Chapter 1- An Uninvited Army
"Hurry it up! We only have an hour left and we still got some hundred letters to deliver!" Parakarry shouted to the rest of the Paratroopa Mail Team. It was a busy day for the greatest post service in all of Mushroom Kingdom, with having to transport all the invitations to the guests for Peach's party that she wanted to have come. The group was now flying over the Chocolate Mountains, soaring above all the rocks, ridges, valleys and cliffs as they tried to pick up speed to get to the next town and then finally Mario and Luigi's house.
While this was their last carry for the day, they had been flying for nearly a half hour now, and still had quite the distance to go before they'd get to Sunflower Town. And from there they had to get to Mario's place, which was at least another half-hour flight from the town. And now with a limited amount of time left, they had to hustle if they wanted to get the letters delivered on time, and get the perfect pay, and report back not only to Princess Peach but their station. It was a busy day for the Paratroopa Delivery Team.
"Hey Parakarry, how much longer do you think we have to fly for?" one of the Paratroopas asked.
"Heck if I know! But from where we are now and at the speed we're going I'd guess to say we'll get everything to the guests with probably a minute to spare!" Parakarry answered over the sound of the rushing wind from their flight.
"Are we going to have to personally deliver the letters to the guests in Sunflower Town?" another asked.
"Yeah, and what about Mario? Do we all have to go there?" a Paratroopa named Parry inquired. Parakarry didn't even look at them, but inside kept his eyes in front of him as he looked out into the distance.
"No, we can just give all the letters to the mail office at the town, and as far as Mario goes, we really don't need to go all at once, I could just go on my own while the rest of you head back just to make sure the more of us return on time. I could even just go to Peach while the rest of you go to the station" Parakarry explained. Parry gave a sigh of relief as he wiped his forehead.
"Phew! At least that's some good news!" he exclaimed. Parakarry went over with a few more explanations of the entire situation then, and while he did so one of the other Paratroopas named Poorta began to glance all over the area. Scanning over the Chocolate Mountains, he soon noticed a huge red mass moving down the one hill, and stopped. Gazing out at it, the other Paratroopas kept flying, but quickly Parry noticed him and stopped along with the others.
"Poorta what are you doing!? We gotta run!" he yelled. Poorta squinted, not yet getting a good sight of the crowd, but still pointed out at it.
"Guys, what in the world is that?" he said aloud. Everyone then also looked out in the same direction, and all of them instantly spotted the mass.
"Well jeez…I have no clue" one of them stated.
"It looks like a crowd of something, but I can't tell what they are" another added. Parakarry tried to look closer, but not even his great eyes to make out what it is.
"Let's go closer" he said, and then began to fly out at it. Parry and Poorta were the first to follow behind him, and quite quickly, while the others were a bit reluctant at first. As they neared the sight, they slowly began to see more of what it was, and after a few seconds Parakarry flew down at a ridge above the valley it seemed to be moving into. The others came down with him, and they all slowly crawled over to the ledge, and peered down at it.
"I wonder what it could…" Parry started to say, and then stopped as his eyes bulged. Everyone else almost froze in place except for Parakarry when they saw the enormous throng, though inside he was just as shocked. Marching down the slopes of the Chocolate Mountains was an army of monsters; Goombas, Koopas, Paratroopas, Boos, Sniffs, Shy Guys, Spinys, Piranha Plants, Magikoopas, Lakitus, Chomps, Whomps, Thwomps, Bobombs and more. Even worse, by the dozens, possibly even hundreds, walking along in immense groups as they traveled along for some unknown reason.
"Ho-holy cow…what is that…?" Parry whispered.
"I…I have no clue…" one of the Paratroopas replied.
"That army's gigantic…why in the world are they here?" Poorta questioned aloud. Parakarry kept his eyes on the regiments, his eyes narrowed with a stern look.
