CHAPTER FIVE

Mario woke up the next day in quite a bit of pain. "Ugh…" he groaned, "What happened?" He looked around, and realized where he was. "Mama mia!" he said to himself, "I've been locked up in Bowser's dungeon! And he's gonna kidnap Peach! I've got to get out of here!" He tried knocking the door down, but the door was made of the strongest steel and wouldn't budge, not even when he used his hammer. Frustrated, he sat down and buried his face in his hands. "Great," he said, "I should've known that letter wasn't real… I should've gone to the convention with Luigi instead. And now I'm never gonna see Peach again."

As he said this, he heard someone crying. "Huh? Who's that?" he wondered. He looked around the cell for the source of the sound, and noticed an open vent at the bottom of the wall between his cell and the one next to his. He got on the floor by the vent, opened it further, and looked through to see who was on the other side. He couldn't see much of the room through the vent, but he could hear much better. The crying sounded familiar, and he had a very good idea of who it was on the other side.

"Peach?" he called out through the vent, "Is that you?"

The crying stopped. "Mario?" Peach gasped, looking around for where the voice was coming from, "Where are you?"

"Over here! I'm on the other side of the vent at the bottom of the wall!" Mario said through the vent. He watched as someone in a pink dress walked over to the vent and got down on the floor. She looked through the vent and saw Mario's face on the other side.

"Mario!" she exclaimed, "You're ok! I was so worried about you! I saw you lying unconscious on the floor when Bowser brought me in!"

"Are you ok?" Mario asked, "Did Bowser hurt you?"

"Not really," Peach replied. "How did he end up capturing you?"

"Well you sent me a letter asking if we could meet at Shooting Star Summit…" Mario began, but Peach cut him off there.

"Huh? I didn't send you a letter!" Peach said, "I knew you'd be at the Plumbers' Convention in Mushroom City today! It would've been pointless to invite you to do anything today!"

"I know!" Mario said, "I realized that when Bowser ambushed me."

"Can I see the letter?" Peach asked.

"Sure, I have the letter right here," Mario said. He removed the letter from his pocket and pushed it through the vent so Peach could see it. She picked it up and read it.

"Oh Mario!" Peach said, "You know I never type the letters I send to you!"

"Well I figured since your right arm was broken…" Mario said, shrugging.

"If I had wanted to send you a letter, I would've still tried handwriting it," Peach explained, "I can still use my hand somewhat, just not my whole arm. Either that, or I would've tried writing left handed." She sighed. "Besides, you know I knew about the convention. I wouldn't be foolish enough to invite you to do something when you had something else to do that you've been looking forward to for months!"

"I'm sorry, Peach," Mario said, "I just wasn't thinking, that's all."

"Well, now we need to think of how to get out of here…" Peach said. She got up and looked around. She noticed that the wall seemed a little weak around where the vent was. "Hey, Mario… Do you still have your hammer?" she asked.

Mario checked his pockets and pulled out a big hammer (don't ask me how he could store a big hammer in his pockets. It's fan FICTION after all…). "Yeah," he replied.

"Well, the wall is a little weak around where the vent is," Peach said, "Maybe you could break a hole in the wall big enough for one of us to climb through so we can get together and plan?"

"Ok, I'll try," Mario replied. He swung his hammer at the wall a few times and finally broke through. The hole was big enough for him to climb through, so he went through to Peach's side of the wall. "Ok, now what?" he asked.

"Hmm…" Peach sighed, looking about. She went to the window (which had bars on it) and checked to see if the bars were loose. They were, so she turned to Mario. "Do you think you could knock the bars out of this window?" she asked.

"I think so," Mario replied. He swung his hammer at the window and the bars fell off. "So, you plan to get us out through the window?" he asked.

"Yeah," Peach said, looking out at the moat, "I remember Bowser threw the dungeon key out into the moat. One of us could get out the window, jump in the moat, find the key, swim back, and get back up the window. We could tie our bedsheets together to make a rope."

"Great idea, Peach!" Mario exclaimed. He approached the window. "Uh… One problem," he said, "I don't think I can fit through this window." He turned to Peach. "I think you can fit through, though," he added.

"I can't swim with a broken arm!" Peach said, indicating her cast, "This isn't a waterproof cast! It will get moldy!"

"Do you want to get out or not?" Mario asked.

"Yes, but…"

"Well, who cares about a little mold?" Mario said, "We can have the doctor replace your cast when we get back."

"Oh, all right," Peach sighed, "I'll use my floating ability to get down there safely and search for the key. In the meantime, you can make the rope so I can get back up. I can't jump that high."

"Sounds like a good plan," Mario nodded. He went to go make a rope out of the bedsheets. Peach climbed through the window (with some difficulty, considering she couldn't use her right arm to climb) and jumped out; using her floating ability to make sure she was right above the water before falling in (there was land near the castle, so she didn't want to fall onto solid ground and end up breaking another limb).