Chapter 12: Flight to Sarasaland

"What the hell do you think?" Wario spat, trying to wriggle his way out from underneath Toad and Toadette, whom reacted by pushing down harder on both of his arms, "We've come to do ya in. Or take ya back to Koopa!"

Although Waluigi was struggling to get his Plant off his arm, he still managed to kick Wario's head, "Don't tell them that, you idiot!" he snarled, finally pulling the tired Plant off his arm. He tossed it aside, knowing that it was now useless. A tired plant would never be able to do anything to harm them anyway.

"So, you're working for Bowser now, are you? We should've known. You're the only ones we know who'd sink that low," Luigi said simply, eyeing Waluigi carefully.

Wario laughed the best he could with Mario nearly choking him, which wasn't very well, "Of course! And we're proud of it!" he glanced up at Mario, "But you've beaten us, so we... uh... we're not gonna hurt you now. So, you could... ya know... Get the hell off me!"

Mario scowled, "Fine..." he nodded at Toad and Toadette, and they got off Wario. Mario then lifted his shoe from Wario's throat, stepping back a few feet in case he tried anything funny. Wario got upslowly, grunting and muttering something to himself.

Junior nodded quickly at Peach, whom still held Kamek's sceptre at his head, "Yeah yeah! That goes for me too, Princess!"

Peach hesitated a moment and lowered the scepter, feeling relieved. She wouldn't have wanted to hurt him anyway. She stepped back as well, standing between Birdo and Yoshi as Mario attempted to question Wario, which wasn't so easy now, considering Wario was free to pound him into the floor at any given time.

"What did Bowser tell you to do to us?" Mario asked calmly, but he was really on edge, ready to jump on Wario if he tried to escape.

Wario grinned widely, "He told us to bring you all back to him so he could kill you personally," he said, and felt a pang of delight as each of their faces showed an expression of fear, or panic. But, much to his dismay, they all stayed fairly calm afterwards. No running around in a panic, no yelling in distress. How boring.

"Ah," Mario gulped, "how did you find us?"

"We're not gonna tell you that, you idiot," Wario snapped, still grinning. He glanced briefly at Waluigi, and turned his gaze back to Mario again.

"And why not?" Mario groaned, becoming irritated.

"Because..." he said, taking a few steps back. He grinned again and took out a red Bob-Omb, "we're as good as gone!"

Wario had tossed the Bob-Omb forward and he laughed. Now, normally a Bob-Omb means a rather large explosion, so nearly every person crouched low to the ground, but that wouldn't save them anyway. They sat crouched low as the explosion sounded, eyes shut tightly, awaiting their deaths...

They never came.

Mario opened his eyes, curious as to why he wasn't dead. He didn't see anything; the room was full of red smoke. It wasn't harmful to them, just a cover. A cover so Wario and Waluigi could escape!

He cursed under his breath and coughed, standing up again. The smoke had nearly cleared by now, and he could barely make out the silhouettes of his comrades through the crimson veil of smoke, "Everyone all right?" he called out over their coughing and sputtering. He was answered by a murmur of agreement from each of them, and sighed in relief.

"Oh crap! Don't leave me here!" came Junior's distressed voice, as he frantically scrambled to escape. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't ever been to Underworld, and didn't know the pipes. As a result, the pipe he had dashed into didn't get him anywhere he would've liked. Bowser Junior was spat out of the mouth of the pipe, and he landed in a fresh pile of snow. He lifted himself up out of the wet, cold substance and shivered, cursing Wario and Waluigi under his breath.

"When I tell Papa what happened, he's gonna make shish-kabobs out of them..." He breathed, and stomped down the hill towards Shiver City.

"Well, That's over..." Luigi muttered, irritated, for he was trying to tie his makeshift bandage to his arm. Luigi, apparently, didn't know that tying something to your own arm can be very difficult. It seemed that Yoshi knew this, and rushed over to tie the bandage in place instead.