"I don't know guys, but it doesn't look good, not at all. We gotta forget about the invitations now, and report this to Princess Peach, this seems far more serious…" he stated as she stood up then and walked away from the ledge. He stood motionless, and sighed. Staying silent, he suddenly took off into the air at a speed like never before. "we gotta get outta here!!" he screamed with his face warped by fright. All the others screamed themselves, and quickly followed behind him as they took to the skies.
Peach and Daisy stood inside the main foyer as they gazed at the wonderful work that was now completed for the decorations. Every single embellishment was perfect, looking like it cost some thousands of coins just to make them. Streamers of obviously only royal possession hung from the walls and ceiling, like balloons by the absolute dozens. One great banner hung down, a great white one that said it large pink letters "Happy Anniversary to Our Wonderful Princess!" and after it was a wonderfully painted portrait of Peach's face. She loved everything.
"Jeez, what work though! I love parties, but they're too much trouble to prepare for!" she exclaimed.
"Nonsense! They're always worth it, and this one's gonna be even more than that!" Daisy added. Toadsdale hovered by them still on Kumo.
"You bet! I've never seen the foyer so beautiful in my entire life. We did a great job of decorating this entire place" he said. Peach looked over at him and smiled.
"You guys really did, thank you all so much" she replied with a wink. Toadsdale couldn't help but blush a little.
"Yeah, but this things not perfect yet. Get the doors open and let some fresh air and sunshine in!" Daisy called out to a few of the Toads and Maids. Instantly they dashed over to the huge double doors, and in a team effort slowly pulled them open. The cool breeze and rays of the sun began to pour into the castle…as well as about a dozen Paratroopas…
About a second after it was only half-open, Parakarry and the rest of the Paratroopa Mail Team came soaring in, surprising everyone and then smashing either into the way or the floor.
"What in the world!?" Toadsdale yelled. As all of them leisurely began to lift themselves up, they groaned, only-half conscious from their hard landings.
"Parakarry? What are you doing here!?" Daisy shouted.
"Yeah, and why did you guys nearly kill yourselves?" Peach added. Parakarry still moaned from the throbbing pain, but shook his head vigorously to get rid of all of the stars.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Princess, but there's a problem we spotted on out way to Sunflower Town!" the postal worker exclaimed as he jumped into the air and kept up using his wings. Peach now became concerned just be the simple mentioning of that.
"What do you mean? What happened?" she inquired. Parakarry took a deep breath.
"As we were flying over the Chocolate Mountains, we all spotted a gigantic army of monsters marching along throughout the area. I tell ya, there must've been hundreds of 'em!" the hyper Paratroopa explained.
"Yeah! We all saw it!" Parry added as he flew over to them. Poorta did the same.
"Indeed! Goombas, Koopas, Lakitus, Chomps, Whomps, the works!" he said. Peach and the others all seemed rather disturbed by what they heard, especially Toadsdale.
"That…that's a really bi-big army…" he stammered in fright. Daisy nodded.
"Yeah, that doesn't sound good at all. An army that big can't be going along on their own, they're too much of a threat" the Princess of Sarasa-land stated. Toadsdale nodded.
"Could it be Bowser again?" Poorta asked. Toadsdale shook his head.
"I doubt it, amazingly the big oaf has been living quietly in his castle at the Grey Grey Mountains with the rest of his minions. Being that he's shown no sign of trouble at all for some time, and that the Chocolate Mountains are so far from him, I really wouldn't think they'd be with him" the little guy elucidated. Peach nodded, a serious expression on her face.
"Yes, and this could leave an even bigger problem then, an unknown enemy possibly. I think we should go get Mario and Luigi, and possibly check the place out" the Princess of Mushroom Kingdom announced.
"Are you sure you'd wanna go yourself Princess? If we'd get attacked by the army, it could get ugly…" Parakarry said.
"I know that, but if we all go along with Mario and Luigi, chances for us making it out alive could actually be good. Plus, if I'm important enough to have a monstrous party thrown for me, I should be watching over my kingdom and making sure it stays safe" Peach asserted, an intrepid tone to her voice now. Parry then hovered slowly at Toadsdale.
