Paper Mario 1 and a half
Chapter one
As Mario stared at Luigi's former location, it was replaced with some blood and some sweat. Luigi was in grave danger, but he had no choice but to continue on. As Mario scurried out of the house, he spied a very rich and wealthy-looking car.
"That's odd, I don't remember it being here," says Mario. "Maybe they left it here as a gift, but I don't remember anyone telling me that they would be doing this."
Mario entered the wealthy car and was startled as a voice boomed out of the car.
The cars voice boomed, "MARIO HAS ENTERED THE CAR. SELF-DESTRUCTION HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. HAVE A NICE DAY, MARIO."
"Ohhh crap, I better leave RIGHT NOW!"
Mario dashed out of the car, ran 100 meters away, and waited. Within just seconds, the car exploded, sending bars flying everywhere, and showering gasoline over the house.
"G…gasoline? I'm a goner…"
To Mario's pure horror, a large spark flew out of the car and was darting toward the house, and that house would be obliterated into piles of ash, much to Mario's dismay. The spark was feet, inches, centimeters from his house! And then…
KKKKAAABBBOOOMMM!
The explosion screeched across the sky, while the enormous fire-power smacked into some trees behind his house, igniting a flame.
Without hesitation, Mario said, "I better leave so I don't get caught for something I never even did."
Mario ran to his Warp Pipe and entered inside. As he arrived at…wait, what place is this!
"What the… this place is definitely NOT Toad Town! Toad Town isn't this…dark!" said Mario in a surprised tone.
The place that Mario was now in was a forest, a dark forest. The trees were so close together that it blocked sunlight. Mario had no idea when, where, and how he got here. Even though it was so twilight-like, Mario knew this was also NOT Forever Forest.
When Mario started to look around this place, he spotted a shadowy figure in the bushes at his feet. That shadowy figure was the only thing Mario was looking at. He moved the bush's leaves to spy…Bow!
Bow said in her usual voice, "Mario! Thank goodness you could come. I told Bootler I wanted to take a vacation, but EWAHAHAHA… sorry, I haven't been scaring much people lately, so I had to do that. Anyway, I went to explore Forever Forest, but I was trapped by 17 Boos and was thrown into another nearby forest. This might be a new area of Forever Forest. I'm not sure." Bow was saying all of this in a shaky voice, so she said it kind of quickly.
"Bow, have you been exploring this place so you can tell me which way to get out?" asked Mario.
"No, and I couldn't. It is all thanks to these 4 vines attaching my body to the ground."
"I could try to take them off."
"Would you do that for me?"
"Sure!"
Mario grabbed a vine, but instead, a fifth vine shot out of the ground and tied both of Mario's arms together. Mario's hands were bleeding, even though he had gloves on.
"Ouch! That really burns!"
"Sorry, Mario. I forgot to mention. These vines are "magical". They just shoot out of the ground and attack the nearest life forms, excluding plants and trees."
"Any way of being able to break free from these monstrous vines?"
"Yeah, you would need the Iron Gloves, but they are underground right under our very feet."
"No problem!" And without thinking, Mario jumped and ground pounded onto the ground, and Mario and Bow fell underground into a hidden area. This area was creepy, with poisonous vines for walls and for the floor. They landed on a floating platform.
"Who dares enter my home," yelled a loud voice "the home of the sacred Iron Gloves?"
Mario asked, "Who is this guy?"
The second after Mario stopped speaking; an ugly creature emerged from the left wall. It had 5 arms (they were thorny vines), a ball-shaped head, baby thorns for hair, and dark green shoes for feet. It was ugly!
"Ahhh, my 5 missing hands!" and to Mario and Bow's horror, it pulled off all 5 vines and stuck it into its body. Now, there were 10 vine-like arms moving freely.
Bow said in an angry tone, "So, you were the thing that trapped me in the 4 thorns! And the other thorn was used to trap Mario!"
