Hey, guys! It's me again. Yes, I seem to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Yes, that happens often. If, by the off chance anyone reading this is reading it, I apologize for the lateness in Flame's update. I've lost inspiration, but luckily I have this to get the creative juices flowing again. I'll try to get some decent work on that in ASAP.

So, after that, welcome to the second (though technically really the first, due to the nature of the updates being Parts) update of Mario Warfare. As you were warned, chapters will probably be quite long and quite spaced out. I'll try to get the next one finished in a fairly reasonable amount of time.

Disclaimer: I own no characters, nor do I own the plot. However, I did manage to contact one of beatdownboogie's members, and, happily, no one is mad at me for doing this. *celebrates* I didn't really expect them to be, but at least they're not.

Anyway, story time.

PART ONE

An idyllic day in the Mushroom Kingdom. The forest surrounding Mushroom Palace stood tall and bright, a flock of gulls flew, cawing, over the castle, and the sun shone down on the scene. A light breeze played across the faces of the guards just outside the palace walls, ever watching, ever waiting, ever vigilant. At this moment, though, many guards were choosing to relax, take in the beautiful weather, and remove their eyes from the skyline for a second or two.

The playful breeze, seemingly harmless, in reality came from something far more sinister than the guards expected or were prepared for.

Bowser's fleet of airships, seeming to have grown tenfold in the time since he had first begun the invasions, were fast approaching the castle.

Invasion Day was beginning.

Inside the largest and most ornate of the airships, placed at the very center of the fleet, was Bowser himself, surrounded by several of his men.

"Lord Bowser," a low voice addressed the man. It was Bill, his trusted weapons master, the sharpest shot in all the worlds, save for one rumored other.

One other that Bill would face very, very shortly.

"Our spies believe the king is still within the palace walls, as well as the princess," Bill continued. Bowser pondered this news carefully, stroking the pet turtle he always kept by his side.

"And what of her bodyguard?" Bowser responded, his voice deep and harsh, causing anyone who heard it to flinch.

Excepting Bill, it seemed.

Bill flinched for a different reason.

Her bodyguard...

"We have a score to settle," Bill practically growled, picturing the face of his nemesis in his mind. "Leave him to me."

"Very well. Let the invasion begin!"

The castle guards looked up to find airships crowding the skies, blotting out the sun.

"Command," one guard radioed in, "we have a red al-" He was cut off before he finished by a Shy Guy, one of Bowser's men, slicing a knife across his throat. The guard's radio continued to sound after his body hit the floor.

"Secure the roof," the guard's killer said into his own radio, adding a small, circular hand motion before rushing off to do just that.

"Go, go, go, go!" ordered a Shy Guy on the roof, approaching more guards from behind with two identically dressed and masked teammates. They took aim over a palace wall, moving quickly, from there managing to shoot and take out several members of the Mushroom Guard.

Another team of Shy Guys reached a hatch in the roof moments later, pulling it open and throwing in a grenade before leaping aside and awaiting the explosion.

It didn't take more than a second or two. It never did.

"Move out!" came the radioed command. The Shy Guys leapt through the hatch, scurrying down the ladder and landing solidly on the floor below. They passed the guns down one by one, never letting a man be without one for long.

"Clear!" the leader confirmed as the group rounded a corner, their guns pointed ahead, ready to shoot on sight. "East Wing secure."

A Shy Guy slipped up a flight of stairs, shooting at the guards he saw and allowing the missed shots to ricochet and hit the enemy nonetheless.

"Guard is down!" the Guy informed them, and the rest of the team trooped up the stairs, headed for the throne room and the king.

"There's someone here, smoke 'em out."

Never would the Shy commander regret a command more in his life.

"It's Bravo Team."

"Something doesn't feel right here..." one Guy said as the team arrived in a large, empty room, looking around for threats. "There should be more... guys to shoot."

"What if it's a trap?"

"Oh, you think everything's a trap!" the team leader snapped. He was sick of his team being overly paranoid.

In this case, his team was entirely justified in their thinking.

A blur of white rushed from a hallway off to the side and directly toward them. With a flip, the blur landed in the team's midst, one knee to the ground, head down, and a gun in either hand. The man lifted his head, his white and red fedora somehow remaining perfectly placed on his head.

"Ah shit, it's Toad!"

Toad smirked and raised his guns, his eyes, behind the round, dark lenses, shining with excitement and the knowledge of a small battle already won.

