Chapter 3: New Acquaintances
Luigi hopped out of of the warp pipe to the sight of what could only be described as sheer chaos. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was setting rapidly. Toads were running away from monstrous creatures, screaming in terror. Several, from what Luigi could see, looked like giant wolves. Many of the features were odd but they were wolves nonetheless.
Another strange creature was a small crocodile with rows of large teeth that were bigger than its eyes. As Luigi hopped over one he reasoned that they might not be much of a threat; they moved rather slow and could be outrun.
Luigi sped up his pace to a slow jog. He rounded the corner and saw a robed figure blasting the monsters into oblivion with his magic. It was Toad Town's resident fortune teller, Merlon. Luigi knew him, of course, but not as well as Mario did. Merlon had helped Mario on his journey to retrieve the Star Rod from Bowser by telling him what path to take. As with all fortune tellers, Merlon's answers were always vague and mysterious, so you had to figure them out for yourself.
"Merlon!" Luigi yelled. "What is going on here?!"
Merlon threw another energy blast that turned a wolf into ashes. With a satisfied grunt he turned to Luigi.
"You are Luigi, correct?" Merlon asked.
Luigi nodded. "Merlon, what's going on here? What are all these things?"
Though much of his face was shadowed by his hood, Merlon's yellow eyes narrowed in thought. "I do not know exactly what these creatures are or where they came from, but what I do know is that the Mushroom Kingdom is in great danger. These monsters. . . They are definitely not from this world."
Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Not from this world? What're you talking about?"
Merlon's eyes darkened. "When one possesses great powers, they are more connected to the balance of the universe. This connection, a sixth sense as some call it, alerts those with great power to danger. Do you understand what I am getting at?"
"Yeah, I think I do." Luigi replied. "Mario always talked to me about something like that. He told me that whenever Peach got captured, something always told him that she was in trouble. I've felt it too sometimes. Is that what you're talking about?"
Merlon nodded, his amber eyes still fixed on Luigi. "Similar to that. Tell me, have you felt anything lately?"
"Come to think of it, yes, I have." The green plumber replied, scratching his chin. "Right when I arrived at Daisy's I felt this strange sensation; it was like a little bolt of electricity went off in my head. That's when I knew something was wrong, so I came back."
The cloaked wizard's expression was hard to decipher. He heaved a huge, heavy sigh and continued talking. "Luigi, lately I have felt an unsettling disturbance and I believe that the balance of the universe has been disrupted."
Luigi rubbed his eyes. "'Balance of the universe?'"
"It is difficult to explain and I'm afraid that I haven't got time at this very moment. For now, though, we must protect the Mushroom Kingdom. Perhaps we may find some answers later. I will take care of things here, you must go to the castle and protect the princess."
"Sure thing, Merlon! Good luck to you." Luigi said.
"You too, Luigi." With that said, the man in green bolted off toward the castle with Merlon watching him as he went.
The old wizard didn't know why, but he had a strange feeling that Luigi had a mcuh larger role to play in the outcome of this plot.
"Wow, this place is amazing!"
Mario gaped at the large elegant room they had been transported to. The floor looked like polished marble and the walls were made of smooth, white stone. Lining the walls were dozens of stained-glass windows, each one with a different person depicted on it. Oddly enough, the first one Mario laid his eyes on was one of himself in a jumping pose, one arm raised. He also recognized three others. Luigi's and Yoshi's were right next to Mario's, and Link's was on the wall across from them. Mario's gaze shifted from one pane to another, noting the figures present in each one. A yellow rodent, a pink puffball, and a humanoid fox were among the ones he didn't recognize.
Arianna cleared her throat, bringing Mario's attention to the room's contents. The room was filled with various machines and monitors. All of the screens displayed different data on places he'd never heard about in his entire life. Hyrule? Coneria? Kanto? Those names didn't ring any bells.
"I'll just be a few minutes, guys." Arianna stated. "I just need to bring up some files."
Mario and Yoshi simply nodded. The red-clad plumber tossed a glance at their new companion, Link. The young man's eyes were wide with wonder at the machines that were in front of him. Link obviously had never seen a computer, or any machine for that matter, before.
The portal guardian looked up from her work for a split-second to see the pointy-eared hero slowly edging toward the console with his shield up. Arianna did her best to subdue a giggle.
"Don't worry, it's not gonna hurt you." She said comfortingly. To emphasize her point she pounded the terminal with her fist. "See? It's harmless."
Link hesitantly lowered his shield and came closer. "What is it? I've never seen anything like it in Hyrule."
Arianna smiled warmly. "It's called a computer. I just tell it what to do by pressing a few buttons here, then it will show me the information I need on that screen."
"It's alive?" Link questioned, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
The Guardian tried to stop herself from laughing but ended up making a weird snorting sound. "No, it's not alive. It gets its power from electricity."
As Arianna continued her work, Link kept on asking her questions on how a computer operated. Despite Link's constant stream of questions, she managed to finish finding the files she was looking for.
