Far away from Bowser's castle, far from the gloomy Dark Land, far from any of the evil creatures of Bowser's army was the peaceful vacation spot of Isle Delfino. This island was known for its beautiful landscape, its warm weather, and its general hospitality to tourists. This was the vacation spot for the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Mario, as well as his friends.
Mario stretched out on his beach chair. This had been his second visit to this lovely island, and the first one to be pleasant, seeing how the first time he was here, he was to busy proving to the Pintas and Nokis that he wasn't polluting the island. After finally proving his innocence, Mario was welcomed back any time he wanted.
The fourth racing tournament named after him, the Mario Kart Tournament, had just drawn to a close. This one had been given the subtitle Double Dash! And with good reason: for the first time, two racers drove one kart. Princess Peach Toadstool had chosen to set up her racetrack, Peach Beach, on the shores of this island. The Pintas approved of this, mainly because it would mean more tourism, which was their main industry. Now that the tournament was over, all the racers (except Bowser and his men, of course) decided to spend a few weeks of fun in the sun.
Well, some were still all business, like the Wario Brothers, Wario and Waluigi, who were on the shores of Gelato Beach, trying to sale the latest game from Wario Ware Inc. to Yoshi and his racing partner, Birdo.
"Come on, it's loads of fun, I promise," Wario said.
Yoshi arched his eyebrow. "I'm not paying ten coins for a game that's five seconds long. It's nothing but a scam."
"Look, we have to make these games sale. We have to eat too, ya know," Waluigi said.
"Oh sure, I'm sure you two starve to death in that giant castle of yours, sitting on a pile of cash so big it attracted pirates," Yoshi said sarcastically.
"Exactly," Wario butted in. "Now are you buying or what?"
Birdo finally got sick of the conversation. "Come on, Yoshi. If you ignore them, they'll go away."
The dino from Dinosaur land and the bird from Sub-Con walked away, leaving the doppleganger brothers alone.
"Oh, well. Let's try that big ape in a tie, he looks pretty dumb."
That big ape was none other than the hero of DK Island, son of the Kong currently known as Cranky and enemy to King K. Rool, leader of the Kremlings, Donkey Kong himself. He was currently sitting at the beach's juice bar, sipping a banana shake. Sitting next to him was his partner in heroism Diddy Kong, who was currently reading a copy of MUSHROOM WORLD NEWS. While reading, Diddy saw an article that caught his interest. He tapped his friend on the shoulder. "Hey, look at this," he said.
Diddy showed the headline to his friend. It read: King Conker improves Windy's relation with neighboring countries. Nation's future bright. Under the headline was Diddy's fellow racer in his quest to defeat the evil Wizpig, Conker the squirrel. He was sitting on a throne with a golden crown on his head. He was shaking hands with various creatures from other countries.
"Wow, looks like Conker's luck is picking up," Donkey said. "We haven't heard from him in three years."
Diddy remembered. Conker was a good friend of his, a good enough friend that he helped Diddy defeat Wizpig. Three years ago, he received a letter from him. It read:
"Dear Diddy,
Sorry I couldn't come tell you this in person, but it's too dangerous for us to stay in a high population. A strange creature named Evil Acorn kidnapped Berri a few weeks ago. I managed to stop him, but he hasn't given up so easily. He has followers who have been attacking us constantly. We can barely sleep at night. We have decided to both move from our location. We have found a country named Windy that is very secluded. It was taken over by a monarch a very long time ago, which resulted in a plunge in its economics. It isn't very pleasant place to live, but we'll be safe. We'll leave when we're sure Acorn has given up. Unfortunately, this country doesn't even have a mail service, so we won't be able to stay in touch. I'll miss you Diddy. See you in a few years.
Your pal, Conker."
That was the last Diddy heard of his friend. And now, out of the blue he finds out that Conker is king of the very nation he moved to.
"Man, I wonder what Conker did to convince an entire nation to make him king," Diddy commented.
Donkey skimmed the article. "According to this, he overthrew the previous king, who was an evil ruler. Not only that, but he stopped the attack of the Tediz on the country."
"Wow, I'd love to hear the details of that."
Donkey skimmed the article again. "Looks like you'll get the chance. According to this, Windy will be getting a working mail service soon."
"Uh oh, DK, here comes the Wario brothers."
Indeed, Wario and Waluigi were coming around to their seats, holding a Microgame in their hands.
"Hey, monkey, how would you like the newest game from Wario Ware Inc.?" Wario asked." Only ten coins."
"Look, my dad's arcade game is longer than fifty of your games put together. I'm not paying ten coins for that."
"Aw, come on, we haven't made any money in a week now. We need more gold," Waluigi pleaded.
I said no," DK said. "Now get outta here before my coconut gun puts you in a world of hurt."
