I am so, so, SO sorry, everyone! I took way too long with this chapter and it kills me to know that! But alas, college and work got in the way and I just wasn't able to get much done. Then as soon as my first semester of college was done, I was working at my job for eight hours straight almost everyday. Plus, the little time I did have to write this I had suffered from a serious case of writer's block. I always knew exactly what I wanted to write down and how things would play out in this story, but the thing that got me stuck was how I was going to write and present this story. I am a writer (and an artist) and I don't take it lightly. I want to give you guys the best story I could possibly write and not rush through just to see how many views, reviews, favorites, and followers I get. (though none of those things are bad.) But I could never think of the right way to express the stuff I wanted to write down. Until now. I apologize once again for the long wait and hopefully, since I have what's left of this summer, I can get the rest of the story done a lot quicker. I haven't given up on this story or my others so don't worry, sit back, relax, and enjoy the continuing story of Dimensional Chaos. Don't forget to review. Hopefully this chapter was well worth the wait.
Don't own Mario.
Chapter 2: Enter a Brand New Reality
About an hour later, the laboratory was filled with Police Toads, police duct tape, and police caution signs. Scientists were being questioned left and right on what occurred that caused the disappearance of Professor E. Gadd. The princess herself, Peach Toadstool, along with her loyal advisers Toad and Toadsworth, was also at the scene, reassuring the scientists that everything was going to be taking care of. Needless to say, however, Peach herself was rather worried whether or not they would find out anything about what happened to the professor. But she wasn't about to let anyone know she had doubts.
"Found out anything yet, officer?" Toadsworth asked the nearest Police Toad.
"Nothing that could lead us to how and what happened that caused the portal to close like that," he answered.
"E. Gadd must've made some mistake," another officer stated. "I mean it was bound to happen sooner or later. His calibrations on the machine might have been a little off that it caused it to shut the portal off and trap his self in another dimension."
"IF IT WERE AS SIMPLE AS THAT," one of the Toad scientists yelled defensively, "DON'T YOU THINK HE WOULD'VE BEEN ABLE TO CREATE A SECOND PORTAL TO BRING HIMSELF BACK?!"
"It could easily be that the machine fried after the portal abruptly closed down on him. Its very possible even for him."
"NO! E. GADD DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES LIKE THAT! HE HAS BEEN WORKING ON THE DIMENSIONAL REALITY 2000 FOR FIVE YEARS! FIVE! STINKIN! YEARS! IF THERE WAS EVEN A SMALL ERROR TO THE MACHINE, THE PROFESSOR WOULD'VE FOUND IT AND FIXED IT UP JUST LIKE THAT!" The scientist was getting pretty heated up that Toad had to come up to him to calm him down.
"I'm really sorry, but we have to take in consideration of every single possible explanation," the officer reasoned.
"Then, officer, maybe you could take into consideration my little theory of this matter." Everyone's eyes widened and spirits lifted. They all knew that voice very well. They all turned their attention to the entrance to the lab only to who else, but the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom himself, Mario, jumping dramatically into the room.
"Mario!" Peach exclaimed happily. "I'm so happy you're here!"
"I came as soon as I could, Princess," he said as he kissed her hand, causing her to blush. "I would've come sooner, but me and Luigi had to deal with a Piranha Plant infestation near Dimple Woods. And I have to say, dealing with a couple of those man-eating plants at a time is one thing, but going up against an entire armada is a completely different level."
"I would imagine so. But its nothing you can't handle, my knight in shining overalls," Peach said, winking. All the scientists and officers rolled their eyes at the two flirting with each other. It was seriously starting to get old.
"Master Mario," Toadsworth spoke up, quickly changing the subject, "I seem to recall you saying that you AND Master Luigi were both taking care of the Piranha Plants. Where is the young master?"
"HERE I AM!" Everyone once again turned their attention back to the entrance and sure enough Mario's younger brother Luigi had entered the building, doing the same dramatic jump as his brother... only to ruined the dramatic part of it by tripping over his shoe and landing on his face. "Ow..." Everyone sweatdropped.
"Luigi!" Mario said, rushing over to his brother to help him up. "You ok, bro?"
"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'll walk it off," Luigi stated with a wave of his hand.
"So Mario," the officer asked, "what was your theory that you wanted me to take into consideration?"
Mario turned his attention back towards the officer and gave him a serious and contemplating expression. "Yes. Well, it is possible that it was a mistake in the machine itself." The scientist who was arguing with the officer earlier glared at the plumber for that comment. "However," Mario continued, "it is also very possible that the machine isn't what the problem is. I believe that there was some interference on the other side."