"All right!" The guardian exclaimed. Mario and Yoshi made their way over from the other side of the room. "Ah, I see you've taken an interest in my windows. Welcome to the Hall of Heroes, gentlemen."
"Windows are very pretty." Yoshi commented.
"Thank you, Yoshi."
After finally taking notice of the colorful panes, the young Hylian spotted one that depicted himself. "Why are our pictures on them?" He asked.
"Ah, yes. I was getting to that." Arianna said. "I'll keep it simple, seeing as I will have to explain it to everyone else once we find them."
"Everyone else?" Mario inquired. "You mean there's more of us?"
"I'll get to that. Just lemme explain and you won't get confused!" She replied sternly. "As I said, this is the Hall of Heroes. This is the place where I monitor the progress of every hero. Normally this place is buzzing with activity, but the people that usually help me are helping someone else right now. I'm Arianna; the portal guardian put in charge of of your universe. There are other universes in this building, but they're not run by me. You can't go up to see them, though. If you did it would cause a huge imbalance in the workings of the universe. So, you're limited to wandering around this level of the building; the N-Universe.
What I do here in the Hall of Heroes is a little hard to understand. Have you ever heard of stories where the bad guy wins, kills the hero, and gets to rule the world? Nah, I guess not. Well, I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen. Whenever a new evil rises in one world, I make sure that there's a good force to counter it; a hero. This person then goes on a quest to destroy the evil. I watch them carefully, and set out paths for them. I mostly just let things play out, but I also make sure that the good guy doesn't die or get defeated. Heroes only lose to learn a vuluable lesson: they are still human and the danger is very real for them. It's not a good thing to have an overly-arrogant hero.
I almost never let a hero die. When things look bleak I step in by creating a small miracle that'll tip the scales in their favor. The only time I let a hero die is if my boss tells me to. The reason for that is that there may be something good that will come out of the death of a hero. When a hero dies, another stronger one will take its place and pick up where the first one left off. Those windows up there represents each hero in this universe. There are more, of course. I'll show you later.
Now I'll explain why you're here. You already know about Master Hand, right? Well, somehow he escaped from his world and stole a very powerful staff from me. I was told that the staff kept the universe in perfect balance. When Master Hand stole it and began using it, he started disrupting the balance. If things keep going as they are the universe will destroy itself. Since Master Hand has become much more powerful with the staff, I had to find a group of heroes to fight him. You guys are just three of them. Will you three help me defeat him?"
Mario pumped his fist in the air. "Yeah, of course we'll help!"
Yoshi nodded enthusiastically. "Yoshi will help Arianna! We won't let big hand destroy universe!"
"I will help you, too." Link said. "With the universe on the line, I'll do evrything in my power to help stop Master Hand."
"Thank you, guys." Arianna smiled warmly. "Since you'll be here often, I might as well show you around. First stop: the Library!"
"Go away, you disgusting creature!"
Peach swung her frying pan with all her might. The frying pan connected with the wolf's head, knocking it senseless. Even though the hit was strong enough to knock a human unconscious the wolf still advanced. The princess screamed and struggled with it for a while.
"TOAD!!!" She shrieked.
"Coming, Princess!"
A little man wearing a mushroom-like hat was running towards her. The mushroom on his head was white with red spots, and he wore a blue vest. This little guy was Toad, Peach's retainer.
Toad stopped right in front the wolf and blew a cloud of poisonous spores at it. The hound went rigid and collapsed in heap. Peach breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Toad. Where would I be without you?"
The little mushroom blushed. "No problem at all, princess."
Almost immediately, more monsters attacked. Peach's guards already had their hands full, so she was left to fend for herself.
Luigi, where are you?
Peach had tried to call Luigi and Daisy in Sarasaland with no success. She did, however manage to talk to one of Daisy's retainers. He said that Daisy and Luigi weren't there and that they had left for the Mushroom Kingdom. At least that was a bit of good news.
A large group of crocodiles stomped toward her. These ones were different from the other crocs. The ones she had seen before were tiny, but these guys were huge. They stood on two feet and were very muscular. One of them grinned maliciously at her.
"Get 'er, boys" It ordered. The other cocodiles erupted in a roar of cheers and then charged. Peach knew she couldn't fight them all off with just a frying pan.
When they were only three feet away, a few of them were struck by fireballs. Green fireballs. The wave of crocodiles turned to look at the new arrival.
"Luigi! Daisy!" Peach cried.
"Daisy, stay with Peach." Luigi ordered. "I'll take care of these guys."
The brunette in yellow nodded and rushed over to the blonde princess, a golf club in hand.
"Don't worry, Peach!" Daisy yelled. "The cavalry's here!"
Behind Luigi a large squadron of Daisy's guards sprang forward and began attacking. Luigi was in the middle of all the action blasting the bad guys with a fire flower. Peach and Daisy were at the edges of the battle, whacking anything that got too close.
