A few days late, but oh well.
Hello everyone and welcome to this belated Halloween story! I originally intended to get this published on Halloween night, but it took a little longer than i expected. We're here now though!
This is a Mario story that will be 7 chapters long. It is about a group of characters who get stuck inside a haunted house, and have to survive the night. Cliche, perhaps, but what's wrong with cliches? This story is also going to pull in some of the weird ghost and afterlife lore that the Mario series has, so that's fun. And I think that you'll find the main cast of characters to be a rather odd selection. Most of them turned out to be toads, for some reason...
(And to those of you who are reading The Cosmic Wars, I hope to continue that soon. Most of my focus has been on this fic recently, but now that energy is transferring over to The Cosmic Wars, so you should be seeing that again soon.)
Now then, on with the story!
The following story is rated T for fear, some dark moments, and mild violence. But it's mostly because I'm paranoid.
Disclaimer: I in no way own any rights to the Mario series. all rights belong to their respective owners.
I
It was the middle of the night, in a cold, isolated forest that sat just outside of Evershade Valley(1), when the members of the Toad Brigade came tumbling out of some thick brush, and ran frantically into a small clearing. From the direction they came, the silhouette of a large, decrepit looking mansion was visible by the light of the waxing moon. The forest surrounding the Toads was thick with brush, and most of the light was blocked off by deadening, twisting trees, the branches of which rapped together to form a dark canopy above them. The Forest was silent, not a single other creature besides the Toads seemed to be moving that night. Yet, the Toads looked as though they expected something to jump out at them any second.
The Toads, of course, were the members of the daring Toad Brigade(2). Well, four of the members, as neither Captain Toad nor the Archivist Toadette were anywhere to be seen. The Toad Brigade were a team of intrepid explorers and royal guards at Peace's Castle, who had also managed a Crazy Cap shop(3) at one point of time. They had fought along side Mario on many of his adventures. Now though, they were on an adventure without their Captain and the Archivist, and the four present members did not seem to be doing well on that night.
Hint Toad was the intelligent, blue toad of the group, who could be easily identified by his pair of round glasses. Bank Toad managed the finances, and was the green toad of the group, who always carried a pickaxe wherever he went. Mail Toad, the purple toad, handled communications, and delivered important articles of mail. Finally, there was a Yellow Toad, who did… well, honestly he mostly seemed to spend his time sleeping, but since some people believed that he could see the future in his dreams, maybe that was for the best.
Right now, the team was in bad shape. Hint Toad was heading the party, clutching a thick, leather bound book under each arm and glancing nervously behind them every few seconds. Mail Toad was limping along behind, fiddling with a walky-talky that was producing nothing but static. The usually sleepy yellow toad was wide awake now, and was visibly trembling, even as he tried to help support the limping Mail Toad. In the Back of the group came Bank Toad, also scratched up; he was staring fixedly back in the direction of the house, holding his pickaxe out in front of him like a weapon. All four of the Toads looked battered and exhausted, yet they continued to march on.
"Hold up," Hint Toad said, stopping to take a look at the small clearing that they had landed in," We've been this way already too."
"Again" Mail Toad groaned. "How many times are we going to loop around in this forest. I'm starting to doubt that there's even a way out of here at all."
"But I've kept my eyes on the house the whole time" Bank Toad pointed out, still guardedly holding his pickaxe towards the mansion. "How could we have possibly been turned around?"
"B-b-because this p-place is h-haunted" the yellow toad stuttered out in fear.
"So what, this forest is like, the Lost Woods from The Legend of Zelda(4) or something?" Bank Toad asked.
"I think so" Hint Toad said warily. "I don't think that there is a way for us to get out, or at least, not one that we can find on our own." He turned back towards his comrades. "And certainly not in the shape we're in."
Bank Toad nodded. "You're right, we should probably all get some rest, or at least as much as we can. I'll take first watch."
As Bank Toad sat down on a rock, still staring fixedly at the mansion in the distance, the other three toads leaned back against some wide tree's.
"Hey, the Captain will find us, right? Mail Toad asked quietly. "He knows where we are, he'll come."
"Y-yeah, definitely" the yellow toad said.
"Though if he does, let's hope he does a better job out here than we did" said Hint Toad. "Let's hope he avoids this trap."
The Toads sat back, torn between the hope that their captain would come to save them, and that he wouldn't, and would steer clear of the prison that they had locked themselves in.
It was the following dawn when a small sailboat curved around the bend of the river that flowed towards Evershade Valley, and sailed closer to the valley's edge. At the Boat's bow sat Captain Toad, who was staring out into the terrain that stretched out on either side of them.
"I think this should be the spot, Yoshi" the Captain said. "I think this was where my team was doing their treasure hunting."
"Eye eye, captain" said Yoshi as he turned the wheel of the boat, looking around for a place to dock.