Everyone looked at him. "Huh?" They all asked with raised eyebrows.
Mario stepped up to where the machine last stood and continued. "I've known the professor for a good many years. The guy's a genius, that's for sure. If there's something that intrigues him in the scientific world, he'll pursue it. And the scientist is right: if the machine even had ONE tiny little error that could throw everything off the course he was on, he would've noticed it and had it fixed before Donkey Kong has his morning bananas."
"So what's the point you're trying to make exactly?" the officer asked.
"This was a machine that opens doors to other dimensions, right?" The scientist nodded. "Doors open and close from both sides. Whatever world E. Gadd has gotten himself into must of been either hostile and/or saw him as a threat and is now holding him prisoner..."
"Or?"
Mario turned around to face the officer. "Or we're dealing with something far more sinister."
Everyone gasped. The thought of E. Gadd's life being in more danger than they originally thought scared them all. "What do you suggest we do?!"
Mario turned to face the scientist again. "Did the professor have a back up system to the Dimensional Reality 5000?"
The scientist's eyes widened. "Yes he did!" He ran to the back of the room and, with some help from the other scientist, pulled out a big portal-looking devise from behind some files. "It will take some time, but I'll get this thing up and running."
"Good. Once we get that up and running, Me and Luigi will enter the portal and see what we're up against and find the prof-"
BOOM! Mario was interrupted by an explosion from the other side of the building causing pieces of the ceiling to collapse which unfortunately damaged the back up. Mario and Luigi managed to get everyone to the safe part of the room when suddenly a huge fist punched through the opposing wall. Everyone turned around and through the debris saw the silhouette of a mighty turtle with a spiked shell, horns on its head, and spiked bracelets on its wrists.
"So this is where you've been hiding, Princess," the thing spoke in its deep, evil voice. "Not very nice to hide from Uncle Bowser, now is it?" And sure enough, it was HIM. Stepping into the room was none other than the King of the Koopas himself, King Bowser Koopa Sr.
Mario, being the heroic guy he was, stood in front of the others and glared down at his long time enemy. "What do you want, Bowser?"
"What do I want, plumber?" Bowser said with an evil smirk. "We've been doing this for thirty years now and you ask what it is I want?" Mario simply growled in response. "I want the Princess! This Kingdom! And power! Now if you could just hand her over!"
"Hand over the Princess? We've been doing this for thirty years now and you honestly think I'll just give you the Princess?"
Bowser growled at his nemesis. "Watch It, plumber!" he snapped "I'm not in the best of moods thanks to the Princess not being where she was supposed to be! I mean, I had flown all the way over to your castle on my Doomship like a final boss, shot off a few cannons at your castle like a final boss, barged right through your front door like a final boss, and charged through the castle like a BLOODY! FINAL! BOSS! AND WHAT DID I FIND?! NO PRINCESSES FOR ME TO KIDNAP! NOT EVEN A SLICE OF CAKE FOR ME TO STEAL! DIDN'T YOU REALIZE THE PATTERN WE'VE HAD GOING ALMOST PERFECTLY FOR YEARS?! AND NOW YOU HAD TO GO AND BREAK IT! I MEAN, ITS ONLY COMMON COURTESY TO BE AT THE EXACT TIME AND PLACE I COME TO KIDNAP YOU, PEACH! IS THAT TO MUCH TO ASK?! I THINK NOT!" The group sweatdropped at the evil king's rant and just stood there staring at him awkwardly. "ENOUGH OF THIS! I'LL JUST TAKE YOU WITH ME RIGHT NOW, PRINCESS!"
Mario jumped right smack dab in front of Bowser, blocking him off from the rest of the group and stood in a battle ready position. "Not with me around, Bowser," Mario said, glaring up at the Koopa King
Bowser simply just smirked at his longtime nemesis. "Alright Mario. If its a beating you want, I can oblige. I'm gonna finally take you down once and for all, plumber!"
"Don't count on it."
Without warning, Bowser blew a massive fireball from his gaping maw and aimed it in Mario's direction, only for Mario to dodge the projectile at the last second, followed by him landing a side-kick square on his opponent's jaw. Bowser stumbled back a bit, but managed to regain his composure in order to glare viciously at the plumber and started blasting flame after flame. Mario managed to dodge the first five, but the sixth one came a little early and hit Mario straight in the stomach, knocking him backwards. Nonetheless, the plumber got right back up and faced his foe, getting ready for the next attack. He didn't have much time, however, as Bowser had launched himself at him as he was getting up, tackling him back to the ground. He was getting ready to pound Mario, when Mario kicked his stomach, sending him flying to the other side of the room. Bowser landed on his shell but then managed to get right back up. "S'THAT ALL YOU GOT!?"