"It's about time you got here!" The Mushroom princess said.
"Sorry," Daisy apologized. "But I needed to find some equipment." She pointed to the small bag on her back. Along with the golf club she was using, she had brought a tennis racket and a baseball bat. "No harm in being prepared."
"All right. Let's go!"
Arianna had just finished giving the three heroes a tour of her base of operations. First she had taken them to the library, which was full of old books. There were also many of the same stained-glass windows from outside in the library. Arianna told them that all of the books were legends, histories, and texts on weapons, items, and spells from each world.
Next, she showed them the dorms. The rooms were obviously for them. The portal guardian had led them there in case they planned on staying a while. She also showed them the kitchen, much to Yoshi's delight. Lastly, she showed them the portal room. The portals were shaped like arched doorways, and each one had a symbol and name above it signifying what the world was. The portals themselves looked like silvery mirrors when undisturbed, but when touched they transformed into large window that showed the world's landscape.
When they returned to the Hall of Heroes, Arianna frowned at a strange buzzing noise. She approached a console with a flickering red light and typed in a few things. After a few moments, a map was displayed on the giant screen on the side of the room. Arianna stared hard at the words that appeared on the large screen. They read:
DIMENSIONAL ABNORMALITY DETECTED
UNKNOWN FOREIGN CREATURES SPOTTED
LONCATION: MUSHROOM KINGDOM
Mario let out a surpised gasp. "What's going on?! What's wrong with the Mushroom Kingdom?!"
Arianna stared at the computer screen. "A dimensional abnormality is a strange occurrence between the worlds that normally doesn't happen. In this case, creatures that aren't native to the world the Mushroom Kingdom is in are appearing when they shouldn't be. It can be very dangerous if they don't know how to fight them."
A loud beep caused the portal guardian to look at the new set of information. "I think I might know where those creatures are coming from. A portal has opened up in Hyrule and in a place called Kongo Island. The monsters must have been going through it to get to the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario, Yoshi, go to the portal room and get to the Mushroom Kingdom. You can let Peach know that you're all right. Link and I will go to Hyrule to close the portal we'll meet you in the Mushroom Kingdom once we do. Is that understood?"
"Okey dokey!" Mario said. "Come on, Yoshi! We're going home!"
The red-capped plumber and the green dinosaur bounded towards the portal room with Link and Arianna close behind.
As they entered the portal room the gateways to the Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule opened.
"Yahooooo!" Mario's voice echoed as he and Yoshi disappeared through the portal.
Arianna shot a glance at Link. "Are you ready for this?"
He smiled. "I've looked evil in the face once before. This shouldn't be too hard."
The Guardian laughed. "All right, then! Let's do this!"
Arianna and Link vanished through the Hyrule portal the same way Mario and Yoshi did through the Mushroom Kingdom one. The quest had begun.
"Hyaaah!"
"Take this!"
Peach and Daisy had just double-teamed a large crocodile, who were revealed to be called 'Krushas.' Peach nailed him in the head with her frying pan and Daisy whacked him across the back with her golf club. The Krusha sank to the floor with a moan, then disappeared in a shower of green sparkles.
Peach stood ready to attack the next opponent. Daisy stared at her now ruined golf club. The club was bent from hitting the tough hide of the Krusha. Frustrated, she put the weapon away in her bag and drew her trusty tennis racket.
Daisy's lead guard made his way over to her. "Princess Daisy!" He yelled over the noise. "I highly suggest that you and Princess Peach retreat and leave the fighting to us soldiers; it will be much safer."
Daisy shook her head and politely refused. "I'm staying whether you like it or not, Captain. If Luigi fights, so do I!"
The captain shrugged and dashed off into the fray.
Luigi's starman had just run out, but he had barreled through an entire line of Krushas. As he wiped the sweat of his brow he suddenly felt the need to dodge something. Oddly enough, a shadow had appeared just above him. A quick glance behind revealed a very large Krusha who was holding what appeared to be a very large barrel over its head. Just as it was about to toss the barrel, a red fireball streaked through the air and hit the Krusha square in the head. The impact was enough to weaken the Krusha's grip on his heavy load and sent it crashing down on its head.
"Here we go!" A familiar voice cried.
Peach turned to the direction the voice was coming from. The princess' eyes widened with joy. "MARIO! YOSHI! You're alright!"
Now that Mario and Yoshi had returned. The rest of the battle would become a lot easier, but it wouldn't be over until the portal Arianna had mentioned was closed.
Sorry to leave you off there. I know I haven't updated in a while, but I'm writing this thing as I go. Now that school's over for me I can guarantee faster updates (hopefully). Anyway, next chapter we'll be following Link and Arianna as they attempt to close the portal in Hyrule. Their task won't be as easy as it sounds, however. I may even introduce another smasher! You'll just need to wait and see in CHAPTER 4: Backtracking.
This is GoldAngel signing off!