Mario Party Chronicles
Book 1: Mushroom Village
Chapter 1: A Superstar Quest
Steven, clutching his lucky hammer, stepped out on the deck of his stilted Options House. He had no idea why the hell he called his house that; it made sense at the time of the naming.
The purple-headed Mushroomer looked out at Mushroom Village, located by a turn in the stream in the middle of the Mushroom Forest. It was the middle of the night, and all of the establishments had shut down, the neon signs dark. Steven wasn't at all disturbed by this; everyone hit the sack during the night. Besides, he liked the dark. He took a deep breath and took in the nighttime air.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light above. He looked up just in time to see streaks of light shoot across the sky. Yellow streaks. Yellow star-shaped streaks.
***
The next day, Toad the Mushroom Retainer summoned several prominent figures to a meeting in a small clearing on the outskirts of Mushroom Village. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong all came.
"Everyone, did you hear about the meteor shower last night?" Toad asked everyone.
"Hear it?" Luigi replied, "Who could avoid seeing it?"
Yoshi and DK both nodded, giving off affirmative noises. Everyone else had agreed.
"I observed them closely through the telescope in the castle observatory," Toad continued. "Those are actually Power Stars!"
"Power Stars?!" everyone declared.
"Like the ones that guard Peach's castle?" Luigi asked.
"The very same," Toad confirmed. "And I found out they landed all over the world. Each one has a great amount of power; if they fall into the wrong hands, especially Bowser's, there's no telling what might happen."
Wario, who stood in the back of the crowd, looked at his hands as he schemed. These are most definitely not the wrong hands, he decided, grinning widely.
"Also, I managed to count out all the falling Stars," Toad continued. "There's exactly a hundred of them."
"A hundred Power Stars...?!" Peach stated. "That's an awfully high amount of power!"
"That doesn't even begin to describe it!" Mario declared. "We have to retrieve those Stars before Bowser can get his claws on them."
"By all means then! Let's get going already!" Wario agreed. "The more time we waste here, the more Stars he's gonna get!" Away from me, that is! Heh heh heh...
"But they're all over the world!" Luigi moaned. "There's so much ground we have to cover, we don't have enough people to split into groups! How are we possibly going to retrieve all one hundred of them?"
"That's why I called the meeting here," Toad stated. "In the center of Mushroom Village is a warp pipe that can take us all over the world in the blink of an eye! We can use that to go out and adventure to retrieve the Stars. According to my research, the falling Stars clustered so they're all in certain areas."
"Well that sure was convenient," Peach said.
Yoshi and DK sounded like they agreed.
Wario rubbed his hands together. Convenient enough for me. "There's no time to lose! Let's get going before that fat oaf Bowser gets them all." With that he started turning and heading off for Mushroom village.
Mario decided to refrain from mentioning Wario was a bit of a fat oaf himself. "You're certainly eager to get started, Wario," he noted.
"I am?" Wario half-panicked as he stopped and looked back. "Um, I'm just worried about the Mushroom Kingdom is all. After all, if the Mushroom Kingdom falls, prices of everything will go up, causing me to spend more money than I care to!"
The Bizzario Mario then resumed his jog to Mushroom Village. Mario watched, accepting of Wario's answer but felt that there wasn't much truth to it. He didn't say anything about it, though, as they all started jogging after him.
***
"Huh? Power Stars, you say?"
"Yes, King Bowser. They fell from the sky after we fired at that comet we detected with our experimental Super-Shooter Atomic-Powered Cannon."
"You think they might be broken off pieces of the comet, Koopa Kid?"
"Without a doubt, sir!"
"Hmm... If Power Stars are mere shards of that comet we hit, imagine how much power the whole comet has! Koopa Kid, assemble some of your brethren. Fire yourselves up there with the Super-Shooter and set up a Power Star mine on that comet's surface. Me and the regulars will handle getting the Stars that have fallen down here."
"Right away, sir!" shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle creek shuffle shuffle click
"Gra ha ha... Once I have my hands on those Stars, the Mushroom Kingdom stands no chance! Time for the Koopas to rule it all again! GRRRWA HA HA HA HA!"