"Since when did she become so macho…?" the Paratroopa whispered.
The crew all made it to Mario and Luigi's house within about a half-hour using Kumo. An amazing ability it had was to enlarge itself, and that's exactly what Toadsdale had it do so that he, Daisy and Peach could all ride on it to the legendary brothers' home. When they got there, they literally wasted no time at all. While they had discussed a few more points on the way there, they quickly got Mario and Luigi outside, and began to explain the situation. The two listened attentively, several nods coming from both as the story unfolded. It took about ten minutes just to get all of it out of the way, and then came the more important matter; what the heck they'd do about it…
"So yeah…can ya help us?" Peach asked. Luigi nodded.
"Sure we can, that certainly sounds like big trouble!" the young man answered.
"Yeah, but whata are we-a gonna do!?" Mario added. The others all went silent as they tried to innocently look out the corners of their eyes, while Daisy gulped.
"Well uh…that's what we'd hope you figure out…" she said. Mario and Luigi both had the most bland expressions ever as they stared at her, almost in that they couldn't believe it.
"So wait…you're saying the greatest patrol of mailmen, and two princesses, one who we're supposed to be holding a gigantic party in celebration of her amazing ruling, can't even decide how to counter this thing?" Luigi questioned.
"Looks to be that way" Toadsdale plainly replied, gazing off into no-where as if he was completely uninterested, and by this point he pretty much was. Parakarry pretty much was close to having a fit now.
"Wait a second! There's no way we wasted all this time doing nothing and getting ready to check this thing out, and now be held off because we're all a bunch of idiots! We had to stop our entire patrol because of this!" Poorta leaned over at his captain.
"Yeah, but that also meant we saved ourselves about another five miles of flight…probably double for you…" he whispered. Parakarry's eyes widened in realization.
"Oh…right…yeah that's pretty good actually…" he said. Mario sighed.
"Momma mia, why don't we-a just go to-a the place and checka it out!?" he yelled.
"Yeah, that's really all we can do. Inspect it, see what we can find, and hopefully we can get some clues, then just go from there" Luigi finished off. Daisy nodded.
"That sounds fine, especially in that we don't have any force to fight them yet, provided we even need to fight them, maybe if we're lucky they'll stay secluded to there" the girl stated. No one else had much more to say, and for a few seconds everything was quite before Peach chuckled.
"Jeez, we're really having an off day if it took us this long to figure this out…" the Princess commented. Everyone instantly gave her a stony expression.
Currently everyone was now over the Choco Mountains. Mario and Luigi had joined the others on Kumo, while all the Paratroopas still flew in the sky. Though, three of them had left Mario and Luigi's house before they departed for the mountains to try and find Geno and Mallow. Mario had suggested that since they were still close by, that they try and find them for help. Even if it had been a while since they last saw battle, the two certainly hadn't gotten rusty in their skills. As the other Paratroopas still were gone, the rest of the gang still soared over the area, as Parakarry, Poorta and Parry tried to spot out where they last saw the army.
"Hmm, I'm at a loss now guys, do you remember where it was?" Parakarry was as he scanned the region with his amazing eyes.
"Personally I don't but if any of us can remember specific landmark, I'm sure we could spot it out fine" Parry answered. Poorta now looked over at the two.
"Well, didn't we look over a low hill?" the other postal worker asked. Parakarry quickly recollected everything now as she snapped his fingers.
"Hey that's right! We they were right below us in that large rut" he said. Parry then seemed to notice it, and pointed right at it.
"You mean that one?" he asked. Everyone glanced over at the spot, and Poorta nodded.
"Yeah that's it!" he replied. Parakarry nodded, and began to fly down.
"Alright then, let's head down" he said. The other Paratroopas followed him, as well as Kumo and everyone he had on top of him. Soon them came to the ground, and everyone except Toadsdale hopped off the large cloud.
"Alright-a then, let's-a look around" Mario said aloud, and began to search alongside Luigi by their own spot. All the Paratroopas stuck together, doing their own investigations, while Peach and Daisy looked all around their area.