The sailboat belonged to Yoshi, who owned the small ship for when he travelled between the Mushroom Kingdom and Yoshi's Island, or Yoshi's Island's, as they owned several now.
Captain Toad had set out on this voyage a few days prior. The members of the Toad Brigade had set out to this area nearly a week ago, and they had stopped contacting him almost as soon as they had arrived. He had been busy scouting for treasure in another area with the Archivist Toadette, and he had not thought much of the other toad's lack of communication at first; he assumed that they were just as busy with their voyage as he was with his. However, once he and Toadette had found the treasure that they had been looking for, the silence from the other Toad Brigade members became difficult to rationalize, and the Captain realized that he needed to find out what was happening.
So, once it became clear that their silence was not just because of poor radio signals or low wifi, Captain Toad gathered a small crew to go look for the four toads. The Archivist Toadette was of course still going with him, and she had suggested bringing along her brother, Toad(5), who somehow both seemed eager to be a part of things and hesitant to do any work. The Captain had also decided to bring Yvan and Wolley(6), the toad brothers, who the Captain thought would be the best other toads to handle a mission like this, as they had helped the Mario Brothers on several adventures before. Finally, the Captain had needed a boat, and so he ended up bringing Yoshi and his boat along, who in turn, brought Birdo along, those two being the only non-toad members of the small team.
And so, the seven of them set out on their voyage, sailing Yoshi's boat down river, all the way to just outside of Evershade Valley, where the Toad Brigade members had been searching for their treasure.
The treasure in question was allegedly some sort of valuable that was contained in an ancient crypt in the area, most likely of great historical value. They had discovered the location of this treasure while on another expedition, when they had stopped at a little village to the east of Evershade Valley. There they had talked to some of the locals, one of whom who brought up the legend of a hidden crypt that sat just on the eastern edge of Evershade Valley, which he claimed was impossible to get to because it was concealed by a thick forest that would let no one enter.
The Toad Brigade of course was not deterred by this; they had reached many hard to get locations before, what was going to be so different about this one? The old toad who had told them this story had warned them that the legend said that the crypt was haunted, but they set out anyway. Well, some of them did.
Captain Toad winced at these thoughts. Truth be told, it was his own cowardice nature that had encouraged him to only send some of the Brigade there, and to keep himself out. He hadn't expected anything bad to really happen, probably just a couple of boo's had made the crypt their home, but he had never been the bravest person around ghosts, whatever their type, so he had insisted that only the four members of the Toad Brigade should enter the area. After that, he had gotten so distracted by another expedition that he and Toadette had been on, that he didn't even notice the strange silence from the other members until too much time had passed.
The Captain shook his head, trying to clear his guilty thoughts. Whatever his decisions before had been, he was going to get the others out now, that was a promise.
The voyage had been a slow, dull trip, and with seven people confined in such little space, the mood wasn't exactly cheerful. However, everyone did seem to be at least happy to finally be arriving at their destination. Captain Toad remained standing at the bow of the ship, staring ahead, while the others each did their own things. Yoshi and Birdo were on the Stern of the ship. Yoshi was steering, and Birdo was holding a pair of binoculars, gazing out into the forest around them. Yvan and Wolley were seated on the ship's deck, playing cards. Toad and Toadette stood on the starboard side of the ship, looking down into the waters of the river below.
As they were standing there, Toad let out a long sigh.
"Alright, what's wrong?" Toadette asked. She probably wouldn't have bothered asking normally, but this was the sixth time he had done this in the span of five minutes, and she was beginning to get concerned.
"It's nothing" Toad muttered. After a moment, he continued anyway. "It's just, do you think it's a good idea for me to be here? I mean, the Captain doesn't really seem to want me here."
"Oh, he just misses his regular team, that's all" Toadette said. "Why don't you think that you should be here?"
"I don't know. I guess it's because, I'm just the average toad of the team" Toad said sadly. "Like, look at everyone else over here. The Captain is experienced in this area, Yvan and Wolley have done this kind of stuff with the Mario Brothers time and time again, and then Yoshi and Birdo have both been on big adventures like this, and to top it off, they aren't toads! And then there's even you, my own sister, who's the archivist for the Toad Brigade!"
"Yeah, it is pretty cool" Toadette said cheerily. Noticing Her brothers downtrodden expression, she hurried on. "But hey, I mean, you still deserve to be here, you were the first toad to ever travel with the Mario Brothers, way back when you guys entered Mario's dream world… or something like that(7)."
Toad perked up a bit. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"And besides, we need as many toad's as we can get on this journey. We toads, after all, are expert trackers; we always know when Peach has been moved to another castle!"
"Yeah, I wouldn't brag about that one" said Toad awkwardly.
A sudden scream from behind them broke the two siblings out of their conversation.