"Take him out!" the Guy leader commanded. Before any of the men could think, let alone raise their guns and fire, Toad shot down all six, two at a time, several times each. The man never missed a shot, though he never so much as glanced at where he was aiming.

Toad stopped firing, and the Shy Guys fell to the ground, all dead. He raised his guns to shoulder level - resting, but ready to fire at a moment's notice. The smirk left his face, replaced by a cool, confident, all-knowing mask.

"Your Majesty, Princess," Toad said, calling over his shoulder without turning around. "Let's go."

The king rounded the corner, still wearing the ermine robe he was dressed in before the attack. His crown was still resting on his head, albeit a bit lopsided now. He held his daughter's hand in his, and Peach trailed after him. The girl, still young, was dressed in her favorite pink dress, and she was looking around nervously - confused, apprehensive, worried, and scared out of her wits.

"Stay close," Toad advised, leading them down another deserted hallway.

"Stop right there!" a Shy Guy yelled as the trio turned the corner, running into the lone soldier. Toad took him down, kicking him, hard, in the chest, and shooting him multiple times as he fell to the ground. Toad walked past the fallen man without once glancing back, knowing that the king and Peach would follow. He sent several more bullets into the Guy's head, just for good measure, as he walked past the body.

They passed through another short hallway, Toad on the alert. As they reached an intersection the bodyguard spied a gun-carrying figure at the end of the other hallway, running toward them. Toad leveled his own gun, preparing to shoot the man the moment he was close.

"Wait wait wait, wait, don't shoot, don't shoot!" the man called as he approached the trio, noticing the direction of Toad's weapon. Toad, noting the man's attire, pulled his gun back in, removing the man from its sights.

The man wore a white helmet, covered in blue dots, over his bulletproof vest and armor.

A Mushroom Guard.

"Your Majesty," the guard said as he ran up to them, slightly out of breath, "we're completely surrounded. I don't see another option... but surrender."

Toad shot a sharp glance at the guard, but the man did his best to ignore it. The message needed to reach the king.

"Toad," the king said solemnly. The princess's bodyguard turned his attention on him. "Is there another escape route?"

Toad looked away from the royals, not wanting to meet either, especially the princess, in the eye. After a moment, he knew he had to respond.

"There's a ventilation pipe at the end of the maintenance hall... but it's too small for a man to fit through."

Realization dawned on Peach as a look was passed between the king and Toad.

"No, no..." she said quietly, tears threatening her eyes. The king had to escape! He was the kingdom's ruler, their protector, their leader, her role model... her dad. He had to get out okay.

"Princess," said the king, turning to his daughter. "I need you to go with Toad now."

Peach shook her head, glanced at Toad, the looked back at her father, "No! Dad, I'm not gonna leave you."

"My beautiful daughter..." the king began. He had to pause, to keep himself strong for his daughter, before he could continue. "Sometimes a princess has to do what is right for her kingdom... as does a king."

Peach shook her head desperately, beginning to cry as she looked up at her father.

The king reached for a chain around his neck and withdrew the half-buried chain from under his cloak. "This has been in our family for generations," he told Peach, pulling the pendant, a golden yellow Star on a silver chain, over his head and placing it around her neck. "As long as you wear it, I will be with you, keeping you safe."

Peach looked down at the necklace, then back up at her father, tears streaming down her face.

"Then you keep it! You stay safe!" Her voice cracked on the last word, the force of her oncoming sobs quickly becoming almost too much to bear.

"I love you, my daughter. Never forget that."

"I love you," Peach sobbed as he pulled her in for one last hug. The king kept his eyes wide open as his daughter cried, fending off tears himself.

"Toad," he said, his voice now carrying a heightened sense of urgency.

The bodyguard looked up. "Your Majesty... It's been my greatest honor to serve you." He glanced over at Peach, the young girl attempting to collect herself. "Princess, we need to go. Come on." Toad grabbed her hand, pulling her down an empty hallway, toward the maintenance hall, away from her father. She looked back, watching the king as she stumbled along after Toad, tears blurring her vision.

"Princess, let's go!" Toad said again. "Run!" With one last look over her shoulder, Peach took off after her bodyguard. The king watched, sad yet somehow satisfied, as his daughter ran toward her best chance for safety and survival.

"Your orders, sire?"