"Correct, and I did it in search for Mario. I always wanted to fight him. I never wanted to catch some ugly, fat ghost."
Bow screamed with her mouth opened wide, "FOR YOUR INFORMATION, I AM PRETTY! I THINK YOU ARE THE UGLY ONE!" It was obvious to see Bow was pissed.
"Ahhh whatever, you short-tempered girly ghost. I want Mario to try to grab the Iron Gloves. To do so, you must complete the obstacle course. Also…"
The creature sent 8 of his 10 vines to hold Bow against the wall.
"You must do it solo, Mario! No help from your girly ghost Bow." said the creature.
Mario nodded and looked out at the course. Sure, it looked easy for Super Mario, but Mario already knew it wasn't going to be that easy.
"Well go, Mario!"
And Mario ran through the gate. The first obstacle was simply a straight bridge. He knew it was the first one because there was a number one floating in midair in front of the bridge. Mario ran across the bridge, and suddenly, 5 long vines popped up along the left side and 5 along the right side! All 10 dived, but Mario jumped, so he avoided all 10. He continued to run across the bridge, jumping over thrusts and swipes from the spiky thorns. Once he reached the end, however, one thorn smacked him in the face, showering blood everywhere. He fell off of the bridge and was hanging on the ledge.
"Ha! So this is how the great Mario is! Losing to the first obstacle!"
Another thorn swiped at Mario to try to knock him off of the ledge. Its spikiness was approaching, getting closer. The second it touched Mario, Mario jumped up onto the ledge, avoiding the spike. However, he lost some cloth off his pants on the leg parts. A ringing noise filled the room, telling Mario he just finished the first obstacle.
Mario was getting closer to the Iron Gloves, for he had only 2 more obstacles to go. The good news was that the last one needed some ol' classic jumping action, and Mario was good at that. The bad news was that the 2nd obstacle was some foreign obstacle he never did before. As he was under the floating number two, he looked down to find a water slide. Sure, it sounds easy, but there were no railing, and the whole track was flat, even the turns. He had to get to the bottom of the slide, but he couldn't fall off. Mario hopped on the slide and started to go down, leaving some blood behind from the water. As Mario fell down, he turned carefully around the turns. The disaster was however the ending. It curved A LOT, and Mario knew he couldn't do it, so he jumped at the first curve. He flew in the air, over the curves, and to the edge. Mario let his hand out and grabbed onto the ledge. However, a stinging pain filled his hands. He jumped onto the ledge and took time to look at them. There were spots of blood and very small thorns with a green liquid dripping off of the tip. Mario swiped them off and realized that the green liquid was acid, and it burned his hands badly.
"Wow, this course is doing some damage to my body. A major cut on my face and burned hands. What's next?" exclaimed Mario.
The final obstacle was simply two ledges, a mushroom and a ledge with the Iron Gloves. Mario jumped onto the mushroom, but it shot him HIGH into the air and he landed on a ledge. Here is where the platforming begins! He found many ledges and blocks; even enemies were on the ledges! Mario jumped up onto the ledge and walked east along the ledge. After squashing a goomba, he proceeded forward to some stair blocks. Mario climbed the top, hopped over the gap, and smashed the "?" Block at the end for a Super Shroom. Mario grew twice his size and proceeded. Hopping over very gappy ledges, he came to a lot of gappy ledges, each holding a Koopa Troopa. Mario hopped, onto the Koopas for their shells, grabbed the shell, and tossed it to kill the others. Mario continued, avoiding the many enemies and hopping gaps, until he came to a warp. Before we go in, here was a map of the course:
Start
End
E Enemy
E
/\/\/\/\/\/\ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
E E E E E
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
IMAGINE THE REST
After Mario finally finished, he grabbed the Iron Gloves and tossed them on.
Mario got the:
Iron Gloves
So that was Chapter one! I hoped you enjoyed! Stay tune for Chapter Two!