"Realizing their defeat, the brothers walked away. "Let's try those Pintas, they don't seem particularly bright."
"Isn't that what you said about the monkey?"
"Look, I don't see you making any suggestions."
Mario, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, was stretched out on a beach chair with his cap pulled over his eyes. Next to him was his twin brother Luigi. Luigi looked out on the beach and saw Baby Mario and Baby Luigi digging in the sand. Both of these babies had been a side effect of the Smash Brothers tournaments set up by the Master Hand. The details were beyond most minds comprehension, but apparently pulling a being out of its universes time line had unexpected side effects. It caused a complicated paradox that none of the fighters understood, causing duplicates of them to be made. Kind of like clones, but some could be made younger, smarter, or in other ways different.
Mario didn't just get a kid to take care of from the experience, but another brother as well. His other time twin, Dr. Mario, arrived from a time when Mushroom World was at peace. Bowser had apparently given up his evil ways, so Mario wanted to find a new way to help people. He decided to do what he couldn't do in the real world: become a doctor. On Earth, he barley worked his way through collage, and was using his plumbing job to save up for grad school. However, he discovered Mushroom World before that and was too busy with his hero duties to pursue his goal. He didn't mind, though, he wanted to help people in anyway possible. With the peaceful time they had, Mario began his studies, and succeeded. He spent a few months treating people, and even cured a dreaded virus that infected the Mushroom Kingdom. But, he was soon called back into action to fight Bowser, and had eventually had to quit. Now, his time twin was doing what he didn't have the time to do.
Besides Mario and Luigi, only three other heroes were effected. Donkey Kong's past self from his days as a youth was created, who competed in the second Mario Tennis Tournament. The other was Link, the hero of a medieval land called Hyrule, who had a younger version of himself made, who competed in the Melee Tournament. The final was the most terrible of all: Bowser got a child version of himself, who he named Bowser Jr., although the adult Bowser didn't fully reveal his child's origins.
Luigi then looked over on the other side of the shore and saw the seventh mushroom retainer, Kipino Toad, and his sister, Toadette, relaxing on the sand. Luigi continued looking the beach over until he realized something.
"Hey, Mario, where are Peach and Daisy?"
"They went to Hotel Delfino's new spa," Mario said without even looking up.
Luigi just nodded and relaxed. He was just about to fall asleep when...
BOOM!
An explosion caused the two plumbers to jump out of their seats. A second later, they saw the result of the explosion: a huge crater in between them and the ocean. Several curious creatures were heading toward the crater, including the Mario Kart racers. The Mario brothers ran to it themselves and upon arriving they saw it was filled with orange goo, one of the forms of pollution that plagued Mario during his previous visit.
"What on Mushroom World is this?" asked Wario, who was examining the substance.
"Don't touch it!" Mario warned. "This is some of that goo that caused me problems during that pollution crisis. But what brought it here? And what caused that explosion?"
Mario didn't have time to think about it for much longer, because suddenly a sludge piranha plant, like the ones that guarded the entryways to Ricco Harbor and Gelato Beach the year, emerged from the slime.
"Uh, this is bad, right?" DK asked.
"Yes, DK, this is very bad." Mario replied.
Seconds later it got worse, as a second sludge piranha plant emerged.
As you might have guessed, all of the onlookers except the racers had ran off, which was good considering what happened next. The sludge shook violently, and a third piranha plant emerged, only this one was much bigger! In fact, when it was fully emerged, it was two stories tall.
The giant sludge plant coughed up a load of slime, which began to fall on top of the racer. They all managed to avoid the slime, though Mario had to carry his and Luigi's baby forms out of the line of fire. After they had dodged the attack, Mario gave them to Toad and Toadette.
"Take these two and go to Hotel Delfino. Professor Gadd is there, making updates to the FLUDD. Get it and bring it to me, I'll need it. Get Peach too, her healing abilities could be useful." Toad and Toadette nodded and began to run to the warp pipe that led to Delfino Plaza, while Mario turned his attention to the battle.
Meanwhile, Bowser was watching his creation's progress from his layer, on a giant screen in front of his throne. At his side were the Magikoopa siblings, looking on eagerly.
"Lord Bowser, that is a wonderful creation you have created." Kamek said.
"I know, and it's all thanks to that copy of the Gadd Brush you made while it was in our possession." Bowser said. "I knew making a sludge copy of the Megasmilax I fought in Bean Valley would do the trick."
Something occurred to Kammy. "Lord Bowser, are you sure it's wise to use a creature that powerful? I mean, suppose it destroys one of the five we need?"
"It has been ordered not to use its full force we'll be fine. Now, tell Master Hand to proceed with step two."
TO BE CONTINUED...