"Say, ya know now that I think about it, this place is a pretty good place for an entire army to hide out" the Princess of Mushroom Kingdom said. Daisy nodded.
"Yeah, the whole area is all jagged and rocky, it leaves a lot of hiding places where they can stay concealed, even in large groups. Heck I even heard that there's all the mines still" the other Princess added.
"Aye, long ago a great force of Monty Moles dug one of the greatest underground channels ever to be recorded. It's said to stretch throughout the entire mountains" Toadsdale explained. Peach looked quite surprise.
"Holy cow, that means they could even be traveling underground now, and no one would ever know" she stated.
"Yeah, that and no one even knows where the entrances are, so even if they were down there, how could we ever find them?" Daisy added.
"We probably never would…" Toadsdale sternly finished.
Back with the Paratroopas, Parakarry and the others had been trying to find out where they tracks that had been left pointed to. Many had been meshed together, so it was hard to decipher, though luckily with Parakarry's great eyes and good ranger-like skills, it wasn't too much of a muddle.
"Well, they're heading for the east it seems, right towards where all the valleys and trenches are on the mountains, or at least where the majority are" he said aloud.
"Why do you think they'd go there?" Parry asked as he looked down at him. Parakarry stood up and shrugged.
"Couldn't tell ya for sure. They might've been looking for a place to hide, or that's where there could be secret entrances that lead to someplace" he replied.
"That's not where all the villages are right?" Poorta inquired. Parakarry nodded.
"Yeah, they're to the west and south more. Which means they're either passed by them and left them alone, or they already attacked them. But at least we know they're not heading for those towns at least" the ace-postal worker explained. Parakarry then began to look over at what everyone else was doing was doing, including Mario and Luigi, who were on the ground inspecting what seemed to be more tracks from the army. "Say, what have ya got there guys?" the Paratroopa asked. Neither of them taking their eyes off the dirt floor of the Choco Mountains, the two brothers gave a run-down of what they had discovered so far.
"Well, for now I managed to pick up normal stuff, like Goombas, Koopas and Chomps and stuff, but from what it seems there were also Thwomps and even Chargins" Luigi answered.
"Yeah, and even-a worse, dudes like-a Bloopers and Dino Rinos!" Mario added. Daisy's eyes widened.
"Wow…they can figure out stuff like that from this entire mess of tracks?" she asked aloud, almost sounding like she disbelieved it.
"Yep, always have, always will" Peach answered dully. Toadsdale had something slightly productive to say.
"Well jeez, if there's even more guys like that we didn't know about at first, we could have an even bigger problem. Guys like that are an extreme danger in large packs. I say we come back another time with a much larger force and try to gather some clues then!" he declared. Mario jumped up then, and Luigi quickly followed.
"That-a sounds like a good-a idea!" he replied.
"Yeah, let's beat it before it's too…" Parakarry began before some other odd voice finished off his sentence.
"Late?" it said, cocky sounding. Everyone looked up at the ledge above them, and noticed a sole Goomba standing there, a smirk on his huge head. Luigi narrowed his eyes at him.
"Are you with that army that was here before!?" he shouted. The Goomba looked no less arrogant.
"Of course I am, what's it to you?" he asked back. Peach took a step forward, her eyes hardened.
"That army is a threat to this land, I demand you give us all the information on it" the Princess stated firmly. The Goomba now laughed.
"Oh bah! What on Earth can you do to us?" he questioned. Mario pulled up a sleeve and began to move closer to him.
"I tell-a ya what I'll do-a to you! I'll kick-a your butt!" the young man yelled. After no more than his fifth step, endless more heads emerged into the open alongside the hills, boulders and ledges above the group, the heads of more Goombas, Koopas, Paratroopas, Chomps, Shy Guys and more. Mario and the rest of the gang froze in place, their eyes widening as their mouths fell down in shock of the sudden small army coming into view.
"You didn't understand what I meant by us, did you?" the Goomba mocked.