Chapter 1: Mama Mia!
It's a beautiful day in the Mushroom Kingdom. The sun is shining brightly, the gentle breeze is sweeping across the land, and Bowser is nowhere in sight. As the sun casts its warmth on the ground one must think, "How can this day be any more perfect?"
At the royal palace, Mario and Luigi, the famous and well respected Mario brothers, and Princess Peach are happily enjoying the quiet time. Yoshi, a green dinosaur that was a long-time friend of the Mario brothers, had decided to come for a visit. Currently, they were all just lounging around in the castle courtyard, admiring the peace.
"Isn't it wonderful to finally have some peace and quiet around here?" Peach asked.
"Yeah, I'll say!" Mario exclaimed. "No Smithy, no Bowser, no problem!"
"And anyway," Luigi added happily. "If Bowser did decide to show up, we would kick his sorry butt!"
Peach and Yoshi both had to laugh at Luigi's comment. It was true that no matter how many times Bowser tried to defeat Mario and take over the Mushroom Kingdom, he never succeeded. Though Bowser was a force to be feared, it was simply pathetic to know how many times Mario had beaten him. The mushroom people had always counted on Mario to be there for them when Bowser began causing chaos. Mario was their hero.
There I go again. Luigi thought. I'm starting to become jealous of Mario. He's the hero, he's the one that people count on to rescue them, he's the one that gets all the credit. It's always Mario, Mario, Mario! And I'm the one that's always standing in the shadows; the one left in the background. Luigi stopped thinking for a second. No that wasn't exactly true. Luigi was greatly respected by many people and he was even an idol to some; some people thought that he was actually better than Mario. There was one person that didn't see Luigi as second best or just a nobody. In her eyes, Luigi was her hero and saw him for who he really was. Her name was Princess Daisy of Sarasaland.
Daisy. His own lovely equivalent to Peach. Gorgeous chestnut-brown hair, blue eyes that shone like diamonds, and a goldenrod-yellow dress that only enhanced her beauty. According to Mario, he had saved her and her kingdom from the clutches of an evil alien named Tatanga a while back. Sometime later, Peach organised a tennis tournament, which was where Luigi had first met Daisy. It turns out that, being royalty, she and Peach knew each other and Peach had invited her to participate in the tournament.
Daisy wasn't the only unexpected guest. Bowser and one of his Boos wanted in, too. Wario, a rival and extremely bad look-alike had showed up with his brother, Waluigi, a rival of Luigi.
Anyway, he and Daisy had become real close and were now dating. Luigi only wished that Mario would do the same with Peach. Luigi had always seen himself as a very shy person, but how he had worked up the courage to ask Daisy out the first time was way beyond him. Mario however, had never gotten around to doing that and had become way too nervous. Luigi knew that Mario loved her, but if only he would just ask her. It wasn't for him to decide; he would leave the choice up to Mario.
"I think I'll go and visit Daisy. It's been a while since I've seen her." Luigi declared. He stood up, waved his friends good-bye, and headed off to the nearest warp-pipe.
After his departure, Peach suddenly got an idea. "How about we play a round of tennis?" She suggested. "I can go and grab Toad and we can play doubles. How does that sound?"
"Yoshi!" Yoshi cried out in agreement. "I think it's a great idea!"
"Sure, there's nothing else to do."Mario grinned; it had been a long time since he had last played tennis.
"Let's play!"
~~~~
Bowser sat in his fortress thinking of more ideas to beat Mario. So far, he hadn't thought of any. Kidnapping Peach had seemed to have grown old and repetitive, but it was the only thing he could think of. Normally he would turn to Kamek, his best and wisest magikoopa for advice, but he was off doing some errand. His seven koopa kids Lemmy, Iggy, Larry, Morton, Ludwig, Roy, and Wendy had all taken a crack at battling Mario, but they all lost and were now training harder.
Originally, his plan had been to lead the mushroom people into a false sense of security with all of his fair play in tennis and golf tournaments but his big problem was plotting a big enough catastrophe that would surely rattle the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Ugh. Where is Kamek when you need him?" Bowser grumbled. Suddenly, a puff of smoke appeared and in it was his most trusted advisor Kamek.
"You called, your Evilness?" He said bowing.
"Wha?! Kamek?! How did you get here?!" Kamek raised a hand to silence him. "Questions, questions. Now what is it?"
"I need a plan to beat Mario for once! I turn to you as my advisor and chief magikoopa, HELP ME!!" He emphasized the last two words by pounding his fist on his throne.
Kamek let out an evil chuckle. "Well. . . I have a plan that just might work if done properly."
Bowser looked a little apprehensive about his last statement. "And if it doesn't?"
Kamek just shrugged. "If it doesn't, which is very likely, you'll probably end up mutated and deformed."
"Alright, let's hear it, Kamek." Kamek began to whisper something in Bowser's ear. "Yeah. Uh huh. Oh. Yes. YES! That's perfect! This'll beat Mario for sure! Muahahahah!"
~~~~
Master Hand appeared on the other side of the portal in a world he didn't recognize.
"Hm. This place seems rather quaint. But no longer." Master Hand chuckled. Now was the time to set his plan in motion. He flew off in the direction of what looked to be castle.
Arianna appeared not a moment later only to see that Master Hand had already taken off. She glanced around the countryside seeing some minor destruction in the distance. "Good. I'm not too late." She sighed. "But Master Hand has a big lead on me. Now to find out where I am."