"We know what Bowser does with prisoners," the king said, seeming distracted, almost off in another world as he looked down the hallway Peach and Toad had disappeared down. "We won't be giving him any... We fight to the end."

With a hard, determined look on his face, one that was rarely, if ever, seen on such a kind and benevolent king, he reached into one of the pockets on the Mushroom Guard's vest and withdrew a gun. He sent one last glance down the hallway before turning around and heading the way the guard had come.

"For the Kingdom," he said, determined to stay strong for his people.

"For the Kingdom," the guard repeated, following after his kingdom's beloved ruler.

This is for you, my daughter.

MWMWM

"There goes the second target," one Shy Guy announced via radio.

"Ah, Bowser's going to be pissed!"

The Shy Guys guarding the hallway were many in number, but despite that distinct advantage they still had no chance.

"Bill's coming down," one Guy informed the others, sending a faint chill down Toad's spine as he waited with the princess just around the corner.

"Wait here," he whispered, pausing and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"Ah crap, that's just what we need," another Shy Guy responded, shaking his head, oblivious to the lethal threat that had just rounded the corner. Toad began firing immediately, shooting to kill - the only possible course in this situation, after all.

After at least four Guys had fallen, one took the initiative and screamed into his radio, "Take him down!" Not anything new to Toad, really, and it didn't worry him. He took the rest of the Guys down in only a few seconds, not even breaking a sweat. As long as there were bullets in his gun, he had no reason to worry. He was the sharpest shot in the kingdom, after all.

Except, perhaps, for one other...

Toad brought himself back to the moment at hand, somersaulting up the last few steps of the short staircase and landing on one knee, sending several shots into the hearts of the two Guys taking aim on either side of him.

He began to rise, about to call the 'all clear' to the princess, when a gun was leveled at him, held centimeters from the spot directly between his eyes.

"Tell me where the girl is and I might let you live," the lone remaining Shy Guy ordered. Despite his confident air, Toad heard the faint, almost unnoticeable tremor in the masked man's voice. He was scared.

That was good.

Toad pretended to relax, surrender, to lull the Guy into a false sense of security. Half a second passed and the enemy guard's gun was pressed under the Guy's chin, Toad glaring at him just before he pulled the trigger.

"Okay, you can go-" the Guy started, and Toad silenced him with the pull of a trigger.

"Princess, come on." he called over his shoulder. Peach peered around the corner, still slightly disturbed by the bodies that littered the ground. "I have an idea."

Peach looked up at Toad and was met with the sight of him pulling the pants off a dead Guy's body.

"Um ...Toad...?" she asked, confused and more than a bit concerned. What the hell kind of plan did he have? He looked up at her, the Guy's pants in one hand, and made a 'What can you do?' sort of gesture. She really didn't have a choice any more.

No one had a choice any more, if they wanted to survive.

MWMWM

A few minutes later, Toad and Peach finally arrived at the maintenance hall. Peach, after understandable hesitation, had slipped into the dead Guy's clothes. Toad had had to convince her that she wouldn't make it if stayed as herself, and she could see the logic in his argument.

Still, though, he'd be coming with her. It wasn't like she'd be on her own.

Toad held the gun in front of him, scanning the area ahead as the pair descended the stairs to the maintenance hall. Peach followed closely behind, the mask and hood not yet covering her face or hair. For now, range of vision mattered most, not her disguise.

The noise of shifting, creaking metal made Peach nervous, making her jump and shift a little closer to Toad as he continued to lead her to an unknown destination. The bodyguard hardly reacted, though. Nothing ever seemed to faze him. He continued to cover her, pointing the gun at all possible hiding places, as he nudged her toward a small aisle. Peach kept her hand on Toad's back, and they walked backwards so Toad could keep his gun on any potential threats. She quickly found herself at a dead end, a green Warp Pipe on the floor in a small back corner.

"All right," Toad said, pushing her toward the Warp Pipe as he continued to cover the aisles. "Off you go, Princess." He helped lower her into the Warp Pipe, and the presence of his hand in hers prompted her to realize something.

"Toad..." she said quietly, the tears starting up again, "what's gonna happen to you?"

"Don't worry about me, Princess," he said, placing her mask on her face and pulling up the hood of the dead Guy's uniform. "Just get to the end of the pipe and keep going. Don't let anybody know who you are." He tucked the Star pendant into the neck of the hoodie. "If I get out of here alive, I'll find you. I promise. Now go!"