"Gah! It is impossible to play this game when the boat keeps rocking" Yvan yelled, throwing his cards down in a huff. The cards around him kept sliding around as the boat rocked.
Wolley shrugged. "I told you to bring your Nintendo 3DS," he said.
Yvan shot him a look. "We are not here to goof off, Wolley. The only reason I brought cards is because you whined so much about how you were going to be bored. Everything else would just be a distraction from the task at hand."
Wolley shrugged again as he bent down to gather his fallen cards.
Yvan sighed. "I can't wait to arrive at our destination. Finally we'll be doing something that isn't playing Go Fish for hours on end."
"We also played Rummy" Wolley pointed out.
"Still though, I want to be in the action." Yvan looked over at Toad and Toadette. "What about you two, are you ready to be off of this boat?"
"Oh yeah" Toadette nodded. "I too have grown tired of the endless rounds of Rummy."
"Well, I told you guys to bring The Great Big Book of Card Game Instructions, but apparently, that was a distraction" Wolley said sarcastically.
"It is" Yvan said.
"See, I brought my Nintendo Switch" Toad said. "I know you, Yvan, say that it is a distraction from our journey, but I say, that this is where I am honing my lightning fast reflexes, and my masterful hand-eye coordination. Yup, nothing is getting past me" Toad bragged.
Yvan sighed as Wolley laughed. Toadette smiled; it was good to see that her brother still had his confidence about some things.
As the two sets of siblings were talking, Yoshi was still steering the boat into shore.
"Find anywhere good to land" He asked Birdo, who was still peering out through her binoculars at the forest around them.
Birdo shook her head. "It's all just tree's out there, I can barely make out anything."
Yoshi hummed in thought, quickly looking around them. "There's a little tree stump over there, I guess I could just tie the boat to that."
"I don't know how we're going to keep our sense of direction in that forest" said Birdo. "Those trees are so thick, I doubt much light can get through the branches."
"Oh, you know, we could leave a trail of breadcrumbs or something" Yoshi said.
"Yoshi, dear, the last time when anyone tried that, you ate the bread crumbs."
Yoshi blushed. "Well, we forgot to pack snacks that time."
"I don't know how you talked me into this adventure" Birdo said. "I mean, I'm missing out on a lot of the rehearsal for my next play because of this."
"Oh, come on, these guys are our friends, someone has got to watch over them" Yoshi said. "It's just like the older Yoshis did when Mario and Luigi were babies. Except, these guys aren't babies."
"I guess," Birdo said, looking over at the toads, who were still debating on whether a video game was a good way to train your survival skills. "These guys are still pretty young."
"Exactly, and it's our responsibility to make sure that they don't do anything to get themselves hurt while we're out here" Yoshi said seriously.
Yoshi pulled the ship alongside the shore. He lowered down a wooden plank that they used as a ramp, and the passengers dismounted eagerly, happy to be off of the boat. As Yoshi tied the ships line to a nearby tree stump to keep the ship from floating away, the others turned to Captain Toad.
"So, where to now, Captain" Toadette asked.
Captain Toad looked around at the dark, encircling forest all around them.
"Well, this way is east, towards Evershade Valley" he said, pointing towards the part of the forest that they stood beside. "I suppose we should just start walking. I don't know exactly where the others went…"
The Captain winced again. He hadn't told the others why he had left the other Toad Brigade members to go into the forest alone. The only other person here who knew was Toadette, who shot him a sympathetic glance, while also feeling kind of guilty as well.
"Alright then" Wolley said cheerfully. "Too adventure!"
Wolley charged into the forest, with Yvan close behind. The Captain hurriedly ran after them. Yoshi and Birdo looked at each other in concern, and then ran after the others. Finally, only Toadette and Toad stood behind. Toadette walked into the forest, and waved for her brother to follow. Toad gave one last glance at the ship, suddenly wishing that he could just stay on it until whatever was happening was over. Then, he nervously followed Toadette into the forest.
The small crew had been walking for a couple hours, when a sudden rustling noise brought them to a halt. Dusk was setting in, and the little light the sun had provided them was all but gone, leaving the forest floor cast in darkness. Only by the lights of their flashlights, and Captain Toad and Toadette's headlamps, were they able to make out anything.
Upon hearing the strange rustling noise, the whole party immediately froze in their tracks.
"What was that," Toad asked nervously, feeling his body go cold with fear.
The group stood frozen, until another rustling was heard, coming from the bushes behind them. The team spun around, staring ahead into the bushes. Something seemed to be shifting around inside of them. Birdo stepped forward.
"Alright, whatever you are in there, you better come out now" She said in the calmest voice she could muster.
A moment passed, and the bush stopped rustling. Then, quite suddenly, something jumped out from the bush. The group all jumped back in fear, tumbling over one another as they tried to get away.
