Super Mario Legends
By Mosobot64
Chapter 2- Fear and Bravery
The brothers Mario and Luigi, two plumbers in Brooklyn, now had been thrust into a world they did not understand. They were in a desert, that was somehow not overly hot or cold, but comfortable, and the sun and plants all had beady black eyes like kittens. Yet there was something that was ruining thier day.
A mushroom shaped creature with stumpy legs, large as a cougar, red eyes glowing, was staring the two brothers in the face. Luigi was still laying in the sand, reeling from being transported to this place by falling in a pipe.
The creature bared its teeth, and charged forward. It ran at Mario, growling. Mario leaped into the air, amazingly high.
"Whoa!" Mario cried, not expecting to be able to jump so high.
Mario landed on the ground without much difficulty, in a couch. The creature turned around, flinging around sand, and ran at Mario again. Mario smirked at the creature before vaulting skyward again, turning around in mid-air to deliver a flying kick to the creature. The creature cried out in pain, falling over forward from the force of the kick.
Mario landed on the ground just in time to see the creature fade away into black smoke.
Luigi finally got up.
"I can't believe you beat that thing." Luigi said to his brother.
"Yeah, I know." Mario replied. "How the heck did I beat that thing?"
"Guess this is a low gravity world." Luigi answered. "Your density compared to that creature was what beat it. It's like we're on the moon."
"Cool." Mario said. "Hey, you think there might be people here? I mean, I get the feeling..."
"My heart tells me yes, my mind tells me no." Luigi told his brother. "But since we've got nothing better to do, we might as well."
"Of course, we got here by jumping down a big pipe. If we find another one, and jump down it..."
"Then we might make it home!" Mario said. "Luigi, you're a genius!"
"I know, I know." Luigi responded, reveling in the praise.
The two brother then began the walk toward the sun, through the desert sand.
After a couple of hours, neither brother was low on energy, amazingly enough, and still kept on walking towards the sun.
"This may be a strange place, but the sun's nice." Mario said to his brother. "It's as warm as a mother's touch."
"I know." Luigi said to his brother. "This place actually seems familliar...like I was here very long ago..."
"Yeah, I know." Mario said to his brother.
"You know, that thing you said about a mother's touch..." Luigi said. "I don't recall having a mother..." Luigi sighed as a tone of sadness escaped through his voice.
Mario furrowed his brow thoughtfully, trying to remember thier mother, but as Luigi voiced, he could not. Mario did not bother to say anything however, and the two brothers continued walking through desert.
Niether of them were aware of it, but far above them, a red shelled humanoid turtle with white wings was flying, watching them. The winged turtle squinted his eyes, making them as far sighted as an eagle's, and then it flew away, satisfied, into the sunlit sky.
And as it flew, it dropped apples on the ground, ahead of the two brothers...
It wasn't until an hour Mario and Luigi actually saw these apples. Mario had grown very hungry, and Luigi wasn't going to argue with food either. Both noticed the apple trail, and followed it, since they had no reason not to and wanted to see a civilization, which Luigi surmised might be what it was leading to.
So the two brothers followed the apple trail, with Mario eating the apples all the way. After they had been following the trail for an hour, though, Mario got full, and just started putting the apples in his pocket. All the way, the desert sun with the beady eyes peeked at them overhead, and the beady eyed cacti kept staring at Mario and Luigi.
Finally, after three solid hours of walking, Luigi spotted a large green pipe, just like the one the two first jumped into to get to this place.
"That's it!" Luigi cried. "Our ticket out of here!"
Luigi ran up a sand dune atop which the large pipe was perched. Mario kept walking, and when he finally reached the top, Luigi was leaning against the pipe with his arms folded.
"Hey, bro." Mario said, panting. "Think we could stop and rest a minute? My feet are killing me!"
Luigi slid down the pipe into a seated position. Taking it as a yes, Mario took a seat beside him.
"Hey, Mario, you've gotta lose some wieght." Luigi laughed as Mario glared at him. "Hey, I was just kidding, bro." Luigi continued. "I'm tired, too. We've been walking a really long time."
Mario leaned his head against the pipe behind him, closing his eyes and relaxing.
It wasn't long before the brothers stopped resting. Mario jumped into the pipe first, followed by Luigi.
They floated through white once more, before they finally landed. Mario became aware of his surroundings first, and beside him Luigi lay, face down, still recovering from the warp.
The brothers were not in the desert, and nor were they home. It felt more like hell. They were in a dull grey stone room, the floor of which was cold. The air was hot and filled with embers that stung Mario's throat, and Luigi's as he got up.
Down the hall they heard a evil, monstrous laugh. Luigi shivered, but Mario simply looked in that direction apprehensively, but not obviously afraid.
Laughter again, but now it was louder. Mario began walking in its direction. Luigi gulped, but followed.
Both brothers leaped over large pits filled with lava, and both brothers were sweating from the heat. Mario kept on walking, and Luigi stuck to him.
Eventually, the brothers came to a bridge, held over a massive pit of lava. And in the middle of the bridge was something truly horrifying.