Peach nodded once, tears streaming down her face behind the black and white mask, and she disappeared down the Warp Pipe.

Toad stood slowly, still looking down at where his Princess had vanished seconds before. He heard a faint mechanical click and turned his head ever so slightly to the side, finding a gun leveled to his temple.

A gun held by an all too familiar gloved hand.

He looked further, coming face-to-face with his nemesis. Yards of bullets were crossed over his chest, and he still wore the same kerchief-like fabric, patterned with razor-sharp teeth in a grotesque kind of smile, around his neck.

"Bill," he acknowledged the man.

"Toad," Bowser's weapons master responded, his voice dripping with contempt.

"Now there won't be any question as to who's the fastest gun in the Mushroom Kingdom," the man in black growled, his teeth showing as his grinned. He was so going to enjoy this.

Toad still hadn't moved.

"There never was," he replied quietly, springing into action and kicking off an intense, close-range firefight. The men both struggled to reach a clear shot to the other's chest, each being pushed away by the other. Toad threw several punches during the fight, whirling around multiple times, as was his style. Bill remained in the same place, blocking Toad's every attack calmly, seldom initiating attacks of his own, as was his style.

They were perfectly matched against each other.

Their wrists of their gun hands pressed together, locking the pair in a deadly game of arm wrestling as Toad and Bill alike heard the wind whistle past their ear as the other man's opponent sent bullets flying past his head. Toad broke the chain, Bill immediately moving in to hit him in the arm and render him useless, but Toad was too fast. The cycle of over-the-shoulder shots continued, both Toad and Bill growing mildly impatient with the unusual lengthiness of the fight - fifteen seconds, surely, by that point, far too long for the fastest guns in the Mushroom Kingdom to be in a firefight.

They continued to shoot, both men often coming millimeters from ending it. At one point, the two simultaneously swapped gun hands, attempting to shoot the other with the gun now in their dominant hand - the gun that, for neither of them, actually existed. They both realized and rectified their mistake in but a second, and resumed the fight, much more intense than it had been mere moments before.

Toad shot, Bill dodged.

Bill shot, Toad pushed his arm away.

In the span of a few seconds, their position was locked again. Either man had their non-dominant hand on the other's wrist, trying to turn it away, and both were struggling to aim their guns at the other's head. Both men's guns were shaking with the effort, and they glared at each other across the small space between them. Hatred and contempt was palpable in the air around them.

With a growl, Bill took a chance and headbutted Toad across that small space. Toad didn't react, but the hit sent him sliding back several feet, never once leaving the ground, but losing his ground all the same.

Toad looked up from the ground, setting his eyes on his enemy.

Bill looked up from the ground, a grin forming on his face as he made eye contact with Toad.

Both men tightened their grip on their guns.

The next second lasted for an eternity.

Toad raised his gun a millisecond before Bill moved.

He pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

In the heat of the battle, he had run out of ammo.

In the half second that followed, Toad realized the gravity of his mistake, shutting his eyes tightly as he waited for that dreaded sound.

It came very quickly.

Bill pulled the trigger on his gun, sending a bullet into Toad's chest, and the bodyguard fell to the floor.

Bill didn't seem to realize he wasn't actually the faster shot.

Toad's glasses flew off, clattering to the floor beside a water pipe.

Bill approached his soon-to-be-kill, relishing in the sound of Toad coughing up blood as he struggled to breathe. The scarlet red stained the previously pristine suit, and the bodyguard's fedora slipped off his head. Even as he laid there, he slowly reached into his jacket, determined to grab something before he died.

"You never did know when to quit, Toad," Bill said as he crouched over Toad's body. Toad pulled whatever he had grabbed from his jacket out, into Bill's line of sight, and Bill's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

"Not so fast," he growled, but Toad didn't seem to listen. He forced himself to sit up slightly and turned Bill's hand over, dropping something small and metal into Bill's palm.

"This... is from the... Princess," the dying man forced out before falling back to the ground, coughing and convulsing as he lived out his final moments.

At least he had gotten the Princess to safety...

Relative safety, at least...

He hadn't failed.

Not completely.

Not yet.

Bill opened his palm slowly, his eyes taking in the small windup key now resting there. His hand shook with anger and nervousness, his eyes widening as he ripped open Toad's jacket, finding what was hidden there exactly as he'd feared.

Bob-ombs were attached to the inside of Toad's jacket, there as an escape route of a sort if no other way existed. The bombs ticked as Bill's eyes flitted around, silently counting them.