Then, as they hit the ground, each one of them began to clearly see the small, redheaded, koopa figure that had jumped out of the bushed, and was now lying on the ground.
"Bowser Jr.!" Yoshi said in surprise as everyone stood back up. "What on earth are you doing here?"
The young prince sat up and glared at them. "I should be asking you the same thing."
"That's none of your-" The captain started to say, but was cut off by Yoshi saying "We're on a rescue mission."
Captain Toad glared at Yoshi. Yoshi shrugged.
"Anyway, you know why we're here, now why are you here" Birdo asked again.
"Still none of your business" Jr. snapped. "I am the Prince of the Koopas, I can go wherever I please."
"Wherever your dad lets you go, at least" Wolley quipped.
Yoshi nodded. "That's right, where is your dad?"
Jr. scowled.
Yoshi thought for a moment. "If your dad isn't here, where are your siblings, the Koopalings, then?"
Jr. muttered something extremely quietly that sounded like "I don't know."
"You're lost, aren't you" Birdo realized.
The look of embarrassment that came across Jr's face confirmed it.
"Geez kid, how did you get lost all the way out here" Yvan said, suddenly taking an interest in the conversation.
When he realized that these people were not going to back down until they got their answers, Jr. relented
"I was on a mission with the Koopalings" the young Bowser said angrily. "We were just looking to… get some stuff from Evershade Valley. But on the way back, I got split up from them, and I can't find my way out of these stupid woods!"
Jr. stamped his foot angrily on the last words, to emphasize his point.
"How long have you been out here" Captain Toad asked.
"Most of the day" Jr. glowered.
"And did you see anyone else while you were here?" The Captain pressed.
"No one else is out here… well, I suppose I didn't spend to long looking at that big house, but-"
"What big house?!" Captain Toad asked.
"Some big mansion that way" Jr. gestured vaguely in a direction.
The party of travellers all glanced at each other.
"If the toad Brigade is out her"- Captain Toad started.
"-Then that's where they'll be" Toadette finished.
"Alright Bowser Jr., which way is this house" Yoshi asked.
"What, no way, I'm not taking you there" Bowser Jr. whined.
"Fine" Yoshi said. He then scooped the young prince up, much to his annoyance, and placed him on his back. "I'll take you there. All you have to do is point the way."
Without waiting for the prince to respond, Yoshi began walking into the trees. Sighing, Bowser Jr. relented and began directing Yoshi. The others followed behind.
None were entirely happy with Bowser Jr. joining their little crew. Yoshi was taking it the best, as throughout their lives Yoshis had collectively helped many children in many situations; it was just in their nature to want to take care of kids. Birdo wasn't entirely happy about the new edition to the team, but she was willing to go along with Yoshi's ideas. Yvan and Wolley both felt fairly put off by the whole thing; They had both fought Jr. along side Mario and Luigi many times before, and neither one felt particularly comfortable with having to work with him on an adventure. The same could be said for Toad and Toadette; sure they had played with him in sports matches and kart races, but never on an adventure like this, and both felt kind of wary of him. The Captain was the one member of the team who did not seem to care about the koopa's presence one way or another, so fixated was he on finding his Toad Brigade members.
Whatever their feelings were on the matter, each person kept it to themselves as they ventured deeper into the forest.
(1): Evershade Valley is the main location in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. It is a valley of friendly ghosts.
(2): The Toad Brigade is a team of toads, first appearing in Super Mario Galaxy. The members consist of: Captain Toad (red), Hint Toad (blue), Bank Toad (green), Mail Toad (purple), and an unnamed yellow toad who sleeps a lot. In Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Toadette was added as a sixth member.
(3): These have all been jobs of the Toad Brigade at various points of time. The Crazy Cap shop is the shop in Super Mario Odyssey. The Toad Brigade runs it in a few of the kingdoms.
(4): In The Legend of Zelda games, the Lost Woods is always a maze-like forest, with unnatural passages that will warp you from one place to another.
(5): Yes, canonically, according to several official instruction manuals, Toad and Toadette are bother and sister. Also, a good time to mention that yes, Captain Toad and Toad are different characters.
(6): Yvan and Wolley were the names created by a fan vote at IGN for the Blue Toad and Yellow Toad in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Their names are just navy and yellow spelled backwards. The article about it can be found here:
Articles/2009/06/15/introducing-yvan-wolley
I have since learned that apparently the official names for these two characters are Bucken-Berry (blue) and Ala-Gold (yellow), but I personally prefer Yvan and Wolley, so I'm sticking with it.
(7): This is a reference to Super Mario Bros. 2. The game takes place in the world of Subcon, which is suggested to be Mario's dream.
Dang, that was way too many footnotes. I need to do less references next time...
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. If you did, please leave a review, and I will see you all next time!