It was twice the hieght of Mario and Luigi, and twice as bulky as Mario. It was covered with golen scales, save for its face, which has green scales. Its arms and legs were taught with muscle, and it had a short tail, and a spiked green shell on its back. On each of its arms were two black, piked cuffs. It had a gaping mouth filled with sharp teeth, and each toe and finger of it was tipped with a razor sharp claw. It had burning red eyes, and red hair that ran in a line down its head. It laughed at the brothers again.
"That thing..." Luigi said, sweat pouring down his face. "I see that in my nightmares..." After that, Luigi began gasping for breath. The hot ember filled air and the dark castle walls were all ready nearly too much for him, but the sight of this creature put him over the edge. Luigi had grown stiff with fear.
Mario, however, hadn't. "Hey, jerkasaur, what nasty teeth you have!"
"My scout did not tell me you were cocky, outsider." The monster growled at them. "It'll be all the more fun to wipe the smirk off your face."
"Yeah, whatevah, mofo, bring it on!" Mario said, gesturing toward himself.
The monster charged, causing the bridge to shake with its fury. Just as it drew close, Mario jumped, preparing to deliver his signature flying kick.
But as he was preparing to kick, the monter turned around, raking its claw through his left shoulder. Mario crashed to the ground, and stayed there, clutching his chest and wincing in pain.
"MARIO!" Luigi cried, tears streaking down his face.
"Now for you." The monster sneered at Luigi. "You reak of fear."
Luigi felt his palms slick with sweat, remembered the terrible nightmares he had of this monster. But then he remembered how Mario had been cut down by this creature. This memory replaced his fear with anger.
His hestitation with determination.
Luigi charged forward into the fray. The monster roared, and charged as well.
Luigi vaulted skyward, higher than Mario ever did, higher than the monster could hope to reach. Luigi felt a breeze as he sailed through the air, cooling him slightly.
He landed right beside his fallen brother, and the monster took a moment to realize that Luigi was now behind it, and was just now beginning to slow down so that it could turn around. It gave Luigi the time he needed to pick up his brother, and begin carrying him the rest of the way across the bridge.
The monster chased him, but Luigi, even while carrying his overweight brother, was too fast for it. He ran down hallways, the monster chasing him. Eventually, the monster stopped.
"Koopas! Stop him!" The monster pointed at Luigi, who was still running away.
As Luigi ran into the next corridor, three green shelled humanoid turtles, which Luigi presumed to be the Koopas, stood in front of him. With his hands full of the unconsios Mario, he was unable to fight, and so he weaved in between them.
Luigi kept on running, and judging by the progressively slowing heartrate of Mario, his brother was slipping away.
"Mario, don't die on me, please!" Luigi looked down at his brother, still running.
Finally, after running for what seemed to be forever, he came to a small room that had just another great green pipe in it, without hesitating, Luigi jumped into it, now with tears down his face.
"TAKE ME AND MY BROTHER AWAY!"
Luigi ended up in the other end, and he finally felt safe. Luigi layed his dying brother beside him. Mario was still bleeding from his badly torn shoulder, and Luigi knew of nothing that could help him. This made Luigi feel more hopeless than anything else. Not knowing what to do, Luigi simply collasped, weeping.
Then, however, a gloved hand gently pushed his chin up. Luigi looked into the crystal eyes of a young blonde woman wearing a pink dress with a silver brooch.
"Do not cry, Luigi." The woman said.
This was not enough to comfort Luigi, for he had a problem weighing on him still.
"Please help my brother, whoever you are." Luigi said to the woman, tears pouring down his face. "I don't want him to die..."
"And he will not." The woman said. "But you cannot cry. You must think as if all is well. For only this will heal your brother. Dry your tears."
Luigi stopped crying, and he felt calm enter him. Luigi couldn't explain it.
The woman then stepped over beside Mario, examining him and checking his pulse.
"It will be difficult, but Mario can still be saved."
The woman then held up her hands, palms facing the sky, and her incantation rang through the air:
"Astra-jin, star spirits, I call upon you now,
Heal him through the mushrooms, if kindness art thou,
Let his wounds be healed, let him walk free,
My will written through Kamijin, so shall it be!"
What looked to be the light of fireflies danced around Mario at high speed, and Luigi watched in amazement as Mario's wound accelerated its healing.
After the lights faded and Mario's wound has fully healed, Mario's eyes snapped open and Mario drew a deep breath, and contiued breathing normally.
Luigi ran up to Mario as soon as he got up, and tackled him.
"Mario, I'm so glad you're alive!"
"Luigi, you're squishing me!" Mario said, growing short of breath towards the end of that sentence.
"Mario's wound is healed. And I am blessed with the pressence of you both." The woman said to them. Luigi stopped hugging his brother and turned around, interested in what the woman said. Mario was paying attention as well.
"Come with me to the castle. All shall be explained to you soon." The woman continued. "My name is Peach, and you are in the Mushroom Kingdom."
And so, the three walked through a magical land, filled with great red and white mushroom, fiery orange flowers, and a beady eyed sun that seemed to see and love all things...
When I first wrote this, I'm sure I intended it to be the finest Super Mario story I ever wrote. Which it has been.
But, I looked back and saw this thing, saw how popular it was, and went 'This story got rave reviews and I didn't continue it? WHAT WAS I THINKING?'
Now that I've gone insane again thanks to Mario Party 6, you can now go back to enjoying this thing just like you did back in the good ol' days.
Thanks for reviewing everybody!
Mosobot64