"For now," the dinosaur said, growing irritated as well when the bandage wouldn't tie, it was slipping with the blood that oozed from Luigi's arm. He finally managed it and tutted lightly, "That Waluigi went all out on you, Luigi. Hope the Piranha Plant wasn't poisonous..."

"If it were poisonous, I would've felt it by now," Luigi snapped, wincing as Yoshi tightened the bandage a bit more and apologized for hurting him, "Don't worry about it, I'll be fine."

"No, we're getting you some help once we reach Sarasaland, Luigi. It's looking pretty bad," Mario said. Luigi began to protest, saying that he'd be fine. Mario looked Luigi in the eye and his brother grew silent, knowing that it was best not to argue at such a time.

"Fine..." Luigi growled, rolling his eyes, "Anyway, we'd better get going in case those clowns come back."

Mario nodded, "As I was saying before they showed up, I've found Zone 4904. It's down here..." he motioned for them all to follow him, and they did so slowly, feeling rather down and discouraged.

Realization of the danger they were in had finally set in, and they were constantly watching their backs and jumping from anything that seemed to move. Anything could be an enemy. Any shadow, any rock, maybe even one of them...

They reached the Warp Zone, and Mario studied each of the three pipes that were laid out before them. Each was a path to another world. They were marked clearly; each had a carefully painted wooden sign hanging from them proudly. The one in the middle clearly marked their destination, and they each hopped into the pipe.

After being sucked through the pipe for a while, they were spat out, through the air, and landed on the grass. It was wet, considering it was raining heavily and Peach whimpered, complaining that she had ruined her dress. She stood up quickly and attempted to wipe the mud off her gown, and growled in frustration it was futile as she was drenched with rain. She pouted and turned to the rest, whom were struggling to get up off the slippery ground.

"Come on, let's get to the palace before I'm soaked through!" she whined. She then turned on her heel and walked briskly in the direction of the palace, which towered high over them, nearly twice the size of Princess Peach's Castle had been.

Daisy groaned as she got up. Peach could be such a nuisance when she wanted to be.

"Well guys, you don't want to stay here all night, do you? Come on..." she said, motioning for them all to follow her, and she trailed behind Peach, whom had begun to complain about her shoes - they were getting all to muddy. They soon reached the marketplace, which surrounded the palace from all sides, and had various residents sitting in their stalls, selling their goods.

"Wow! This place is cool!" Toad remarked, staring fixedly at a chain chomp that was for sale, "Whoa! We'd never see stuff like this in the Mushroom Kingdom!"

It was true. Sarasaland and The Mushroom Kingdom were two distinctly different places, with different cultures. The Mushroom kingdom was well-known for its peaceful manners, not caring to get involved in anything that didn't concern them. They were a peaceful people, minding their own business and affairs, not caring to become mixed up in others'. Sarasaland, on the other hand, was very different. It consisted of four kingdoms, Birabuto, Easton, Muda and Chai. Each of these kingdoms had its own ruler, but with less power than the royal family of Sarasaland.

It was a well known fact that Sarasaland was home to some of the best warriors in the world. Their defense system couldn't be matched, and they were rarely challenged. The only one brave enough was Tatanga the Conqueror, whom had captured Princess Daisy, and was well taken care of by Mario. Why didn't thier army help to be rid of Tatanga at all? Why was Mario the one to do so instead? Didn't they want to help thier Princess?

Sarasaland was governed by the Grand Council, which consisted of the wisest men from each of the four kingdoms. The Council made all the major decisions instead of the royal family or the four kingdoms. This Council ruled the country, not the royal families.

Now, the Council didn't particularly like the royal family, and were overjoyed at the death of Sarasaland's King a few years before. Since then, they had nearly taken over for the King, ruling the country as if they were kings. The only obstacle was Princess Daisy, whom could rule Sarasaland if she were to wed, as the law goes. In Sarasaland, the Queen and King were to work together to rule, not only the King. They would have to be rid of her if they wanted to succeed in their overtaking. So, when she was taken hostage by Tatanga, they made no attempt to rescue her at all, and simply told the public that they were holding a meeting on what to do about the attacker.