Too many.

Too damn many.

Without even looking for a fuse of any kind, Bill knew he wouldn't have time to get away.

"AHHHHH-" Bill screamed, releasing his last bit of hatred and fury before the bombs took his and Toad's lives.

And take them they did.

The wall of the maintenance hall fell too, collapsing and leaving the Mushroom Palace all the more vulnerable to outside attacks.

Not that it needed to be, though.

The palace had already fallen.

The war, it seemed, was already won.

ONE WEEK BEFORE INVASION DAY

The sound of a plunger permeated the house's thin walls as the older of the two brothers worked away at his profession. The younger, always a bit of a dreamer, was avidly listening to the wartime radio station on the small, decrepit radio he carried everywhere with him. Rather than working like his red-clad brother, this younger one, dressed in green, simply sat on the edge of the sink, staring off into the distance and tapping a wrench in his hand.

"We will continue to bring you news as Bowser's aggression moves closer and closer to the Mushroom Kingdom." The radio broadcast ended, and the older brother paused in his plunging, the younger brother continuing with his tapping.

"This war..." the older brother said, looking up at his younger sibling. "It's bad for business." The two siblings were the most renowned plumbers in the business, assuming plumbers could be considered renowned. They were the owners of Mario Brothers Plumbing, keeping with the family tradition of pushing the business on, even in times like these. The older brother, also keeping with family tradition, had always gone by his last name, Mario. No one, not his little brother Luigi Mario or even Mario himself, really remembered his first name.

Not that Mario minded. His heart was set on continuing the family business and making better than ever before, just as his father had raised him to do.

Luigi was different.

Luigi had dreams, aspirations, beyond the humble life of being a plumber.

Luigi wanted to fight.

"We should be out there, fighting!" Luigi said, shaking his head as Mario went back to plumbing.

"With what, our plungers?" Mario asked, stopping his work again. Sarcasm dripped from his voice. He hadn't really meant for the remark to seem so unkind, but Luigi didn't mind, caught of in the excitement of picturing himself in battle.

"Naw, naw," Luigi said, imagining the possibilities. "We should join the army!"

Luigi stopped tapping the wrench completely, and Mario abandoned his work, looking at his younger brother like he was crazy.

"I mean," Luigi continued, trying to make Mario see it his way as the older brother listened in a state of mild disbelief, "haven't you ever wanted to be anything more than a plumber?"

"Hey!" Mario snapped, more than a bit upset now. "I'm proud of being a plumber. "I mean, someone's gotta fix these toilets-"

"You don't get it, do ya, Mario?" Luigi broke in, getting frustrated. "If Bowser wins this war, there won't be any toilets left to fix!"

...So maybe that wasn't entirely true, but the Mario brothers sure wouldn't be allowed to continue their practice. It'd be taken over by Bowser's minions, maybe Koopas, or Shy Guys. Being loyal citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, the pair would be lucky to survive.

Mario was silent for a moment, then returned to his plunger without so much as a word to his younger brother. Luigi sighed, exasperated, and turned to face Mario. He left his perch on the edge of the sink and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Look," Luigi said seriously, "there ain't nothing wrong with being plumbers." He pulled Mario close, looking him in the eye, practically begging him to understand. "But this is our chance to be heroes."

Mario looked up, meeting Luigi's gaze. He didn't talk, didn't move, didn't seem to communicate in any way, but Luigi understood the message loud and clear. He saw it in his brother's eyes, accompanied by the look of sadness and regret that had been present since their parents had died.

'I'll do it, little brother.'

The Mario brothers had always hoped there was something more to life than just being plumbers, though Mario always tried his best not to make it look that way. As a pair, they'd been hoping for a chance for years.

With that one decision, that one short conversation, that one toilet that needed plunging, everything changed.

The look in the young plumber's eyes that night did more than tell his either that he would go to war with him.

The look in Mario's eyes was a look that changed the outcome of the war.

And so concludes Part One. I could've included the sneak peek, but I didn't really want to. Don't ever plan on me doing that, just so you knew.

Please inform me if I screwed up the lines somewhere along the way. I have bad hearing, I write early in the morning, etcetera. Makes it difficult sometimes to make out what'a being's said, especially when it's a walkie-talkie. Anyway, I really need to go to bed... I'm getting delirious. I can't even spell; this is ridiculous.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, along with the rest of the story :)