She ran down a long road and eventually came across a small town. The people in it seemed rather shaken and some of the buildings were trashed. No doubt Master Hand was here a few moments ago. Just then a small mushroom-like being scurried by her.
I must be in the Mushroom Kingdom. She thought.
"Um, excuse me?" She asked. The mushroom let out a yelp and spun around. She must've scared the poor thing.
"Stay back, you vile creature!" It shouted. Arianna had to laugh at the little guy's bravery. She could tell that it was trying so hard to be brave but at the same time was cowering in fear.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you. I just want want to find out where I am and what happened here. Could you tell me?" She smiled warmly at the mushroom person hoping to receive an answer.
Arianna could tell that the Toad was a little frightened by her; after all, she was an outsider. She didn't look very threatening, but the Toads were already at their wits end because of Master Hand. The Toad scanned Arianna from the bottom up considering how short he was. Arianna was a very pretty young woman. She had long shoulder length hair tied into a ponytail and emerald green eyes that shone of determination. A small sword (or a very long dagger) was sheathed at her waist and a long wooden staff was strapped to her back. The strangest item in her inventory though was a pair of metal vambraces around her forearms. Each one had a large jewel embedded in it, but its color seemed to change very subtly. For some reason they had an almost magical aura around them.
The Toad relaxed a little bit. "You don't look very harmful. . .so I guess I'll tell you." Arianna smiled happily. "A giant hand came out of nowhere and attacked us before heading towards the castle saying "I must find the chosen warrior from this world." Or something like that."
Arianna's eyes flashed for a moment. "You said it was heading for the castle, right?" The Toad nodded. "Which way is it?" The Toad pointed her to a large castle a couple of miles away. "Thanks."
By will alone, Arianna made the color of the crystals in her wristbands shift from red to yellow. The crystals flashed a bright light for second before Arianna sped off at high speeds. Arianna had the power to use the elements as weapons and could enhance her abilities. She could use 7 elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Light, and Shadow. She had used the power of Wind to increase her speed.
She just hoped that she could make it to the castle in time before Master Hand had a chance to do something horrible.
~~~~
"It looks like Peach and I-a win again!" Mario shouted happily.
"Aw, do ya have to rub it in?" Toad moaned.
"Don't feel bad, Toad." Peach said comfortingly. "Maybe you'll win next time!"
Just then a rumbling sound was heard.
"Oh Mariooooo! Look who's come to play!"
Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad turned around to see Bowser, who was twice his normal size, standing there grinning.
"Fight me, Mario! This time I'll beat you once and for all! Bwahahahaha!"
Just as Mario and Yoshi prepared to fight Bowser, something flew in and knocked Bowser far away, Team Rocket style.
"Gaaaaaaah! I'll remember this, Mariooo!" Now that Bowser had been dealt with, they turned towards the newcomer: a giant gloved hand.
"And-a just who are you?" Mario asked.
It chuckled. "I am Master Hand. And youand your dinosaur friend are just the people I'm looking for."
Before Mario and Yoshi had time to comprehend Master Hand's statement, they were knocked back by Master Hand's flying fist.
"If this guy's gonna fight rough, we'll show him rough! Right, Yoshi?"
"Yoshi!"
While Master Hand was standing still, Yoshi jumped into the air and did a hip drop while Mario threw a barrage of fireballs. Seeing that they weren't affecting him much, Mario spun around like a tornado then performed a Super Jump Punch. Yoshi jumped up above Master Hand and did several devastating flutter kicks. Master Hand backed away.
These fools are better than I thought. . . Shaking off his thoughts Master Hand flew up and smashed them into the ground with his fist, knocking them unconscious.
"Oh no, Mario!" Peach cried. Master Hand picked thm up off the ground and flew above the castle.
"This is where I shall take my leave, Princess. I will enjoy torturing your precious hero!" The ground underneath the castle began to shake and Peach and Toad quickly escaped to safer ground. Master Hand was lifting up the castle!
My dark portal should have finished altering the dimension. I'll just drop these two off there and continue my search. Master Hand thought.
Arianna came out of her speed burst in time to see Master Hand making off with Peach's castle with Mario and Yoshi in his grasp.
"You're too late, portal guardian! There is nothing you can do to prevent the chaos that will fall upon this world! Farewell, guardian!" Master Hand let out a maniacal laugh as he vanished in red light.
Peach turned to Arianna. "Who are you and how do you know that creep?" She demanded.
"I'm Arianna, the guardian of the portals. How I know about Master Hand is a long story." Arianna looked up into the sky and looked back at Peach. "Do you have any other heroes that can protect you other than Mario and Yoshi? There's going to be a lot of monsters running around now that the portals are open."
"How do you?. . ."
Arianna sighed. "Like I said; I'm the guardian of the portals, so I know the names of every hero. So are you going to answer my question?"
"No, there are no other heroes except. . ." Arianna motioned for her to continue. "Luigi."
"Luigi? You mean Mario's brother? Where is he?"
"He's visiting his girlfriend, Daisy. I'll go call him right away!" Peach said.
"You go do that. I have to go; I have to try and stop Master Hand and prevent him from getting anyone else!"
With that said, Arianna teleported out in a flash of light.
Peach looked up at the sky. "Good-bye, Arianna. Good luck."
~~~~
End of Chapter 1