done to my brother?" Luigi yelled furiously
"What does it matter you'll never see him again anyway!" The Magikoopa replied. With another wave of his wand Luigi vanished into thin air.
"And then there was one." Bowser growled and looked at Toad.
"Should I take care of this one too, Bowser?" Kemak asked
"No, it's far crueler to leave him here with the fact that he can do nothing to save his princess now."
Bowser flew out of sight, with Toad cursing him until he could no longer see the form of the clown-copter, in the early morning sky.
~You are wrong, Bowser the princess will be saved. But you will not be, not when I get done with you.~
To be continued...
Next chapter: Untitled as of yet, We find out what happened to Mario and Luigi. That's all I can say right now. I don't want to spoil the plot. Sorry, Oh! one more thing, Maria makes another....Just kidding we won't see her again for awhile.
For the love of crap this chapter was long! Maybe not to read but to write...that's a horse of a different color. Sorry I'm late with the update....I never do anything I say I'm goanna do. well it's only two days late that's not too bad at least it's not eight months. But I guess it doesn't matter. Judging from my reviews, very few people are reading this anyway. For those of you who did review thanks I haven't gotten a bad one yet. Ok enough self-pity check out the next chapter hopefully out by 2/1/02 Thanks for reading -Jes ('')