This is not my work. It is a plug for a second, most likely better fanfiction. The team working on this one has done fics for 2K3, Villains 2K5, Summer SK5, and a bunch of other work. Every contest fic they do is a part of an ongoing story, but reading the previous fics isn't necessary.

They also use symbolism, which is something you don't find in ours. An example is the paradise that the tournament took place in the other fics was industrialized for this fic, symbolizing CNet's takeover of GameFAQs and putting ads everywhere.

Here is an excerpt of their fic: The City Of Porta Dei.

Mushroom Revolution

"And-a that big rascally ape, he takes-a the baseball and he throws it, no panache at all, right-a down the middle of the plate like a meatball. So I-a think to myself, "Hey, Mario, it's easy as picking Bowser up by his tail and-a chucking him off the castle wall-"

"Hey! You little overweight collection of facial hair, I oughta-"

"I was-a telling the story, koopa! So-a anyway, I lean back, take-a the biggest swing since Luigi stole-a my lunch in first grade, and… I miss! How could this-a happen? Well, you see, the monkey put this spin on the ball! I should-a have seen it coming, he did eat a banana just before the pitch. You see, he-"

"ALL RIGHT! QUIET!"

You could hear a pin drop. Samus turned to the shorter of the plumbers, finally stirred by her outburst from an empty, tortured stare through the train window.

"I'm sorry, Mario, but… can we leave the stories until next time? It's just that it's seven o'clock in the morning!"

"Oh. Okay. I'm-a sorry, Samus."

No one talked for the last minute. When the train finally reached its destination at Portsmouth Terminal, the six passengers from the Mushroom Kingdom filed through the doorway, not even daring to mutter a quick goodbye.

Once all of them were out on the train platform, Mario turned embarrassedly to the princess.

"Peach, my darling, I don't-a know what came over her. Samus is usually a very nice-a woman-"

"Yeah, sure, nice, she never tried to blow my head off or anything…"

"Shut up, you big pincushion. Oh, now I lost-a my train of thoughts!"

The princess smiled. "It's alright, Mario, I won't be angry at her for it."

Luigi, puzzled, tapped his brother on the shoulder. "Isn't-a it supposed to be your train of thought?"

"I figured-a that if every thought needed a different train, there'd-a be too many trains."

"Oh. That-a makes sense."

"Sometimes I think I'm the only sane one in my entire world…" Daisy sighed to no one in particular. Yoshi indignantly glared up towards her, but she didn't notice.

The big koopa king rolled his eyes. He was trying to ignore the conversation taking place below him, but he'd never been able to distract himself very well. Eventually, though, his train of thoughts ran into something even less easy to overlook than his irritating travel companions.

The train terminal was packed, almost quite literally. Bowser could see almost ten more tracks in the great circle that was the station they had arrived at, and all of them were crowded to the brim with people. Indeed, the only place that wasn't packed was right around the six travelers from the Mushroom Kingdom, where a great crowd of onlookers seemed to be giving these strange characters a wide berth. Only a well to do, slightly past middle age couple seemed to be breaking this implied line and walking up to the travelers.

"Oh dear, George," the women in the couple said to her husband. "Immigrants."

"And the city has so many strange types already," The man called George replied, shaking his head.

"Hey, who do you think you're talkin' to?" Bowser turned around to face the couple in two very meaningful stomps. Oddly enough, it wasn't the threatening sound of Bowser's claws that seemed to most faze them.

"Oh, it talks! How unnatural! I knew we should have never moved to this place."

"It was for business, dear. We're making millions, in case you haven't noticed?"

"We'll have to start thinking about getting a summer house somewhere, though."

"Oh, fine."

Daisy leaned over her friend Peach's shoulders and whispered through her blonde curls, as the other five watched the conversation in disbelief. "Can we, um, go? Now?"

Peach immediately snapped into action, a model of royal propriety. "Oh! Dear! I'm very sorry to you both, but we've just got to get to our hotel."

"Well, good to see a few of this lot are true ladies." The woman said approvingly. "Where are you staying, my dear?"

"I think it was a place called Chateau D'or," said Daisy, rummaging through her dress for a business card.

"My!" The man exclaimed. "The fanciest hotel in the city, giving rooms to this riffraff?"

"Now, dear, that isn't nice," his wife reproved him. "Very sorry about him, dears. Go check in, then, you'll love the place. See you around the city! Oh! Almost forgot. Why are you in town?"

"There's a big tournament here-a every year. I think. Maybe there's-a been a horrible mistake with the train." Apprehension was starting to creep into Luigi's voice. This was definitely not the place he remembered. Mario, on the other hand, was still beaming, so very typically.

"Oh, no, don't worry," the wealthy woman reassured him. "The mayor was telling me about it just the other day. Well, good luck to all of you!"

And the couple went away, the man called George still faintly shaking his head. With a shrug, Daisy marched off towards the exit, her eyes trained on the business card she had finally retrieved for the directions. Luigi walked awkwardly behind her, still puzzled at the new place he had entered, Yoshi followed obediently, and Peach brought up the rear, still marveling at a train station many times grander than anything in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario and Bowser remained where they were, looking around bemusedly. Eventually, the two turned to one another.

"Well, plumber, this place sure isn't the boring little place in the boondocks it used to be. I like it!"

"Eh, I think-a I miss the old Porta Dei. Don't think-a I can open up a shop in this place… Especially only for a month or two."

"This is progress, my fat little mortal enemy! You can learn things from these people."

"Oh-a dear. You're-a going to go and get lotsa really bad ideas you can-a use to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, eh?"

"Absolutely. I mean… Not the bad idea part! They'll be great ideas! You'll get what's coming to you at last!"

"Just-a don't kidnap Peach during the tournament. Please?"

"I make no promises! There are just so many places to hide her in this wonderful paradise…"

"I think a pigeon went-a to the bathroom on my head."

"Paradise!"

To read more, get a GameFAQs account, and get over to the Summer Contest board and find the topic "Fanfiction Project 2k6: The City of Porta Dei."