There was a loud crashing sound as Mario kicked open the door. The lights were on, but he couldn't find green toad anywhere in the house. Even worse, he found a trail of blood leading out of the back door. Returning to yellow toad's contorted, battered body, he found that the poor toad was beaten to death but not very bloody. He certainly hadn't caused the trail of blood out the back door, going in the opposite direction of his final resting place. And that meant that green toad probably wasn't responsible for this horrible crime, he was likely a victim just the same.

Mario called for help and toads began crowding the area. Eventually police toads came and secured the scene, but Mario had already left, following the trail of blood out the back door to see where it led. It stopped shortly outside but he walked in the general direction it pointed, through an open field lined on the far edges by trees probably 200 feet away on each side. Towards the treeline at the end of the field, he found what he was looking for: green toad's bloody body. Well half of it at least. The bottom half of his body, from the stomach down, was missing and in its place was a loose collection of organs that had spilled from the toad's chest. His head and chest were beaten and bloody, almost to the point of being unrecognizable. The rest of the toad was nowhere in sight.

He looked closely at green toad's corpse and saw teeth marks, large round teeth marks. Bowser? It was unlikely, the Koopa King didn't do his own dirty work unless it was important. Besides, why would he kill a couple of common toads in the middle of the Mushroom Kingdom? It made no sense. But it could have been one of Bowser's minions, unleashed on the Mushroom Kingdom to cause havoc. Maybe even a Koopaling. He couldn't know for sure, but at least he had something to go on.

Mario returned to the gaggle of toads and police toads. Some EMS toads were here now but he doubted there was anything to be done. He told his findings to a police toad and continued down the road to his home, shaken by what he had seen. This level of savagery usually only came from goombas, koopas were much more civilized and would fight with weapons, if anything. But these certainly weren't hammer injuries. And had it been a Koopaling, why had none of the toads reported seeing one nearby? They didn't exactly blend in and they weren't known for their stealth. Koopalings were much more likely to kill openly, with complete disregard for who saw it. So who had killed the toads? Mario didn't know.

Opening the door to his house, Mario was greeted with the pungent scent of rotting mushroom. Oh fuck, the goomba. He had never cleaned it up. He walked through puddles of goomba juice to his phone, looking for a 24/7 cleaning service in the phone book. That's right, this version of the Mushroom Kingdom has like mid to late twentieth century technology, but only some of it and only when it's convenient to the plot. Don't worry about it. Anyway, Mario called a cleaning service who told him they could be there in an hour. He considered eating while he waited, he was actually quite hungry, but the dead goomba had made him wholly uninterested in eating any mushrooms. Instead, he went up to his room to write a letter to Luigi.

Luigi had been on a trip to some Mansion he had inherited or something. Mario wasn't sure, he was fond of his brother but still often ignored him. Luigi didn't say much of importance anyways. Mario began writing:

"Dearest brother Luigi, this is Mario. I'm writing to you to ask you, when you return, if you will join me in fighting goombas on the front line of the war. I anticipate being called into action soon by my beloved Princess Peach, and I must honor that call. I would greatly appreciate your help though when I go.

-With all my love, your brother Mario

P.S. I still think that mansion is a waste of time, even if you fix it up it won't be worth anything. Property values in that area are abysmal. You should sell that piece of garbage and get a new 3-story mushroom house!"

Mario then wrote in his journal for a while until the toad cleaners arrived. They were shocked at the scale and horror of the job, but they got to work immediately. Mario finally ate, unable to hold off any longer, but he took his meal outside. Sitting under the stars, Mario considered who could have been responsible for the murders, and why they would even do it. And what about that goomba? Even if he was lying, why would he show up this deep in the Mushroom Kingdom on the same day as another one of Bowser's minions? They had to be working together, but Mario couldn't connect the dots yet.

"Mr. Mario?" One of the cleaner toads had walked out of the house, approaching Mario with a piece of paper in his hand. "We found this on the body- I mean, in the mush." He handed Mario a gross, wet slip of paper. He could only make out some of the writing:

" Get the- -located in Mario's house on ground flo- -doesn't know it's there- -won't notice it's gone. Just tell Ma- -looking for kart plans or something if compromised. -L"

Mario didn't know exactly what the note was talking about or who "L" was, but he at least had another lead to go off.

Suddenly, there was a scream from the cleaner toad who handed Mario the note. He stood at the open front door of the house, frozen. Mario ran up to him and saw what he was looking at: all the cleaner toads lay dead on the ground, slaughtered by some unknown force. Every drawer was open and items were strewn about the house as if someone had been searching for something. There was no trace of the perpetrator, but the back door was wide open, just like green toad's house. There was no doubt in Mario's mind- this was the same thing that had killed green and yellow toad, and when the goomba failed his mission this morning, they had sent it to finish the job. It was stronger than any goomba, much stronger. And it was still out there.

o-o-o

Running through the dark forest, Mario couldn't see where he was going. He bumped into trees, stumbled over logs and found himself assaulted by branches and vines. It didn't matter though, he was following the violent screams of toads off in the far distance, letting the sound guide him through the black woods. Only minutes ago he had been at his house, ready to turn in for the night. But he couldn't sleep now, not after what had happened and was still happening somewhere nearby. Whatever creature this was, Mario knew it was too strong for the toads to defeat by themselves. He was their only hope.