Mario was just about to counter, when suddenly he felt a slight tremor near him. What was that?
"WELL, ARE YOU JUST GOING TO STAND THERE OR ARE YOU GOING TO-" Another slightly bigger tremor was felt by Bowser, distracting him from the battle as well.
"So you guys weren't the only ones who felt that as well?" Luigi suddenly spoke up, who was for some reason quite this whole entire time.
Mario and Bowser looked over confused at Luigi and the others and noticed they were looking around for a source to the tremors. Suddenly, Toad noticed something out of the ordinary and jumped back in fright. His action caught the attention of everyone else. "What? What is it?" Peach asked kindly.
"T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THERE!"
Everyone in the room looked to where the scared Toad was staring at, and what they saw surprised them front of the group was the broken backup with a dark cloud-like portal growing slowly larger out of it. Each time it grew a little every five seconds, another tremor occurred. Everyone stood back as time made it growing a little quicker by the second till it stopped altogether where it now took up almost half the room.
Everyone just stood silent as they stared and marveled at the sight before them. The massive portal took up so much space that there was no way to see around it.
Bowser was the first to speak up. "So, do any of you puny geeks have any idea what the heck this thing is?!"
"C-Could... Could this be a portal to another dimension?" Toadsworth asked the scientists, whom ignored the Koopa King. Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, Luigi walking over to the portal to investigate it closely.
"I-... I think so," the scientist responded, albeit hesitantly. "I mean, there it was through a portal similar to this one that E. Gadd was able to cross though dimensions. And yet... this one seems... different... something chilling to the bone."
"Do you think it would be safe to assume its the same dimension that the Professor is in?" Peach asked hopefully. That got everyone's, except for Luigi (who was still checking out the portal) and Bowser (who just didn't care).
"Actually, this possibly could be a portal to that dimension. However, at this moment I would advise everyone not to enter the portal at this moment as it seems too dangerous at the moment to go near at this moment."
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Everyone, this time even Bowser, turned towards the portal and found something shocking- no Luigi. For a moment, everyone was too stunned to speak until suddenly the granddaddy of the tremor started up, shaking the whole room violently. All the Toads were panicking and screaming, Mario and Peach was holding on to a nearby cabinet to hold her balance, and Bowser simply just stood firmly on the ground. It was at that moment that Mario noticed the portal started spinning and what appeared to be vacuuming up equipment in the lab. Suddenly, the portal started pulling in the Toads, one by one as they were eaten up by the monstrous portal. Toadsworth tried to grab on to the desk, but was pulled in anyway with the desk inside and disappeared. "TOADSWORTH!" Peach screamed as she watched in horror.
As this was happening, Bowser turned to high-tail it out of there, saying something like, "Forget this! I'm outta here!" But he didn't get to take one step as the portal then took him in and gobbled him up with everything and everyone else in the area.
Mario and Peach watched as this all took place and were now starting to lose grip on the cabinet. "HOLD ON, PEACH!" Mario cried.
"I-I CAN'T! I- AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed as she lost grip. Mario made an attempt grab her outreached right hand, but only managed to pull her glove off. He then watched her being pulled into the vacuum of space. "MAAARRRRIIIIOOOOOO!" she screamed before being swallowed by the portal.
That was the last straw. "PEEEEEAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCHHHHHH!' Mario yelled as he practically jumped right into the portal right after her, disappearing soon after.
And then the portal evaporated in nothingness. And all was silent.
Moments later, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and the Wario Bros. had just came running back from dealing with a Koopa Troop infestation at Peach's Castle only to find the lab in complete ruins. Broken bricks, charred wood and debris were all over the place. The worse part was there was no sign of any life anywhere.
At least, not in this reality...
Mario watched in awe at the many sights around him. Unlike the entrance to the portal, the inside was a sight to behold. It was almost like he was going right through the most beautiful rainbow ever created by God. Stars. shooting stars, and galaxies flew past him from far off into the distance while images of clocks and numbers flew by closer. He was so mesmerized by its beauty that he almost didn't see the end of the portal coming up until it was too late.