So, nothing was done, and Mario was sent by Princess Peach to save Daisy from Tatanga instead. Since then, Daisy had never trusted the council, and rarely went to her homeland, taking up residence in The Mushroom Kingdom.

Toad stared the chain chomp in the eye and ran when it lunged at him, the snifit salesman yelling after him, telling him that it was just a phase, and that it would make a great guard after it grew out of it.

"Wow! Wow, this is so cool!" he laughed, following behind Mario at a kind of hop-skip.

They reached the palace gates soon after, and they stood, drenched though with rain, in front of them. Waiting for the guards to come forward and let them in, or have a verbal skirmish and -then- have them let them in. The guards came forward, speaking lowly to one another, and once they caught sight of Daisy, stared in disbelief,

"You- You're the Princess!" they cried, pointing at her.

"'Course I am! Now let me inside," Daisy spat, perfectly aware that they had been instructed not to let her in. But, they reluctantly did so, slamming the gates behind her and on Luigi, whom began yelling Italian profanities at them, as they had closed the gate on his injured arm.

"They're with me, you idiots," the Princess hissed, and they opened the gates quickly, letting each of them through it, and looking around to see if there were more before shutting it audibly again.

They walked through two large doors and into the main lobby, looking very much out of place among the splendor of the palace, a wet bunch of stragglers. Daisy motioned to a few plush chairs in a circle to their left, telling them to sit down, and she did so herself as well. She then quietly explained to them about the Council, what she knew they had planned, what they had done, everything she knew. They would need to know when they went to the council meeting that evening.

She had planned to go to the council meeting, and get some reinforcements to fight against Bowser's Army. She knew they wouldn't listen, but her title would help her out in this situation. She was still a member of the Royal Family, and still had a say in what was to be done. They couldn't deny her rights yet.

"Those miserable bastards..." Luigi growled once she had finished explaining, "Are you saying they want to kill you?"

"I'm not too sure, but they want to be rid of me, that's for sure."

"But, do we still have a chance against the council at the meeting?" Mario asked.

"I should hope so. I'm still the Princess, you know, they haven't had time to change the law yet. I'm still higher than they are, I think." Daisy said, but she really didn't know. She didn't know whether she still had power in her own country or not. She was really just relying on her luck to help her.

"Mmm," Mario said, voicing his acknowledgement and falling back into his chair. He glanced at Luigi, whom was picking at the bandage on his arm, which was crusted with blood, "Luigi, I think you'd better get that looked at now."

"Ah, no. Not yet. I'll go after the meeting."

"Then at least get a new bandage, that one's bugging the hell out of me."

Luigi grimaced and glared at Mario, "Fine, fine then." Luigi stood up and followed Daisy out of the lobby to get a proper bandage.

Later that evening, Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy stood in front of the large, and intricately detailed wooden doors of the Grand Council Room.

"Now, let me do the talking for now, you are only here to back me up of it's needed. They most likely won't listen to a word I say, and I'll need you three to help me out, understand?" Daisy said quickly. She turned back to the doors before hearing their answer, and they were flung open, catching the Council (whom were in the middle of a debate) by surprise. The four of them marched into the room to stand in the middle.

The Council Room was a very large circular room, with row upon row of seats that looked like they belonged in a theatre. The floor was made of white and yellowish marble, depicting the coat of arms of the Sarasaland Royal families. Only the first row of seats was occupied, with five wise men from each kingdom, and three from Sarasaland's royal advisory, whom sat across from the doors in large wooden chairs, previously meant for the King, Queen and Princess. Since they were overthrown, these three men had taken their place at the head of the Council.

"Princess Daisy?" the man in the middle gasped out, looking to his two colleagues, who looked just as shocked.

"Yeah, it's me. What did you expect? I -am- the Princess after all."

The Council remained silent, still staring in disbelief at the Princess, whom they thought was gone for good.

"Now, Grand Council, I have an issue to discuss with you..."