Seeing a soft orange light through the trees now, Mario knew he was close. The screams were still piercing his ears, but he heard something else now- the crackle of fire and the smell of smoke. What was burning? He rushed out of the trees only to be greeted by a thin layer of smoke and multiple, burning mushroom homes. There were plenty of fires, but no sign of any creature. Mario looked around but didn't see any firetoads on the scene yet, so he ran inside the closest burning house. Finding it empty, he went to the next one and found the flames nearly impassable. However, the screams of a helpless toad lured him deeper, until he found the little guy balled up in the corner of his bedroom. Toads were small and light, so the former plumber had no trouble carrying him back to the safety of the road. With an unnatural speed even Mario didn't know he possessed, he sprinted from house to house, saving every toad he could find. Then he saw it: a lone goomba, holding a torch and standing next to a mushroom home that had not caught fire yet. He thought he was quick before, but now with the culprit in sight his speed only increased. He closed the 200 foot distance in probably 3 seconds. Tackling the goomba (taking care not to crush the thing) he knocked the torch down and threw it away from the home. Now it was time to get some answers.

o-o-o

The goomba was tied up to a chair in Luigi's living room, struggling against its bonds. Mario's house was basically ruined at this point, and he doubted any toad cleaner would ever step foot in there again. Also, his brother would be gone for at least another week so Luigi's house would be empty for a while. He punched the goomba to get its attention.

"Yellow and green toad, you-a mother fucka. What-a do you know about them?" Mario normally towered several feet over the typical goomba, so he must have been extra intimidating to this sitting goomba.

"Fuck you Mario." spat the goomba, clearly not that scared. Mario could fix that. Taking the cigarette out of his mouth (vapes don't exist yet in this universe, ok?) he put the lit end into the goomba's eye. The creature shrieked in pain.

"So I'm-a gonna make this very clear. You-a gonna die tonight, no doubt. The only question is-a how much you wanna suffer before that." Mario stared intently at the goomba.

"I'll suffer as much as I have to, I'm a true LTM!" this goomba didn't seem to respond to reason, like most goombas.

"What-a do you mean, LTM? Is that-a Bowser's new plan?"

"Ha! Bowser? I work for a different master, and if you don't even know that yet, you're hopeless. You'll never stop us!" the goomba barely got the last word out before a fist slammed into the side of his mouth. Then the other side, then again. A small goomba tooth flew out of his mouth with the last punch.

"Who are-a you working for? Tell me!" Mario could feel the anger building inside him.

"If you have to sit here, punching me for info you should already know, that means you're hopeless! HOPELESS! Haha!"

"You-a little bitch, tell me!" Mario unleashed a flurry of blows as he said this, leaving the goomba's face dripping with blood.

"I just like to kill toads, and I got to do that. I don't know green or yellow toad, but I wish I could have killed them too!" and Mario saw the goomba smile through all the blood and bruises.

"Well-a, I like to kill-a goombas!" said Mario as his right fist came forward, giving the goomba only a split second to change his smile to frown before the full might of the punch hit him. Mario didn't stop at his face though, his hand continued through the goomba's skull out the back side, obliterating most of his brain in the process. When it was over, goomba blood and brains covered about half of Mario and had gotten all over Luigi's living room. It wasn't as bad as before, but this also wasn't his house, so Mario dialed up the toad cleaners.

There was a knock at the door, but it wasn't the toad cleaners- it was Toadsworth.

"Hello, good sir Mario!" said Toadsworth, more with politeness than any kind of cheer.

"Hello, Mr. Toadsworth, it's-a me, Mario! What-a brings you here?" Mario was surprised by the visit, Toadsworth usually didn't stay up late.

"Well I stopped by your house first, but that proved to be a mistake. I wish I hadn't seen that. But then I saw the lights on in here and thought Luigi might be home. But I guess it was you."

"There-a was a bit of a break in or two, don't-a know what they took but the toads-a were in the middle of it."

"Tragic, just tragic. Anyways, I'm here because the Princess is in need of your help. Seems some of Bowser's minions have been causing trouble nearby."

"I'm-a already on the case. Whatever killed green and yellow toad is still out there, and I'm-a gonna find it." And as Mario said 'green toad' he saw Toadsworth's face go blank. Something was wrong.

"Did you say green toad? Green toad was hurt?!" Toadsworth was visibly upset.

"Yes-a, you did not know? Something got-a him and his neighbor. I don't-a know what yet." and after Mario said that, Toadsworth dropped to his knees.

"I-I never told anyone… ..but green toad was actually my son. He didn't even know."

"Oh, no, Mr. Toadsworth, are-a you ok?" Mario put his arm around the old, weeping toad.

"I-I'll be fine. There's just something you need to do for me Mario, something important."

"Any-a Thing-a"

"P-promise me you'll get revenge on these monsters. I-I can't do it myself"

"Of course-a, Mr. Toadsworth. I will-a do this for you." Mario kept holding the crying toad.