Once he exited the portal, the portal collapsed. It was then he took a look at his surroundings, a wide open field as far as the eye could see, with the usual coins, bricks and pipes in their rightful places. "Well," he finally said, "Everything looks normal so far, but nonetheless I've got to find Peach and the others." Mario had just gotten up to walk around and explore, and hopefully find everyone, when suddenly he spotted something green in the distance sticking out of the ground. He squinted his eyes until he could finally tell what it was. Or really WHO it was. "Luigi!" he yelled as he ran over to his younger brother, who had apparently landed face first into the ground upon exiting the portal. Now he was stuck in the ground with his feet sticking out. Mario finally reached his fallen brother and pulled him out of the hole.
As soon as Luigi was out of the hole, he managed to stand back up on his two feet, stumble back a bit, and then shook his head from the dizziness. As soon as he was in the clear, Luigi came face to face with his older brother. "Mario!" he cheered happily as he hugged him He then noticed his surroundings and asked the question that was already on Mario's mind. "Where are we?"
"I wish I knew," Mario answered after they broke the hug. "I mean, it all looks familiar, and yet... something seems... off. You know what I mean?"
"I think so." He then turned back towards Mario. "Shall we have a look around?"
"Yeah, we should. We still have to find the princess and the others. If we survived there is no reason they shouldn't have."
"Right lets go!" And thus the two started walking through the open field, taking every last detail of the area around them. "So this is what this new dimension looks like... it honestly doesn't look that much different from ours."
"Yeah, no kidding. You'd think there would be some sort of difference around here, but so far there isn't."
"Still no idea where this place would be in our dimension?"
"Its still a massive blur right now, but-"
"Wait, Mario, look!"
Mario stopped where he was and saw where Luigi was pointing towards. Taking a closer look it looked like a group of Toads running towards them.
"Oh its just Toads," Luigi sighed in relief. Mario, however, was still studying the incoming Toads, and noticed something about the normally friendly Toads- They didn't look friendly.
"Run, Luigi, Run!" Luigi didn't get a chance to even respond as Mario had grabbed his wrist and pulled him along as he ran the opposite direction of the Toads. Unfortunately for the brothers, they were suddenly ambushed by another group of Toads who were all hiding in a near by bush. This caught the Bros. off guard and fall down backwards, it was then they were able to see just how unfriendly looking this so-called "Toads" looked. Instead of the usual white with colored spots on the classic shroom hats, they had a very evil and grim black with the single color of dark purple spots on theirs. Their eyes were fiery red and they all wore suits of armor and carried long spears, all of which were pointing directly at the Mario Bros. Mario gulped while Luigi held a firm grip onto his arm in fear.
One Toad, who strangely looked like their own friend Toad, walked up to them with his spear just a centimeter from in between Mario's eyes. "I don't know who you two are, where you come from, or why you look just like the Generals, but no one trespasses on Mushroom soil and gets out alive!"
He was just about to stabbed Mario when suddenly, a massive fireball came from the sky and sent the Toads flying in the air. The leader managed to land on the ground first and started searching the sky for the attacker.
"SHOW YOURSELF, IF ITS A FIGHT YOU WANT!"
"Fine," a rough and tough deep voice spoke that Mario and Luigi were all too familiar with, though it sounded different than usual.
Suddenly, where there were once Toads aiming spears at their faces, a massive turtle with a spiked shell stood with his back turned to them, as if protecting them from harm.
The evil Toad leader growled. 'You."
"Leave these two alone, Toad!" The turtle yelled in defense of the Bros. "They aren't from around here, so they don't know any better!"
"It doesn't matter, Koopa! They trespass on Her Worship's soil, they lose their lives!"
"Well, you'll just have to get through me to get them," he retorted, cracking his knuckles.
"With pleasure, Koopa." Toad then got his spear ready. "Her Worship will be pleased when I bring your head to on a platter. TOADS!" At that moment all the Toads regrouped and formed a massive army. "ATTACK!"
The Evil Toads ran straight for the Turtle and the Bros. with their spears pointing straight towards them. The turtle took a moment to give the Bros. a reassuring, kind smile before turning back around to engage the army single handedly. But that brief moment when they saw his face, even though it looked a bit different, especially when he smiled, they knew exactly who this was supposed to be.
"BOWSER?!"
And that's the end of chapter 2. I once again apologized for this extremely long delay. I honestly hope this was well worth the wait. Post in the review if it was please. It will help. I hope to start chapter 3 soon and hope to get it done sooner than six months. Until then, see ya.